Adelaide’s Roughead on Butts, Murray, Rankine, Pedlar, Phillipou & more

The Adelaide Crows won’t be as active as some other clubs this trade period.

Jarryd Roughead, the club’s List Manager, admits they won’t be bringing in a heap of players as they prefer to promote from within.

But there will be some movement and he answered all the questions regarding the trade period from AFL Trade Radio’s Tom Morris and Tom Mitchell.

On Jordon Butts leaving for the Western Bulldogs:

“‘Buttsy’ has been a big part of the defence over the past eight years that he's been at the football club. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see him there out on the park due to some injuries the second half of the year,” said Roughead.

“But as we know players these days have the right to exercise their free agent status. It's sad to see him go, but that's the lay of the land these days.

“After speaking with Michael Regan (from the Dogs), we understand that they'll likely lodge the paperwork tomorrow (Saturday) and we'll see what compensation we get.”

On North Melbourne’s interest in Nick Murray:

Are you concerned about potentially having two key position backs departing the club?

“No, I don't think we will. Nick's got two years left on a deal. One of those key defenders that we've got high hopes in and want to make sure that we've got good depth in that spot.

“Nick obviously played some really good footy at the start of this year. He's a great member of our footy club. So I don't expect to see him go anywhere. As I said, two years on a deal left at the footy club and we'd like him to hopefully see that out.”

Have you expressed that to him, that he's more than likely to have to stay?

“I think with what we've seen with the departure of Jordon that key defenders aren't easy to find and we've got great competition there.

“We were actually lucky this year with the depth that we had that we had good coverage. So at one stage all of our key defenders were injured or not in the side. So we understand that key depth stocks are hard to find.

“It's something that we won't entertain.”

On any possible interest in Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey:

“No, Jordan's not one that I'd expect we'd be going after.”

What does a trade for Luke Pedlar to Port Adelaide look like?

“I heard (Power list boss) Jason Cripps’ comments yesterday, and obviously Port Adelaide are going to be quite active this trade period.

“So respectfully to ‘Crippa’, he just said, ‘Let's pick this up after he gets through next week’. Understanding that we respect ‘Peds’ and we want to do what's best for him, but we also want to do what's best for the Adelaide footy club.

“So we'll pick up those conversations with Crippa in due course.”

On any big fish the Crows might target:

“I come from a player's point of view with this kind of stuff. Talking about players openly isn't something that I'm really comfortable with because you know what it's like to be as a player and you know how much an impact the outside noise can have on you at times.

“So I've been pretty upfront that you won't hear me talk about players from other teams too much at all. It's something that I didn't like as a player and I don't think many do these days. We'll go about our business in our way.

“I don't expect us to be too active. And I know that that's going to be considered maybe the wrong idea. But it's an opinions based game.

“What we say is that we've got great depth within our team and we need to see what we've got within our our group. We didn't get to see Sid Draper unfortunately this year, Dan Curtin came back in the mid part of the year.

“So I think there's some great upside within our group. It's just a matter of giving them some exposure and some belief to be able to feel like they're at the level and contribute.”

On a reported five-year extension for Izak Rankine:

“He’s going to be a major part of what we do as a football club over this next period of time. And he's one that we'd love to get locked away.

“We’ve obviously been talking with Izak and his management. And I'd like to hope that there's something soon that we can announce to everyone.”

Is there a world where Reilly O’Brien looks for a way out?

“No, we had a great chat with Reilly in his exit meeting. He understands that the ruck rule probably wasn't something that suited him this year, but he's a competitor, he's always shown that.

“He's a previous best and fairest winner at our football club and he's someone that will be up for the fight and wish for that number one spot as being number one rough next year.”

On Taylor Walker conversations:

“The conversations with players that are such champions of the football club are delicate at times and sometimes I think clubs can be seen as maybe getting these decisions wrong.

“But I think having someone of Tex’s ilk and seeing how he was able to perform, but also contribute toward right to the end of our season and finals campaign - I can't speak highly enough of the person that he is.

“Even though he's not going to be a part of our playing group he'll still be a major part of the Adelaide Football Club moving forward.”

Are the Crows looking for another midfielder?

“If we're being honest boys, my job is to try and make the Adelaide Football Club better, and we know that we've got gaps in our list.

“But we've also drafted some boys that we need to see what we've got. I mentioned before, unfortunately we didn't get to see a lot of Sid Draper this year after seeing what he was able to do in year one playing the 10 games.

“Even towards the latter part of the year Dan Curtin was another one who popped in the middle. We saw the emergence of Sam Berry who had a great season this year. And of course, Izak has moved in as that pure midfielder now that can obviously dress forward as well.

“You're always trying to make improvements on your list and we all understand that, but A-grade midfielders don't grow on trees, so we have to be patient there too.”

On any Adelaide interest in St Kilda’s Mattaes Phillipou:

“No, we haven't we haven't looked at that at all.”

On plans for Pick 13:

“We’re open to everything this year to be honest. I think there's going to be a lot of picks flying around with some of these major deals going on.

“Teams will be entertaining bringing other sides into it. So we're open to all deals that could possibly happen this year. We're gonna go to the draft and we're gonna hopefully try and get some really highly talented kids at the pointy end of the draft, which would be nice.”

On improvement coming internally:

“We've been really lucky with our injury list the previous couple of years that we haven't had a long injury list and we've had a lot of guys that have played a lot of games.

“We're also at that stage where we've got so far in the last couple of years and we've won one final, which was great for our group. But I think competition for spots is going to come from within. It's not going to be from having three wishes and being able to bring in three amazing players.

“We need to see what we've got within our group. We've had boys that have been able to taste games this year, Billy Dowling, Charlie Edwards. We had a number of guys that came in and debuted. Hugo Hall-Kahan is another one who came in the mid part of the year and really really showed that he could play at the level.

“So I think as a football club and as Adelaide fans we should be excited with what what else we have on our list.”

Listen to the full chat with Roughead below: