ADELAIDE will participate in next week's national draft after successfully seeking an adjournment of the AFL Commission's hearing into the serious salary cap and draft tampering charges it faces, as the league's probe widened to examine a third-party payment to midfield star Patrick Dangerfield.

The club has distanced itself from chief executive Steven Trigg, football manager Phil Harper and his predecessor John Reid, with all four parties engaging separate legal representation for the hearing, which has not yet been rescheduled.

The league's probe has widened to examine a third-party payment to midfield star Patrick Dangerfield. Credit:Pat Scala

It is believed the AFL has accessed an email written by Harper, in which he indicated that Dangerfield, Kurt Tippett and captain Nathan van Berlo had been steered towards a company owned by a former Adelaide board member, Alan Sheppard.

The company, Alan Sheppard Constructions - part of Adelaide's ''Chairman's Circle'' coterie group - paid each player about $20,000 in 2011.