by Bluedemon » Wed Mar 07, 2012 8:57 am
From The Advertiser
"Adelaide University is ``upping the ante'' to end an unprecedented four-year spell in the SA Amateur Football League's second division.
The Blacks - the amateur league's most successful club with 23 division one premierships - have played in the lower grade since being relegated for the first time in their 106-year history in 2007.
This summer they have added five 6.30am training sessions and recruited ex-Adelaide Crows rookies Lachlan Roach and Andrew McIntyre in a bid to boost their promotion chances.
Former Sturt fitness coach Daniel Buberis has joined the club during pre-season to improve players' conditioning.
The moves come after the Blacks have narrowly missed out on a top-flight return in recent years.
After losing last season's second-semi final in extra time, the Blacks coughed up a three-goal three-quarter time lead to lose to St Peter's Old Collegians in the preliminary final.
In 2010 they suffered a one-point preliminary final defeat in extra time.
Blacks chairman Sam Bridgwood said the club was determined to earn promotion by delivering at least a grand final this season.
"We've improved over the past three or four years, we just haven't quite made that last step unfortunately," Bridgwood said.
"We've been upping the ante ... and pre-season's been a fair bit more intense than previous years.
"The commitment from most of the players this pre-season is probably bigger than it's ever been."
Uni's early morning trainings are another example of amateur league clubs moving closer in line with the semi-professional commitment of the SANFL.
Last year the City Messenger reported Tea Tree Gully Football Club had started its pre-season in November - three weeks before SANFL premier Woodville-West Torrens.
Third-year Blacks coach Marcus Trimboli said amateur league clubs were trying to get an edge on their rivals.
He said his players chose the 6.30am timeslot for their extra session because it was preferred to weekend training.
"We're endeavouring to get back to where we were as one of the fittest clubs in the amateur league," Trimboli said.
Fleet-footed midfielder Roach, cut from the Crows' rookie list at the end of last year, and ex-North Adelaide full-back McIntyre, a Crows rookie in 2007, headline the Blacks' off-season signings.
The club has also added ex-Sturt midfielder Seb Paynter and veterans Clark Roberts-Thomson (returning from overseas) and Tom Martin (come out of retirement), while Jack Lewis has recovered from a long-term knee injury.
Its outs include ex-Power backman Peter Walsh (Prince Alfred Old Collegians), co-captain Tom Kurzel (overseas) and reigning best and fairest Michael Taylor (Barossa Districts).
Trimboli said the club was quietly confident it could return to division one in 2013.
"The club would love to go up there (division one) and I'd love to get the club up there. Hopefully this is the year."
The SAAFL season kicks off next month."
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