AFL Round 10 Adelaide v Western Bulldogs: All the build-up, news and action from the Crows’ clash in Ballarat
The Crows only had one name in mind in their search for a new high-performance boss, and to start 2023 they have reaped the rewards of their acquisition of fitness guru Darren Burgess.
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As Adelaide went searching for a new high-performance boss, they created the shortest of short-lists.
It had just one name: Darren Burgess.
The Crows were in the middle of a rebuild in 2020-21, looking to appoint the best off-field personnel possible in a range of roles to help their young squad.
Burgess stood out as the person who could take Adelaide’s fitness program to another level.
He had international experience at English Premier League giants Liverpool and Arsenal, along with the Socceroos, and was a key part of the turnarounds at AFL clubs Port Adelaide and Melbourne.
Relatively early during coach Matthew Nicks’s tenure, the Crows felt their high-performance results under Matt Hass were not good enough.
That they were behind the top clubs and needed to move on in another direction.
Among Adelaide’s concerns were its soft-tissue injuries and players’ lack of strength.
The club also believed improved high-performance resources would help the squad strive to be better.
Burgess’s arrival has done that.
At 5-4, the Crows are off to their best start since 2019 and are taking it up to the competition’s top sides.
Champion Data statistics show Adelaide has the third-best injury record in the competition after nine rounds with players sidelined for a total of 31 matches so far.
By comparison, league leader West Coast is at 99 games.
In Burgess’s first season at West Lakes last year, Crows players were injured for 93 matches, 69 fewer than at the club in 2021.
The team says it is far fitter and stronger, a view backed by displays such as kicking the last six goals of the Showdown to overrun Port Adelaide in round 3.
According to ex-Crow Ben Davis, Burgess’s biggest influence at West Lakes – and what he does better than other high-performance bosses – is build great relationships with players.
“When word got around that Burgo was coming over … I had this perception he’s going to be a hard bastard,” Davis told The Advertiser.
“But when he got there and me being energetic and a massive extrovert, I just started yelling out, being a d***head basically … at training and he’d always give me a bit back.
“For a bloke to be able to step into a new club and connect with blokes so quickly was probably his strong suit.
“You could go to him about anything and have a chat and feel comfortable, as if it’s a mate I’ve known for years.
“Looking back on past pre-seasons, I remember going into them thinking ‘I’m going to get broken here, I need to find a way to get through’.
“But when it was Burgo it was ‘I want to bust my arse and make sure I’m as fit as I can because Burgo’s looking after me’.
“The relationships he builds with players is what leaves these places operating so well because the players just want to put in their best effort for him.”
That connection and mutual respect means Burgess can spray Adelaide’s squad when required without anyone “spitting the dummy”.
“When we’re not performing or weren’t hitting the markers we needed to, he was able to look us in the eyes and say ‘boys, I f***ng need you to lift’,” Davis said.
“You respond … and say ‘yep, let’s go’.
“If he wants you to hit (running) numbers, you’re hitting them for him, you’re not just doing it for me because it’ll get me fit.
“It’s something I hadn’t felt with other strength and conditioning coaches.”
Davis, who played 11 AFL games in six years at the Crows before being delisted in October, described Burgess as having a great balance between being caring, intelligent and funny.
He said the fitness boss was a fan of RnB music and had Adelaide’s Indigenous contingent over for dinner.
“He’s obviously a very smart man and you listen when he talks, but he’s also hilarious,” Davis said.
“He’s one of the lads and you’re just chatting s*** with him, taking the piss out of stuff and having a laugh, which makes him very relatable.
“His personality, what he provides to that culture, is unreal.”
Adelaide made what it considered a longshot approach to Burgess ahead of the 2021 season.
It was knocked back – the Demons wanted to keep him and Burgess felt obliged to stay.
Melbourne’s success that campaign, when it had the league’s fourth-best injury record and ended a 57-year premiership drought, underscored his value.
Talks with the Crows ramped up during 2021, as Burgess sought a move to be closer to his children, Harry and Millie, whom lived in SA and he had struggled to see during Covid.
Adelaide signed Burgess in September, two days after the Demons’ grand final win.
Once pre-season began, Davis noticed a more streamlined, simplified approach.
“We were doing the same amount of stuff and getting a lot more out of it,” he said.
“We thought we had a good program and what we were doing was an elite standard, but when Burgo came in, it was like ‘righto, this is the level and this is what elite looks like’.”
Davis said Burgess showed the Crows’ squad pre-season data that revealed they were running harder than Melbourne during its flag campaign.
Burgess uses players’ training and game statistics to determine when their bodies should rest, rather than works them into the ground.
“He reads how the players are feeling and doesn’t push us too much if we’re getting what he wants out of the sessions,” captain Jordan Dawson told SEN.
Davis added: “He loved talking about the long run and putting money in the bank for when we’re going to need it in the season”.
“Then when it gets to those points and our bodies are tired and injuries are at high risk, we know we’ve planned stuff out and measured it, so that we’re able to outrun the other teams … without risking injury.”
Burgess’s sides have been among the competition’s top four for fewest games missed through injury in each of the past three seasons.
Melbourne had the fourth-best record in 2021 and Adelaide was the same last season.
The Crows had the sixth-best mark under Hass two years ago, albeit they had players sidelined for close to double the amount of games as Burgess’s first campaign in 2022.
Right now, forward Shane McAdam (quad, up to three weeks) is the Crows’ only AFL regular sidelined for more than a fortnight.
“Our healthy list has no doubt helped our form and made us a strong side,” said Nicks, who worked with Burgess at the Power.
“Darren brings experience – he’s been there and done it at organisations around the world, not just in our sport.
“We’re able to take examples out of other sports, which may be run slightly differently.”
Nicks said the squad’s leaders showing the way during pre-season and luck were also behind the club’s small injury list.
Adelaide players’ physical strength has improved markedly since the arrival of Sam Dodge from the UK.
Coming from a rugby, judo and wrestling background, Dodge started the same pre-season as Burgess and they taught the squad to embrace the gym.
Early in the rebuild Adelaide players would regularly be pushed off contests too easily.
Not anymore.
Burgess sometimes recounts his own international experiences to Crows players, encapsulating them with stories about top soccer stars he has trained and how hard they push themselves.
“I was personally so happy for his arrival,” Adelaide leadership group member Ben Keays said.
“Being a soccer fan, I was a big fan of his work … and he’s pretty world-renowned.”
A major focus for Burgess has been to build Crows players’ mental resilience.
He gives little away about his plans for each session.
Like he did at the Power, Burgess surprised Adelaide players with the task of completing hundred 100m sprints.
They expected it early in pre-season but Burgess “pulled them out of nowhere”.
“About halfway through a session he said ‘on the line’ and we just started running back between the cones,” Davis said.
“We were all looking at each other going ‘f***, we’re in for a long one here’, but we only ended up doing about 25 to 30 of them.”
Adelaide’s first all-squad session under Burgess featured four 1km time trials.
“He liked the mental strength around not telling you the sets or reps – you get it done and get it done well, and it’s done when it’s done,” Davis said.
“He loves giving examples like ‘it’s the fourth quarter and the last five minutes of the grand final, you’re out on your legs and you’ve got to shift back to help defend in the back 50, that mental resilience we’ve built up now is what’s going to allow you to get there when you need to spoil that ball’.”
Belief is now permeating through the Crows that they are fitter than their opponents.
“He’d mention a fair bit that whoever you stand next to, you can be confident you’re going to outrun them,” Davis said.
“That was a big part of what we talked about, our ability to outrun other teams.”
Davis said Burgess would have watched the Crows’ storm home in last month’s Showdown “with a grin on his face”.
It was at Port Adelaide that Burgess first made the AFL world take notice.
First, in getting the Power to a premiership decider in 2007, then helping train a five-win team in 2012 into a flag threat that made semi and preliminary finals the next two seasons.
After a stint at Arsenal, Burgess was an important part of the Demons’ rise, as they went from 17th in 2019 the campaign before he joined to a premiership two years later.
The Crows were coming off consecutive bottom-four finishes when Burgess arrived for the 2021/22 pre-season.
They finished 14th last year and were now a finals contender.
“An elite high-performance person can make a massive difference to a team, on and off the field,” Davis said.
Clubs often spruik that they have some of the best people in the most important roles, but right now the Crows truly believe it.
The key pieces in their off-field puzzle started with appointing Nicks and football manager Adam Kelly for 2020, then continued with assistants James Rahilly, Scott Burns and Nathan van Berlo, chairman John Olsen and chief executive Tim Silvers.
There was consensus to headhunt Burgess when his name was raised at a club football strategy meeting regarding who could make the fitness department “elite”.
The likes of Nicks and footy director Mark Ricciuto backed the pursuit.
Frustrated with their high-performance results a couple of years ago, the Crows are now delighted.
“He’s done a great deal for the group and me personally,” Keays said.
“To have him here is an absolute privilege.”
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