Rory Laird pulled on his second coveted jacket on Friday night when he took out Adelaide’s Club Champion for the first time.
An incredibly consistent season saw the ball magnet become a dual All-Australian and the Crows’ Malcolm Blight medallist in the same week.
After Adelaide gave him his first opportunity at AFL level back in 2013, the 24-year-old said he was thrilled to repay the Club’s faith in him.
“It’s a massive
Reflecting on his performances, which saw him poll votes in every one of his 20 games, Laird said it had been his most consistent season yet and relished the opportunity to move further up the ground.
“Last year I had a few games where I probably had less impact on the match and I had a few quieter games, so consistency has been the key this year and it’s paid off pretty well,” he said.
“They (coaches Don Pyke and Scott Camporeale) gave me a fair bit of free reign so that allowed me to find the ball and get us going out of the back half.”
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The classy defender said the Crows’ 2018 season had been a “year of
“We were hampered by injuries early on but once you get personnel back and play with each other for a few weeks you build synergy and we had that in the back half of the year, which showed some exciting footy,” he said.
“We’ve blooded a few young fellas that have come in and played some crucial roles for us and we had some very close margins and fell just short.”
Looking to 2019, he said he was very excited to see Adelaide’s developing backline come together.
“Tommy Doedee’s played an unbelievable year, Harto [Kyle Hartigan] and Tals [Daniel Talia] have played a lot of footy with Smithy [Brodie Smith] and I and Wayne (Milera)’s a serious attacking option and his back half of the year was exceptional with what he was doing in the air and defensively,” he said.
“There’s a really good dimension (in the back line) with
The 121-gamer said he was looking forward to refreshing mentally and physically during the off-season so he could come out firing in 2019.
