No more sleepless nights for Trigg

STEVEN Trigg admits it is the only time in his 11 years as Adelaide Football Club boss that he has "laid awake at night worrying about outcomes".

Steven Trigg

STEVEN Trigg admits it is the only time in his 11 years as Adelaide Football Club boss that he has "laid awake at night worrying about outcomes".

Almost a year to the day after making the appointment that saw him toss and turn for weeks and dramatically change the direction of the Crows, Trigg said he and his board are "sleeping a lot easier".

"Because he's done a great job," Trigg said of the signing of coach Brenton Sanderson, who will today lead Adelaide into its first preliminary final since 2006.

"I confess - and so do my travelling colleagues Andrew Payze, Nigel Smart (board members) and Phil Harper (football operations manager) - to finding that whole thing to be an incredibly stressful time because you just know you have to get it right.

"To bugger it up and make a mess of the senior coach, it can be so counter-productive to where you want to go and a really long way back for your football club, given the importance of the role.

"So yeah, we all felt pressure to get it right and there were some sleepless nights. Thankfully he (Sanderson) has proven to be outstanding and so we reflect upon that whole exercise very positively now.

"Given our results this year, the respect we've earned for being a fierce competitor again, the development of our list and the myriad of other things a senior coach has to do in your club, we'd like to think we did get it right."

After an extensive search and interviews with five leading candidates - Mark Bickley, Mark Neeld, Scott Burns and Rodney Eade were the others - Sanderson was appointed Neil Craig's successor on September 20 last year.

Remarkably, he has helped turn a team which finished a club-worst 14th in 2011 into a preliminary finalist.

Beat flag favourite Hawthorn today and Adelaide - which finished second at the end of the home-and-away season behind the Hawks and also won the pre-season premiership - will play in its first grand final since 1998.

Trigg paid tribute to the work of Sanderson's assistant coaches, including new appointments Dean Bailey and Darren Milburn, a better conditioning program with an emphasis on building strength and an improved leadership program as other key reasons for the Crows' rise from the bottom four to the top four.

But he admits Sanderson's appointment was the game-changer.

Trigg revealed former Crow, Magpie and Cat Sanderson won the job by wooing Adelaide's coaching appointment panel, which also included four-times premiership coach Leigh Matthews and consultant Craig Mitchell, at the Hilton Melbourne hotel on a Thursday night in mid-September last year.

"Sando was taken to task by Leigh Matthews and he really stared him down - I loved his response," Trigg recalled.

"He was taken to task by Nigel Smart and just assertively and confidently answered off on really difficult scenarios and questions. Without the melodrama, he rolled up the sleeves and stared down the situation.

"It was a really commanding performance that gave me the confidence that he could stand in front of the (playing) group and deliver a credible message.

"There are many boxes you look to be ticked off from a senior coach because it's such a big job but unless you can stand in front of a group and be believable and commanding, you are going to battle.

"Sando was convincing no matter how we dressed things up."

While Trigg says he is "sleeping much better these days", he said Sanderson's success as a first-year coach has not surprised him.

"Because we were very confident with what he could do," he said.

"But we also understand you do need a bit of luck. It's not just all about Sando because his assistants have done a great job, our leadership program has been freshened up and we've got good results from changing our conditioning program.

"All of those changes have been really positive but this season we've lost about only a quarter of the games to injury that we did last year, so you do need that bit of luck."

Trigg declared Adelaide's season a success, no matter what the result of today's preliminary final.

"I think any, rational, fair-minded person would say that," he said.

"If I'd said that on the back of a loss last weekend people could have thought it was a bit hollow but after winning a final (against Fremantle) it's fair to say our year's been really quite outstanding in terms of where we were last year to where we are now.

"There's been 23 wins out of 29, including finals and the NAB Cup, a preliminary final, two All-Australians (Patrick Dangerfield and Scott Thompson) and an AFL Rising Star (Daniel Talia).

"But just as importantly we've earned back the respect of the AFL as far as being a fierce competitor."

Trigg said the Crows were built to last and should only get better in the next few years.

"We've always felt that, with the profile of our squad, whatever we did this year we would be better next year and even better the year after that," he said.

"We expect to arrive at Adelaide Oval in 2014 with a playing list which will be in really good shape and our supporters should be really bubbly about where we're going in the next few years.

"But at the same time when you arrive at a preliminary final you know these opportunities are so rare that you just yearn to take them.

"The whole football world would be doubting our ability to get up (against the Hawks) but there is a quiet confidence about the place that we can do OK."