Adelaide Crows forward Darcy Fogarty believes his team will be a better outfit in the upcoming season after finishing their 2025 AFL campaign in disappointing circumstances. The Crows headed into the AFL finals as the team to beat having finished four points clear of Geelong at the top of the table.
However, their momentum quickly vanished after losing at home to Collingwood. The Crows then stumbled out of the finals in straight sets after a 34-point defeat to Hawthorn in the semi-final.
The Crows’ season withered away with the Izak Rankine drama also overshadowing their final couple of games. Although key forward Fogarty feels the inexperienced side will learn a lot from their mistakes in the finals.
Adelaide Crows forward Darcy Fogarty (pictured) has revealed his team will be better off in 2026 after learning from their disappointing straight sets exit in last season’s AFL finals. (Getty Images)
Speaking to SEN Radio on Saturday, Fogarty feels the side didn’t have enough finals experience to deal with the big moments. And the ‘painful’ way the team went out in straight sets could be a good learning opportunity for the young side.
“The straight set (losses) obviously hurts,” he told SEN Radio. “That’s something that we obviously are driven by, and that’s something that we don’t want to happen again.
“But then again, we got to experience finals as well, and I think something like 90% of the list hadn’t played finals. So, we all have (played finals) now, and we all recognised that’s what you do all your training for. I think that’s a big driving force as well. (We want to) redeem ourselves from the straight sets, we know we’re better than that, and we want to play at that end of the year.”
The Crows did manage to win the minor premiership, despite not performing in the finals. And Fogarty suggests if the team can improve on their game they will be a more formidable force in the upcoming season.
“We’ve recognised that we did a lot right to get ourselves in the position we did, and unfortunately, we just didn’t execute in the final two games,” Fogarty added. “Next time we’ll make sure that we’re better off for what happened last year. We’re going to learn from it and not just dwell on it.”
Darcy Fogarty (pictured) has backed his team to improve in 2026.
Matthew Nicks extends time in Adelaide
In a boost heading into the new season, coach Matthew Nicks extended his stay until the end of the 2027 campaign. Nicks led the side to a minor premiership in his sixth season in charge of the club. The 2026 season was set to be his last with the Crows, but at the end of the season Nicks extended for another two years.
Matthew Nicks (pictured) re-signed with the Crows after a stellar season.