Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks is remaining tight-lipped about his club's massive bid to lure Izak Rankine from AFL rivals Gold Coast.
The Crows are reportedly offering South Australian-born Rankine a five-year deal in the vicinity of $800,000 a season.
Rankine's coach at Gold Coast, Stuart Dew, expects the 22-year-old to soon decide his future.
"It's going to be a decision to make and it's probably going to happen reasonably quickly now that we've finished," Dew said after the Suns' season finished with a win over North Melbourne on Saturday.
Adelaide's season also ended on Saturday night with a 16.15 (111) to 7.13 (55) loss to Port Adelaide, with Nicks afterwards shutting down any talk about Rankine.
"We don't talk about players from other footy clubs," Nicks said.
"That has been a pretty simple line I have given you guys (media) week-in, week-out, but I respect and understand the question."
The Crows have missed the finals in five consecutive seasons since being beaten grand finalists in 2017.
But Nicks, after his fourth season in charge at Adelaide, said he was positive his rebuild was tracking towards some success.
"We are extremely optimistic," he said.
"We feel we are heading in the right direction. We feel we are playing that brand of footy that is going to get us there.
"There are always areas you have got to clean up when you're not playing finals footy, there are things you have got to be better at, so we will go away and work on those."
Nicks said his playing group developed during an eight-win season in 2022.
"We have had a number of individuals develop and take their games to another level," he said.
"It's another 22 games into our group which is the youngest group in the competition, those 22 games become really important as we go year-to-year.
"We know where we're at.
"We have got some things we have got to improve on ... but from our season's point of view we have taken steps in the right direction."
