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Years of studying Gary Ablett at Geelong revealed one “weakness” to Brenton Sanderson, who now holds Adelaide’s reins.
But Ablett’s AFL rivals shouldn’t get too excited.
“He doesn’t have any hair, that’s his only weakness probably,” Sanderson laughed.
Time spent as Ablett’s teammate and assistant coach at Geelong was expected to give Sanderson some idea of how to stop the Brownlow Medallist.
However, Sanderson admitted he was none the wiser as he prepared to make his AFL head coaching debut against his good mate Ablett’s Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.
“Having coached him and played alongside him, he is an absolute freak,” Sanderson said.
“I don’t really know how to stop him.”
But Ablett wasn’t the midfielder on everyone’s lips the last time the two teams met at Carrara.
Adelaide’s Scott Thompson had a field day wracking up 51 touches – the second most since statistics were kept – as the Crows romped to a 61-point round 22 win last year.
Ablett this week admitted Thompson’s heroics embarrassed his on-ballers, setting up an intriguing midfield battle between a vengeful Suns and a revitalised Crows.
“He (Thompson) had a good game here last time, but the club has moved on and this is a whole new season – we will see how we go,” Sanderson said.
Indeed all eyes will be on Adelaide as they look to extend their surprise pre-season cup success.
A new gameplan under Sanderson that encouraged quick ball movement via the middle of the ground not only turned heads, it won them the pre-season competition.
And backed with a full-strength squad – including returning defender Ben Rutten (foot) – Sanderson would be forgiven for feeling he has the Midas touch.
But Sanderson said: “I have been around this game long enough to know as soon as you start patting yourself on the back the sooner you will be removing the knives from it.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves.
“There weren’t high expectations (from experts) starting the year off but now I think there are.
“But that is external. Internally we still have guys fighting for their spots – we left some guys out this week who deserve to play – so the drive within the group will be a big motivating factor.”
Meanwhile, Suns coach Guy McKenna tipped the likes of young midfielders Dion Prestia, David Swallow and Josh Caddy to heed lessons from last year and help stem Adelaide’s midfield tide.
And he expected Gold Coast’s defence to cope with the loss of suspended ex-Crow Nathan Bock and topple Adelaide’s twin towers Kurt Tippett and Taylor Walker.
Melbourne recruit Matthew Warnock and youngster Steven May are expected to have the unenviable task of marking Adelaide’s talls.
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