The Adelaide Crows will have a different approach to Melbourne games this season
THE Crows will treat Melbourne matches differently this year in a bid to get an edge on the road.
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ADELAIDE has made a major change to its Melbourne travel plans for this season, starting with the Crows’ season opener against Essendon on Friday night.
The team will this year fly in to Tullamarine Airport on the morning of the day before a night game so that the final training session for the week can be held in Melbourne rather than train at West Lakes in the morning and then fly out.
The change means the club will hire suburban grounds around Melbourne for what is understood to be closed training sessions to better prepare for games.
It falls in line with what Adelaide does when it goes on longer road trips, such as to Western Australia and Queensland.
Coach Don Pyke said the move had been largely driven by the players.
“We had some discussions with the players and they were feeling — given we play a lot of night games this year — that the opportunity to travel (would be beneficial),” Pyke said. “We do that regularly when we play in places other than Melbourne.
“It’s really only in Melbourne that we train first and then travel across.
“They just felt that we (could) travel over in the morning, get organised, have a run later in the afternoon and then get ready to play.
“We’ve sorted out grounds so that we have somewhere to train.”
Darcy Fogarty and Tom Doedee will make their debuts against the Bombers and former Carlton star Bryce Gibbs will play his first game for his new club.
Captain Taylor Walker, Brad Crouch and Alex Keath will miss to injury.
Lachlan Murphy, Andy Otten, Curtly Hampton and Sam Gibson were also spotted heading over to Melbourne.
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