Scott Thompson admits the emotion surrounding Phil Walsh’s passing is still very “raw”, but says he’s looking forward to running out with his teammates against West Coast on Saturday night.
The game at Domain Stadium will be Adelaide’s first since the tragic loss of Walsh. The Crows were scheduled to play Geelong last Sunday, but the match was cancelled as the Club tried to come to grips with the shock death of its Senior Coach.
The squad completed a training session in front of thousands of fans on Wednesday, and Thompson said getting back to some ‘normality’ had been beneficial.
“The group is in the best place possible. We’ve had a couple of training runs this week and the fact that we’ve been around each other a fair bit has been important,” Thompson said after training.
“I can only speak for myself at the moment, but now that the weekend’s gone I’m actually looking forward to getting back out there again and sticking tight with the team.
“There would be a million thoughts going through everyone’s mind. Everything is still so raw. There are a lot of questions that everyone has. You can only go day-by-day.
“Everyone deals with their feelings and emotions in a different way, but we are looking forward to attacking West Coast on Saturday night. We’ll put 22 blokes out on the park who will give it a red-hot crack.”
It will be an emotional game for both the Crows and Eagles, where Walsh spent five years as an assistant coach between 2009 and 2013.
Thompson acknowledged the potential difficulty in overcoming that emotion, but said his team’s focus wouldn’t change.
“Phil had a saying that everyone used to listen to, ‘Just get the job done’,” he said.
“We’ll be doing our best to do that on Saturday night.
“It (the tragic situation) certainly puts a lot of things in perspective … but Phil would want us to win.”
Thompson was pleased with the way Adelaide has trained under the circumstances.
“To be honest, we’ve created a bit of energy out there,” he said.
“I think we’ve actually trained quite well. As a group and as a Club, right at this point in time, we’re focussed. We’re clear with our direction and it’s great to have, in the worst of circumstances, Scott Camporeale in charge. He’ll continue to drive what Phil was driving.
“To have (Coaching Director) John Worsfold onboard as well, we’re thankful for him giving up his time and coming to join the Club for the second half of the season.
“With the care and support the Club has given everyone, we realise we are in a good place. We’ll continue to look after each other going forward.”
