Adelaide’s development coaches have taken plenty of positives from Sunday morning’s reserves scratch match against Brisbane at Yeronga.
The two teams each fielded 16-a-side across six 10-minute periods designed to draw the physical comparisons to AFL footy.
Speaking on Monday, Crows Development Manager Heath Younie identified a handful of standouts in a solid team performance.
“All our guys had moments throughout the game that we were happy with,” Younie said.
“Kyle Hartigan was outstanding. Doing a wonderful job with developing our younger backs, a really selfless role he’s playing for us at the moment.
“Dave Mackay, experienced campaigner, I thought that was his best game thus far.
“Strachanie (Kieran Strachan) gave us a first look in the ruck. Matty Crouch and Paul Seedsman came back with great attitudes and contributed to the game strongly.
“Tyson Stengle, unfortunately he can’t be selected for the AFL yet, he’s been playing a little more midfield minutes at the moment trying to build some physical capacity. He played a really strong game.
“The result we got, albeit we didn’t take a score as such, was a really positive move forward off the back of a really challenging week on the training track.”
Younie said the focus each week was on development, with game rules varying each week and opposition players often switching sides to balance numbers.
“There’s no scoreboard and I haven’t really kept score in any of the games,” he said.
“Collectively we want to see progression in the way we play as a team and we saw that (against Brisbane). Then a lot of our time goes into working through the individuals and making sure the areas their strengths are improving and continually progressing.”
“We’d still love to be in the SANFL competing weekly for wins, so at the moment we’re making the most of a challenging situation.”
Riley Knight also made a successful return from an Achilles injury, completing two-thirds of the match.
Non-selected players in Round Five will play against Fremantle in a reserves scratch match this weekend.
