Adelaide’s pre-season experiment is over.
The Club has trialled 35 players, including six uncapped Crows over the past two weeks. Senior players, Scott Thompson, Brent Reilly, Ben Rutten, Sam Jacobs and Jason Porplyzia are yet to make an appearance, while prime movers Patrick Dangerfield, Rory Sloane, Nathan van Berlo, Taylor Walker and Bernie Vince have only played half a game.
Adelaide will take on Geelong in the second round of the NAB Cup at Simonds Stadium on Saturday, and Sanderson said he would name a near-full strength team.
“It’s great that we’ve given exposure to our younger players, but now we probably have to start settling the side down and get ready for round one. The 24 players who play on Saturday will hopefully play in round one/round two,” Sanderson said.
“We’ve made a couple of little adjustments to how we play and at times in the last two weeks it’s been frustrating for our coaches and supporters, but we’ll settle that down in the next two weeks and prepare for round one.”
Sanderson said the Crows had added to their depth in the past fortnight.
“Our plan was, that by the end of the NAB Cup, almost every player on our list would’ve played two matches. In terms of a list management, we wanted to see what we’ve got … and we can confidently call on any of those kids during the year now if we need them,” he said.
“We played almost 40 players last year and had six or seven guys make their debut. We bat pretty deep, but hopefully we don’t need to call on that depth too much. We had a really good run injury-wise last year. We’re going to go into round one almost injury free apart from Brodie Smith (collarbone) and Nick Joyce (groin) and it’s a good position to be in.
“It’s red hot for spots this year. You’re going to have to be in good form to play in this 22 and that’s the way it should be. We’ve got to make sure our list stays, healthy, hungry and that the players keep putting pressure on each other. If they do, we should have a good season.”
Second-year utility Cam Ellis-Yolmen is one player who has rocketed into contention on the back of a strong pre-season campaign. Ellis-Yolmen, 20, trained as a midfielder/forward last year, but has been recast as a third tall defender in 2013.
“Cam should debut this year,” Sanderson said.
“He was playing Eagles reserves (most of) last year, but he’s one we’ll look to at some point in the season. He’s still quite raw … but he’s an exciting young talent. He’s going to be a cult figure for our fans at some stage. He’s got a bit of everything. He’s laconic in the way he plays and trains and nothing seems to faze him much.
“There are still some things in his game I don’t like, but he does some things I’m really impressed with. He’s a work in progress.”
Saturday’s clash with the Cats will give the Crows forwards another opportunity to stake their claim on the vacant spot in attack. Josh Jenkins, Shaun McKernan and Tom Lynch are among the contenders to partner Taylor Walker in 2013.
“The spot is still up for grabs. It’s probably out of three or four guys,” Sanderson said.
“It doesn’t have to be a tall that comes in. We might go small and have a Carlton-type forward line at times with Walker and five smalls. That won’t scare me either.
“It’s still neck and neck in the race for that spot.”
