Last month, the AFL announced the 2022 AFLW pre-season would be pushed back to the end of September due to Covid-19 lockdowns, a month later than anticipated. 

The Crows weren’t going to let that extra time go to waste. 

AFLW Senior Coach Matthew Clarke said he wanted to ensure Adelaide’s newest faces - Jasmine Simmons, Zoe Prowse, Brooke Tonon and Abbie Ballard - as well as returning tall Jasmyn Hewett, didn’t miss out with the later season start. 

“We just go into a little bit of a holding pattern. The rules are that we can train for six hours a week, so we’ve got the girls doing two, three-hour sessions but they are voluntary,” Clarke said. 

“Basically we wait until October and then we get into it.

“(That’s) a month without formal training, so that gives us the chance to introduce some of our new players into the group.”

To do so, Clarke organised a city-wide scavenger hunt to help his side bond and boost team morale. 

“Last Saturday, we basically had everyone running around the city… everyone had a pretty good day,” Clarke said. 

But players-turned-reality TV stars Chelsea Randall and Marijana Rajcic weren’t the ones to take home the crown. 

“We thought we’d give them another chance, but fair to say they didn’t win again,” Clarke joked. 

The senior coach said his side was looking at the positives with the longer run-up to season 2022, particularly those recovering from injury. 

“It gives us the opportunity to get everyone physically to the same place, we’ve had a few who had operations so it gives them an extra month to get ready,” he said.