General Manager of List Development and Strategy David Noble says he’s pleased with the overall result of the Club’s Free Agency/Trade Period.
The Crows bolstered their forward line by securing Free Agent Eddie Betts and Geelong premiership player James Podsiadly. The proven pair will add to Adelaide’s offence, but also provide strong defensive pressure inside forward 50m. The Club also secured an early second-round draft pick (No.23 overall) after making a difficult decision to part ways with popular onballer Bernie Vince.
“I’m pleased without being ecstatic,” Noble said of the Club’s trade success.
“We were happy to be able to secure a pick early in the second round (No.23 overall). We knew getting back in the first round would be a stretch, but we think pick No.23 will allow us to bring in a talented young player.
“We were pleased to bring in some coverage for our talls in James Podsiadly and also add to our firepower up forward. Eddie covers a need for us, so we’re pleased with what we’ve done especially given the circumstances.”
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Knowing Adelaide’s draft predicament, Clubs expressed interest in several contracted Crows.
Noble said he was rapt to keep the majority of the promising playing group together.
“It was a tough decision to allow Bernie to go, but we’ve been able to keep our core group of young players together,” he said.
“There was media speculation about several of our players during the trade period. We didn’t put those names out there because that’s not how we like to do business.
“It’s just an unfortunate result of this time of year, but as we’ve seen all those guys have stayed.”
The Crows missed out on pre-trade targets Jared Polec (Port Adelaide) and GWS utility Shaun Edwards, who was part of a two-player trade to Essendon.
“We had a real dip at trying to get Jared Polec. It wasn’t like we sat on our hands. We created a second-round pick to discuss that option with Brisbane but by the time we’d secured that pick Jared had made his decision on where he wanted to go,” Noble said.
“The Shaun Edwards trade was disappointing because we targeted him from a long way out. We saw him as an underdeveloped talent we could work with, but that’s the way it goes in the trade period sometimes.”
Adelaide handed over pick No.64 – a selection the Club didn’t plan to utilise in the draft – to finalise the Podsiadly deal. Noble said the Crows opted to trade a late pick rather than wait until Podsiadly was delisted and became a Free Agent.
“Trading for James means he becomes our player today. We know he’s on our list rather than waiting another week or so. We saw Essendon and GWS do the same thing with Paul Chapman and Josh Hunt,” he said.
The Club hopes to retain utility Shaun McKernan, who explored his opportunities in the trade period.
