Adelaide SANFL leadership player Jack Madgen says there are plenty of positives to take out of the first three games of Adelaide’s SANFL season.
The Crows sit in second place on the ladder, with a 2-1 record after three rounds of action.
That solitary blemish came when they fell to Central District by four points at Elizabeth Oval last Saturday.
Despite the loss, Madgen told AFC Media he was confident the SANFL program was headed in the right direction.
“It’s been a really positive start for us,” Madgen said.
“Firstly, in terms of some guys going back to AFL level after playing a couple of weeks in the SANFL like Lachie Murphy, Lachie Sholl, Ned McHenry and Chayce Jones, they have gone up and taken their opportunities, which is pleasing.
“Then as a team, we are 2-1, which is a pretty good start.
"We’d love to be 3-0 but credit to Central, who were just a little bit too good on the weekend.
“The signs are there that we are playing the right way though, and the challenge now is to sustain that over four quarters.”
The SANFL side will get its chance to return to the winners’ list when it faces South Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday afternoon - a curtain raiser for the AFL clash against Collingwood.
Madgen said players were itching to get back out on there and improve on their loss against the Bulldogs last week.
“We know that we are going to get every opposition’s best, they will always get up to play the Crows SANFL side,” Madgen said.
“We just need to get a bit better at being ready to play from the first bounce, rather than slowly working ourselves into games.
“Both us and South had our first losses of the season last week, so it is a very important game this weekend and hopefully we can come away with the win.”
Off the field Madgen, who hails from the Barossa Valley, is settling back into life in South Australia after spending the past five years at Collingwood.
Prior to joining the Magpies, the 29-year-old played four years of college basketball at Delta State University in the USA and a solitary season with NBL outfit Cairns Taipans in 2016/17.
He said he was loving being back home and his mentoring role within the Crows’ SANFL program.
“It’s been awesome, everyone has been very welcoming and I feel like a very valued member of the Club,” Madgen said.
“Moving back to Adelaide has been great, being close to friends and family has been great, and having had my first baby girl in January having that extra support around has really helped.
“With football, the move has been pretty seamless.
"I did the pre-season with the AFL boys which was awesome and with the SANFL I take training on Thursday nights and have tried to be a bit of a mentor to the younger boys.”
Adelaide plays South Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Sunday at 12.30pm.
