{"id":480248,"date":"2026-02-14T21:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480248\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T21:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:10:27","slug":"scott-burns-on-internal-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480248\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Burns on internal trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide hosted an internal trial at Central Oval, Port Augusta, on Friday, as part of its preparations for the upcoming AFL season.<\/p>\n

The Crows have spent the better part of the past month lining up against each other, as coaches continue to tinker with positional switches and track individual development ahead of Round One next month.<\/p>\n

Assistant Coach Scott Burns spoke to the media post-game and gave fans an insight into the match.<\/p>\n

Rachele\u2019s midfield move<\/p>\n

Fifth-year Crow Josh Rachele has spent a considerable amount of minutes training with the team\u2019s midfield group this pre-season.<\/p>\n

And the switch from the forward line into the centre<\/a> is set to be a likely role for Rachele, who has spent the majority of his four seasons with the Crows inside-50.<\/p>\n

During Friday\u2019s trial match, Rachele featured in the \u2018blue\u2019 team for the first half, playing alongside more established midfielders including Skipper Jordan Dawson, James Peatling and Sam Berry.<\/p>\n

In the second half, he formed part of the \u2018yellow\u2019 team, giving him a chance to line up against the likes of Dawson and Peatling.<\/p>\n

Burns said the coaches were impressed with Rachele\u2019s development as a midfielder so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cRash has spent some time in the midfield for us, probably not as much in the last 18 months but a few years back he played in there a bit,\u201d Burns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s not foreign to him, being a midfielder, he\u2019s spent a lot of time with the midfield group throughout the past few pre-season and he\u2019s growing in that space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all the boys now in their fourth or fifth pre-season, they\u2019re a little bit fitter and a little bit stronger \u2013 so guys like Rash (Josh Rachele) can stay in the midfield that little bit longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh has done a lot of work with his ground ball and tackle as well over the last 18 months and he\u2019s definitely coming along in that midfield space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ruck battle<\/p>\n

The Crows bolstered their depth in the ruck stocks ahead of the 2025 AFL season, adding former Swan Lachlan McAndrew to the senior list<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

McAndrew spent last season honing his craft with Adelaide\u2019s SANFL side and was continuing to work hard to earn a Club debut.<\/p>\n

Burns said McAndrew and established ruckman Reilly O\u2019Brien had pushed each other to new levels this pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a great contest now between Reilly O\u2019Brien and Lachie McAndrew in the ruck, it\u2019s been fantastic for both of them to compete against each other for the past year,\u201d Burns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always going to change it (the ruck position) up on the day, throughout the pre-season it\u2019s been 50\/50 between the boys and from a ruck point of view that\u2019s about as one-on-one as it gets when it comes to competing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both making each other better which is what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Impact of new rule<\/p>\n

Under a new rule introduced ahead of this season, at all centre bounces competing rucks will now be unable to cross the centre line before engaging with their opposition ruck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rule, which is born from a desire to see the jumping rucks return to the game, is one of seven new changes<\/a> being brought in this year to help reduce match lengths.<\/p>\n

Burns said O\u2019Brien and McAndrew could use the new rule to their advantage in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go to the tip-off in basketball and you\u2019re 10cm taller it is pretty handy, which has helped Lachie, but what it has done for ROB (Reilly O\u2019Brien) has helped his follow up work and he\u2019s been great and ground level,\u201d Burns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt Lachie has that extra height and leap which helps him at centre bounce.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s impressing this pre-season<\/p>\n

Burns said there were a number of players who had impressed the coaches across this pre-season, with many putting their hand up for Round One selection.<\/p>\n

For Burns, however, the likes of young Crows Brayden Cook and Luke Nankervis had caught his eye.<\/p>\n

The coaches switched Cook from the forward line to the backline this summer, while Nankervis had also been given a permanent role in the defence during pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve changed Brayden (Cook\u2019s) role and put him back and he\u2019s had a terrific pre-season and done very well with our match simulation stuff,\u201d Burns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a beautiful kick and he\u2019s definitely fitter and stronger which has helped him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Nankervis has a lot of ability, and we\u2019ve seen him play some great footy at AFL level already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of competition for that half back spot at the moment, lots of guys are putting their hand up and there\u2019s probably five or six blokes competing for three spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns said Izak Rankine had also put in a strong pre-season, not only with his individual form, but impressing with his team-first approach.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been terrific all pre-season, he\u2019s just a kid that loves playing footy,\u201d Burns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as he loves his goals and will celebrate, he loves tapping one back to his teammates and getting around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s great to have around the place, he\u2019s a quality player but along with that he\u2019s just a terrific person and we love having him in our side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Managing players<\/p>\n

A handful of Crows did not feature in Friday’s internal trial, including midfielder Jake Soligo and forward Luke Pedlar.<\/p>\n

Pedlar was out due to illness, but Burns said some players were on modified programs at this time of the year to ensure they were ready for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Peds and Soli will be involved next week, we\u2019re managing Soli and Peds was just crook,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Brayden Cook has been a highlight at half back, Pedlar has been that at the other end as a half forward this pre-season as well, he\u2019s been exceptional.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be nice to get those two boys back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Potential SSP list spot<\/p>\n

Southport midfielder Zac Foot has joined Adelaide\u2019s pre-season this year as a train-on player as part of the AFL\u2019s Supplemental Selection Period.<\/p>\n

The Crows have one vacant spot on its rookie list and the AFL has given clubs until March 2 to decide whether they will sign a player as part of the SSP period.<\/p>\n

Foot lined up in the internal trial and was lively, and Burns said the Club would take its time in deciding on filling the list spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw it (Foot\u2019s talent) today and we see it a bit more on the training track, but I\u2019m not sure what direction we\u2019ll go in,\u201d Burns said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBelly (Tom Bell) was fantastic today as well and did some nice things, and there\u2019s some players out and about the boys are looking at quite closely as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure where that (last spot) is headed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crows\u2019 2026 preparations continue with a match simulation against Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval on Friday, February 20, from 5.30pm.<\/p>\n

Gates will open at 2.55pm, with a match between non-selected AFL and SANFL-listed players from each team starting at 3pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide hosted an internal trial at Central Oval, Port Augusta, on Friday, as part of its preparations for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-480248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480248","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=480248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}