Adelaide heads north to Queensland with 28 players and a suitcase full of contingency plans ahead of clash with Gold Coast
Small forward Tyson Stengle could be in line to play his first game in the Crows tricolours at AFL level as Adelaide heads north with 28 players and a suitcase full of contingency plans
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The Crows have flown to the Gold Coast with a suitcase full of emergencies and potentially a club debutant ahead of Saturday night’s clash with the Suns.
Adelaide has taken a squad of 28 players to Queensland, including small forward Tyson Stengle, who could be in line to play his first game in the Crows tricolours at AFL level.
Others in the extended squad are Riley Knight, Elliott Himmelberg, Ben Davis, Sam Jacobs and Andy Otten.
But despite calls from the likes of former captain Mark Ricciuto for the Crows to play their youth card in light of the side’s disastrous last-half Showdown 47 performance, assistant coach Scott Camporeale said any selection decisions would be made in a calculated fashion, devoid of emotion.
Some changes, however, could be out of Adelaide’s control with key defenders Alex Keath and Daniel Talia pulling up sore after the weekend’s loss and as such, veteran Otten had flown to the Gold Coast as emergency.
“Obviously, those guys (Talia and Keath) are a bit sore after the weekend, (Otten has) come up … and we’ll see how those guys train and assess whether he needs to come in,” he said.
“But to be quite honest, Andy’s been our best player in the SANFL the last couple of weeks so he deserves an opportunity as well.”
Camporeale said the squad would be put through a main training session on Thursday that would include some match simulation and no risks would be taken with any players pulling up sore.
Hence, Stengle could find his way into the senior side, after impressing at SANFL level.
“He’s obviously around the mark, we think he’s in really good form and deserves an opportunity, whether it’s this week, we’ll make that decision later in the week,” Camporeale said.
“(What’s impressed us at SANFL level) particularly he’s been having shots on goal, that’s the most important thing as a small forward.
“He’s getting up the ground for us, putting pressure on and averaging at least five or six shots on goal and we’ve played him a little bit through the midfield as well.
“He’s gaining more capacity and a lot of trust with the players and the match committee.
“We think he’s close to ready, absolutely, we’ve just got to make sure once again what the balance is in that forward line as well and make sure that he’s got enough support if it is him or another young player coming into the team, they’ve got support around them.”
After their dismal Showdown performance, Camporeale said the trip to the Gold Coast — three full days before Saturday’s game — provided a nice circuit breaker for the team.
“The guys have been around the club since November so it can become draining anyway … so to get away and spend some time up there and some time together, could possibly be a circuit breaker,” he said.
“To be fair, we had a poor half on the weekend.
“We’ll be ready to go on the weekend.”
And it’s an understatement to say that this is a must-win for the Crows who are sitting eighth with an 8-7 record.
“We can only beat the next team that’s in front of us and we can go back up there, rectify what happened on the weekend,” Camporeale said.
“We can’t do anything about the Port game now, but what we can do is focus on Gold Coast, get the four points up there and then we reassess from there.”