While the Victorian clubs circle above prospects such as Ryan O'Keefe and Robbie Warnock, Crows recruiting manager Matt Rendell has all but shifted his focus to next month's NAB AFL Draft.
And, with the odd exception, this is the way trade week has unfolded at West Lakes in the majority of Adelaide's 18 years in the competition.
O'Keefe, who admittedly comes with a hefty price tag, would be a perfect fit for the Crows, who are crying out for a dominant forward, but the Victorian, like most interstate players, is simply not interested in coming to Adelaide.
Rendell, who is in his second year with the Crows, believes there's a stigma associated with the city of Adelaide that prevents players from crossing the border.
And he says it's got nothing to do with footy.
"It's just a fact of life. There's just a stigma about Adelaide in this business and we have to get over that," Rendell told radio 5AA.
"Once the players get here, they love it – it's just a matter of getting their heads around the idea of going to Adelaide."
The issue dates back to Adelaide's inception into the AFL, when the club desperately tried to lure one of South Australia's favourite sons, Stephen Kernahan, back from Carlton.
Since then the cashed-up Crows, who have contested finals in seven of the past eight years, have made plays for ex-pats including Matthew Pavlich, Brad Ottens and Scott Camporeale, but have been shot down on every occasion.
Premiership star Darren Jarman is the biggest name to have sought a trade to Adelaide and like most of the Crows' trade week coups he is a South Australian native.
Players such as Nathan Bassett, Troy Bond, Matthew Clarke, Scott Welsh and Scott Thompson also fall into the same category.
"The fact of the matter is – and if you want to look through our trade choices over the last 18 years – we just can't get players here," Rendell said.
"Now, we can't even get the South Australians out of Victoria back here – they don't want to come back. They want to stay in Victoria because they love it there.
"The [non-South Australian] choices Adelaide has had over the years include Wayne Carey, who basically had to get out of town [Melbourne], Ronnie Burns, who was basically retired, and Kris Massie and Scotty Stevens, who no one really wanted, but have forged very successful careers here.
"The other one was Brad Moran last year, so other than that, the people who have come back to Adelaide via the trade have been ex-South Australian players."
Rendell said it was a stigma that flowed right down to U18 level, where some kids openly told recruiters they were not interested in moving interstate.
"The easy bit is getting the kids across from country Victoria because Adelaide is the next progression from their country town and a lot of those country kids are actually intimidated by Melbourne because it's too big," he said.
"But some of the city kids from Melbourne are quite reluctant. There's one kid at the moment we've had a bit of trouble with because he doesn't want to go interstate. We've had to deal with that and I can understand his issues with it, so it's a bit of an issue [for recruiters], but it's not a major one."
