Recruit Paul Seedsman’s potential value to Adelaide was underlined on Friday night.
The wingman/defender, traded in from Collingwood last October to add dash and penetration to the Crows’ ball movement, played his best game of the 2016 NAB Challenge series against Gold Coast Suns.
Seedsman was relatively quiet against West Coast at Unley Oval in the first game three weeks ago, showed some good signs over in WA against Fremantle and then primed for round one by picking up 23 disposals and kicking his first goal for the Club.
Post game Seedsman said he was looking to continue to develop his game.
“Obviously I’m getting used to playing with this bunch of blokes and the structures we have here and they are getting used to how I play, so just a progressive build,” he said.
“And as a team we are doing the same thing. It’s a good start but the season proper starts in a couple of weeks and I will be looking to build on that.”
Some trademark game-splitting kicks from Seedsman created opportunities and openings and defied the game’s trend of players from both sides struggling to handle the ball in the greasy conditions.
He had seven score involvements – second only to Richard Douglas – and was also second for metres gained (434) behind Brodie Smith, a team-mate who should benefit from Seedsman’s presence.
“Obviously we’ve got some areas we want to work on but that’s what these NAB Challenge games are for,” Seedsman said.
“We’ve seen some steady build, we haven’t quite got it right around the footy yet. We got done in the contested possession.”
Seedsman said the selection squeeze for the premiership season opening round against North Melbourne on March 26 was again highlighted on the Gold Coast.
“A few blokes again put their names up.” he said “I thought Mitch McGovern was really impressive, obviously he’s yet to debut but his name will be right in the mix for round one.
“We’ve built that midfield depth with blokes like Matt Crouch and JL (Jarryd Lyons) putting their hands up as well.
”And there’s a couple of blokes back home like Rory Atkins and Brad Crouch.”