SPECULATION is rife that Patrick Dangerfield will leave Adelaide at season's end but teammate Richard Douglas is "quietly confident" the superstar will remain a Crow.
 
Dangerfield will have the option to exercise restricted free agency at the end of 2015, and many believe he will return to his native Victoria, where he has been strongly linked to Geelong.
 
The superstar midfielder recently missed out on the Crows' captaincy, with new coach Phil Walsh awarding the honour to spearhead Taylor Walker in a shock move.
 
Douglas, a fellow Victorian, admitted the pull of home was "always there", but the prospect of enjoying success with longtime teammates shouldn't be underestimated.
 
"You'd love to ideally be around your family and friends," Douglas told AFL.com.au's new show First Bounce on Friday.
 
"Paddy's engaged now and he's probably going to be looking to start a family in the next few years, so there's obviously that attraction there to have some free babysitters, which would be nice for him to save some coin.
 
"It's always there but at the end of the day it comes down to whether you want to be part of a successful organisation and we feel we're building towards that, and Paddy's a key part of that, and he knows that.
 
"Hopefully he hangs around, and we're quietly confident that he will."
 
Douglas revealed the Crows had spoken about staying together to build a successful era, particularly after losing talent to rivals in recent seasons.
 
"It's my 10th season now and it'll be Paddy's eighth, and Scotty Thompson, (Nathan) van Berlo and these sort of blokes have been around a long time and you need quality players to stay," he said.
 
"We've lost Phil Davis (to Greater Western Sydney), Kurt Tippett (Sydney Swans), Jack Gunston (Hawthorn), these real quality players, over the last three or four years and to lose any more would be a real shame and a real big hit on the team.
 
"We have talked about that. And with 'Walshy' coming in he's brought a real team-first attitude to us, so we think that's going to really help us going forward and give us that edge that we've been looking for."
 
After missing the finals for the past two seasons, which led to the sacking of previous coach Brenton Sanderson, Douglas is buoyant about the Crows prospects, saying they "have a strong game plan in place now" and would be better equipped defensively.