ADELAIDE believes it has struck gold by bringing talent worthy of the national draft into the club as rookies.
The Crows selected four players at Wednesday's rookie draft: South Australians James Battersby and Alex Spina, Victorian Jake Kelly and exciting Western Australian forward Charlie Cameron.
Small forward depth was an area the Crows wanted to address in November, with the club also putting an emphasis on adding speed to its list.
Recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie said the club was confident it had found four guns, particularly Cameron.
"We would have been happy to draft Charlie last week so for us it's a bit like getting a draftee," he said.
"These boys (Battersby and Spina) are pretty brisk, but Charlie's really quick and in that small forward role, to be able to learn from Eddie (Betts) and Ian (Callinan), he's got a couple of great coaches there for him.
"He got to Perth hoping to play in the Under-18s and he played every senior game at Swan Districts. They asked him to tackle in the forward line and he becomes one of the best tacklers in the WAFL."
The four players have arrived at a club where a place on the rookie list can quickly turn into senior football.
Of Adelaide's 38 senior-listed players, 12 started their AFL careers as rookies.
Rory Laird and Kyle Hartigan both started this season on the rookie list but will enter 2014 as senior players, while former 200-game champions such as Michael Doughty and Nathan Bassett both started their careers as rookies.
Spina said the Crows' willingness to play their rookies was a confidence booster ahead of his first AFL pre-season.
"Speaking to a few of the boys today, a fair few of them have come off the rookie list so it does give you a bit of confidence," Spina said.
"But they've worked hard for their opportunities so we're going to have to do the same thing."
