For the second consecutive week of the NAB Challenge Series, Senior Coach Alan Richardson will provide one of his right hand men with the opportunity to steer the ship. Following Danny Sexton in week one, Adam Kingsley, a man many believe is a coach in waiting, will coach the Saints against Brisbane in Mackay on Sunday.
The 2004 Port Adelaide premiership star and Senior Assistant Coach at Linen House Centre expressed his gratitude at the development opportunity, but said nothing will change in the lead up to the Saints’ second hit-out of the pre-season – or on game day – other than the message coming from a different voice.
“We’re pretty much treating it as per normal. The game plan will remain the same. Essentially, I’m just coaching the same methods, the same concepts, but instead of ‘Richo’ delivering it, it’s me,” Kingsley told Adelaide radio station Five AA.
“It’s a good opportunity for myself, it’s a good opportunity for ‘Richo’ to sit on the bench and observe from a different point of view. I usually coach the midfield, so it’s a great opportunity for my assistant to coach the midfield.
“So it is pretty good from ‘Richo’ – I’m really grateful for the opportunity.
Kingsley: No limits, we are driven to improve
“I’ll be responsible for all that kind of stuff (leading up to the game) – the pre-game meetings, during the breaks and then I’ll take control of the review, which isn’t too dissimilar to how we do it.
“Obviously I don’t take the review for the whole playing group, but in our (line) reviews we basically split it up into our areas anyway, so I don’t think it will look too different to normal.”
With interchange rotations being reduced from 120 to 90 per game this season, some clubs have opted to use the NAB Challenge series as a place to implement this alteration prior to it being enforced in NAB 3.
But with the Saints travelling up to far north Queensland, and playing in humidity, Kingsley indicated that St Kilda will focus more on managing players’ workloads rather than limiting rotations before it is necessary.
NAB CHALLENGE 2 TEAM: Star return to face Brisbane
“This week we’ll probably stick around the 110 (rotations). We don’t want to cook our guys up in Mackay, we know it’s going to be really humid – it’s forecast to rain,” Kingsley said.
“So a long three-hour trip from Melbourne back and forth, six hours in a plane sitting around for a little bit. We won’t really put the pressure on our guys too greatly.
“But we want to try and get closer to 90 because it is going to stress the players early in the season so we do want to get used to it and we’ll probably hit the 90 mark in NAB 3 to get a real good look at it.”
After fielding an inexperienced outfit against the Kangaroos in the opening week of the NAB Challenge series, St Kilda will send a more senior side to the Sunshine State this weekend, with seasoned stars Nick Riewoldt, David Armitage, Sam Fisher and Leigh Montagna all set to return to face the Lions.
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