Adelaide Crows escape West Lakes for Gold Coast to avoid being “stale” before preliminary final

WITH a long break to the home preliminary final, the Adelaide Crows have “escaped the same old, same old” on the Gold Coast.

Adelaide Crows players pictured on the Gold Coast. Picture: DAVID CLARK

CROWS coach Don Pyke’s concern for his players going “stale” in the long wait to an AFL preliminary final has prompted an escape to the Gold Coast.

And the gamble - in a “holiday” environment that has derailed the AFL’s expansion with the Suns - will have the Adelaide Football Club either become a trendsetter or subject to ridicule.

Crows coach Don Pyke was concerned with staying put at West Lakes - with a 15-day lead-up to a preliminary final against either Sydney or Geelong - as soon as Adelaide dismissed Greater Western Sydney in its home qualifying final on Thursday night.

Adelaide Crows players pictured on the Gold Coast.

The full Crows squad left for the Gold Coast on Sunday - and will return on Tuesday.

“It’s something different versus the same old, same old in Adelaide,” Pyke said on Monday.

But inaugural Crows captain Chris McDermott questions how the Adelaide players could lose motivation during an AFL finals series, more so when the Crows have been chasing a return to the AFL grand final since 1998.

McDermott regards Adelaide’s escape from the routine at West Lakes as a “huge risk”, particularly for the image it sends to the Crows’ remaining five rivals in the premiership race.

“I get what Don Pyke is trying to say, but I don’t know how you can go stale at this time of year,” said McDermott in The Advertiser weekly Footy Podcast. “The end is too close, I am not rolling that dice.”

Pyke maintains his team - and the reserves who beat the Giants reserves at Football Park on Friday - are “really buoyant”.

But as Adelaide deals with the trap of an extended break that tripped up qualifying final winners Geelong and GWS in their preliminary finals last year, Pyke has opted for a radical move that will divide AFL commentary.

Adelaide Crows coach Don Pyke with Heath Younie. Picture: AFC MEDIA

“If we keep training, you can end up getting stale because they’ll be looking forward to the next game,” Pyke said on Thursday night after the 36-point win against the Giants set up the Crows first home preliminary final since 2006.

“We want to make sure if we need to give the players a break, we train with the right intensity and the right method so in two weeks’ time we come out and we’re cherry ripe, ready to go.”

Adelaide will resume training at West Lakes on Thursday after giving the players their obligatory day off on Wednesday.

Pyke noted the 11-day break between the Crows’ home-and-away season closer in Perth and the qualifying final had created a “slow burn to the game with GWS”.

“We’re mindful of making sure mentally and physically we had a chance to do something a little bit different,” Pyke said on Monday.

“We feel coming up here is a good opportunity for the players to bond together - and still train - while we keep the group together.”

It is not the first time an AFL team has left its training base for a pre-game camp on the Gold Coast. Geelong went to the Gold Coast at the start of July after a draw with GWS in Sydney to train in Queensland in the lead-up to the July 8 clash with AFL wooden spooner Brisbane at the Gabba.

The Cats won by 85 points. This was followed up with a three-point win against non-finalist Hawthorn at the MCG.

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