Adelaide has locked in a 26-man development squad ahead of the 2021 SANFL season.

The group has an important core group of players that have previously been part of the Crows development squad and played League football.

Those players include Matt Merrett and Sam Tharaldsen (both 15 games), Hamish Latchford (13 games) and James Mathews (five games).

Other players that have previously been in the squad include Tim Baccanello, Riley Clamp, Jay Boyle, Mitch Marini, Lachlan Mathews and Lachlan Ryan.

Three players have moved from the Northern Territory to join the squad – Shawn Foster, Jackson Cole and Beau O’Connell.

Some new faces who are joining the squad after impressing in country leagues include Jack Lewis (previously Murray Bridge) and Ben Salt (Hahndorf).

The squad will again be led by development coach and SANFL captain Matthew Wright.

New SANFL Crows coach Michael Godden talked about what criteria the SANFL coaching staff filled when selecting the squad.

“We play a pretty important part within the footy club, so for me it was a matter of making sure that when the time comes that we're playing, that we are supporting our AFL players to the best of their ability,” Godden said.

“There’s some talent in there – we have some guys that have shown they can play League before, but also some guys who’ve come from relative obscurity and I’m really excited where they could potentially end up.

“We want to play and win SANFL games and the group that we've put together have trained really well over the preseason and I'm really excited about some of the improvements we've seen in the last six weeks.

“I think that they'll complement our program really well.”

In previous years, Adelaide’s development squad has been almost twice the size, but in 2021 Godden made a conscious effort to make it smaller.

“The smaller squad is based on the ability to be able to educate more in a smaller group,” he said.

“The expectation is that we can get better coaching into them and give them the time they deserve which means that we can improve them to a better level which in turn will make our SANFL team better.”

Another important aspect of the squad for Godden is making sure the players have insights they can take back to their home clubs.

“We want to make sure the guys that don't play have still had an experience that’s going to make them and their club better,” Godden said.

“If they go back to Henley or Payneham or Willunga, we're hoping they would have learned lots of little skills that will hopefully upskill their teammates and maybe even their coaches at local level.”

The SANFL Crows will play their first trial game for the season on Saturday morning against Port Adelaide at Alberton.