Adelaide defender Brodie Smith has heaped praise on Dan Jackson for his efforts with the Crows’ leadership group during isolation.

Jackson, who joined the Crows early this year as leadership development manager, has been hosting Zoom meetings for the leadership group once a week.

“He’s been running us through a few development things,” Smith said.

“(For) guys like myself, Tommy Doedee and Matty Crouch who are all relatively new to the leadership role, it’s been really good.

“For us to be able to do this development stuff, we’re going to be in a good position to lead the boys throughout the rest of the year and hopefully in years to come.”

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Smith joined the leadership group at the beginning of the year and has endured a mixed introduction to the requirements of the role.

“It’s definitely not what I expected (due to the coronavirus pandemic),” he said.

“Trying to manage guys and make sure they’re doing ok while trying to do your own work has definitely been challenging… but I feel like we’re doing a good job.

“(But) I’d much rather be at the Club, talking about games, performances, coming from SANFL to AFL rather than home workouts.”

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The AFL is expected to provide clarification on a season return soon, which should bring an end to what Smith called the most difficult part of the ordeal.

“The mental challenge is the unknown,” Smith said.

“It’s starting to come out now, but we didn’t know when we’d be coming back to training, how long we’d be in isolation, all those little things.”

Smith has been regularly training with teammates Luke Brown, Chayce Jones, Kieran Strachan and Shane McAdam - with the group of six alternating the pairings to abide by social distancing guidelines.