Tippett, who only took up football three years ago, spent much of his first year at West Lakes on the sidelines, playing just seven SANFL games.
The level-headed Queenslander expects to play plenty of games for West Adelaide in 2008, where he’ll need to perform strongly before being considered for a call-up to the Crows.
“I’m still looking to take it pretty slowly,” he said.
“I didn’t really get to play that much footy last year so, this year I’m looking to keep my body right, stay on the track and see what happens.”
“I had a chat with Craigy [Neil Craig] recently and we discussed the steps, the process of continual improvement and the areas I need to improve on (predominantly game play) to get to the level where I’ll be able to play AFL.”
“We’ve got some steps in place and I’m working hard to get there.”
The former basketballer has impressed teammates with his competitive spirit during his first full AFL pre-season.
In 2006, just a few weeks after arriving in Adelaide, the 20-year-old was confined to a neck brace after cracking a vertebra in his neck.
The 201cm forward recovered from the injury only to damage his shoulder playing for West Adelaide, forcing him to undergo a full shoulder reconstruction.
“I’m enjoying being out on the track, obviously, a lot more than I was last year,” Tippett laughed.
“I’m hoping to get a bit more fitness and footy under my belt before the start of the season.”
Fitness was one area Tippett was able to work on during his injury-plagued 2007, enabling him to run a personal best time in the club’s 3km time trial before Christmas.
“I spent a lot of time running laps of the oval while the boys were training last year,” he said.
“Being out with the shoulder injury at the end of the season was a good chance to build on my fitness because I couldn’t do anything else.”
“It was hard to put on weight because I couldn’t lift anything, but my aerobic fitness has carried over to this season. It’s definitely on the improve and it’s almost at a stage where I’m happy with it now.”
Tippett had a taste of AFL last year when he donned the Crows guernsey in a NAB Challenge game against Melbourne in Mount Gambier.
On February 4, the pharmacy student will join the entire Adelaide playing squad on the plane to Dubai where he hopes to play his second pre-season game.
“I’m really excited about going to Dubai and hopefully getting the chance to play, too. That would be the perfect scenario,” Tippett said.
“I was lucky enough to travel overseas with my family as a kid, but I’ve never been to Dubai. I’ve got my passport ready, but a few of the guys are still rushing around to get theirs organised.”
