2009 season:
While 2008 saw promising signs in Trent Hentschel’s comeback from major knee surgery, 2009 marked his long awaited return to AFL football after injuring his knee in 2006 against Port Adelaide. Hentschel got through Adelaide’s pre-season unscathed and played in the season opener against Collingwood. But he suffered another setback in round two, reinjuring his knee, and spent two months on the sidelines. After months of rehabilitation and some games in the SANFL, Hentschel burst back onto the AFL scene against Hawthorn in round 20 kicking four goals to help secure Adelaide’s finals spot. He kicked 10 goals in his last five games and had 83 disposals and 20 marks for the season. Hentschel was pleased with what he was able to achieve in 2009 and has growing confidence in his body to keep playing at this level. "Given where I've come from, off a long-term injury you can't afford to even look past that day's training session really," Hentschel said. "But playing (the last few games) has given me a lot of confidence. My body hasn't felt this good for a long time.” “It gives the club and myself a fair bit of confidence that my body can cope."

David Noble’s 2009 review:
“It was just amazing to see how Trent developed in the second half of the year. He played the first two games of the season and when we sat down and looked at it halfway through the year we thought he’d done really well to get to that point. In saying that, he hadn’t got enough speed and intensity in his game. When he came back from his second knee operation his intensity and tackling, as well as his general skills, was back to a level it was at before he got injured in 2006. He needed to show us that he was desperate to stay in the AFL system next year and he’s done that.”

Career:
Selected in the 2002 pre-season draft, Hentschel debuted as a 20-year-old in 2003 and played three games. He played 18 games in 2004 and kicked 15 goals but injury again kept him on the sidelines. While 2005 was an encouraging year for Hentschel kicking 26 goals from 21 games, he had his breakout year in 2006 kicking 42 goals including a haul of eight against Essendon. In the round 21 Showdown against Port Adelaide Hentschel suffered a horrific knee injury likened to a car crash victim that required four separate operations to repair. He spent the entire 2007 season rehabilitating but managed to return to football in 2008 in the SANFL. Niggling hamstring injuries stopped him from making his AFL comeback until the start of 2009.