Don Pyke happily farewelling the 2018 season, as Crows players learn to love and enjoy football again

Adelaide head coach Don Pyke is happy and relaxed as he heads into the Christmas break, confident that the Crows are on track for a good 2019 season

• Crows drop the ball in pre-season slog
• Crows take it easier with closer to home pre-season camp

You get the feeling Crows coach Don Pyke is happy it’s the end of 2018. And after the year he’s had — plagued by injuries to key players, missing the finals and dogged by talk of the infamous Gold Coast pre-season camp — you can’t really blame him.

With a three-week Christmas break ahead of him, there’s something jovial and relaxed about his demeanour as he discusses the way forward for the Crows next season.

Pyke, who is heading back to Perth on Thursday for a “bit of r’n’r” with his family, said he was looking forward to 2019.

“I’m excited about the year ahead,” he said on the final day of the Crows’ pre-season training camp on the Fleurieu Peninsula on Wednesday.

“We want a healthy and happy group here and playing good footy and back to playing the level we know we’re capable of and the guys are driven by that.”

The Crows’ trip to the Fleurieu, which included a spot of cricket and volleyball and a round of paintball, couldn’t have seemed more different than their previous one.

Don Pyke, right, relaxes with his players as the Crows pre-season camp takes them to the Fleurieu Peninsula. Photo: Tait Schmaal

But while he didn’t want to draw any comparisons between this and the previous camp — and keeping in mind that every pre-season is different — Pyke said the football department was going about instilling an enjoyment of football in the players.

For the Crows’ 2019 season, it seems fun and fostering a love of football could be the key to putting a line under last season and setting a new tone for the next.

“What we’ve done is we’ve taken the program and we looked at it at the end of last (season) and we thought: ‘How do we get the footy focus in the program, how do we maybe simplify some things, focus on the things which are going to give us the biggest bang for our buck?’,” Pyke said.

“And the reality is that these guys love being here to play footy.

“Now there’s strength work to do, there’s conditioning work, there’s game plans to understand, (but) it’s how we do that in balance to let them learn how to play the game, learn how to train for the game, and then ultimately do what they enjoy doing.

“The capacity to actually enjoy yourself and still work hard, that’s probably the nice balance they’ve found.”

Crows players are put through a high-intensity training session at Noarlunga Oval on the final day of their pre-season camp on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Photo: AAP Image/Kelly Barnes

On the final day of their pre-season camp, the team was put through a tough, high-intensity training session at Hickinbotham Oval in Noarlunga that focused on running and ball skills.

Pyke was impressed with how the team was shaping up coming into their three-week break.

“The boys have trained really well to be honest … they’ve been really diligent and the work they’ve done has given them a really good spot leading into Christmas and today was a nice little send off from the high-performance staff to tip them over the line,” he said.

He said the group was being sent on their three-week break with a high level of trust that they’ll continue to work on their individual programs and return again in good shape.

He said the positive to take from 2018 was that the side was able to win 12 games and the belief remains that the squad’s best is good enough.

“We didn’t deliver that consistently enough last year and the sort of form they’re in now and the way they’re training and the way they’re attacking their training and the intensity they’re training at, is the level that’s required to get us back up the ladder and I couldn’t be happier with how we hit the Christmas period,” he said.

Crows players during their pre-season camp on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Recovery in the pool after playing cricket, volleyball and bocce. Photo: Tait Schmaal

He said the side was happily welcoming back Brodie Smith (knee) and Brad Crouch (groin) and was confident defender Daniel Talia would be back from a minor keen injury — sustained after rolling over in bed.

“But we head into the season knowing it’s a tough, uncompromising competition as we learnt last year and we’ve got to keep getting better and that’s really what our focus is now, just improving in those areas to give ourselves the best chance to hit round one, ready to compete and win games.”