PROMISING Adelaide forward Darcy Fogarty credits a stint in defence with accelerating his development and believes it will pay off in the long run.

The 20-year-old is poised to have a greater role for the Crows in 2020, having shown a glimpse of his immense potential at the end of last season.

Fogarty booted nine goals in the final four games of the year, including a breakthrough performance against West Coast in Perth in round 21.

After playing 10 senior games in his debut season in 2018, Fogarty surprisingly started last year as a defender where he learnt his craft in the SANFL.

He described it as a valuable learning experience, playing on experienced forwards in the SANFL, getting tips off seasoned Crows defenders Daniel Talia and Kyle Hartigan and matching up on veteran forwards Taylor Walker and Tom Lynch at training.

"2019 was a bit patchy with form, but in terms of development and learning, I thought it was a good year," Fogarty told AFL.com.au.

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"I was lucky enough to go down back and play and learn with 'Tals' and Harto and some of the key backs down there, and during training I got to play on Tex and Lynchy.

"To learn off them and what they do at training, and then go back eventually forward and try implement it into my game … it was a pretty good learning curve last year and hopefully it's going to be beneficial."

Fogarty – the 12th overall pick in the 2017 NAB AFL Draft – had to wait until the round 20 clash with St Kilda for his first taste of senior football last year.

But it was the following week against the Eagles where it all came together, kicking five of his side's 12 goals, hauling in seven marks and collecting his first Brownlow Medal vote.

"It was good to kick a couple, but the more games I hopefully play, the more confident I'll get," he said.

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"It'll just come with games played and building consistency throughout them and not having drop-offs in weeks and in games."

Fogarty is a great set shot for goal and is extremely accurate in front of the sticks, having kicked 9.1 for the season.

That led Essendon great Matthew Lloyd to claim Fogarty was the best kick he had seen in 10 years, but the young Crow said that wasn't always the case.

"My first year at the Crows, I worked a bit with (former assistant coach) Scott Camporeale and he helped me out with my run-up," Fogarty said.

"I was having a little bit of trouble when I first rocked up, but I'm lucky enough to have a set routine now that works and hopefully I can stick to it."

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