Adelaide Crows coach Brenton Sanderson at training before the start of the NAB Cup. Picture: Tait Schmaal Source: Sunday Mail (SA)
ONE club wants to win the NAB Cup, one needs to light a torch for fans and sponsors, and the other couldn't care less about claiming the pre-season competition.
After 156 days and countless con-troversies, footy is back at AAMI Stadium when Adelaide, Port Adelaide and St Kilda meet in the NAB Cup's triple-header opening round from 4.10pm today.
On the eve of the new season, defending NAB Cup champions the Crows have credited last year's March success for a spike from 14th in 2011 to a preliminary final, declaring the pre-season tournament a key plank to their 2013 plans.
The Power is desperate to offer fresh hope under new coach Ken Hinkley by erasing the memories of a 2012 season that delivered just five wins and a draw, and cost former leader Matthew Primus his job.
But second-year St Kilda coach Scott Watters yesterday brushed off the AFL's company line that winning the NAB Cup should be every team's priority.
"No interest, and that is certainly not a focus," Watters said.
"We want to be competitive every time we play. Whether it's a scratch match or a handball game, our players want to come and win.
"But is winning the NAB Cup a focus? Not at all."
NAB Cup form was once AFL fool's gold, after Carlton's 2005 and 2007 victories were followed by a wooden spoon and 15th finish in the premiership seasons.
But each of the past five NAB Cup winners has landed in the top-four at the end of the home-and-away season, including Geelong's 2009 premiership double.
Despite Adelaide today resting nine first-choice players - Scott Thompson, captain Nathan van Berlo, Patrick Dangerfield, Rory Sloane, Ben Rutten, Brent Reilly, Taylor Walker, Jason Porplyzia and ruckman Sam Jacobs - assistant coach Mark Bickley said the Crows' 34-point victory over West Coast last year proved the tournament's value to his group.
"Yeah, we want to win it, we'd love to win both matches (today) and give ourselves a chance to play in that NAB Cup Grand Final again because it was such a great preparation for us last year," Bickley said.
"We played a really good game against West Coast, and that gave us a lot of confidence to kick the season off."
But Bickley conceded getting top-level experience into emerging players was a bigger concern. "It's one that you juggle a little bit," he said.
"We really want to see guys like Tom Lynch and Lewis Johnston, and (Brad) Crouch and (Luke) Brown, and (Sam) Kerridge, and all those guys who got one or two games," he said.
"So to be able to expose them to three or four games is probably more critical as well because we think they've developed a little bit more and we want to see if they're going to stand up.
"You play low to mid-30s (players) per year if you're lucky, which means a lot of these guys are going to play important minutes this year."
Adelaide and St Kilda players braved yesterday's heat for brief training sessions at AAMI Stadium.
The Saints will be without stars including Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Rhys Stanley and Sean Dempster for tonight's Twenty20-style carnival, while Adam Schneider (foot) and Sam Fisher (toe) were also held back.
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