Crows forward Taylor Walker returned to pre-season training in excellent condition. Picture: Sarah Reed Source: The Advertiser
ACE forward Taylor Walker showed yesterday he and his teammates are determined to put the Kurt Tippett drama behind them.
With Walker returning to training in superb condition, coach Brenton Sanderson was confident the Crows have more than enough weapons.
As the league last night announced its hearing into the Tippett scandal had been rescheduled for Friday, November 30, Sanderson was focused on preparing his playing group for a "great 2013".
Sanderson has also put the blowtorch on key forwards Shaun McKernan and Josh Jenkins.
"Honestly, I just can't wait for the season to come around again," Sanderson said.
"There's a really good sense of expectation that 2013 might be something special for the group and I think we saw that (at training yesterday) with the energy amongst the group."
While expressing his disappointment at losing Tippett - his highest goalkicker and the centrepiece of the Adelaide attack for the past five years - Sanderson said the club has the cattle to replace him.
"We've talked about it a lot at list management and we don't necessarily have to replace Kurt Tippett with a Kurt Tippett," he said.
"Without putting too much expectation on them, it's important that McKernan and Jenkins and these sort of guys understand that it is a great opportunity for them to stand up and step into a really good side next year.
"But the game's always changing and there's new forwards, who are smaller and dynamic and a lot of sides are playing with just one ruckman these days.
"We'll have a look at our structure over summer because there's plenty of different options for us.
"We can play Lewis Johnston there, we can play Tom Lynch there, (Jason) Porplyzia can almost play full forward, (Patrick) Dangerfield can spend more time forward, so we 've got lots of different looks that we can show the opposition when it comes to our forward line.
"We certainly won't be saying, 'Let's find the next Kurt Tippett', we'll be looking for other options."
Excited by the first-day training displays of last year's leading goalkicker Walker - who was a standout - and 2011 mini-draft selection Brad Crouch, Sanderson was guarded in what he could said about Tippett as his club fights AFL allegations of salary cap cheating and draft tampering over his controversial 2009 contract.
But he said:
THE Crows' 17 rivals should be nervous in the wake of Tippett scandal.
"There is a lot of greyness surrounding ASAs (additional services agreements) and how players are paid and stuff, so probably the other 17 clubs are just double-checking and ensuring that everything is above board," he said.
HE backed the club to ride through the storm and threw his support behind embattled chief executive Steven Trigg and football operations manager Phil Harper, who are facing AFL charges.
"I've got a great working relationship with those people and that will continue," he said.
THAT he was disappointed Tippett joined Sydney for the money when he had indicated he would play for Adelaide or a Queensland club.
"When Kurt told us he was going to leave and that it was going to be to Sydney, that - from our point of view - was a bit of a surprise," he said.
HE understood his players anger towards Tippett, but insisted it wouldn't affect their performances next year.
"Internally, inside the bubble, things are just business as usual," Sanderson said.
