AFL legend Kevin Bartlett has called Rory Sloane’s bluff as interest grows around the Adelaide Crows free agent.

The Victorian-born midfielder told The Advertiser he wasn’t worried about how long his renewal at Adelaide could take as he enters his final contracted season for the Crows in 2018.

“I’m not fussed how long it takes,” Sloane said.

“I’ve never rushed any of my contracts — and there is not going to be a timeline on this one either.

“And all that speculation is so untrue. I’ve not thought about free agency. I have a contract with Adelaide next year — and that is all I have on my mind at the moment.”

But Bartlett says Sloane’s time with the Crows has come to an end, claiming the 27-year-old will up-stumps and head home to Collingwood in a blockbuster powerplay.

“Rory Sloane is gone,” Bartlett said on SEN’s Hungry for Sport Friday morning.

“He’s out of Adelaide come the end of the 2018 season. That’s all that can be gleaned from his famous words yesterday, that he’s in no rush to sign a new contract with the Crows.

“Of course Sloane says, ‘Don’t read anything into that statement’. As a free agent he has the whip hand.”

The 70-year-old said Sloane was at serious risk of copping a serve from skipper Taylor Walker should he declare he’s leaving the club.

Walker blasted outgoing star Jake Lever in an “aggressive” confrontation after the 21-year-old announced he’d be moving on following a “low ball” offer from the Crows.

“The Crows would have loved (Sloane) to say, ‘I’ll be a Crow for my football life’, if only to save himself from a potential Tex Walker tirade,” Bartlett said.

Sloane’s manager Ned Guy — who also works with Lever — is set to join the Magpies as their new list manager, fuelling Bartlett’s theory of a return to Victoria for the former No. 44 draft pick.

“I’d be flabbergasted if Eddie McGuire and his football department are not working on a godfather deal right now. My early crow is Sloane’s coming home,” he said.

‘THAT PLACE ALMOST IMPLODED’

SLOANE’S potential move will likely hang over the head of the Crows’ 2018 AFL season as rumours already begin to grow legs as early as October.

Ex-AFL star Garry Lyon said the AFL needed to grow up and mature its stance on mid-season player shifts.

“We should be (more mature),” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.

“We’ve got to be bigger and more mature than the way we’ve been handling it, but the question is, are clubs ready for it?

“Taylor Walker had an apoplectic fit when he found out that Jake Lever was going, so how are the Adelaide Crows going to handle it if? That place almost imploded when Jake Lever left.

“Sloane has given much longer service, but from what I saw of the Adelaide Crows, they haven’t got their head around being able to accept a player telling them they’re going, prior to going.”

Sports journalist Andy Maher was sceptical at all the noise surrounding Sloane but suggested the Crows’ recent track record of leaving players meant anything was possible.

“I’m not going to read too much into it, because I think he’s got a track record in the way he manages his contractual status at footy clubs,” he said.

“But, there’s no doubt he’s thinking about it now … we’ve seen a lot of Adelaide players leave that joint.”