Adelaide physical performance manager Stephen Schwerdt says he’s been pleasantly surprised at how quickly new recruits Luke Brown, Mitch Grigg and Sam Kerridge have adapted to the demands of AFL training.
Grigg and Kerridge were selected with the Club’s first two picks (Nos.27 and 41) in November’s AFL Draft, while Brown arrived at West Lakes a few weeks prior after a trade week deal with Greater Western Sydney, which also netted the Crows promising teenager Brad Crouch.
The first-year players are still being eased into full training, but Schwerdt said Brown, Grigg and Kerridge had coped with the increased workload remarkably well.
“Normally the guys coming in from an under-18 environment are a bit underdone and not ready for the demands of AFL training, but those three (Brown, Grigg and Kerridge) in particular have hit the ground running,” Schwerdt said after training on Thursday.
“I think that’s been the most pleasing thing from my perspective, the readiness of the new recruits to come in and get into training.”
The Crows kicked off training on Thursday with an endurance test, similar to a shuttle run/beep test, which was won by Nathan van Berlo from Brad Symes.
There was a strong focus on contested work and tackling during the session, in keeping with the underlying theme of the pre-season under new coach Brenton Sanderson.
“We’ve had a fair emphasis on the physical nature of the game and it’s been well documented that we’ve done a lot of boxing and wrestling,” Schwerdt said.
“Physicality probably had to be an emphasis because the profile of our squad has changed a fair bit over the last year or two.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys and we have to put some physical development into them as far as putting weight on them and building their strength.
“We (still) train hard, but a bit differently.
“We probably haven’t done as much running this time around because the players have been doing four or five weights sessions a week and that time has got to come from somewhere.
“So, we’ve cut back a little bit on the volume of running, but in the history of our footy club and the guys we’ve had here for a while, they’ve got a strong endurance base and as supporters at training today would’ve seen a lot of our young guys are terrific runners, so it’s not a big concern really.”
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Tom Lynch brings down rookie Tim McIntyre
Young midfielder Jarryd Lyons trained in the boxing ring after hyperextending his knee at training on Monday.
He completed a light training run on Tuesday and has been cleared him of any structural damage.
Defender Luke Thompson was rectricted to skills work as he recovers from a lingering ankle complaint.
Thompson had his left ankle immobilised over the Christmas break, but has stepped up his rehabilitation and is expected to return to full training in the coming fortnight.
Will Young, who has recovered from a broken fibula, continued to regain fitness away from the main group, while full-back Ben Rutten was also nursed through the session.
Schwerdt said it was standard procedure for the 28-year-old to be on modified duties at this time of year.
“For a number of years now, Ben’s had a chronic knee complaint, which necessitates him having a lighter load in regards to the amount of running he does,” Schwerdt said.
“He did most of his work on the bike pre-Christmas and a little bit of football work.
“We’ll gradually ease him into things because we know he’s got a huge amount of training background behind him and it doesn’t take too much work for that to come to hand.
“We just need to be careful that his knee doesn’t become an issue during the season.”
Leading the tackling and physical contact drills was new strength and conditioning coach Nick Poulos, who has a strong background in rugby league.
Schwerdt said both Poulos and full-time fitness coach Matthew Bode, who worked part-time at West Lakes last year, had been valuable assets to the Club.
“I said to ‘Sando’ that Matty and Nick might be our best recruits for the season because they’ve been terrific in the way they’ve developed the young guys in the gym,” he said.
“Their work has been outstanding and for mine it’s been a plus having more resources in that area.”
