Two Crows have finished inside the top 10 in the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year Award.
Vice-captain Rory Sloane and fellow onballer Matt Crouch polled in Adelaide’s final two matches to cap off stellar 2017 campaigns.
Sloane, who was runner-up in the award last year, secured third place overall with 78 votes for the season.
The 27-year-old picked up nine votes in Adelaide’s final two games to edge out edge out Essendon’s Zach Merrett (77 votes), Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell (76) and Josh Kelly of Greater Western Sydney (75).
Sloane was the League’s No.1 tackler (176) and applied more pressure than any other player in the competition. The courageous Crow averaged 25 disposals, 14 contested possessions, eight tackles and six clearances and also booted 18 goals.
Sloane, who played every game of the home and away season, ranked inside the top 10 in the AFL for contested possessions (296), clearances (139) and inside 50ms (101).
Crouch, 22, finished the minor round with a flurry of votes, including an equal-match high seven votes against Sydney in Round 22, to storm into the top 10.
The All Australian onballer was second in the AFL for total disposals (726) and collected 30 or more possessions in 16 of his 22 home and away matches.
One of the most improved players in the competition, Crouch also finished top 10 in the League for contested possessions (294), hard-ball gets (130), loose-ball gets (97) and handball receives (350).
The ball magnet finished equal-eighth on the season leaderboard with 68 votes alongside St Kilda youngster Sebastian Ross and fellow All Australian Dayne Zorko of Brisbane.
Brownlow Medal favourite Dustin Martin of Richmond claimed the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year title with 122 votes ahead of last year’s winner Patrick Dangerfield from Geelong.
Round 22
Adelaide v Sydney
7 – Matt Crouch (Adel)
7 – Dane Rampe (Syd)
6 – Rory Sloane (Adel)
5 – Josh Kennedy (Syd)
4 – Mitch McGovern (Adel)
1 – Luke Parker (Syd)
Round 23
Adelaide v West Coast
8 – Jeremy McGovern (WC)
5 – Sam Mitchell (WC)
4 – Matt Crouch (Adel)
4 – Andrew Gaff (WC)
3 – Sam Jacobs (Adel)
3 – Rory Sloane (Adel)
2 – Jack Darling (WC)
1 – Elliot Yeo (WC)
Final Leaderboard
122 – Dustin Martin (Rich)
118 – Patrick Dangerfield (Geel)
78 – Rory Sloane (Adel)
77 – Zach Merrett (Ess)
76 – Tom Mitchell (Haw)
75 – Josh Kelly (GWS)
71 – Clayton Oliver (Melb)
68 – Matt Crouch (Adel)
68 – Sebastian Ross (StK)
68 – Dayne Zorko (Bris)
Crows Leaderboard
78 – Rory Sloane
68 – Matt Crouch
42 – Taylor Walker
39 – Rory Laird
37 – Sam Jacobs
25 – Jake Lever
22 – Brad Crouch
22 – Tom Lynch
22 – Brodie Smith
19 – Eddie Betts
19 – Richard Douglas
16 – Rory Atkins
12 – Charlie Cameron
8 – Josh Jenkins
4 – Mitch McGovern
2 – Luke Brown
2 – Hugh Greenwood
2 – Kyle Hartigan
1 – Jake Kelly
1 – David Mackay
