FORWARD Ken McGregor says Adelaide's decision to invest in youth is correct, even though it cut short his AFL career.

The 27-year-old announced his retirement from the AFL on Tuesday after 152 games with the Crows.

McGregor was selected for just seven matches this season, with Adelaide preferring to develop younger, more mobile, forwards such as Kurt Tippett and Nick Gill.

McGregor saw the writing on the wall for next season, even though he was contracted to play out 2009.

"It has been a tough year for me and I felt it would have been hard to go through the motions and tread water for another year," he said on Tuesday.

"I don't think that was the right thing to do.

"I felt it was time for the club to move on and play younger players which they are going to do and move on with where the club is going."

Adelaide also has two other promising young forwards on the horizon in Taylor Walker and James Sellar, who made his AFL debut this year.

Walker and Sellar are both key forwards, and the Crows also have injury-plagued Trent Hentschel on their books for next year despite the full forward not playing an AFL game since suffering an horrific knee injury in round 21, 2006.

Crows coach Neil Craig on Tuesday praised the manner in which McGregor handled his demotion this year.

"It's a difficult situation for a player to be in," Craig said.

"It would be very easy for a player in any football system or football club to become agitated with that situation.

"To his absolute credit, and if you talk about role models, about character ... we have got the role model sitting here.

"For future years, when other players find themselves in difficult situations in terms of selection, from my perspective, the Kenny McGregor story will be put on the table loud and clear about the way in which people conduct themselves."