Kane Cornes believes there’s some chance more mature-aged players will walk out on the struggling Adelaide Crows ahead of next season.
Rory Atkins announced his intention last week to explore his free agency options, with Fox Footy reporting over the weekend that Gold Coast is in the running to secure his services as an unrestricted free agent.
There is also plenty of speculation surrounding Brad Crouch, who is eligible to leave the club as a restricted free agent at the end of the current season.
With the club still winless in 2020 and time running out to secure their first victory of the season, Cornes said there could be “more carnage” for the club’s list management team to deal with.
“The question I would ask is why haven’t they been able to get the best out of Rory Atkins,” Cornes said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“Is there going to be more carnage at West Lakes, there’s some talk that there may be some more players ready to leave now and can the Crows afford to be losing more mature-age bodies like Atkins which is what they need.”
Cornes said if Brad Crouch is leaning towards leaving at the end of the season, he should immediately announce his intention to explore free agency, much like Atkins did last week.
“I think they probably should’ve done the same thing with Brad Crouch,” Cornes said.
“What’s the point of Brad Crouch being at the club right now, clearly he doesn’t want to be there, he’s speaking like he doesn’t want to be there and the Crows are happy to move him on because of the draft pick they’ll get.
“List sizes are probably going to be cut by about four and there’s going to be four new draftees come in so that’s at least eight changes before you even start looking on the back of 10 last year so the Crows could essentially turn over 50 per cent of their list in two years which is extreme.”
Adelaide will be hoping to finally taste victory this season when they take on fellow strugglers Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval in an ‘away’ game on Tuesday to begin Round 15.