Ten years after being drafted from country Victoria and trekking across the border en route to becoming an All-Australian and Club Champion, Matt Crouch has been awarded Adelaide Football Club Life Membership.

The 28-year-old midfielder was recognised at an event at Morphettville Racecourse on Wednesday night as the Club prepares to open the 2024 AFL season next month.

Crouch was among five past and present players, coaches and officials who received the honour for their significant contribution to the Club along with Matthew Wright, Matthew Clarke, Phil Harper and Mark Nagel.

It followed an announcement in December that premiership captains Erin Phillips and Chelsea Randall had become the first AFLW players to be awarded Adelaide Football Club life membership.

Originally from Beaufort in Victoria, Crouch was drafted to Adelaide in 2013 and made his AFL debut the following season.

Three years later in 2017 he won his first gold jacket as the Club’s Malcolm Blight Medallist and was crowned All-Australian.

Crouch has now played 143 AFL games and finished top-five in the best-and-fairest on three other occasions, meeting both the 10-years’ service and 100-game qualification for Life Membership.

Matthew Wright received Life Membership after making a successful transition from player to coach at West Lakes.

Drafted by the Crows as a rookie in 2010, Wright went on to play 94 AFL games for the Club before joining Carlton where he played a further 65.

In 2019 the small forward returned to Adelaide and captained its SANFL side for five straight years which included consecutive preliminary final appearances in 2022 and 2023.

He is now a development coach and helping to guide the next generation of young talent at the Club.

Matthew Clarke is another player turned coach who continues to make his mark at Adelaide, 25 years after first arriving from Brisbane.

The ruckman joined the Crows in 1999 and has been with the Club every year since, with the exception of 2007 when he was lured out of retirement to play his final AFL season with St Kilda.

Clarke played 118 games for the Crows to go with 130 for Brisbane and 10 with the Saints.

He became assistant coach with the Crows in 2008 before being appointed head coach of the Club’s AFLW team in 2018 – the position he still holds, having guided the team to premierships in 2019 and 2022.

Phil Harper is part of the furniture at Adelaide after joining the Club in 1998 and now in his 26^th continuous year of service.

Over that time he has filled a variety of roles including football development officer, GM of commercial, football operations and football administration and was one of the architects behind the Club securing an AFLW licence in the inaugural 2017 season.

Harper remains the Head of Women’s Football at Adelaide which is the most successful team in AFLW history.

Mark Nagel has been recognised for his 21 years of service as a physiotherapist at the Club.

He started in the Crows’ physio clinic in 2001 and officially joined full-time in 2004, attending all trainings and games and being on-call to treat players and provide injury prevention.

Nagel became head physio in 2011 and over the next decade worked across all programs including AFL, AFLW and SANFL before bowing out in the 2022 AFLW Grand Final.