Please note – this was written before Ben Keays’ hamstring injury, incurred on Thursday’s training session. It does not impact this preview.
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I have always had a soft spot for this club, or their supporters, at least.
You see, when I first decided to open this site, the Crows supporters were the first to jump onboard. They had just lost the 2017 flag, and with the benefit of hindsight, were starting on a spiral that would only be corrected last season. But they were proud, passionate, and some of the stuff I was writing resonated with them.
When you have a footy site, you gain your own following over time, but the Adelaide supporter base helped me along without even knowing it, and I am grateful.
Now, I get to write and focus on the positives of this team, because, the Adelaide Crows finally started to show what they were capable of in 2025.
Whilst many will point to a straight-sets departure from finals, the club was able to find their groove and finish atop the ladder. This, after finishing 15th the previous year – something their critics fail to mention.
With Riley Thilthorpe able to impose himself on the competition, and Jordan Dawson establishing himself as one of the best leaders in the league, a Crows team with minimal injuries flexed some muscle in 2025, and gave an indication as to what was to come.
And what is to come?
There are plenty who would like to see the team regress, and slip back into the mire of those teams battling it out to be one of the first clubs eliminated, but those with footy smarts see something special in this club and its current crop of stars.
Can they push deep into September this year? Or did they miss a golden opportunity to land a knockout blow and steal a flag in 2025?
Time to have a study of the 2026 Adelaide Football Club.
You can skip this next little bit if you’re reading all our previews. It’s the standard intro.
We’re steaming toward a new season, and as we do, it is time to turn our attention away from the glory of last year and look at the possibilities of the new one.
The players have been on the track for a while now – the Christmas break is over, and as we work through January, the charge into the new season ramps right up.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not, and young projects become the next group of stars. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all in to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you want to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide what you’re after.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has an absolute minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; HB goes deeper than anyone else covering the game..
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a more comprehensive season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
We now move onto the Crows, who have demonstrated they can hang with the best teams in the league.
How?
Don’t tell anyone… but they are one of the best teams in the league, as well. And if I were a betting man, I would say a healthy Adelaide lineup should be there when the whips are cracking on, at the very least, Preliminary Final weekend.
From there, who knows what can happen?
1 – CAN SID DRAPER BECOME A DIFFERENCE MAKER IN YEAR TWO?
It’s a strange one to start off with, I know. Gimme a bit of time to work into this one, as I reckon there might be something to it.
There were many who were screaming out for Draper to be given a genuine shot in the midfield late in the 2025 season. The Crows were winning, but the worry was always that their midfield was lacking a bit of pace. With Izak Rankine serving his suspension, and Josh Rachele battling back from injury, the onball division was looking pretty one-paced.
People argued that Draper would give them some speed around the contest.
It was a good argument, in theory, but the thing about theories is that they need to be proven or disproven. Sadly, Draper disproved this one when he was re-inserted into the line-up
After 11 weeks in the seconds and on the pine, Draper re-appeared for his tenth game of the season.
It really did not go to plan. He looked lost out there – as though the length of the season and the reality of playing top-level footy caught up with him. He hadn’t exactly starred in his other outings, but with a first-year player (even a highly-touted one) all you look for are signs. And the signs in Round 24 were not great.
Draper managed five touches before being subbed off after half a game. Just one of them was deemed effective. Even though this was ‘only’ against North Melbourne, it felt like the reality of the situation had hit home for him – there was a mountain of work to do, and he had run out of legs.
Fast forward to year two, and we now find Draper emedded in the Crows’ system. No longer a newcomer, he has now been there and done that, and should be ready to right the wrongs of his rookie year.
That’s the hope.
Hell, after watching him in juniors, I thought he was ready to make a bigger impact last year, but the truth of AFL life is that an 18-year-old midfielder is going to get bundled out of the contest too often. And he did. He was found in the wrong spots, didn’t have the tank to go with his opponents, and was left looking like a kid playing a man’s game.
Largely, because he was.
Draper will make it – I have read a few people saying they’re worried about him. I get it, but don’t be. Even if things go awry this season, he is the type of player that has a skill set that will see him find his way into this side in coming years.
However, I am starting to worry that this year could end up being a repeat of last year for him.
Whilst we still have a ways to go before we get into the serious stuff, Draper has rarely been sighted on the training track up until the return from the Xmas break. This does not bode well for building that tank. Track watchers have speculated as to the reason, but news reports on any injury or rehab have been non-existent. Others are doing the running. Draper is in the gym.
If anyone needs kilometres in the legs, it is Draper. The sub-rule may be gone (thank god for that!) but if he cannot run games out, he won’t be playing. And why am I so insistent that he cannot run games out?
In his ten AFL games, he was subbed on or off eight times.
Whether Draper is able to have an impact in year two will largely be determined by the next fortnight. He either gets on the track, joins the group in full training, and preps for a full-on assault on 2026, or we again see a bloke who is struggling to play catch-up all year, and unable to run games out.
I am pulling for the first option, but the longer it goes without him on the track, the more I think it could be the second.
2 – JUST HOW GOOD CAN DAN CURTIN BE, AND WHEN DOES HE MAKE THE MOVE FROM THE WING, IF AT ALL?
Firstly, I’d love to see him remain on the wing for the 2026 season, as he offers something nobody else really does in the role – a powerful overhead presence.
When you look at the wingmen of the league, by and large, you get a bunch of great runners. They get up and back all game long, and will work their backsides off to help the defence, only to bolt forward and provide an inside 50 opportunity, as well.
Despite what you may hear, the best two-way wingman of 2025 was Jarrod Berry, with Ollie Dempsey the best offensive, and Massimo D’Ambrosio the best defensive. Whilst the latter two concentrated their efforts on either end of the park, Berry did the lot. However, even he could not do what Curtin is capable of doing in the role.
In recent years, we’ve seen a bit of a wing renaissance, with firstly Josh Daicos, and then Errol Gulden, elevating their games in the position, and now it is viewed as the bridge between offence and defence. This, after it kind of became a nursery for kids coming through the system without a designated position. You can’t do that anymore – career-wingmen will eat an inexperienced player alive.
But Curtin is in a unique position. He is so far ahead of the field in terms of being able to take a mark, that everyone he matches up on in the outside position is immediately identified as a mismatch. He can run with them – sure – but when the Crows are looking for a get out of jail option as they exit defensive 50, Curtin looms large in their view.
When they see Curtin making space on the wing, the best possible option is to kick it to his advantage and let him go to work.
Nobody else in the role can do that.
Josh Weddle has a cup of coffee on the wing sometimes, and he is an excellent overhead option, but he is also required in defence for Hawthorn. They also throw him forward. Curtin made his home on the wing, and it paid dividends in 2025.
The temptation to move him must be huge for Matty Nicks this season. At 197 centimetres, Curtin has the size to move into a midfield position and bang bodies with the big boys. Hmmm, I think I watched a movie with that title once… or three times.
Accidentally, of course.
He has the size to aid Adelaide in a facet of the game they were clearly beaten in during the finals – winning clean clearances. He could also provide a legitimate marking target inside 50 if Tex, Fog, or Thilthorpe are injured or have a dirty day.
However, I genuinely believe we could be on the cusp of Curtin redefining the wing position. It may not occur this season, but if the Crows persist with him in the role, it is going to force a shake-up of the way the opposition is forced to defend against him. They cannot simply allow a player like D’Ambrosio, who is 19 centimetres shorter, or Ed Langdon (15 centimetres shorter) to be outmuscled by Curtin, time and time again.
Because that’s what will happen. Curtin is not going to get weaker. He is going to get bigger and more powerful. He’ll retain his running ability, and he will destroy the smaller wingmen when the ball is in the air.
In that sense, Curtin on the wing moves the needle for Adelaide. He changes the role and provides the Crows with an advantage that other teams don’t have the capacity to match.
Do I think he should remain a wingman for his entire career?
No, I don’t. Curtin is so talented, he could be a winner in many different roles, and I expect the Crows will start to explore them. However, I do believe he is best-suited to remaining on the wing this season, given the headaches he creates and the benefit he ‘could’ provide the club.
Over the last month of the 2025 season, Curtin ranked as the number one player in our Robert Flower Wingman of the Year Award. The start of his season let him down, but by the end, he was flying. If he is permitted to settle into the role, and the Crows use him as that “Get Out of Jail” marking option whenever possible, I reckon he could definitely give it a shake this year.
Do you persist with him out wide? Or is the need more pressing in the middle?
3 – HOW DO THREE BIG FORWARDS WORK IN 2026, WHEN THEY FELL OVER AT THE TAIL END OF 2025?
Okay, this is the fourth season preview I’ve written, and I have managed to get this far without mentioning Kane Cornes.
Sorry to Crows supporters to have to do so now, but he delighted in the fact that he was able to point to an earlier word-vomit where he predicted that the Crows’ big blokes would underperform in the finals.
Whilst he was correct, and yes… congrats Kane… this was something that even Crows fans were worried about. So, really, it was not like Kane was channelling Nostradamus when he made his bold call. More like a magic eight-ball, I suppose.
“All signs point to… maybe.”
So, now we head into 2026, Kane is all up and about because he, like a broken clock, got a couple of things right, and we are faced with the same situation in Adelaide – how do these three work together when the heat is on?
Well, if I had the answer to this, I am sure there’d be clubs very happy to put me on the payroll, but this is as much a midfield issue as it ever was a forwards issue. So many times, you get a forward unable to take control of the footy and snag a goal, but the inability of the midfield to execute and provide that forward with halfway-decent delivery is swept under the rug.
Conveniently, for some
The Adelaide forwards were starved of opportunity in the two finals losses. Their midfield was dominated, they lost clearances, and when they did win them, they were those “dirty” clearances. You know the ones I mean? Hack kicks under pressure, or kicks sideways that allow the wings and midfielders to float back and clog up leading lanes.
That was what Fogarty, Walker, and Thilthorpe were forced to contend with in the finals. It’s no bloody wonder they didn’t perform!
The problem wasn’t the forwards, despite what the stats state.
So, how does it get “fixed”.
I’ll dive into this a bit deeper a bit further down the list, but speed around the stoppage, and the ability to win the footy at the coalface and move it quickly to the outside are the areas the Crows fell over in the finals. Jordan Dawson was in there with Sam Berry and Jake Soligo. They were spelled by Rory Laird and Zac Taylor.
Eek!
I know, right?
The absence of Izak Rankine and Josh Rachele left the midfield looking flat-footed. Even the usually nippy Soligo was closed down because the opposition realised he was the only one with any genuine legspeed.
From there, it was a fight for the footy in the contest, and as much as I admire the way Sam Berry has fought his way into this lineup, he was punching out his weight division against blokes like Nick Daicos, Jai Newcombe, Jordan de Goey, and Conor Nash.
That Rory Laird emerged as arguably the best midfield option outside Dawson was damning, and indicative of just how much the Crows missed their mid/forward combination of Rankine (suspended) and Rachele (underdone).
The story is the same in just about every team in the league. If the midfield is choked, the forwards are the ones who suffer. That’s what happened to the Crows in the finals, and given what the combination of Tex, Fog, and Thithorpe could provide with better service, I’d be more inclined to run it back with them again this year (with maybe a few more rests for Tex) and give them the chance to get it right at the business end of the season.
4 – DO THE NEW RUCK RULES GENUINELY WORK AGAINST REILLY O’BRIEN?
If you listen to the doomsayers, the new ruck interpretations and the supposed favouritism toward athletic, leaping types of rucks, is going to make Reilly O’Brien redundant very quickly.
I’m sure there are a few who would celebrate that, actually.
Sure, he has some epic brain fades, and yeah, he is likely never going to rival Polly Farmer in terms of skill, but as a workmanlike ruck who makes contest after contest, you’ve gotta have a little faith in the big fella to find a workaround.
I mean, let’s look at him against Tom De Koning as an example, shall we? Many believe that this new centre bounce ruck rule implementation will see players like De Koning rule the ruck skies. Are you sold on that? What evidence do we have to go on?
The way I am looking at it, if you manage to win a repeat stoppage in the middle, it renders the centre bounce result redundant. That is where the advantage supposedly sits. So, the Saints have De Koning in there for the first two or three contests, he is leaping high and getting a hand on the footy, and ROB decides… you know what… I am going to put my knee up and run straight through this bloke…
That’s what the AFL wants, right? The big blokes running at each other, leaping, and contesting. As long as ROB’s eyes are on the footy, who’s to say he’s at fault?
As soon as the secondary stoppage occurs, or any stoppage around the ground, nothing else has changed with actual ruck contests. So the proclamation of the demise of the physical ruckman may be a little premature.
Yeah look, I know I was advocating for a little bit of footy violence in the scenario above; I am a Neanderthal, but I should make this abundantly clear to save one or two of you labelling me as a dinosaur. I don’t want to see players hurt. But I also don’t want to see ruck brutes like O’Brien legislated out of the game, either. Maybe he gives away a free kick and leaves TDK wondering whether he’ll have both eyes on the ball the next time there is a centre bounce? That’s good enough for me – nothing wrong with a bit of physicality in a ruck contest – they’re big boys.
All the talk, to this point, is how the mobile rucks will dominate, and whilst things *should* be a little better for them at centre bounces, are we assessing those contests as the be-all and end-all of the role? It just sounds a bit narrow-minded, to me.
What I expect to happen is ROB gives away a few free kicks early in the season. As do Max Gawn, Brodie Grundy, and any other genuinely BIG ruck. Someone injures a PCL (which was the reason they stopped players jumping into each other), the coaches get annoyed about it, and the AFL relaxes the interpretation somewhat due to the backlash
Classic AFL, right?.
The first month might make the doomsayers smile and nod – they love to be right. But after that, I reckon we’ll see things start to level out a bit, and as the season rolls on, the big leapers get tired, but the big blokes don’t get any smaller.
5 – DO THE 2025 RECRUITS OWE THE CROWS ONE IN 2026?
The performances of the 2025 Adelaide recruits flew under the radar in the finals.
And they did that because nobody was able to locate them.
I have to go on record, here – I genuinely liked the pickups the Crows made to hit the 2025 season. James Peatling has an enormous upside, Alex Neal-Bullen brought premiership experience to the team, and Isaac Cumming gave them another strong presence on the opposite wing to Daniel Curtin.
All season long, I sat back and watched these blokes do the little things that make teams better. ANB put his body on the line, Peatling got in and under and would play a defensive mid role when required, and Cumming largely adopted the defensive wing role to help his back six out.
And then the finals hit and to some extent, they just… disappeared.
Did Hawthorn and Collingwood discover some type of magic?
Recruito Dissipato!
Sorry, had to ask my daughter if there was a Harry Potter spell to make things disappear and she looked at me like I was an idiot… which I’m obviously not, right?
Right?!?!
Anyway, a quick look at the finals outings for these players will shine a light (or cast a shadow) on some pretty sobering numbers. For a couple of them, anyway.
James Peatling averaged 18.6 disposals and 4.5 clearances over 2025.
In finals, he was -5.1 disposals and -3.0 clearances.
Ouch. Recruito Dissipato, indeed.
Isaac Cumming had 14.6 disposals over the season, only to manage 11.5 touches per game in the finals.
Only Alex Neal-Bullen was able to hold his head relatively high, as his numbers reflected those of his home and away season, but his impact… I reckon he’d be the first to acknowledge he didn’t have a brilliant couple of games.
Between them, they managed one goal, and a combined 21 score involvements across six finals games. Like quite a few others, let the side down.
These blokes were brought into the team to add experience, hardness, and composure. I’m not sure, collectively, they did. They’ve had 12 months to settle in. They need to deliver in 2026.
Unfortunately, no matter what they do during the 2026 home-and-away season, I kind of feel like judgment will have to be reserved for them until we hit finals. That’s where things went awry last year – that’s where these three Crows have to make it work this year.
With Callum Ah-Chee joining the fold, the Crows are stacked with role-players who can have a huge impact (add Ben Keays, Mitch Hinge, and Luke Pedlar to that group of players who know what they’re supposed to do, and do it well), and if all of these players step up when it counts, it makes Adelaide an incredibly tough side to knock over.
Finals 2026 – the recruit redemption tour?
It almost has to be.
The remainder of this article, and the next 16 questions are for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re on the march to the 2026 AFL season and it all begins here. The Mongrel’s Big Questions Season Previews are THE best in the business. If you know, you know… if not, maybe it’s time to find out. Pre-Season, Practice Games… we’re all in. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You’re welcome to re-read the first five questions again, but if you do… there is a heap more below.
