ADELAIDE skipper Nathan van Berlo rates midfielder Scott Thompson as the club's best chance of securing its second Brownlow Medal on Monday night.
No Crow has won the AFL's highest individual award since club legend Mark Ricciuto tied with Adam Goodes and Nathan Buckley for the medal in 2003.
Unlike Saturday night's preliminary final against Hawthorn, Adelaide's players are highly fancied, with Thompson and fellow midfielder Patrick Dangerfield among the favourites.
The pair led a group of six Crows to Melbourne for the medal count on Monday, with van Berlo and Rory Sloane also invited, while Sam Jacobs took Bernie Vince as his date.
Van Berlo said Thompson was his pick, as long as other Crows didn't "rob" him of votes throughout the season.
"There's been some other players who have had outstanding years too, so it's going to be tough for them (Thompson and Dangerfield), hopefully they don't rob too many votes off each other," van Berlo said.
"We certainly know how hard it is to get a Brownlow Medal … it'd be a great reward for effort for 'Thommo' or 'Danger' to get a result tonight."
The Crows skipper was still hurting from Saturday night's narrow five-point loss to the Hawks and conceded the players had been left ruing individual mistakes and missed opportunities.
Adelaide will be faced with increased expectation in 2013 on the back of its stellar season, but van Berlo was confident the side would handle it.
"It's really starting to sink in now the opportunity we've missed out on," he said.
"It's the 'what ifs' and the 'if onlys', those sort of thoughts go through your head 100 times over and the boys replay mistakes they made or things we could have done differently.
"You can either let it drag you down … or you can use it to drive you on and make sure you make it count next year.
"This year we had very little expectation on us based on last year's performances and this year we performed at a level that we knew we were capable of."
Van Berlo said his teammates would watch Saturday's Grand Final despite the promise of re-opened wounds given his side's heart-breaking finals exit.
"This year's going to hurt more than ever because you're so close," he said.
"As a player watching every year it's tough watching players get up on the dais at the end of the game and receive their medals, but I guess at the same time you dream of that one day being you.
"There's a lot of areas I think we have to improve (for that dream to come true), the defensive style of our game there's improvements to do, the way that we tackle, the way that we still move the ball … and a lot more improvement in individuals as well."
Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry
