Adelaide will use Central District’s home ground at Elizabeth for its next two closed training sessions leading into the opening round.
The ground is a similar size to Subiaco Oval, where the Crows will face Fremantle on Sunday, March 28.
Subiaco Oval (175 x 122 metres) is longer but not as wide as AAMI Stadium (165x133), while Hamra Homes Oval (Elizabeth) is 174m x 126m.
Adelaide expects up to nine senior players who did not play against Carlton in Friday’s NAB Challenge match to press for selection for round one.
Bernie Vince, who has missed the past three games to rest a sore glute, has resumed training and will probably play an SANFL trial this weekend.
Nathan van Berlo, who collected 17 possessions in playing a half of South Adelaide’s trial on Saturday, hopes to play another trial on Friday.
Tyson Edwards, Andrew McLeod (back), Scott Thompson (knee), Ivan Maric (glute) and James Sellar (hand) all expect to be on the track with the main group on Sunday. Sellar had his cast removed this morning.
Chris Knights (foot) is out of the moon boot and may be ready to train next week.
Brett Burton (knee) will continue to increase his training but there is no set target for his return and Jason Porplyzia (pelvis/back) has been running for the past week and hopes to start some football work in the next week.
Coach Neil Craig wants as many players as possible available for selection.
“The good thing is that nearly all of the players we expect to be right to train by Sunday haven’t missed much conditioning,” he said. “Edwards and McLeod have trained all summer and played three of the NAB games, and Bernie, Scott Thompson, Ivan and James Sellar have all done a lot of work . Nathan (van Berlo) is a bit different to them in that he hasn’t been with the main group, but he played well in a half in the SANFL on Saturday so that’s a good start.”
It is a lighter week for most of the squad. After Wednesday’s closed session many of the players will be off for three days until the next open training session on Sunday, from about 10am on Max Basheer Reserve before the club’s Members’ Day.
