Lynch pinned as the answer to Walker knee injury for Crows Tom Lynch is looming as the Crows preferred option to replace the injured Taylor Walker. Picture: Simon Cross. ADELAIDE is prepared to back its long-term planning in former St Kilda forward Tom Lynch to cover Taylor Walker rather than rush to the AFL asking for a return of the mid-season draft. Lynch, 22, is emerging as the quick and practical answer to keeping the Crows' gameplan and forward structure in place while Walker recuperates from season-ending knee surgery. While the 14-game, 190cm Lynch is not a replica of the 192cm Walker, he can salvage the Adelaide attack - and finals aspirations - in a raw tandem with Josh Jenkins. Jenkins-Lynch appears a better pairing than the Jenkins-Shaun McKernan tandem the Crows have avoided this season. Lynch's opportunity amid Walker's adversity highlights the strength of Adelaide's list management planning under David Noble in the past three years. In the same way Noble and recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie punted on Jenkins when the key forward-ruckman was on the Essendon rookie list in 2011 - in case Kurt Tippett defected, as he did last year - they made the same long-term investment in Lynch in that trade period. They did the same last year in trading for 193cm Swans forward Lewis Johnston's return to Adelaide when Tony Armstrong sought his exit to Sydney. Lynch was a first-round draftee falling behind limited opportunities at the Saints. He was traded to the Crows as they dealt ruckman Ivan Maric to Richmond. "We liked Tom's raw football ability," said Noble yesterday. We knew he had the talent. A couple of years ago he did not have the maturity for the rigours of AFL football, but that is there today - as is the opportunity he has been waiting for. Noble yesterday rejected making a push for the return of the mid-season draft preferring clubs to live off sound planning, such as Adelaide did by trading for Lynch and Johnston. "I'm not a big fan of the mid-season draft," said Noble. I don't like the thought of an AFL club having the entitlement to a player and then disrupting a State-league club because it has struck a spot of bother. The salary cap makes it complicated too. You might get a mid-season draft in which only three or four clubs have the budget to make a pick. It is more appropriate to rethink why the rookie lists were reduced from six to four players. Adelaide's list management has taken extraordinary hits in the past three years. AFL expansion cost the Crows two key defenders - All-Australian Nathan Bock to Gold Coast and Phil Davis to Greater Western Sydney. Now in seven months the Crows have lost the Tippett-Walker forward tandem that was designed to bring the club's third AFL flag. Adelaide's answers to this challenge are complicated by being locked out of the first and second rounds of this year's draft from the AFL-imposed penalties from the Tippett saga. "You can't pick every scenario that is going to unfold two-to-three years down the track," said Noble. You don't plan for season-ending knee injuries. But we did plan the progress of the player list with McKernan-Jenkins and then with Johnston and Lynch. Noble now has to plan again for a trade or free-agent raid on key forwards. "A key forward was not a high priority (last week before Walker was injured on Saturday)," said Noble. It is a bigger need today. Adelaide will refit its attack for Saturday's home clash with premiership favourite Hawthorn which has a free-agent forward, Lance Franklin, who will top the Crows' new list of free-agency targets. Originally published as Lynch pinned as answer to injury