Premiership favourite Adelaide has ventured to the Gold Coast for training ahead of preliminary final
THE Adelaide Crows have skipped Adelaide as they finetune preparations for a preliminary final next weekend.
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ADELAIDE has ventured to the new home of club premiership Messiah Malcolm Blight, setting up a training base at the Gold Coast to prepare for its preliminary final against Sydney or Geelong.
The Crows have two weeks between games after Thursday’s qualifying final smashing of Greater Western Sydney.
Coach Don Pyke has been forced to get creative with training, choosing the Gold Coast’s sun and surf to help players maintain condition and avoid monotony.
The squad left on Sunday and will return to Adelaide on Tuesday.
The Crows are appreciating the opportunity to train in seclusion after an emotional victory against GWS punctuated by personal tragedy for ruckman Sam Jacobs.
Blight, who coached the Crows to back to back flags in 1997 and 1998, resides in the Gold Coast where he is an ambassador for the Gold Coast Suns.
Adelaide is raging favourite to end its two-decade premiership drought and prevail on the last day of September.
Adelaide will welcome back vice-captain Rory Sloane from surgery to remove his appendix but Brodie Smith has been ruled out for the season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.