Adelaide lost its first trial match of the 2006 season – to a team of primary school students – but coach Neil Craig still had a smile on his face after a successful AFL Community Camp at Victor Harbor.

The Crows were stunned by the enthusiasm of hundreds of fans at their final training session of the camp at Encounter Bay Oval. And for many the highlight was watching the Langhorne Creek Hawks – led by six-year-old competition winner Tasman Follett – come from behind to win a thriller against their heroes including captain Mark Ricciuto, Andrew McLeod and Simon Goodwin.

Players and officials then mingled with the crowd and signed autographs – a regular event during the four-day camp which had the playing group train at four different venues on the Fleurieu Peninsula and visit nearly 50 schools, hospitals and aged care facilities.

Coach Neil Craig said the club greatly appreciated the hospitality of people in the region.

“It’s great for us. Twenty per cent of our membership is from the regional centres so it’s good to do that,” he said. “It gives us an opportunity to represent the AFL, it gives us an opportunity to represent the SANFL which we belong to, it gives the guys the opportunity to promote physical activity for kids which is becoming a big issue in the community. It gives us an opportunity to put some smiles and joy on peoples faces. The timing of it was perfect for us .. we were looking for a recovery week. On top of all that, the country centres supply a great number of AFL players. It’s all positive as far as we are concerned.”

Adelaide plays SANFL club Norwood in a trial at The Parade next Friday (February 17) and then opens its NAB Cup campaign against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Sunday, February 26.

Craig has promised to expose some youngsters during the pre-season games but says he “doesn’t want to tinker with a winning attitude”.

“Whoever takes the field it will be important they take that very aggressive and positive attitude onto the field, whether it’s an 18-year old first game player or a 32-year-old Ben Hart. But we have a responsibility to introduce some new faces and we will do that,” he said. “We are mindful of our senior group so we need to have good management principles with those guys. But very clearly we see the next five weeks, including the Norwood game, as still part of our preparation so that for our first game against Collingwood we are in the best possible shape as a team as we can be. So that’s the way we will treat the pre-season.”

Craig has been pleased with the off-season work at the club but says any growing expectations among the fans are out of his control.

“Certainly the expectation around the place will be different and that’s based on our form, just as the previous expectation was based on the form the year before,” he said. “That’s fine .. all we can say is that we are preparing to the best of our ability to play very positive attractive and aggressive football, and that’s all we are worried about. The rest of it will take care of itself.”

As for the upset lost to the Langhorne Creek Hawks …
“Yeah, that’s put us back three or four weeks,” Craig quipped. “There were a couple of guys who were a bit cocky for us so we will be addressing that in the debriefing.”