WHEN Adelaide selected Phil Davis with pick No.10 in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft, it was considered a 'low-risk' pick.

Davis, who represented South Australia at the Under-18 Championships and was aligned to North Adelaide in the SANFL, wasn't South Australian … but he was close enough.

Born and raised in Canberra, Davis had moved to Adelaide with his family at age, 14, and was still living at home with his parents in the affluent suburb of North Adelaide at the time he announced he would be leaving the Crows to join Greater Western Sydney next season.

Unashamedly, Adelaide and Port Adelaide put a premium on homegrown talent at the draft table.

If there are two players of similar ability available at a particular pick, the SA-based clubs will more often than not choose the local to remove the 'go-home' factor associated with interstate draftees from play.

Even so, the Crows rated Davis particularly highly, surprising other clubs by selecting the then 18-year-old, who had missed half the season with a shoulder injury, ahead of players like Steele Sidebottom, Tom Lynch, Ryan Schoenmakers and Luke Shuey.

The versatile key-position player justified Adelaide's faith in him in his second year at the club last season, playing 15 games and earning a NAB Rising Star nomination for his performance against Geelong in round 16.

He started to come out of his shell off the field as well, developing from the shy 'nerd', ridiculed for obtaining a tertiary entrance rank of 99 in Year 12, to a popular member of the team renowned for his sense of humour and unquestionable character.

When All Australian centre half-back Nathan Bock announced he was leaving the Crows to join Gold Coast late last season, Davis was the silver lining.

His personal qualities also saw him touted as a future captain of the club.

It's for all these reasons GWS targeted Davis, and why Adelaide was shattered to lose him.

Bock's defection was tough for the Crows, who bid farewell to veterans Simon Goodwin, Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards and Brett Burton in the same year.

But after the initial emotion surrounding the 'first' uncontracted player to leave his current club and chase the money on offer from a new franchise subsided, the majority of the football world accepted Bock's situation for what it was: a 28-year-old with concerns over his durability taking up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure his financial future well beyond his playing career.

Davis' decision to leave is much harder for Adelaide and its supporters to digest.

At just 20 years of age, and with only 18 games of experience, Davis is years away from reaching his peak, and the reality is the Crows will only experience his best football when he lines up against them.

Adelaide will receive compensation, likely to be in the form of [at least] one first-round draft pick, but the lack of quality players in this year's draft pool could tempt the club to hang onto the pick(s), which can be used in any of the next five drafts, including the 2012 'super' draft.

This means it could be years before the Crows see any substantial return from their initial investment in Davis in '08.

Adelaide has voiced its dissatisfaction with the concessions afforded to GWS, which have given the newcomers unfettered access to pursue uncontracted players regardless of age or experience, but the clubs themselves know they are partly to blame having agreed to the concessions before they were announced by the AFL.

You can only assume the existing clubs expected Gold Coast and GWS to sign experienced players, and not take a five-year approach to list building as it appears the Giants have done.

It's a tough lesson and the Crows won't be the only ones to learn it, with Greater Western Sydney able to sign up to 15 more uncontracted players (one from each club with the exception of Gold Coast, and now Adelaide) over the next two years.

And if the departure of Davis tells us anything, it's that no uncontracted player is immune to the big bucks on offer from the Giants. 

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL.