After Adelaide’s 2022 campaign came to an end, the leadership group - Rory Sloane, Tom Doedee, Ben Keays, Jordan Dawson, Reilly O’Brien and Brodie Smith -  opened up on how it saw the Crows’ 2022 campaign.

The six players spoke to AFC Media about their most difficult moment of the campaign.

BEN KEAYS

“I probably battled a little bit with my body this year.

“I was able to stay on the park every game thanks to the medical staff but I haven’t been able to train anywhere near what I did last year.

“It was a new challenge for me as my body has always been good to me, I’ve never really had any injuries that I’ve had to worry about apart from little knocks and bruises.

“But this year I did battle a number of different (injuries) probably more so in the second half of the year.

“Even though that was challenging, to be able to keep on soldering on and playing every game, so that’s probably one of my proudest moments individually as well.”

RORY SLOANE

“The couple of minutes before (a game) and that moment where I walk out behind the boys and watch them run out to play footy, especially at Adelaide Oval when I’m watching them run out to our fans.

“The crowd is going nuts and that feeling, that nervous energy of running out before the first bounce, I really miss that.

“But it’s also what drives me as well.

“That moment hurts, but then it’s also a moment where I go ‘I can’t wait to have that feeling again.’

TOM DOEDEE

“Personally I had a few injuries and missing games is never fun.

“But I think the most difficult has probably been the first quarters against Hawthorn and Sydney and those little lapses that we’ve had where we strayed away from what we do well.

“As a player in the leadership group, you feel the responsibility to get the team game on track in games and we just haven’t been able to at times.

“I feel like the most difficult part is not living up to the expectations that we had for ourselves going into games.”

JORDAN DAWSON

“Probably through the middle part of the year when we had lost a few in a row.

“As a group we had to stick pretty close together and back each other in that we were on the right track.

“I think we came out the other end of that and finished the year strong.

“During that mid-year period, it was pretty tough.”

REILLY O’BRIEN

“Probably that battle with form this year, for whatever reason, has been the biggest challenge, for sure.

“I think in Round Nine I got dropped. I had played a few bad ones and wasn’t having the start of the season I would’ve liked.

“I had pretty lofty expectations coming into the year after I had a really good off-season and pre-season.

“Then for whatever reason I just wasn't playing my best footy and lost a bit of that flow in how I was playing.

“That was pretty difficult and then trying to rediscover some better footy and some better form which I was able to do relatively quickly, thankfully.”

BRODIE SMITH

“We had that patch through the middle of the year where it was pretty difficult and we weren’t getting the wins.

“We were competitive and we were right in games but we just had lapses that cost us games.

“That middle patch was definitely difficult for the group, to keep everyone positive, making sure we were on the right track and backing everyone in to get the job done.

“But the experience of this year and the growth we are going to get out of the young guys who took a big step next year, if they take another big step next year, they’re the sorts of games we will start to win.”