\n New Crow Callum Ah Chee was disappointed by his tough exit from the Lions, but understood why his move wasn’t easy\n <\/p>\n
Callum Ah Chee at Adelaide training on December 1, 2025. Picture: Adelaide FC<\/p>\n
ADELAIDE recruit Callum Ah Chee says his messy departure from Brisbane was disappointing, but understandable.<\/p>\n
Ah Chee has joined the Crows after winning two premierships with the Lions, with the clubs unable to strike a deal during the Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.<\/p>\n
After the impasse, Ah Chee was picked up in the pre-season draft, meaning Brisbane got nothing for the 169-gamer.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to finally be in Adelaide officially, it has been a big month,” he told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Not ideal … it (a trade) obviously just didn’t get done.<\/p>\n
“I was following it closely towards the end and (thinking) it might not get done here and obviously it didn’t.<\/p>\n
“But that’s the reality. Footy has got a business side of things, I understand that and that is the industry I am in.<\/p>\n
“It’s in the past now.”<\/p>\n
Ah Chee said the trade stand-off was “a little bit disappointing” but won’t tarnish his fond memories of Brisbane.<\/p>\n
“Bittersweet,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But what better way to go out than to win a flag and contribute \u2013 and that is something that I will hold with me for the rest of my life, memories that I will have forever.”<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old had discussions with Crows coach Matthew Nicks and his coaching director, former Lions staffer Murray Davis, during last season.<\/p>\n
He made the decision to request a trade towards the end of Brisbane’s successful finals campaign.<\/p>\n
“I was pretty much set on my decision to come to the Crows and I really wanted to get here, so we put all our energy and time into that,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And so first pick in the pre-season draft, I’ll take it.”<\/p>\n
Callum Ah Chee celebrates with fans during the 2025 Toyota AFL Grand Final. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Ah Chee, born in WA but a Crows supporter as a child, cited family as a chief reason for his move.<\/p>\n
“Having family here as well \u2013 and it’s a lot closer to Perth and that was a big pull,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I felt for my family, obviously being in Brisbane without any help really for 10 years has been tough, we got through that.”<\/p>\n
Callum Ah Chee with his family after the Grand Final between Geelong and Brisbane at the MCG, September 27, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Ah Chee joins an Adelaide outfit stung by a straight-sets exit from last season’s finals after being minor premier.<\/p>\n
“It’s not easy to just make premiership teams overnight,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You have got to go through a lot of adversity and learn from it, you can’t really shy away from it.<\/p>\n
“Finals are hard. It’s almost like another season, it’s not easy winning finals games.<\/p>\n
“But I’m sure the Crows boys learned a lot from last season so I’m sure they’ll bounce back.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Crow Callum Ah Chee was disappointed by his tough exit from the Lions, but understood why his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-320111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}