{"id":151129,"date":"2021-10-28T10:26:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T10:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=151129"},"modified":"2021-10-28T11:58:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T11:58:57","slug":"crows-rebuild-receives-major-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=151129","title":{"rendered":"Crows&#039; rebuild receives major boost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/adelaide-crows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Adelaide\">Adelaide<\/a>&#x27;s rebuild has taken a big step forward with midfielder Ben Keays agreeing to a two-year contract extension.<\/p>\n<p>Keays, who was under contract for one more season, will now remain with the Crows until the end of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>After he was delisted by Brisbane at the end of 2019, Keays was handed an AFL lifeline last season before quickly emerging as a vital piece of coach Matthew Nicks&#x27; rebuild by finishing fifth in Adelaide&#x27;s club champion award.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/news\/mike-tomlin-idea-hes-a-candidate-for-college-jobs-a-joke\/5849fefd-e315-448e-ae3f-e556ae119d06\"><strong>NFL coach&#x27;s scathing response to &#x27;joke&#x27; question<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old midfielder backed up his breakout season last year by going even better in 2021 to finish runner-up this year to Rory Laird for the Malcolm Blight Medal.<\/p>\n<p>Keays fell short of the club champion award by just three votes.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"aa80bcec-27fe-451a-98f5-fd7fc319a067\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/aa80bcec-27fe-451a-98f5-fd7fc319a067\" alt=\" Ben Keays of the Crows in action \" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Ben arrived at the club with the right attitude of wanting to work hard and earn his spot in the team and that&#x27;s been evident in the football he has played,&quot; Adelaide list manager Justin Reid said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He has earned the respect of his teammates and coaches which has been recognised in best-and-fairest voting in both seasons he&#x27;s been with us and the improvement he has shown makes us excited for what&#x27;s still to come.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s reliable, works hard and we are very pleased that he has recommitted to the club until at least the end of 2024.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Keays averaged 28 disposals and played in every game for the club this season.<\/p>\n<p>The Crows haven&#x27;t played finals football since 2017 when they went down to Richmond in the AFL Grand Final that season.<\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6278140746001\" src=\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/10\/387909\/pickerimage.jpg\" alt=\"No jab, no play rule for AFL players\" data-vms-id=\"ref:ckv0pwozf00270hs0mkgsl3ru\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/basketball\/nba-76ers-ben-simmons-philadelphia-trade-circus-houston-james-harden-doc-rivers-daryl-morey\/e255e0a9-5443-4280-931e-6c5ba4a38ee5\"><strong>How Ben Simmons found himself in NBA exile<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In other AFL signing news, <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/collingwood-mason-cox-contract-deal\/49fbe0d9-0bdc-4824-912f-565e5cae3c24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Collingwood&#x27;s Mason Cox signed a new one-year deal\">Collingwood&#x27;s Mason Cox signed a new one-year deal<\/a> earlier today.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We are pleased to be in a position to retain Mason for another season,&quot; Collingwood general manager of football Graham Wright said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We know Mason can play a number of roles for us. Players capable in the ruck and up forward offer great versatility to a team.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/login?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" title=\"clicking here!\"><strong><em>clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Adelaide&#x27;s rebuild has taken a big step forward with midfielder Ben Keays agreeing to a two-year contract extension. Keays, who was under contract for one <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=151129\" title=\"Crows&#039; rebuild receives major boost\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151131,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151129\/revisions\/151131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}