Q & A with Adrian Ricciardello

Q1. This has been the longest pre-season on record, how have you managed, especially in your first year as head coach?

It has been challenging! But no, it has been pretty good, during the shutdown I was in constant contact with the leadership group, I had all of my coaches including Meg & Jemma (Strength & Conditioning Coaches) looking after our pod groups, so we were all in contact with each other and constantly getting feedback. It did have its challenges, but it’s also been pretty positive and the players have kept upbeat.

To plan two pre-seasons before you plan an in-season program is difficult, but we’re finally at the end of it now which is good. I learnt a lot about myself as a coach and a lot about what players we’re dealing with as a whole, so a rewarding but challenging experience.

Q2. You’ve got some preseason hit outs under your belt, how did they go?

We played an intra-club which was really good and went on to play 3 pre-season games. The first was against Swan Districts and we had two sides roll out against them; won the first game and lost the second, so going okay but we improved on the week before, which was good.

We had a hit out against South Fremantle in which we went down, but we showed good signs of improvement, it probably didn’t go the way we wanted it to go in terms of the way the game played out though.

Against Subiaco we showed some good signs, even though we got beaten it’s not all about the results in pre-season, it’s just about improving each week.

Q3. Round 1 this weekend, how is the side shaping up?

The majority of the squad is available, which is really good. We’ve got limited injuries, everyone is fit and firing! Our School boys available as well, so we’re looking pretty strong which is exciting. Obviously Round 1, everyone has put their hand up for selection but unfortunately, we can only pick 23 to run out so that’s going to be our challenge as a coaching group. We will make our pick over trainings this week, but we have everyone on deck so it’s going to be a hard selection, but hard section is the most rewarding.

Q4. You’ve announced your leadership group and captain, can you give us a rundown on these players?

Our leadership group consist of six players and we have gone with a captain & two vice-captain structure. Keanu Haddow will captain the side, he’s part of the Fremantle Dockers Next Generation Academy (NGA), he’s come a really long way with his leadership and was fantastic for us over the Covid break.

Finn Gorringe and Lachie McGrath are our Vice Captains. Finn, having been in the State Academy is really good inside mid, he has come along in the leadership group, one of the strongest boys in the gym and works really hard. Lachie is an older boy, 19 this year, played a lot of PSA footy for Scotch, so we haven’t really seen too much of him at this level yet. He played a pre-season game with the reserves last week, he’s a key forward so we’re looking forward to seeing him play.

Sam Emery, Josh Gray and Bohan Teakle round out the group. Sam is a PSA boy, unfortunately he has done a medial strain so he will be out for a while. Played for Aquinas, he’s a good little inside mid and good left footer. We would love to have him available, but unfortunately we can’t.

Josh has been around the program for a while, he’s a good left footer, half forward and played the scratch matches. He had a great preseason, so he will be up for selection just like everyone else.

Bohan is a Midwest boy who captained Wesley last year in his final year of school, so he hasn’t played a lot of colts footy. But we’re looking forward to getting him into the midfield this year and hopefully he can have a pretty good season.

We also have three emerging leaders as part of our leadership structure. Taj Woewodin who has come up from the Futures last year. An Aquinas boy, who we probably won’t get to see a lot of this year, but he has played a couple of the pre-season games; he’s a half back, wing, on ball, he can go anywhere through there.

Joel Baverstock is another futures boy from last year who was the captain of the inaugural futures winning side in 2019. He has been playing a couple of pre-season games through the midfield, really good small nuggetty. Loves to learn so he’s very coachable, part of the reason he’s in the group.

Josh Browne is playing at half back at the moment, but he did start on the wing. He is just a work horse and really showed some leadership in the futures last year, so it was only right to get him to develop with the older boys.

Q6. Can you give us a rundown of your coaching group

Andrew Stephen is our backline coach in 2020, moving from the midfield coach last year. He has been with us for the last couple of years and is still on board which is really good. Stevo is a life member, Lynn Medallist and has his name on the locker, which he reminds me about every week and the fact that he kicked 7 goals against Claremont.

Midfield coach, we’ve managed to get Kane Lucas back to the club which is really good. Obviously spending some time at Carlton and West Coast, his enthusiasm, his knowledge and the way he has passed it onto the young blokes is invaluable.

Our forwards coach is Paul Mews who has come from the junior ranks within the East Fremantle district. He has done some development squad coaching in the 15s a couple of years back and was involved with women’s football down at Peel.  

We also have Paul Hanson who is the bench coach on game day. Paul has been around for a few years now, helping us out as a coaching group as well as running the leadership program with me.

Rob Young is also onboard assisting our Rucks & Talls, he has been great in helping with their development.

It’s a pretty solid crew and we’re learning and developing together as a unit.  

Q7. Has anyone impressed or caught your eye this pre-season?

That is a tough question. I think the majority of the boys have just bought into the way we want to run our pre-season, they’ve worked hard and lifted well in the gym. A couple of boys have surprised me, in a sense of the way they’ve worked and got themselves fit. Obviously, the State boys have come back and they are looking pretty good. Our captain, Keanu Haddow, is coming back from a medial/ PCL so he wasn’t going to play Rounds 1 – 5 but with the season pushed back, he’s really worked hard over that period. Also, the boys from Geraldton have come down in great shape! I am happy with how hard the boys in rehab work and the commitment they’ve shown has been fantastic.

But to single anyone out would be unfair on the majority of the squad as they’ve all worked hard and are fighting fit, with good skin fold & testing results. Now it’s all about working together as a team to have a productive season.