Adelaide leader Tom Lynch is supremely confident the Crows can bounce back to their best in 2019.
Speaking to AFL Trade Radio on Friday, Lynch reflected on his own trade from St Kilda at the end of 2011, stating once he’d met with Adelaide he knew he didn’t need to go anywhere else.
The forward praised the current culture at West Lakes, pointing to the significant number of contract extensions signed this year which includes himself, vice-captain Rory Sloane and recent All Australians Rory Laird and Matt Crouch.
“Culture’s a word that gets thrown around a lot but the behaviours of people and the thought and hope to want to go to work each day is what makes our place such a great place,” Lynch said.
“I think we’ve had 18 guys this year re-sign at the footy club and a lot of those guys have just had newborn babies too. A lot of them are from Melbourne as well, so not coming home to their families to start a family as such and they’re staying over there.
“I’ve had all my three kids over there in Adelaide and can only really do that because one, I’ve got a great partner, but also the support of the footy club is just awesome.”
2018 DRAFT: The SA Talent
With the trade period officially commencing on Monday, Lynch indicated he was more than comfortable with the current state of Adelaide’s list, provided a clean bill of health.
The likes of Taylor Walker (14 games in 2018), Rory Sloane (12), Riley Knight (8), Brodie Smith (2) and Brad Crouch (0) are all expected to play more senior football in 2019.
Combined with the continued emergence of young Crows like Tom Doedee and Wayne Milera, and the expected addition of Tyson Stengle with some high-end draft talent, Lynch was adamant the Crows will be a better team next year.
“If you look at our list, we’ve got just about everything covered. We just need to put it all together,” he said.
“We’ve got some stars at our footy club and some really good players who have gotten better over the last couple of years and really improving their footy.
“If anything, we need a bit more speed or guys to play a bit more consistently.
“It’d be nice to get some fresh faces in with the draft coming up. We’ve already had a couple of guys say they’d like to come to the Crows as well in the trade period with Tyson so that’s exciting for us, exciting for our fans and hopefully they can make us a better team.”
2018 DRAFT: Adelaide's options
