Adelaide trade recruit and now one of four vice-captains at West Lakes Alex Neal-Bullen is optimistic that the Crows will meet the club's lofty expectations in 2025.
After controversially missing the finals in 2023, the Crows were widely expected to end the top-eight drought that had been ongoing since 2017 last year. However, the side failed to deliver and finished in the bottom four.
The Crows made major moves in the off-season to bolster their list, acquiring Giants Isaac Cumming and James Peatling, as well as Demon Neal-Bullen.
A re-structured leadership group in 2025, Adelaide appointed Neal-Bullen along with Ben Keays, Reilly O'Brien and Darcy Fogarty as vice-captains behind skipper Jordan Dawson.
A premiership player coupled with informal leadership experience at Melbourne, Neal-Bullen knew he immediately wanted to enter the leadership ranks at Adelaide, in hopes his work ethic and standards would drive the club back up the ladder in 2025.
"When the trade had just gone through, my intentions from the get-go were to understand what this club stands for, what the current leaders and personnel drive within this footy club, and for me to get right in behind that," Neal-Bullen said on Tuesday.
"To be acknowledged in a leadership role, I'm very humbled, but this club has also given me the environment to feel comfortable, to be myself and really buy into what the club have already established.
"I'm looking forward to now getting to work with the games rolling around very soon."
Despite his wealth of on-field success at the Demons, Neal-Bullen said he has disregarded any mention of the accolades he has earned before arriving at the Crows, hoping to be embraced by the club as a player willing to learn his role at a new team.
"I'm not walking in here as a premiership player, although it may be spoken about externally," Neal-Bullen said.
"I'm coming in as Alex Neal-Bullen, an Adelaide Crow who wants to be the best teammate I can be.
"And if that (premiership experience) is required for knowledge, experience of ten years playing in the game, I'll lean on that and happily give that out."
"...Using this experience now, learning off the guys and players that are already at this footy club, learning what they've been through, we can forge together and build that great cohesion to play some great footy early on in the year."
Neal-Bullen said the intensity at training has been the standout for the 29-year-old in his first pre-season at West Lakes, often leaving training feeling "rewarded" for his efforts.
"How competitive they are (has been the standout). They don't need any encouragement once we cross the line for training," he said.
"This is obviously the only training I've seen, but the intensity and effort that they've given out on the track has been at a very high level.
"As soon as we come off (the track), I can just see the willingness to learn. There's a group here that are very eager to continue to improve, and that's been so evident and that's been led by the coaches, and then the players are getting in right behind that.
"For me, coming in 10 years of experience, I found it so rewarding walking out of the long day here, getting in the car, driving home, very proud of where this footy club is currently.
"And now we've got the responsibility to get out there and perform.
"This club is driven, definitely, and that's both from an on-field point of view (and) off-field.
"...Now as players, it's our responsibility to step on that field Thursday night, our first real hitout here, to really put out everything we've trained through this summer as a group, and to show our identity as a footy club."
Adelaide head to Queensland to take on Brisbane in the Community Series on Thursday, before hosting St Kilda in Round 1 on Sunday, March 16.
