Darren Reeves is thoroughly enjoying first AFL pre-season as an assistant coach, with the dual-SANFL premiership coach embracing the chance to take control of his new forward line. 

With a relatively healthy list, the battle for spots is heating up, with the club’s internal trial this Friday night another opportunity for players to put their hand up, just four weeks out from Round 1. 

Reeves spoke with the Adelaide media on Wednesday discussing forward line combinations, the development of young players, and the focus on the boys building power and strength in the gym. 

Reeves on his first AFL pre-season 
“It’s been really enjoyable. It’s a great coaching group to get to know and spend a bit of time with early on, and then the players came back in, and I’ve got a good relationship with the players, and just really enjoyed how they've gone about it. It's been great energy from day one, and it's great to get into game mode now and into some gameplay and be ready to get into some trial games over the next couple of weeks. So it’s been really enjoyable.” 

Reeves on moving from SANFL senior coach to AFL assistant 
“I think probably for me personally, just be able to (focus on) the forward line and nail down those 14 or 15 guys and spend a lot of time with those guys. It's been really enjoyable. I think that's probably the biggest difference. And Josh has been really strong on putting a lot of it back onto us as assistant coaches and making sure that the training sessions and everything's running smoothly. So it hasn't changed too much in that space. It's probably just your ability to be able to nail down those 14 guys and spend a lot of time with those guys over the pre-season.” 

Reeves on Mitch Georgiades attending centre bounces at training 
“That was just something to have a look at and just throw something a bit different to him. And we just never know what might eventuate during the course of the year. I'm not sure you'll spend see him spend too much time in there, but it might be an opportunity for him at different times, just to free himself up if there's a hard tag or the game's not going his way.” 

Reeves on what has surprised him at AFL level 
“Nothing’s really surprised me. I've been really enjoying the connection of the group, and it's obviously a young group, and we've got some new faces into the group that have had some experiences at other AFL clubs. But just the connection with group and their willingness to work really hard, that's been enjoyable to watch, and their willingness to challenge themselves to want to get better.” 

Reeves on the small forward battle 
“It’s been good. Obviously Corey Durdin’s come in and guys who have been here for a little while have been really strong through pre-season. We've had a look at some different combinations at different times, and it’d certainly a battle for spots in that space, that's for sure.” 

Reeves on Corey Durdin 
“I fortunately had an opportunity to coach Corey at underage level at Centrals, so it's really good to see his journey and I followed him closely since that point. He’s played 50 games as well so he’s had a fair bit of AFL experience.” 

Reeves on Ollie Lord and Jack Whitlock 
“Ollie (Lord) obviously had a bit of a downtime over the last couple of years, but he's had a super pre-season, and he's had great energy every session. And Jack’s (Whitlock) probably had a little bit of a stop start to the preseason where he had a few little niggles, but he’s had good continuity over the last month or so and has been really strong. But I've got no doubt both are going to have really strong years and that will play over the next couple of weeks in trial games. 

“(Both players have spent some time in the ruck) and obviously, with the game and the way the rules have changed, I'm not sure anyone really knows how that's going to look just yet. Whether you play two ruckmen, or whether you're going to need other guys that can spend minutes in there. So we're certainly looking at different avenues in that space, and we need to have those guys up to speed, but they certainly offer some good ruck minutes, if we need that. 

“For Ollie and the other forwards, we want to allow them to play to their strengths. And a bit of Ollie’s strength is to get at the football and to jump into the contest and really compete in the air. And we've been really impressed with how he's gone about that through pre-season. He’s certainly got himself fitter, which helps. He’s got some elite standards now and that's certainly helping him back up session after session.” 

Reeves on the new ruck rules 
“I think what you'll find is that the teams that win games early in the year, that everyone will probably follow that same (way of doing things). But I think the ruck rules and the interchange rules etc., no one really knows how that’s going to play out just yet. We’ve certainly had a lot of conversation around it and the trial games against the Crows and West Coast will help us in that space for sure.”  

Reeves on Harrison Ramm 
“It doesn't surprise me (how well he’s developing), because I had that opportunity to work with him closely at Glenelg. He’s still a 19-year-old kid that’s growing into his body. He's got unbelievable attributes, some learning to do from a game sense perspective, but his upside is phenomenal so it’s exciting to see where he goes.” 

Reeves on players putting on size during the off-season 
“It certainly was a focus for our guys to get a bit bigger and stronger, I’m sure every club’s in the same boat. I mean, a little bit of that is too, (the young players) get a couple of years of pre-seasons, that always help, to stack them up. And that sort of takes care of itself a little bit. But there's certainly been some growth in that space. 

“Obviously Tim Parham as our new high performance manager (has impacted that). There's certainly been a want from our guys to spend a lot of time in the gym and however they can allow their game to improve, it's important that they're doing that.” 

Reeves on the SSP players 
“(Jaidyn Stephenson) had a great period before the hamstring, where he played some really good footy in our match play stuff, and then that obviously set him back a few weeks. He was back into training this week and the next few weeks are big for those guys. They'll get some opportunity on Friday night in the internal and then I'm sure they'll get some opportunity in some trial games over the next couple of weeks, to keep pressing their cases. But certainly no decisions have been made from a coaching group perspective. We'll see how that plays out over the next period of time. 

“Balyn O’Brien is a young kid that came into the system, it was a fair workload early on for him, and he just pulled up a little bit sore there for a couple of weeks, and they managed him. But he's been back in training this week and he’ll play Friday night.” 

Reeves on Jason Horne-Francis  
“He got through training today with a pink (non-contact) hat on and looked pretty strong. We'll probably assess that and see (whether he plays in the intraclub). It's obviously been a different pre-season for him, so we're not set on him needing to play on Friday night. We feel like we can get enough minutes into him over the next couple of weeks. But certainly, if he pulls out of today well, and there's an opportunity, we'll look at that for sure.” 

Reeves on the intraclub teams 
“I don't think (it will be As vs Bs). I think we have, at different times, looked at some strong combinations of what we thought at that point, but it's been more around combinations in different areas of the ground – defence, forward, through the midfield, and we'll do that again Friday night. We'll look at different combinations in different areas of the ground, but we'll try and keep the teams as even as possible, and make it a real strong contest. It might be different parts of the game where we look at different things but I think it will be pretty even.” 

Reeves on how many tall forwards could be in his forward line 
“Certainly over my journey, I’ve liked the idea of three or four if you can, depending on if they're different. But we'll look at the makeup of our team and who's available and what's going to suit us best, but I think what we like about our tall forward setup is they're all different. They all offer different attributes. Our guys all have got different styles, and they complement each other really well, so we'll find the right combination.” 

Reeves on offence changes 
“I think overall the benefit’s going to pay off eventually. Is it perfect now? Probably not, but there's a want for our guys to play what they see in front of them, or play what the opposition allow them to be able to play, and be able to change how that looks at different times. And it’s certainly been a big focus for us through pre-season is to put players in those positions and see what it looks like. And there's some guys that can do things that others can't, so if we can get the ball in their hands as much as possible, that's going to be a really good outcome for us.” 

Reeves on Joe Berry 
“He’s been outstanding. I didn't know a lot about Joe when I first got to the club. Hand on heart, I probably didn’t think he was in our best 23 at that point, but he's certainly knocked the door down at times. He’s been as impressive as anyone through pre-season. Again, it's another year of pre-season, and some time in the gym, and probably him believing in himself a little bit more, but he's got weapons that are elite and going to be elite at AFL level.”