Adelaide has added two new faces to its leadership group for 2022 with ruckman Reilly O’Brien and midfielder Ben Keays formally recognised for their influence on the team.

The pair joins existing leadership group members Tom Doedee, Brodie Smith and Rory Sloane who will continue as captain for a fourth season.

As part of the process to select the leadership group, players had input into the trademarks they wanted their leaders to show and those who they believed best typified them.

O’Brien has been an emerging leader at West Lakes for the past three years since becoming the Club’s first-choice ruckman and then Club Champion in 2020.

The 26-year-old has played 57 AFL games since debuting in 2016 and last year signed a four-year contract extension to remain with Adelaide until at least 2025.

Keays has been one of the Club’s major success stories of the past two years after joining the Crows in the rookie draft at the end of 2019.

Prior to that Keays played 30 games with Brisbane before being delisted and has made the most of his opportunity at Adelaide by establishing himself as a hard-working midfielder.

The 24-year-old has played 38 games for the Crows and finished in the top five of the Club Champion award in both seasons, including runner-up last year. Like O’Brien, Keays last year signed a contract extension with the Club until the end of 2024.

Adelaide Senior Coach Matthew Nicks said the process also identified a number of other emerging young leaders who would play an important role in taking the Club forward.

“We are blessed at this footy club to have a number of leaders within our playing group and the addition of both Reilly and Ben to the leadership group reflects the growth of our young team and the exciting direction we are heading,” Nicks said.

“Importantly for us, they prioritise others but they also lead by example on game day, by the elite standards they set at training and by a commitment to make others around them better.

“Both bring their own unique style to complement the leaders we already have and who are continuing in their roles – Brodie, Tom and our captain Rory who have all done a fantastic job with our young group in recent seasons.”

Following a frustrating 2021 season, in which he was unable to add to his 125-game career, Matt Crouch will not be a formal member of the 2022 leadership group.

“While no longer in the official leadership group it’s important we recognise the contribution Matt Crouch has made in that space over the past four seasons,” Nicks said.

“He has obviously endured a really challenging 12 months with his body but we are very pleased with his pre-season and we want to give him every opportunity to get himself right and perform for us because he is renowned within the Club for his outstanding on-field leadership and we expect that will continue.”