Fight for Crows spots will be murder, says Vince

ADELAIDE is still two weeks away from the start of pre-season training, but already midfielder Bernie Vince is predicting an unprecedented battle for spots at the club.

The Crows removed five names from their senior list last month, but just one player -unlucky tagger Rob Shirley - will be missing from the semi-final side that lost to Collingwood when the players officially return to training on November 19.

A number of promising youngsters, including NAB Rising Star nominees Andy Otten and Patrick Dangerfield, and also third-year players Kurt Tippett and David Mackay, established themselves as mainstays in the side this year.

The club also blooded five debutants and with players like Phil Davis and Tony Armstrong knocking on the door, Vince said it would be tight for spots in 2010.

“A lot of the young fellas are going to be hungry to get a spot and we’re such an even playing group that it’s going to be pretty tight,” Vince said on Friday.

“We’ve got really high expectations again. We’ve got the same sort of playing group [as this year] and hopefully the younger guys can take that next step again.

“There’s definitely an extra buzz of excitement about next year.”

The Crows players were summoned to West Lakes on Friday for a gruelling morning of fitness testing.

Only injured players and those still holidaying overseas were exempt.

Predictably, Brett Burton and Nathan van Berlo led out the group of 20-plus players, but Vince said it was important everyone was up to speed with their training.

“You have to work hard over the break otherwise you just drop off. We’ve been training in small groups and working pretty hard following our training programs,” Vince said.

“Today will be a pretty solid session. We’ll have a bit of a run and a few blokes will test themselves out to see where they’re at and see if they need to do a bit of extra work before we officially start training.”

Friday also marked the unveiling of Adelaide’s new, predominantly white, away guernsey.

The jumper features the club’s new logo and, like the logo itself, is bound to stimulate debate among Crows’ fans.

Vince said the players were rapt with the new "angrier" design.

“Speaking to a few of the guys before, we think it looks good. It’s a bit more modern than our last logo and we think it’s going to fit us well.”