Ahead of his second season in charge at the Crows, Brenton Sanderson has revealed that he won’t be making any major changes to the game plan that was so successful last year. 

“There won’t be any adjustments to being a hard, physical side which we were in 2012,” Sanderson said during an interview with FIVEaa on Tuesday.

“We certainly understand that we made some big inroads last year, in the way that we play and after getting so close to a Grand Final was a great achievement, but we understand that we still have to make some minor adjustments to how we way we play and we’re certainly doing that.”

Sanderson said his side couldn’t be in better shape ahead of its first NAB Cup encounter on February 17.

“The boys look fantastic at the moment, you’ve always got to touch wood, but we had 45 out of a possible 47 train yesterday…they haven’t missed a beat over the Christmas period.

“Now only a few weeks away from the NAB Cup I couldn’t be more impressed with the condition our boys are in.”

Sanderson outlined that dealing with greater expectation will be a new challenge that his squad will face in 2013, but he is confident they will handle the added pressure.

“We are aware of it as a football club and we understand that while there probably wasn’t high expectations on the squad last year, there certainly are this year and we’ve addressed it in a few different forums with the squad, the coaches and staff,” he said.

“We just have to make sure we keep improving...we have a fantastic group of young leaders and the majority of our improvement will come from that band of players aged between 20 and 24 and thankfully some of them are our best players.”

The Crows senior coach has challenged the next tier of players to force their way into the side this year and believes that pressure for spots will be the key to improving this season.

“There are a few guys who were in really good form last year, but they couldn’t break into the side,” he said.

“It’s important for guys like Tom Lynch, Lewis Johnston, Josh Jenkins, McKernan and those sort of guys look to take the next step in 2013. We’ve also got a group of young midfielders like Brodie Martin, Aidan Riley and Jarryd Lyons who probably need to step up and take someone’s spot.

“That pressure of young players who are hungry to force their way in the side should help the whole squad improve.”