Coach Brenton Sanderson says the Crows players were lucky to have been taught by the late Dean Bailey, who he described as one of the “sharpest minds” in football.

The Adelaide Football Club paid tribute to Bailey, who passed away on Tuesday morning following a brief battle with cancer, at its 2014 Season Launch at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night.

Sanderson honoured his “great mate” by wearing Bailey’s trademark wide-brimmed hat at the Club’s first-ever training session on the new Adelaide Oval on Wednesday. The Crows coach also used his Season Launch speech to remember the popular and respected figure.

“Our boys were lucky enough to have learnt from one of the sharpest minds in the land – I’m talking about our great mate, Dean Bailey,” Sanderson said on Wednesday night.

“We’ll certainly miss him. I know I’ll miss him, but what we’ll carry with Bails is his positive attitude, his courage and his resilience. Something ‘Bails’ always said to me and I’ll never forget is, “Sando, take a deep breath. You’re having a bad day, but you’re not having a bad life.”

On stage, Chairman Rob Chapman also recalled one of his final conversations with Bailey.

Bailey told Chapman, “You’ve got a great young coach (in Sanderson), look after him.” He also spoke highly of the Adelaide playing group, which he said was capable of success.

Sanderson said it would be difficult not having Bailey’s calming influence around the Club.

“Bails certainly believed in this group. What I’m most upset about is that Bails won’t be sitting alongside of us to see the success that he helped create,” he said.

“We’ve got 19 players aged between 21-24-years-old – second only to the Gold Coast Suns. Amongst that age group are names like Patrick Dangerfield, Taylor Walker, Daniel Talia and Rory Sloane. These players are going to be the backbone of our footy club for a very long time. What’s scary is their best is yet to come.

“We’ve also got 16 players with 25 games or fewer of AFL experience – that’s about a third of our list, so you can see this footy team has real upside.”

In keeping with Bailey’s wishes for the Club to ‘forge ahead’, Sanderson also spoke of the determination of the group on the eve of the season.

“Make no mistake, we’re ready to go,” he said.

“We’re a hardened AFL unit this season without question. We’re as fit as ever. It’s been an extremely tough pre-season carefully managed by our fitness staff. The players have done an enormous amount of running. On average, they covered about 50 kilometres per week, which equates to almost an AFL game every second day. A lot of our players ran more than 600 kilometres in total this pre-season – that’s almost to Melbourne. It also feels like we’re mentally tougher. Gruelling summer sessions certainly do that.

“Like our coaches, our players have been hard working and they’re certainly motivated and determined for a really successful 2014.”

The Crows are on the verge of breaking their all-time membership record on the back of the move to the redeveloped Adelaide Oval.

Sanderson said he couldn’t wait to see a packed house at all Adelaide games this season.

“What I love about our supporters is their passion. They’re loyal, loud and ready to make this city stadium a place opposition clubs fear. The 19^th Man should be excited not only for this year but the years ahead,” he said.

“The future looks really bright for our football club.”