Josh Sinn addressed the Adelaide media on his side’s first training session of 2026. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Port Adelaide defender Josh Sinn\u00a0was back on deck for pre-season training on Thursday, with the AFL group together for the first time in\u00a02026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Accompanied by a special guest at his press conference, Sinn introduced the media to club welfare dog, Albert, a labradoodle puppy who will provide support across the men\u2019s and women\u2019s programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Albert will eventually undergo therapy dog training,\u00a0with evidence showing dogs can help athletes manage stress and\u00a0improve overall wellbeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn spoke with the Adelaide media at Alberton Oval, touching on Albert\u2019s first day at the club, pre-season training so far, and\u00a0his personal goals for the year ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on\u00a0new\u00a0club\u00a0puppy Albert\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0exciting.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0an exciting recruit,\u00a0probably our\u00a0best one,\u00a0I’d\u00a0say!\u00a0I think the club’s done\u00a0a pretty good\u00a0job with the\u00a0change\u00a0that’s\u00a0come across with all the new coaches and staff and the\u00a0new thought\u00a0processes that have come through with that. And\u00a0I think there\u00a0was a study done that dogs have been able to help reduce stress amongst athletes. And clubs like San Francisco 49ers and\u00a0Dallas Mavericks\u00a0have got\u00a0their own welfare dogs.\u00a0So\u00a0for us to bring Albert in,\u00a0it’s\u00a0quite funny, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0pretty cool. And I guess\u00a0there’s\u00a0not too much stress in pre-season, but I guess throughout the season,\u00a0I’m\u00a0pretty excited\u00a0to see what Albert can do for us, so\u00a0it’ll\u00a0be\u00a0good fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little bit of a surprise, what the\u00a0what type of dog\u00a0we’re\u00a0getting, but\u00a0I think there\u00a0was talk surrounding a dog coming in.\u00a0So\u00a0it was\u00a0kind of a\u00a0surprise to have\u00a0him here\u00a0so early.\u00a0I think there\u00a0was a bit of a process with Albert so but now\u00a0it’s\u00a0good having\u00a0him here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on who he thinks will care for Albert most\u00a0
\u201cDarcy Byrne-Jones is already doing\u00a0a pretty good\u00a0job of not letting Albert into the locker room and keeping him out.\u00a0So\u00a0I think Darcy\u00a0will be\u00a0the father figure for the dog and Jase Burgoyne\u00a0can\u00a0can\u00a0be the mother!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on pre-season so far\u00a0
\u201cI\u00a0think there’s minor adjustments, and\u00a0it’s\u00a0probably more\u00a0towards our\u00a0defence\u00a0that’s\u00a0changed than anything, and as a defender myself,\u00a0it’s\u00a0quite exciting. I feel like\u00a0we’re\u00a0going to be a more connected unit down back, and even just team\u00a0defence\u00a0in general is going to be a lot more fluid, and\u00a0it’ll\u00a0help our\u00a0offence considerably. So, it’s exciting, and I think, like people might have touched on\u00a0it\u00a0pre-Christmas, just the freshness around the group and the way that\u00a0Carry (Josh Carr)\u00a0has been able to bring in all these new coaches, and the energy that they’ve brought to the to the program has been\u00a0pretty special. And I honestly\u00a0didn’t\u00a0think the change would be this significant. And,\u00a0yeah,\u00a0it’s\u00a0really exciting\u00a0to be part of the club\u00a0at this point in time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on Todd Marshall playing back\u00a0
\u201cYeah, so Todd’s been down back, which has been exciting. An achilles is a big injury, and I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but if he gets back to anywhere near his best, he’ll definitely be pushing for selection, and won’t just be pushing for selection, but he’ll be a very important part of our back line. I think the way we\u2019ve just got to manage expectations coming back from an achilles, because it’s quite severe, but he’s done everything right to get back, and he’s obviously really good for the group, personality wise. So hopefully he can be there as part of the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on the sense of rejuvenation at the club\u00a0
\u201cI think\u00a0it’s\u00a0only six weeks until we play an internal trial, maybe, and\u00a0then seven until we play against the\u00a0Crows in a practice match.\u00a0So\u00a0it comes around\u00a0pretty quickly. And I think we spoke about\u00a0it\u00a0this morning, just\u00a0how\u00a0we need to hit our straps early, and instead of using practice games as a way of just slowly building into the season, we want to be\u00a0really ready\u00a0for those practice games and take it as seriously\u00a0as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on his own body\u00a0
\u201cMy shoulder was a little bit frustrating throughout the season, but it was manageable. And I was\u00a0pretty lucky\u00a0I was able to do everything over the off-season. And\u00a0yeah, I think for me pre-Christmas, it was just managing me in and out of training here and there, just with\u00a0contact and stuff,\u00a0but\u00a0I’m\u00a0100% fit now. My body has\u00a0kind of let\u00a0me down in previous years, but I feel like after playing 20 games last year, hopefully I can get to 23 or 24 whatever it is this season.\u00a0So\u00a0it’s\u00a0looking positive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The defender enters 2026 fit and firing, ready to make a significant impact in the upcoming season. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Sinn on feeling like he has a fresh start\u00a0
\u201cIt almost feels like I’ve had a fresh start, in a sense, coming into a new contract, new coach, I feel like I was able to put a lot of my injuries in the way my first few years went behind me. Last year was more of a thing that I know I can play at the level and my body won’t break down every time I try and push to that level. So to come into this year, and even the following season, and hopefully many more, it’s just kind of a positive sign, and it does feel like a fresh start. And it’s also really good knowing that there’s 23 spots on the field that are all up for grabs. There’s no one set in any position where they are now. So a fresh start is a good start.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sinn on his personal goals for 2026\u00a0
\u201cI\u00a0actually turned\u00a023 yesterday, and\u00a0I’m\u00a0considered old for the group, so\u00a0yeah, I feel like leadership is something I want to tap into a little bit more.\u00a0I know I play better when\u00a0I’m\u00a0a bit more\u00a0vocal\u00a0on the field, or I can help lead other people and bring other people into the game.\u00a0So\u00a0I\u00a0guess leadership, in a sense of being able to be more vocal on the field,\u00a0help\u00a0people off the field as well. And I guess just performance wise, being a lot more consistent, and whether I get given roles on game day or not,\u00a0just being able to execute them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Sinn addressed the Adelaide media on his side’s first training session of 2026. Image: Matt Sampson. Port…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-400299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}