Adeaide Crows aim for full dress rehearsal for Round 1 against GWS in Canberra

Adelaide welcome back two of its premier players and aim for a full dress rehearsal for the game against Greater Western Sydney Giants in Canberra on Friday night.

Crows Bryce Gibbs is tackled by Port Adelaide’s Tom Jonas at the Adelaide Oval. Picture: James Elsby/Getty

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IT’S a blend of the old and the new as two of the Crows most senior players return and last year’s top draft pick lines up in a practice match against Greater Western Sydney in Canberra on Friday night.

All Australian Daniel Talia and Bryce Gibbs will be crucial inclusions while Chayce Jones, who was taken at No. 9 overall in last year’s national draft, gets another chance to push for selection in Round 1.

Talia and Gibbs, who missed the first trial game against Port Adelaide in Port Pirie, will be part of a trimmed-down squad as Adelaide seeks to pour important game time into its players to get them ready for the season.

The club is expected to play 22 or 23 players — replicating as much as it can normal match conditions.

“We’ll take 25 over there and then we’ll just have a look and see how the game unfolds,” assistant coach Scott Camporeale said. “But we’ll probably like to have a full dress rehearsal, probably play 22 or 23, but if anything happens (injuries) there will be a no-risk policy.

“We get Gibbs and Talia so they’re probably the main two to come back in.

“They missed last week so they need some game time going into Round 1.”

David Mackay and Hugh Greenwood did not travel as the team left the airport on Thursday morning and will instead play in a trial with the club’s SANFL team.

It has been a vastly different summer for the Crows this time around.

A year ago, they were getting over a grand final loss, came back in less than ideal condition and then had the contentious camp on the Gold Coast.

They also had a long list of injuries.

This year defender Luke Brown is the only notable injury, set to miss the first two months of the season to ankle injury, and after missing the finals the Crows could start pre-season earlier.

Scott Camporeale, assistant coach of the Crows. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

“The club’s in good shape,” Camporeale said. “We’ve had a really good off-season.

“They’ve trained really well and we’ve got a lot of work into them.”

Camporeale also spoke highly of Jones.

The 19-year-old kicked a goal and had seven disposal when playing around a third of the first JLT Community Series game at Pirie and showed good pace and a fair of grit for a young player.

“We’ll have another look at him and we like what we see in Chayce,” Camporeale said. “He gives us another element where he can play midfield, wing and forward.

“He’s a good runner, he’s tough, you would’ve seen a couple of the hits he did last week.

“The group rates him really highly and so do we as a coaching group, so it will be good to see him against another quality opposition, hopefully we give him a bit more game time than he did last week.”

JLT COMMUNITY SERIES

Greater Western Sydney v Adelaide

UNSW Canberra Oval

6.40pm tonight

TV: Fox Footy (Live)

GIANTS

B: Whitfield (6), Davis (1), Cumming (13)

HB: Kennedy (40), Finlayson (31), Keeffe (25)

C: Reid (50), Coniglio (3), Perryman (36)

HF: Simpson (26) Himmelberg (27), Daniels (16)

F: Hately (9), Cameron (18), Lloyd (38)

1R: Flynn (30), Taranto (14), Bonar (10)

Int: Taylor (15), Deledio (7), Caldwell (5), Buntine (21), Greene (4), Shaw (23), De Boer (24), Tomlinson (20)

CROWS

B: Talia (12), Hartigan (15), Laird (29)

HB: Smith (33), Doedee (39), Kelly (8)

C: Gibbs (6), Crouch (5), Jones (20)

HF: Murphy (44), Walker (13), B Crouch (2)

F: Knight (3), Jenkins (4), Betts (18)

1R: Jacobs (24), Sloane (9), Douglas (26)

Int: Seedsman (11), Atkins (21), Lynch (27), Ellis-Yolmen (28), Milera (30), Fogarty (32), Keith (42), O’Brien (43)

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