![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Oscar-Ryan-pre-season.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n\n The Vice Captain spoke to the media on Wednesday\n <\/p>\n
There is a \u201cpowerful shift\u201d happening at the Crows this year, according to Vice Captain Alex Neal-Bullen.<\/p>\n
As Adelaide\u2019s pre-season continues to heat up ahead of the 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season kicking off in March, Neal-Bullen says it\u2019s the younger players who are taking the lead in driving standards even higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re starting to see a shift in who’s driving this footy club and it\u2019s so exciting for all involved,\u201d Neal-Bullen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe young group, led by Josh Rachele, Riley Thilthorpe, their group around them are driving the footy club a lot. It\u2019s powerful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll hear them out on the track driving drills or even in meetings. If you\u2019re looking at a PowerPoint\u2026 they\u2019re giving a bit more feedback, compared to previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you\u2019ve got the likes of Oscar Ryan, James Borlase, although he\u2019s a bit older now, leaning into that space of sharing their experiences, their thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Neal-Bullen, who turned 30 last week, is preparing to enter his second season with the Crows, after being traded from Melbourne at the end of the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n
He made a solid impact in his first season, helping Adelaide rise from 15th to minor premiers, while averaging 16.3 disposals, 4.1 tackles, and 17 goals across 25 games (including two finals).<\/p>\n
Neal-Bullen said empowering teammates to be vulnerable had helped spark a boost in form, and the Club was keen to build on its finish last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you saw in the past 12 months huge growth in players. They\u2019ve made that growth, so now it\u2019s an opportunity for the next crop of young guys to take the footy club forward,\u201d Neal-Bullen said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It\u2019s) the end product of those guys starting to lean into putting themselves in front of the group, or their willingness to be vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Daws, myself, Darcy Fogarty, we\u2019ll still be here for them to lean on us, but at the end of the day in 12 months time, 24 months time, they\u2019re the guys who will be driving this footy club forward and showing you the consistency the Adelaide Footy Club wants to stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Crows bolstered their squad ahead of this season with the addition of two-time premiership Lion Callum Ah Chee.<\/p>\n
Neal-Bullen said Ah Chee would bring a wealth of experience to the Crows as they eye sustained success.<\/p>\n
(\u201cHe brings) an ability to share his experiences under the highest pressure, not too many people have had the privilege to play in three Grand Finals in a row and come out on top in two of them,\u201d Neal-Bullen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Cal, his journey in itself, if you\u2019ve had the opportunity to talk to him about his own football journey, it\u2019s quite inspiring.<\/p>\n
\u201c(He was a) high draft pick, and he\u2019s admitted he had some inconsistencies, he wasn\u2019t at the level that he wanted to be, and has fought so hard to get to a level where he is one of the first picked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow to have someone to share the experience with – whether you\u2019re an older player or someone who is starting out their career – his ability to understand what the game needs at crucial times means he\u2019s going to be a huge asset for us. We are very lucky to have him at the footy Club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vice Captain spoke to the media on Wednesday There is a \u201cpowerful shift\u201d happening at the Crows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-412825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412825","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=412825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}