Adelaide’s arsenal for AFL season 2019 is built on more than a fast game — there also are fast players

As far back as to the Neil Craig days there has been the debate on whether the Crows needed fast ball movement or fast players: Josh Jenkins says they have both in 2019.

Long-kicking and hard-running Brodie Smith returns to the Adelaide line-up this season — after a year on the sidelines with a knee injury — to add critical speed in the Crows game and ball movement. Picture: Simon Cross

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Adelaide has a new edge — significant run — to take full advantage of the AFL’s new rules that are designed to end congestion and create space for running teams this season.

And, most importantly, key forward Josh Jenkins notes the Crows are cleansed from all their demons to be able to take full advantage of their vast team strengths in a year when Adelaide is expected to rebound from 12th to chase a top-four berth.

“We’ve added run to our game — and we should see, as a team, an up-tempo game,” Jenkins said of the new tone at West Lakes as Adelaide enters its competitive pre-season run this week with a summer Showdown against Port Adelaide at Port Pirie.

“To a man, generally we’ve not been seen as a fast playing list … but we were known to move the ball fast,” added Jenkins of a theme that has tagged the Crows for more than a decade.

Neil Craig, the Crows coach from 2004-2011, repeatedly debated with the critics that he did not need fast-paced players if his team could move the ball quickly.

Jenkins notes Adelaide now has both — and more. There is a team well drilled on moving the ball fast, there are players — such as Brodie Smith and Wayne Milera — who are pacy off the blocks and, as a telling edge, there are players who move from point to point quickly.

“We have added genuine leg speed with our recruits — (2018 AFL draftees) Chayce Jones and Ned McHenry (in particular),” Jenkins said. “It is not just the leg speed, it is their ability to run to significant points on the field.

Adelaide’s number 16 draft pick Ned McHenry, left, and number 9 draft pick Chayce Jones. Picture: AAP Image/Daniel Pockett

“We have players who can move from a back pocket to a forward pocket fast … we have players who can cover more space. And they can do this in quick time, quicker than we have seen before.

“Riley Knight can do that. Paul Seedsman. Milera. Smith. Rory Atkins. We could work three of these guys off half-back to not only give us speed with our ball movement, but leg speed.

“And those two young guys (Jones and McHenry) have serious speed.”

The AFL rule changes are not only to clear the much-disliked congestion on the field, but also deliver a faster, higher-scoring game.

“That style of game should suit us,” said Jenkins, the mainstay of the Adelaide’s most-imposing attack in 2017 when the Crows reached the AFL grand final after breaking the watershed 100-point barrier in 15 of 24 games and closed the season with a 108-point average.

“A faster game means we might get tired, but the opposition will be tired too (in keeping up with the fast-running Crows and fast-moving Crows ball movement). The new players do give us leg speed.”

Adelaide’s rebound from major disappointment — after a disastrous pre-season in 2017-18 — is built from genuine change at West Lakes.

“It’s not hard to see a lot of things had to change,” Jenkins said.

“And it was not hard to see what needed to change. So Collective Mind (the external consultants who designed Adelaide’s pre-season camp at the Gold Coast in January last year) is gone.

“The injury and fitness issues are gone — and we had to get this team fit to get the best personnel on the park.

“We had just 18 days of pre-season work before Christmas in 2017 with the late start after the grand final. And there was injury after injury (as Adelaide pushed the training program leading to Season 2018).

“That has changed this year to give us the best lead-up to the season.”

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