Darren Reeves addressed media today, covering a range of topics. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Darren Reeves is thoroughly enjoying first AFL pre-season as an assistant coach, with the\u00a0dual-SANFL premiership coach embracing the chance to take control of his new forward\u00a0line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a\u00a0relatively healthy\u00a0list, the battle for spots is heating up, with the club\u2019s internal trial this Friday night another opportunity for players to put their hand up, just four weeks\u00a0out\u00a0from Round 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves spoke with the Adelaide media on Wednesday discussing forward line combinations,\u00a0the development of young players, and the focus on the boys building power and strength in the gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on his first AFL pre-season\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0really enjoyable.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0great coaching group to get to know and spend a bit of\u00a0time with\u00a0early on, and then the players\u00a0came\u00a0back in, and\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0got a good\u00a0relationship with the players, and just really enjoyed how\u00a0they’ve\u00a0gone about it.\u00a0It’s\u00a0been great energy from day one, and\u00a0it’s\u00a0great to get into game mode now and into some gameplay and be ready to get into some trial games over the next couple of weeks.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0really enjoyable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on moving from SANFL senior coach to AFL assistant\u00a0
\u201cI think\u00a0probably for\u00a0me personally, just be able to\u00a0(focus on)\u00a0the\u00a0forward\u00a0line and nail down those 14 or 15 guys and spend a lot of time with those guys.\u00a0It’s been\u00a0really enjoyable. I think\u00a0that’s\u00a0probably the\u00a0biggest difference. And Josh has been\u00a0really strong\u00a0on putting a lot of it back onto us as assistant coaches and making sure that the training sessions and\u00a0everything’s\u00a0running smoothly.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u00a0hasn’t\u00a0changed too much in that space.\u00a0It’s\u00a0probably just\u00a0your ability to be able to nail down those\u00a014 guys\u00a0and spend a lot of time with\u00a0those\u00a0guys\u00a0over the pre-season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on Mitch Georgiades\u00a0attending\u00a0centre\u00a0bounces at training\u00a0
\u201cThat was just something to have a look at and just throw something a bit different to him. And we just never know what might\u00a0eventuate\u00a0during the course of\u00a0the year.\u00a0I’m\u00a0not sure\u00a0you’ll\u00a0spend see him spend too much time in there, but it might be an opportunity for him at\u00a0different times, just to free himself up if\u00a0there’s\u00a0a hard tag or the game’s not going his way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves said it was unlikely that Mitch Georgiades would feature at centre bounces. Image: AFL Photos.<\/p>\n
Reeves on what has surprised him at AFL level\u00a0
\u201cNothing\u2019s\u00a0really surprised me.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been really enjoying\u00a0the connection\u00a0of\u00a0the group, and\u00a0it’s\u00a0obviously\u00a0a\u00a0young group, and\u00a0we’ve\u00a0got some\u00a0new faces\u00a0into the group that have had some experiences at other AFL clubs. But just the connection with group\u00a0and\u00a0their willingness to work\u00a0really hard,\u00a0that’s\u00a0been enjoyable to watch, and\u00a0their\u00a0willingness to\u00a0challenge themselves to want to get better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on the small forward battle\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0been good.\u00a0Obviously\u00a0Corey Durdin\u2019s come in\u00a0and guys\u00a0who\u00a0have been\u00a0here for a little while have been\u00a0really strong\u00a0through pre-season.\u00a0We’ve\u00a0had a look at some different combinations at\u00a0different times, and\u00a0it\u2019d\u00a0certainly a battle for spots\u00a0in that space,\u00a0that’s\u00a0for sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on Corey Durdin\u00a0
\u201cI fortunately had an opportunity to coach Corey\u00a0at\u00a0underage level at Centrals, so\u00a0it’s\u00a0really\u00a0good\u00a0to see\u00a0his journey and\u00a0I\u00a0followed him closely since that point.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0played 50 games as\u00a0well\u00a0so\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0had a fair bit of AFL experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on\u00a0Ollie Lord and Jack Whitlock\u00a0
\u201cOllie (Lord)\u00a0obviously had a bit of a downtime over the last couple of years, but\u00a0he’s\u00a0had a super pre-season, and\u00a0he’s\u00a0had great energy every session. And\u00a0Jack\u2019s\u00a0(Whitlock)\u00a0probably had\u00a0a little bit of a stop\u00a0start to\u00a0the preseason where he had a few little niggles, but\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0had good continuity over the\u00a0last month or so and\u00a0has\u00a0been\u00a0really strong. But I’ve got no doubt both are going to have really strong\u00a0years\u00a0and\u00a0that will\u00a0play over the next couple of weeks in trial\u00a0games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Ollie Lord and Jack Whitlock have spent some time honing their ruck craft. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Both players have spent some time in the ruck) and\u00a0obviously, with the game and the way the rules\u00a0have\u00a0changed,\u00a0I’m\u00a0not sure anyone really knows how\u00a0that’s\u00a0going to look just yet. Whether you play two\u00a0ruckmen, or whether\u00a0you’re\u00a0going to need other guys that can spend minutes in there.\u00a0So\u00a0we’re\u00a0certainly looking at different avenues in that space, and we need to have those guys up to speed, but they certainly offer some good\u00a0ruck\u00a0minutes, if\u00a0we need that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Ollie\u00a0and the other forwards, we want\u00a0to allow them to play to their strengths. And a bit\u00a0of Ollie\u2019s\u00a0strength is to get\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0football and to jump into\u00a0the contest and really compete in the air. And\u00a0we’ve\u00a0been really impressed with how\u00a0he’s\u00a0gone about that through pre-season.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0certainly got himself fitter, which\u00a0helps.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0got some elite\u00a0standards now and\u00a0that’s\u00a0certainly helping him back up session after session.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on the new ruck rules\u00a0
\u201cI think what\u00a0you’ll\u00a0find is that the\u00a0teams that win games\u00a0early in the year, that everyone will\u00a0probably follow\u00a0that same\u00a0(way of doing\u00a0things).\u00a0But I think the\u00a0ruck\u00a0rules and the interchange rules\u00a0etc., no one\u00a0really knows how\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0going to\u00a0play out just yet.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0certainly had a lot of conversation around it\u00a0and the trial games\u00a0against the Crows and West Coast\u00a0will help us in that space for sure.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on Harrison Ramm\u00a0
\u201cIt\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0surprise me\u00a0(how well he\u2019s developing), because\u00a0I had\u00a0that opportunity to work\u00a0with him closely\u00a0at Glenelg.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0still a 19-year-old kid\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0growing into his body.\u00a0He’s\u00a0got unbelievable attributes,\u00a0some\u00a0learning to do from a game sense perspective, but his upside is\u00a0phenomenal so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0exciting to see where he goes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on players putting on size during the off-season\u00a0
\u201cIt\u00a0certainly was a focus for our guys to\u00a0get a bit bigger and stronger,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0sure every\u00a0club\u2019s in the same boat. I mean, a little\u00a0bit of that is too, (the young players)\u00a0get\u00a0a couple of years\u00a0of\u00a0pre-seasons, that always help, to\u00a0stack them up. And that sort of takes care of itself a little bit. But\u00a0there’s\u00a0certainly been some growth in that space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously\u00a0Tim\u00a0Parham\u00a0as\u00a0our\u00a0new\u00a0high performance\u00a0manager\u00a0(has\u00a0impacted\u00a0that).\u00a0There’s\u00a0certainly been a want from our guys to spend a lot of time in the gym and however they can allow their game to improve,\u00a0it’s\u00a0important that\u00a0they’re\u00a0doing that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on the SSP players\u00a0
\u201c(Jaidyn Stephenson) had\u00a0a great period before the hamstring, where he played some\u00a0really good\u00a0footy in our match\u00a0play\u00a0stuff, and then that obviously set him back a few weeks.\u00a0He was\u00a0back into training this\u00a0week\u00a0and the next few weeks\u00a0are big for those guys.\u00a0They’ll\u00a0get some opportunity on Friday night in\u00a0the\u00a0internal and then\u00a0I’m\u00a0sure\u00a0they’ll\u00a0get some opportunity\u00a0in\u00a0some trial games\u00a0over the next couple of weeks, to keep pressing their\u00a0cases. But\u00a0certainly\u00a0no decisions have been made from a coaching group perspective.\u00a0We’ll see how that plays out\u00a0over the next period of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBalyn O\u2019Brien is\u00a0a young kid that came into the system, it\u00a0was a\u00a0fair workload early on for him, and he just pulled up a little bit sore there for a couple of weeks, and they managed him.\u00a0But\u00a0he’s\u00a0been back in training\u00a0this week and\u00a0he\u2019ll\u00a0play Friday night.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jason Horne-Francis has reintegrated into training after overcoming injury. Image: Matt Sampson.<\/p>\n
Reeves on Jason Horne-Francis\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cHe got through training today with a pink\u00a0(non-contact)\u00a0hat on and looked\u00a0pretty strong.\u00a0We’ll\u00a0probably assess\u00a0that and see\u00a0(whether he plays in the\u00a0intraclub).\u00a0It’s\u00a0obviously been a different\u00a0pre-season for him, so\u00a0we’re\u00a0not set on him needing to play on Friday night. We feel like we\u00a0can\u00a0get enough minutes into\u00a0him over the next couple of weeks. But certainly, if he pulls out of today well, and\u00a0there’s\u00a0an opportunity,\u00a0we’ll\u00a0look at that for sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on the intraclub teams\u00a0
\u201cI\u00a0don’t\u00a0think\u00a0(it will be\u00a0As\u00a0vs Bs).\u00a0I think we\u00a0have, at\u00a0different times, looked at some strong\u00a0combinations of\u00a0what we thought at that point, but\u00a0it’s\u00a0been more around combinations\u00a0in different areas of the ground \u2013\u00a0defence,\u00a0forward, through\u00a0the midfield, and\u00a0we’ll\u00a0do that again Friday night.\u00a0We’ll\u00a0look at different combinations in different areas of the ground, but\u00a0we’ll\u00a0try and keep the teams as even as\u00a0possible, and\u00a0make it a\u00a0real\u00a0strong contest. It might be\u00a0different parts\u00a0of\u00a0the game\u00a0where we look at different\u00a0things\u00a0but I think it will be\u00a0pretty even.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on how many tall forwards could be in his forward line\u00a0
\u201cCertainly over my journey,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0liked\u00a0the idea of three or four if you can, depending\u00a0on if\u00a0they’re\u00a0different. But\u00a0we’ll\u00a0look at the makeup of our team and\u00a0who’s\u00a0available and\u00a0what’s\u00a0going to suit us best, but I think what we like about our\u00a0tall\u00a0forward setup is\u00a0they’re\u00a0all different. They all offer different attributes.\u00a0Our guys all\u00a0have got\u00a0different styles, and they complement each other\u00a0really well, so\u00a0we’ll\u00a0find the right combination.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves\u00a0on offence changes\u00a0
\u201cI think overall the\u00a0benefit\u2019s\u00a0going to pay off eventually. Is\u00a0it\u00a0perfect now? Probably not, but\u00a0there’s\u00a0a want for our guys to play what they see in front of\u00a0them, or\u00a0play what the opposition\u00a0allow\u00a0them to be able to play, and be able to change how that looks at\u00a0different times. And\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0certainly been a big focus for us through pre-season is\u00a0to put players in\u00a0those positions and see what it looks like. And\u00a0there’s\u00a0some guys that can do things that others\u00a0can’t, so if we can get the ball in their hands as much as possible,\u00a0that’s\u00a0going to be a\u00a0really good\u00a0outcome for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reeves on Joe Berry\u00a0
\u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0outstanding. I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0know a lot about Joe when I first got to the club. Hand on heart,\u00a0I\u00a0probably\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0think he was in our best\u00a023 at that point, but\u00a0he’s\u00a0certainly\u00a0knocked the door down\u00a0at times.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0been as impressive as anyone through\u00a0pre-season. Again,\u00a0it’s\u00a0another year of pre-season, and\u00a0some time\u00a0in the gym, and\u00a0probably him\u00a0believing\u00a0in\u00a0himself a little bit more, but\u00a0he’s\u00a0got weapons that are elite and going to be\u00a0elite at AFL level.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darren Reeves addressed media today, covering a range of topics. Image: Matt Sampson. Darren Reeves is thoroughly enjoying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475627,"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-475626","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\/475626","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=475626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}