Matthew Wright will Captain Adelaide’s SANFL side for a fifth-straight season, with the Club confirming he will remain in the role for 2023.
Players and coaches were informed of the 33-year-old’s re-appointment on Tuesday, with recruit Jack Madgen to provide support for Wright after signing with the Club’s SANFL side as its marquee player in December.
Wright joined the Crows’ SANFL side in 2019 and was appointed Skipper ahead of his first campaign.
He will now become Adelaide’s longest serving State League Captain, as he enters his fifth season at the helm.
The forward notched a special milestone in 2022 when he led the side out for the 50th time against Woodville-West Torrens in August.
Speaking to AFC Media after being re-appointed Skipper, Wright said he was honoured to remain in the role.
“It’s something I’ll look back on post-footy and reflect on a bit more because you get caught up in the moment, but I am really enjoying seeing the growth of the players,” Wright said.
“I am also enjoying their leadership and the amount of players who have stood up, officially I have the title but there could be a number of them calling heads or tails pre-game.
“I am really proud of the growth of the players and what the coaches have done to fast track them.”
Wright’s football career has almost come full circle.
He was selected by the Crows at the 2010 AFL Rookie Draft and went on to play 94 games in five seasons, before joining Carlton as a delisted free agent in 2016.
Wright then lined up in 65 AFL games for the Blues until he retired in 2019, and returned to SA to captain Adelaide’s SANFL side, as well as take up a role as the team’s forward line coach.
He said he hoped the SANFL side could continue its strong 2022 form, in which it came within a kick of an inaugural State League Grand Final appearance.
“Looking forward we’d like to think we’ll be well placed to have another crack at it,” Wright said.
“We really trust the brand of footy we are playing and we know that when we buy into how we want to play we are very hard to play against.
“The challenge for us is to do it consistently week-to-week and we know if we want to be there at the back end of the year again, we have to play our brand of footy for four quarters.
“If we can execute that, it will put us in a decent position come the back end of the year.”
Adelaide’s 2023 SANFL campaign gets under way with a ‘Showdown’ against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on April 1.
The match will be a curtain raiser to the Club’s AFL Showdown.
For the Crows’ full SANFL fixture, click here.
