Adelaide Crows’ scenic change to head to Gold Coast worth the risk

RECOVER and clear the mind. Last year’s finals series provided a strange anomaly. The two teams who won the qualifying final in week one were defeated in the preliminary final. Forcing everyone to rethink how they approach the same scenario this year.

Adelaide Crows Brad Crouch and RIchard Douglas at training on the Gold Coast.

RECOVER and clear the mind. Last year’s finals series provided a strange anomaly.

The two teams who won the qualifying final in week one, and earned themselves a second week off, were defeated in the preliminary final. Forcing everyone to rethink how they approach the same scenario this year.

The Adelaide Football Club, as we discovered Monday, decided to change the scenery for their players by taking the whole squad to the Gold Coast for a couple of days.

Not exactly a cheap exercise I wouldn’t expect, but one that has the potential to pay huge dividends.

Adelaide Crows’ Tom Lynce pictured on the Gold Coast. Picture: DAVID CLARK/AAP

What price do you put on keeping the players fresh in both mind and body?

That is what this trip is all about, the opportunity to provide different stimulus to the group.

The players have been travelling to West Lakes since November last year, taking part in a very regimented training program that has little flexibility due to weekly matches.

The ability to go off site, particularly somewhere warmer is seen as heaven by the players. Particularly while in the recovery phase from the match, swimming at Broadbeach sounds more inviting than Grange beach at this time of year.

There was some serious football training of course, a solid two-hour session Tuesday morning and most high performance trainers I’ve worked with talk of the value of training in warmer conditions. Given that Adelaide has potentially two games still to play, and with the weather generally warmer towards the end of September this will also be beneficial.

Many of the outcomes from this trip will be intangible. What price do you put on the closeness and camaraderie within the group?

Adelaide Crows’ Mitch McGovern and Jake Lever exhausted at training on the Gold Coast.

Of course you can’t measure that, but it is important. The best teams I have seen have a care and comfortability about them.

Something that allows individuals to feel at ease in being themselves within the group.

This is certainly present within this Adelaide side.

It was on display Thursday night with the way the team supported both Sam Jacobs and Brodie Smith post-match, genuine care shows.

The opportunity to get away and spend some time together is something the players always look forward to, and with the Crows, prior to this trip only travelling once in the previous four weeks and at best once more in the next three weeks, the opportunity to get that feeling of togetherness was worth taking.

But by far and away the biggest reason for taking this trip is that it has allowed the players to turn their brains off from thinking about playing a preliminary final for 72 hours.

In a time when the mental preparation is almost as important as the physical, being able to go about your daily business early on in your game preparation is a huge bonus.

Adelaide Crows players enjoying the rides on the Gold Coast. Picture: AFC Media

Being starved of real success for 20 years has its downsides, more so when so much is expected of the biggest sporting team in this state.

It would have been impossible for the players to have any semblance of a normal build up, as everywhere they go they people will want to discuss the game just gone and the the one coming up.

Sure that is still here now upon their return and I’m sure many will embrace and actually enjoy it, but having it for eight days is manageable. Trying to embrace it for 15 days in a row for most is too much.

The other crucial part of the weeks’ break is how much physical training you need to cover not playing a game.

This is where the GPS technology can really assist Don Pyke and his team.

They know how far, and at what speeds, for how long, the players move during a match and will look to replicate that during training, including match simulation.

The game simulation is the most nerve wracking time as it has the highest likelihood of injury, but imperative to keep the player’s skills honed under pressure.

The success of the Gold Coast retreat and the subsequent preliminary final build up will only be measured by the result of this week’s match.

And if as many are predicting the Crows win and then go on to become 2017 premiers, expect the 2018 qualifying final winners to be getting out of town. Lose and they will be accused of getting ahead of themselves and going into holiday mode.

I like the idea. It’s innovative and shows the club are prepared to go to great lengths for any type of advantage in their quest for a third flag.

Hard to argue with that philosophy.

Originally published as Adelaide Crows’ scenic change to head to Gold Coast worth the risk