ADELAIDE will turn its back on the international market in favour of unearthing the best home-grown talent in the lead up to November's NAB AFL Draft.

The Crows' first and only international experiment ended last week when rookie Brian Donnelly announced he would return to Ireland at the end of the month.

Two years ago the club decided to take its recruiting abroad, following the successful transition to AFL of Irishmen including Tadhg Kennelly at the Sydney Swans and former Collingwood midfielder Marty Clarke, but coach Neil Craig said it was unlikely the process would be repeated at West Lakes in the immediate future.

"We enjoyed Brian's presence here and he made significant progress, but not to the level to become a regular player for us at AFL level and there were some pressures at home as well. I know he would have liked to have continued but it just wasn't to be the case," Craig said.

"It was a good experience for us to put the toe in the water, but would we do it again? I don't know. It's something we need to discuss once we've reviewed the whole situation, but my initial thought would be that there are plenty of people playing footy in Australia."

Earlier this year, the AFL revealed plans to scour the US college basketball system for potential players.

Collingwood pioneered the march into America, signing basketballer Shae McNamara as an international rookie over the off-season, while Port Adelaide recruited a former college hoops player in Melbourne native Daniel Bass.

The Crows also looked to the round ball for recruits - albeit closer to home - in plucking Ballarat Miners point guard Ricky Henderson in the 2009 NAB AFL Rookie Draft.

Carlton, Essendon and Gold Coast have all signed juniors from Papua New Guinea on international scholarships, but recruiting manager Matt Rendell said he considered such ventures to be very risky.

"I think it's still extremely experimental at this stage. Good luck to the clubs if they find one that turns out to be OK, but from my perspective and the club's perspective we tend to concentrate on the areas where we know we have a better chance of getting footballers out of rather than spending money on high-risk ventures," he said.

"It requires a fair bit of infrastructure, money and people [to find and accommodate an international recruit]. I find it hard enough just to cover South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria with a fair degree of professionalism and detail without having to look at South Africa, the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and America as well."

The rapid rise of Fremantle midfielder Michael Barlow and Geelong forward James Podsiadly has thrust mature-age recruiting into the spotlight this season.

Adelaide has a great track record of developing players on its rookie list and Rendell said the club would continue to look to second-tier competitions across the country for prospective recruits.

"The fact of the matter is that there have been a lot of mature-age players picked over the past few years. (Former recruiting manager) James Fantasia picked Ben Hudson as a 24-year-old and that decision has proven to be a success, but no one talks about him," Rendell said.

"Jason Porplyzia was picked as a 20 or 21-year-old. In fact, I could go through half our team and pick out guys that weren't drafted as 18-year-olds, like Nathan Bock, Ben Rutten and Simon Goodwin, so we've enjoyed some good success there."