Crows and Power have different reasons to admire their midfield gains with Bryce Gibbs and Tom Rockliff

BRYCE Gibbs and Tom Rockliff were headline acts in the AFL trade period in October for the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide. Their first three weeks in the AFL premiership season have played to contrasting themes

CATCHING UP. Port Adelaide midfielder and former Brisbane captain Tom Rockliff is on a slow build in his on-field action for the Power, but he already has proven off the field that he can make a difference to toughening up Michael Voss’ engine room at Alberton. Picture: James Elsby (Getty Images)

THIS is a story of two prime midfielders making a new start.

One, Bryce Gibbs, finally is home in Adelaide after 11 years at Carlton. At 29, Gibbs - the headline play during October’s AFL trade market where the Crows finally closed their long-standing plan for the 2006 No. 1 draftee - has remained sound and durable in body and refreshed in mind.

The other, Tom Rockliff, is on another stop in his football journey from Benalla in Victoria to Brisbane to now a “traditional” football centre at Port Adelaide. At 28, Rockliff has not been so lucky with his body. He has had to cope with a right-knee strain.

Gibbs had the perfect pre-season. His new coach Don Pyke - after dealing with Gibbs’ hairstyle - put the midfielder in action as often as possible to learn the ways of his new team-mates and the “language” Adelaide uses at its set-ups.

Rockliff had no action in the shortened AFL pre-season series.

Gibbs has worked to an All-Australian-contending ruckman, Sam Jacobs. And they have known each other even at Carlton.

Rockliff has lost his All-Australian ruckman Patrick Ryder to an Achilles injury. And he has never before known of the ruck work of Ryder’s replacements, Justin Westhoff and Charlie Dixon.

Gibbs is proving his worth to Adelaide and, as Crows premiership captain Mark Bickley often does, leaving some to wonder what might have been last season had a strained and unsuccessful trade session with Carlton finished differently.

Rockliff’s value is still to be seen on the statistic sheets where he has had 12, 9 and 19 disposals and five clearances in three matches. The former Brisbane captain, it might be said, has just started catching up ...

Gibbs already has justified Adelaide’s off-season work, particularly while injuries sideline midfield brothers Matt and Brad Crouch.

But not in dispute is Port Adelaide’s belief in Rockliff. While there is more to unfold on the field, the Power knows Rockliff’s football intelligence, his dry but ambitious tone and his intolerance for fools or foolish themes will toughen up Michael Voss’ midfield unit.

This story of two midfielders in new colours will be worth watching this season.

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