It’s still dark outside when Crows Assistant Coach Nathan van Berlo’s alarm rings at 6am.

The crisp autumn air is a sharp reminder that we’re well into the AFL season, with wet weather footy in Adelaide not far away.

As the sun rises to start a new week, van Berlo’s mind is already racing - filled with tactics, tweaks and takeaways from hours spent dissecting footage from the game just gone.

And he’s ready to give an insight into just how his week pans out.

Monday

Van Berlo walks through the Club’s doors at 9am, and sits down in his office, turns on his computer, ready to dive straight into prep for the first of many meetings.

In what will be a packed Monday schedule, his first meeting is slated for 9.30am and is a full game review, with coaches only.

Vision is reviewed, as the coaches pick out clips to show the players, before discussing the week’s structure.

Van Berlo will break very quickly for some lunch before his next assignment - chatting to players individually to review their performance from the weekend.

“We talk through bits of vision on the computer, they sit with me and watch it and we have a discussion on focus points moving forward, what we saw good in their game and how we get better,” van Berlo says as he sits on a couch.

“Sometimes really hard conversations are had, it’s a performance review every Monday for these players, which is unique to our industry, as it might happen a couple of times a year for other people.

“The more transparent and honest you can be allows for them to get clarity on roles and address their performance so if a selection change is made they understand why.

“I enjoy it, though, as some are pretty rewarding too. When you see something they’ve been working on come out in their game, or they ask for some focus areas and they come in and know they’ve nailed it.”

A full game review follows with all players, coaching and football staff.

This week, it was a review of Showdown 57, with Adelaide taking home a five-point win.

Van Berlo admits his midfield group has plenty to improve on but is pleased the side was able to grind out an important victory.

“We take anywhere between half an hour and 45 minutes for this whole-team game review,” van Berlo says.

“We didn’t have the best game, stoppage-wise, but we were good in transition, and we’ll bounce back as a midfield group.”

Following that, van Berlo grabs his midfielders and talks through the focus points and sets the tone for the week ahead.

During this, players will ask questions and provide their input, as they eye a strong week on the track. 

Tuesday

There’s no more dwelling on the prior game on a Tuesday, as the coaches move straight into opposition analysis.

Van Berlo will sit with Nicks, coaching director Murray Davis, forwards coach Scott Burns, and backline coach Jack Hombsch, to start the preparation for the upcoming game, which this week will be against Collingwood.

The team’s analysts Steven Edgecomb and Chris Sheedy also attend the meeting to provide the coaches with opposition vision and key statistics.

“We’ll discuss what we expect of the opposition, how they set up structurally, looking at things from a vision point-of-view, going through what we as coaches look to find, based on data, and the analysts help us out with some of that,” van Berlo says.

“For the next couple of days, we’ll spend some time watching Collingwood and what we can do to combat some of their strengths.”

Players are then broken up into line groups and shown more vision, before rotating through the gym.

The coaches will meet again late Tuesday afternoon with a very early match committee discussion.

“This is where we get given a medical report from High Performance Manager Darren Burgess, have initial selection chats and talk about our plan for main training tomorrow,” van Berlo says.

“It’s an all-encompassing meeting.

“Tuesdays are big planning days where we look at what the needle movers are for our opposition team and the key characteristics.

“We then work out plans in and around that and how we get the game on our terms.”

When van Berlo leaves the Club, he still has plenty to do, including coding vision at home, which is a huge part of his role.

Coding is labelling important moments, including tackles, kicks, goals, turnovers, set plays etc - to ensure coaches and players can easily find what they are looking for and analyse it.

“We as coaches also do a lot of work at home, watching more vision and prepping for the game ahead,” he says.

“Monday and Tuesday nights I spend watching oppo vision - there’s certainly some pretty late nights spent coding vision.

“I’ll find vision to support the players and try to give them a clear picture on what’s going to get the job done for us.”

Wednesday - main training

A coaches’ meeting headlines a typical Wednesday for van Berlo, with more discussions around strategies ahead of a game in three days.

While the boys start arriving and complete their prep to train, which includes getting medical assessment, treatment and strapping before completion of comprehensive pre-session loading in the gym and shed floor, van Berlo and the coaches are setting and preparing for drills.

Van Berlo leads a craft session with the midfielders, focusing on ground balls and quick kicks to work on the players’ touch.

VB, as he’s known, is vocal, encouraging each player with every touch of the footy, as he aims to support the energy and focus of his midfield so that they can maximise the session.

The main training session on the oval lasts a couple of hours and during match sim, van Berlo can be seen on the sidelines, closely watching how the players perform.

Training is filmed and the analysts will code the footage to ensure coaches can analyse the session with the players.

Following training, lunch is served. Coaches and footy staff join in but usually step away earlier than the players to prepare for the next full team meeting.

The full team meeting is where the coaches discuss potential team selection but with it not having to be locked in until Thursday, will also discuss some moving pieces.

Van Berlo walks back through the corridors of the footy department following that meeting, focused and ready to chat solely to his midfield group.

Crows midfielders, including those who did not line up in the previous round, filed into van Berlo’s office.

Training footage is then projected onto a wall in his office as the players gather around to watch.

Van Berlo hands the laser pointer to Izak Rankine and as the match sim footage is being shown asks “What do you like about what you did there? What can we do better?”

Skipper Jordan Dawson is next and similar questions are asked of each player, before the footage is switched to vision of Collingwood’s midfield in action.

Van Berlo is focused, as are the players, each studying what’s on the projector and taking notes.

“The meeting revolves around the opposition, which this week is Collingwood,” the former Crows Captain says.

“We also do a bit of a review on training if there’s certain elements we train in this upcoming week.

“It’s usually a really good meeting where the boys can get clarity on what we are trying to achieve and how we are going to go about stopping our opposition.”

Once the vision ends, the group moves into the education area of the footy department and onto the computers, where each individual is given more footage to analyse.

Van Berlo stands behind the computers, asking further questions and educating the players on set plays and how to combat Collingwood’s stars.

The day will end with some light handballing drills and a bit of basketball on the shed floor.

Thursday

When the game is on a Saturday, Thursdays are typically the players’ and footy departments’ day off.

And it gives van Berlo time to spend with his young family.

“I try to rejuvenate and re-energise during the day,” van Berlo, a father-of-three, says.

“On my day off, I always drop the girls at school and pick them up and spend time with my little fella.

“In terms of balancing work and life, I make sure that when the kids are awake I am present and when they’ve gone to bed, I do my work.

“I think the rest of the coaches do the same, although we have kids at different ages, we just work hard to try and balance it.”

Once his kids are asleep, van Berlo spends Thursday night preparing for Friday’s team meetings.

“I look at the ‘what ifs’ and do a lot of scenario planning on different contingencies and things that could happen in games,” he says.

“I will make sure I am ready to go for tomorrow and get ready for the flight.”

Friday - Travel Day & Captain’s run

All the coaches meet at the footy Club before heading to the airport for a quick morning debrief, while players were also given the option of doing a weights session at the club.

The arrival at Adelaide Airport isn’t too early, with the team flight to Melbourne set for 11.50am.

Van Berlo heads to the Virgin Lounge, sits down and has a relaxed chat with footy staff as he waits for boarding to be called.

The team jumps on a bus and heads straight from Melbourne Airport to the MCG for Captain’s run - a light training session.

Former Crows players and their children have also been invited to the Captain's run, and van Berlo enjoys chatting to former teammates.

Another full-team meeting is held, with the coaches educating players on strategies when it comes to combating their opposition, before van Berlo speaks to his midfield group.

“It’s pretty unique for us to get a run around on the hallowed turf, so the boys got a good feel for the conditions,” van Berlo says.

“In our coaches meeting, we speak about our key strategy pieces in and around how we are going to attack the game, as well as line-focus areas.

“From a midfield group, it’s about what we are going to try and implement, what we are focusing on - specifically on some centre-bounce plans and stoppages plans.

“The strategy meetings are good. We have a lot of talk about strategy as coaches and it’s often our biggest task to try and simplify it and give our players the information.”

Van Berlo is fairly calm and enjoys some time chatting with former teammates, including Brent Reilly and Kyle Hartigan, who have brought their sons along to the session.

The night before an away game usually ends with a few friendly games between the players and although the coaches sometimes get involved, VB prefers to sit and watch.

“We’ll go back to the hotel after the Captain’s run, get settled in, have dinner and then us coaches will have another meeting to plan for scenarios, while the boys get some treatment if they need it, and do their recovery with ice baths,” van Berlo says.

“The boys will then play table tennis or FIFA and it will usually get quite loud.

“(Ben) Keays, Josh Worrell and Izak (Rankine) are the ones who are the most vocal, I’m not sure if they’re the best but they’re the most vocal so it’s entertaining to watch.”

Saturday - Game Day

“I love my game day mornings,” van Berlo says.

“I get up and usually go for a run with a couple of other members of the footy staff and then when we go out for brekky, and switch off before game mode kicks in.”

The Crows’ clash against the Magpies has a 1.20pm (Melbourne time) kick off, which means players and footy staff will arrive at the MCG by bus at 11.30am.

A full-team meeting is held in the changerooms and Nicks does most of the talking, before the coaches meet in a room together to go over contingency plans.

Once the meetings are finished, van Berlo walks onto the middle of the oval with the coaches, and the group has a quiet moment to take it all in before the match starts.

A quick, five-minute team warm-up happens in the changerooms right before the players run onto the ground and through the banner and van Berlo assists by handballing the footy as players run through.

He yells out words of encouragement, as adrenaline and anticipation fills the room.

When the players run out, van Berlo heads to the coaches’ box, takes a seat and waits for the first bounce.

“I like to think I’m generally calm in the box,” he says before he heads there.

“I probably realise that it would be a lot easier as an assistant coach than a senior coach, but we’ve done a lot of planning during the week, so you just have to trust that work.

“We can motivate and give the players some structural strategy pieces that might help them a bit during the game, but I do try to remain calm and unemotional.”

Half-time v Collingwood

It’s half-time and Adelaide is down by just five points. The midfield stats are fairly even with the Crows winning the overall clearances (19-12), but down in the stoppage clearances (11-9).

Chairs are set up in the changerooms with the forwards, backs and mids split into groups so their respective line coaches can have a chat.

Van Berlo goes over their strategies, encourages the players, let’s them know what’s working and what they need to improve during the second half.

The players speak about how they’re feeling out there and how they’re seeing the game.

“At half-time, we talk about structure, how the game is unfolding and different strategies,” van Berlo says.

“Sometimes we can support it with some vision to say ‘this is what we are going to change at centre bounce, or on transition’.

“We just try and get everyone on the same page and give feedback on what they’re doing as we head into the second half.”

Full-time v Collingwood

Coming so close to stealing a win hurts after the Crows went down by 10 points.

After an away game, particularly a loss, the coaches and players move into the changerooms for a team meeting, as they begin dissecting the game.

We get together about 40 or 50 minutes post-game and have a debrief around what our initial thoughts are,” van Berlo says.

“We show a couple of bits of vision around what we were seeing and feeling, based on some stats.

“It gives the players a bit of clarity between now and when we see them next, which is usually on a Monday after a Saturday away game.”

Players will complete warm-down stretching and recovery in the changerooms, while the coaches continue to chat before making their way onto the bus.

In the Round 11 game against Collingwood, van Berlo’s midfield was strong, winning the overall clearances 39-29, as well as the stoppage clearances (27-20) and centre clearances (12-9).

“In the post-game chat we have with the players after the game, they are usually quite clear in their minds that there’s some areas we can fix quickly,” van Berlo says.

“It’s then a matter of actioning that next time and not having the same conversation in two or three week’s time.”

Saturday night - team returns to Adelaide

The bus ride to Melbourne Airport is quiet, and some coaches use it to get out their laptops and begin watching footage from the game.

“The fun starts now, as coaches we’ll start to code the game, I’ll start it on the plane, hopefully get a quarter done,” van Berlo says.

“It will be done tomorrow with the rest of the reports for the players, so we can come in on Monday all ready to go for our team review and line meetings.”

Van Berlo’s mind, similar to that of all the coaches, never stops ticking, constantly thinking of new strategies and things that can be put in place to make the team better.

“Straight away I think there were elements of our game where Collingwood had better consistency with their method and the way they defended and offensively shaped the ground,” he says.

“We’ll have a good look into that - we matched them for bits but in other parts they exposed us on it.

“There will also be some reflection on our transition work, stoppages and in and around that.

“We felt like there were moments in the game, critical moments, where we let ourselves down or didn't deliver on what we felt we needed to, and they are what we’ll review.”

As the plane touches down in Adelaide following an away game, the work will continue for van Berlo and all the coaches.

But after eight years as an assistant, which included four seasons at West Coast before returning to the Crows’ nest, there’s one aspect that drives van Berlo to continue.

“It’s hectic, but working with the players is what I enjoy the most,” van Berlo says.

“Being in a highly motivated environment where all the players want to do is get the best out of themselves.

“It’s pretty unique that you come to work everyday and everyone is on the same page to get the same result. It’s unique to our industry and there’s nothing more rewarding than when you come together to perform.”