afl preview: Adelaide

Summer snapshot: Adelaide - AFL.com.au

Skipper Simon Goodwin heads into his second season in charge with the Crows


Arrivals
On field: Phil Davis, Shaun McKernan, Rory Sloane, Tom Lee, Will Young, Ricky Henderson (rookie), Chris Schmidt (rookie) and Brian Donnelly (International rookie).

Off field: Todd Viney (assistant coach) and Mark Bickley (assistant coach).

Departures
On field: Nathan Bassett (retired), Rhett Biglands (retired), Ken McGregor (retired), Kris Massie (delisted), Luke Jericho (delisted), Bryce Campbell (delisted) and rookie Ed Curnow (delisted).

Off field: Paul Hamilton (assistant coach at Essendon)

Pre-season training started: Thursday, November 13

Medical room
Andrew McLeod: had surgery on his troublesome knee during the off-season, but is on track to play a pre-season game or two in preparation for round one, 2009.

Jason Porplyzia: had a shoulder reconstruction following the Elimination Final loss to Collingwood. He is back running, but will have to sit out of competitive drills until after Christmas. The club is optimistic the classy forward will be right for round one.

Brett Burton: underwent a full-knee reconstruction in July this year and is expected to miss up to 12 months of football. Burton has resumed running laterally and, from all reports, is on or ahead of schedule.

Who's burning?
There's no one Crows fans would like to see succeed more than unlucky forward Trent Hentschel. Hentschel, who hasn't played since wrecking his knee in round 21, 2006, worked tirelessly to earn his SANFL recall last season and was on the verge of an AFL comeback before a series of hamstring strains thwarted his efforts.

But the popular 25-year-old has since discarded the knee brace that once guarded his severely damaged knee and is running freely with his teammates. Hentschel has showed no signs of soft tissue strains and has his sights on a round one berth.

Pre-season training camps
Adelaide ventured to Strathalbyn last week for three days of hikes, bikes, beach runs and general sleep deprivation. The Crows will venture to Darwin on February 7 to tackle the Indigenous All-Stars and are likely to put their Telstra Community Camp on hold until later in the year.

Pre-season training overview
"We try and get the guys to do most of the endurance stuff on their own. That way when we come back to start pre-season training we can start the footy work and we're not doing that base stuff that's traditionally done in pre-season.

"The ability of our guys to train on their own over the break is second to none. A lot of athletes in AFL still need to have a fitness guy or someone showing them what to do, but we have a fair bit of trust in our group that they can go away and train on their own.

"It means that we don't have to spend as much time focusing on conditioning during the pre-season which traditionally has been done in most football clubs. We can spend more time on football related stuff, and that will be the focus again doing a lot of football work."