After just 22 games in his career as a Crow, Adelaide has announced Jordan Dawson as the club's captain for the 2023 season.
The former Swan's elevation comes in the wake of long-term leader Rory Sloane's decision to step down ahead of his 15th season at West Lakes.
Sloane departs the post after leading the Crows across four campaigns, with his tenure beginning as a co-captain in 2019.
The decorated midfielder's call comes as he continues to rehabilitate from a ruptured ACL sustained in April of last year.
Dawson, 25, was brought home to South Australia during the 2021 trade period before featuring in each of Adelaide's home-and-away fixtures in 2022.
The Sturt product was added to Adelaide's leadership group ahead of claiming second place in the club's best and fairest count, finishing behind fellow midfielder Rory Laird.
Dawson now becomes Adelaide's ninth AFL captain, following in the footsteps of premiership icons Mark Bickley, Mark Ricciuto and Simon Goodwin.
In a statement released by the club on Saturday morning, Dawson stated that he was honoured to lead a club that he had been backing since childhood.
โI could not be more excited to captain the Club I barracked for growing up as a kid,โ Dawson told Crows Media.
โIt was surreal to pull on the guernsey last year, and now this is a huge honour.
โEveryone at this Club wants to win and have success and do it as quickly as we can, so I'm honoured to have the responsibility of driving that.
โIt's an incredible privilege and even better having the likes of Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker โ both highly respected captains of the Club โ and our leadership group here to help me on this journey.โ
Head Coach Matthew Nicks stressed that the Crows were in good hands, with Dawson now the face of the next phase of Adelaide's rebuild.
โJordan is ready because in key moments he steps up and delivers, particularly on-field," Nicks added.
โWe identified him as having leadership qualities when we recruited him from Sydney and they have shone through in the past 18 months with us.โ
Upon handing over the baton, Sloane stressed that while Dawson would act as the focal point on gameday, the blossoming winger wouldn't have to look far for advice.
โThe time is right because we have somebody who has stepped up and is ready to lead,โ Sloane said.
โWe have been talking about this for five to six months, and I could 100 per cent keep going as captain, but there is someone else who is ready to take the Club forward.
โIt has been an honour to lead this Club for the past four seasons, but once a captain always a captain, and there are blokes like Tex and myself and the rest of the leadership group there to help Daws going forward.โ
Adelaide is set to commence its 2023 campaign in earnest during pre-season fixtures against Fremantle and West Coast between February 24 and March 3.
The Crows' home-and-away season will begin when they travel to face the Giants at Spotless Stadium on Sunday, March 19.
