AFL 2025: Adelaide Crows Season Preview and Player Insights Matthew Nicks, Izak Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, Recruits, and Analysis

Crows confident of growth in 2025 | 01:03

The Adelaide Crows have gone all in for 2025. Because for coach Matthew Nicks, it’s crunch time.

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Nearly eight years on from their last September appearance, the Crows are – on face value – as well placed as they ever have been since their comprehensive Grand Final loss in 2017.

It’s been a long road back to the promised land for the West Lakes-based club, after last season’s hopes of finishing inside the top eight ended up in flames; instead finishing in 15th place on the ladder.

Nicks, who is heading into his sixth year at the helm, is yet to taste finals football. It was a privilege that cruelly escaped him in 2023 for reasons beyond his control, before 2024 ended well below where they would have hoped.

At his disposal this campaign, though, are several new players who at their best, could take the club by storm. Alex Neal-Bullen joins the Crows’ nest after a decade at Melbourne, with Giants duo Isaac Cumming and James Peatling joining him in a triple-threat addition.

As for those players at West Lakes who haven’t moved from another AFL club this off-season, the internal hype surrounds many, but in particular three players: Izak Rankine, Riley Thilthorpe, and Sid Draper.

Former Sun Rankine, who is heading into his third year as a Crow, will play more midfield in 2025. A dynamic and explosive player, the league saw glimpses of what he can do around the ball last year as he spent 38 per cent of his time in the midfield. His goal sense and craft is too invaluable for Nicks to move him there full-time, but it isn’t exaggerative to say that a fully fit Rankine plays a big part in just how high Adelaide can fly this year.

Speaking to foxfooty.com.au ahead of Round 1, Crows gun Ben Keays was bullish on the pre-season his 24-year-old teammate has had. So much so, that he expects Rankine to take his game to an unprecedented height in 2025.

“Since he’s come across from the Gold Coast, I think he’s taken his game to a whole new level,” Keays said.

“We knew we were getting a good player when we traded him in, but probably didn’t think he’d be this good this early. He’s another one that’s so young, but still has so much growth to go.

“He’s played a few different roles for us early this pre-season; a bit of midfield, a bit up forward. He’s always going to be dangerous wherever we put him, so it’s about us making the most of that and trying to use it the best of our ability.”

(Left to right) Ben Keays, Izak Rankine, Taylor Walker and Riley Thilthorpe during an open training session at Norwood Oval on January,17, 2025 (Picture: Mark Brake)Source: News Corp Australia

Thilthorpe, much like Rankine, is hoping to stay out on the park for all of 2025. Injuries have previously limited his game time under Nicks, but the 201cm full forward is bursting at the seams to take the competition by the scruff of the neck. The West Adelaide product kicked at least two goals in six of his seven matches at the end of last year, amounting to 15 goals.

Rounding out the highly touted trio is Draper, who was drafted to West Lakes less than three months ago. Nonetheless, the 18-year-old midfielder has hit the ground running since landing at the club — and is well primed for a first crack in the senior side come Round 1 against St Kilda. Given the plethora of midfield options the Crows have this year, it’s a credit to Draper to be so well poised for an AFL debut this early into his career.

STRENGTH

Forward firepower. If it wasn’t already their strength, Adelaide’s line-up in the forward half looks set to cause opposition coaches and defenders nightmares in 2025. As Thilthorpe prepares to play the second full season of his 53-game AFL career, his veteran teammate Taylor Walker looks almost certain to hand over the reins to the full-forward a dozen years his junior. And amid the two talls, sits Darcy Fogarty — who has progressively become an integral part of the Crows’ forward line with his dead-eye set shot for goal. While Rankine is set for slightly less time in the forward half this year, the superstar will still be a nuisance around goal for opposition players. Add in new recruit Alex Neal-Bullen, the evergreen Ben Keays and livewire Josh Rachele at the feet of the three-headed monster and Matthew Nicks has himself a deadly dynamic up forward. Granted, this formula is still somewhat untried, but on paper the Crows look primed for a big year in front of the big sticks.

WEAKNESS

Close losses. Broadly speaking, the Crows struggled greatly for consistency in season 2024. Digging a little deeper however, has perhaps been their inability to win close games. Across the last two seasons, the Crows have won just three of 15 games decided by two goals or less (with one draw).

Adelaide’s 2024 record in matches decided by two goals or less: 2-1-6

Adelaide’s 2024 record in matches decided by two goals or less: 1-5

For some Crows fans, the idea that cross-town rivals Port Adelaide walked away with a close games record of 7-1 in 2024 would pain them. Importantly though, it is a contrast that if applied to Adelaide across the last two years, would have them either well inside the top eight, or right on the cusp. Teams have feared lining up against the Crows in patches since the start of 2023 thanks to their free-flowing style of play, but once the clamps are applied at the back end of close games, Nicks’ side does not hold a recent record to boast about. Sometimes, you either live or you learn — and by that metric, the Crows have been doing a lot of learning lately. But the addition of three more key senior players and another pre-season under the belts of its youth should hold them in much better stead under pressure this upcoming campaign.

The Crows walk off the MCG dejected after their Round 10 four-point loss to Collingwood in 2024 — an opponent they have lost to by less than a goal in five of their last six clashes (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

PREMIERSHIP CLOCK

5pm: The Crows’ stocks have risen notably since the end of their 2024 season, with the acquisition of Neal-Bullen, Cumming and Peatling pushing them further around the premiership clock than they were back in September. As we know, the race for the top eight this year is just as competitive as it was last year, if not more. For Adelaide, this means that there is a world where they improve greatly, but still miss out on a now-elusive spot in September. Riley Thilthorpe looms large as one of the competition’s most dangerous key forwards if he can stay on the park, while Rankine looks primed for a genuine hybrid role between the midfield and attacking arc. Innovation and a healthy list is what Matthew Nicks will need if he is to take his Crows to the finals for the first time in eight years, but crucially, this season looks as promising as any in a long time.

PREDICTED LADDER RANGE

7th-10th

PREDICTED ROUND 1 TEAM

B: J.Butts, M.Keane, M.Michalanney

HB: R.Laird, N.Murray, W.Milera

C: L.Sholl, M.Crouch, I.Cumming

HF: A.Neal-Bullen, D.Fogarty, B.Keays

F: R.Thilthorpe, T.Walker, J.Rachele

FOLL: R.O’Brien, J.Dawson, I.Rankine

I/C: J.Soligo, J.Peatling, S.Draper, D.Curtin, M.Hinge

EMG: S.Berry, J.Worrell, L.Pedlar