Forty-one possessions from Matt Crouch wasn’t enough to get Adelaide over the line against Essendon on Friday night.

Crouch was at his ball-winning best as the Crows conceded a 20-point lead at three-quarter time to go down by two goals at Etihad Stadium.

New recruit Bryce Gibbs got his career in the tri-colours off to a solid start with 35 disposals to go with two goals, while stand-in skipper Rory Sloane battled hard all night, finishing with 23 touches and a team-high six tackles.

In defence, Rory Laird was at his prolific best with 40 disposals, 14 of which were contested, and eight rebound 50ms. First gamer Tom Doedee worked his way into the game to finish with 21 touches and seven marks.

Fans can login or register here for free to vote for their three top Crows after every game of the 2018 season.

One lucky participant after each round will claim a signed Hertz Crows football, courtesy of the Club’s official match ball partner, simply by voting. Don’t forget members of the Adelaide Football Club are also entitled to 20% off car rentals through Hertz

Polls open immediately after every Crows game. Users assign three votes to the player they deem Adelaide’s best contributor, two to the second-best and one vote for their third most valuable Crow in each match.

Polling closes on Tuesday at 4.30pm (SA time) after each round when the final votes are collated using a points system.

A maximum of 100 points per game can be awarded to the entire team. Each player is given a percentage of the total votes received to go towards their season tally (For example, if 1,200 votes were placed in Round One and Taylor Walker receives 600 then that is the equivalent of 50 per cent of all votes for that round and he would receive 50 points towards his season tally. If the second best player received 120 votes from 1,200 then that is the equivalent of 10 per cent and he will get 10 votes towards the season tally).

This process is repeated each round and players accumulate points towards their season tally. The player at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the season is crowned the Crows Fans’ MVP.

Click here to vote in the Hertz Fans MVP