Crows to trial new game plan for 2018

ADELAIDE’S AFLW premiership-winning stars and nine new faces will start auditions for their spots in the Crows’ first preseason trial game today.

Only Erin Phillips ( AFL academy commitments in Darwin) and Talia Radan (hamstring) will miss the game at Football Park, which has 38 players, including some from the SANFL clubs.

“I don’t like talking about season one anymore – we acknowledge we are so proud to have that – but teams that are great look forward, they don’t keep looking back, so that’s what we’ll be doing,” coach Bec Goddard said.

Adelaide’s women’s team for season two of the AFLW competition includes five players based in Darwin and together they started a two-day training camp yesterday, which included leadership meetings and game-plan practice.

“We have made some tweaks to the game plan and that’s not because last year’s didn’t work, it’s because you’ve got to evolve,” Goddard said.

“They’re (AFL) trying to make it a more attractive game of footy, which at Adelaide is what we want – we played an attractive game style with the big forwards and one-on-one contests and that’s what we want to continue to see for season two.

“We’ve done some new game style-specific things and that went really well, so we’ll demonstrate that on Sunday and see how the girls go.”

Goddard was happy with the condition in which players returned from their break, including co-captain Chelsea Randall and Sarah Perkins, who trekked Kokoda and Everest Base Camp.

“They’ve all worked really hard to come back better than the targets that we set,” she said.

Goddard said no decision had been made on whether Randall and Phillips would continue as co-captains in 2018.

“We haven’t yet, because we have nine new players, so this weekend is the first time we’ve had all the girls together and they’ve met each other, so we need to let them work out how they relate to each other.

“Then we can work out who’s going to fit those roles.”