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From the article below, it seems that Mark is getting very comfortable with the captaincy. It seemed to bother him for a while, but the way he is talking he seems primed for a big one and seems to be finally ready to fully fill the role left by Bickley. I've never questioned his on field leadership, but he now looks ready to be a major presence off the field as a leader also.
Article from afl.com.au today:
Adelaide captain Mark Ricciuto has recovered from minor ankle surgery and is making his considerable presence felt again among the Crows at AAMI Stadium.
Ricciuto had an arthroscopy to remove a bone spur just before the start of pre-season training in November and showed no ill-effects during a solid two-hour session in warm conditions at the No. 3 oval on Thursday.
“I built back into it just before Christmas, worked hard over the break up at Waikerie (his Riverland home town) and now I’m in full training,” he said.
“I’ve still got a little bit of work to do on the ankle, just to strengthen it up, before I get into the competitive ball work.”
But Ricciuto, 27, dismissed suggestions that, having had some niggling muscle problems over the years (inevitable in a 10-season, 216-game AFL career), it could be beneficial for him to “hold back” during pre-season training.
“I tried to be a little bit cute with that a few years ago, and I just prefer now to go flat out and have faith in Schwerdty (fitness coach Stephen Schwerdt) and Craigy (fitness guru and midfield coach Neil Craig) and Ayresy (coach Gary Ayres) and the program they put us through,” he said.
“It’s always set up individually and we listen to them and have the confidence that what they get us to do is right. It has been working so I’m not going to slow down at all. I’ll just go flat out and go from there.
“Tuesdays and Thursdays are designed strictly for running and light skills at the end of it, but really focused on the hard aerobic side of it.
“Mondays and Fridays are tough ball work and Wednesdays are skills sessions. Tuesdays and Thursdays aren’t the favourite days of the week for the boys, but it’s a part of the week that needs to be done in preparation for footy.”
Of Adelaide’s stronger squad, Ricciuto said: “We’ve definitely got a couple of extra players who can fit into our starting side, plus we’ve got a lot of juniors who obviously improved last year and will improve again.
“And a couple of players we picked up the year before played SANFL footy last year and will be pushing for spots as well.
“So, yeah, we’ve got a real strong list and you’ve really got to approach pre-season as hard as you can and put a lot of pressure on yourself to make sure you’re doing everything you can to get a game.
“The squad is in good nick. A lot of young players are coming on really well and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on for spots.”
When asked whether he was looking forward to the Wizard Home Loans Cup pre-season competition and some of the rule changes for it, Ricciuto said: “I haven’t really thought about it too much, to be honest. At the moment I’m just worried about preparing for it.
“I know we’ve got a big first-up game against Port (Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on February 22) and that’s a game we want to win.
“We certainly won’t be just cruising into the Wizard Cup this year. We want to do what we did last year and get away to a good start and get some winning form on the board, so that game against Port, who we haven’t beaten for a while, will be a big one.”
Of Adelaide’s weights program, Ricciuto said: “We’re not doing any more weights than we have. There’s a group of younger players who are doing more weights – three or four sessions a week. But the players who are the right size are doing only two sessions a week.
“It’s a funny part of football where some clubs do three or four sessions a week, some do one or two. I think Geelong apparently are doing a lot more weights than they have before after getting pushed off the ball a fair bit last year by Brisbane.
“It’s just a bit of a trend that some clubs go through. They’ll think they need to be stronger or they’ll think they need to be quicker. It’s all dependent on what club you are talking about.”
Ricciuto said last weekend’s training camp at Strathalbyn was “solid again”.
“They always make sure you come back from that pretty tired,” he said. “We had Monday off to recover from it and we needed it.
“We’ve done it for a few years now so the players who have been around know what to expect. They probably make it a little bit easier because they can guide the other players through.
“But certainly the running, the ball work and the Star Force (police drills) make it a very tough weekend.”
Article from afl.com.au today:
Adelaide captain Mark Ricciuto has recovered from minor ankle surgery and is making his considerable presence felt again among the Crows at AAMI Stadium.
Ricciuto had an arthroscopy to remove a bone spur just before the start of pre-season training in November and showed no ill-effects during a solid two-hour session in warm conditions at the No. 3 oval on Thursday.
“I built back into it just before Christmas, worked hard over the break up at Waikerie (his Riverland home town) and now I’m in full training,” he said.
“I’ve still got a little bit of work to do on the ankle, just to strengthen it up, before I get into the competitive ball work.”
But Ricciuto, 27, dismissed suggestions that, having had some niggling muscle problems over the years (inevitable in a 10-season, 216-game AFL career), it could be beneficial for him to “hold back” during pre-season training.
“I tried to be a little bit cute with that a few years ago, and I just prefer now to go flat out and have faith in Schwerdty (fitness coach Stephen Schwerdt) and Craigy (fitness guru and midfield coach Neil Craig) and Ayresy (coach Gary Ayres) and the program they put us through,” he said.
“It’s always set up individually and we listen to them and have the confidence that what they get us to do is right. It has been working so I’m not going to slow down at all. I’ll just go flat out and go from there.
“Tuesdays and Thursdays are designed strictly for running and light skills at the end of it, but really focused on the hard aerobic side of it.
“Mondays and Fridays are tough ball work and Wednesdays are skills sessions. Tuesdays and Thursdays aren’t the favourite days of the week for the boys, but it’s a part of the week that needs to be done in preparation for footy.”
Of Adelaide’s stronger squad, Ricciuto said: “We’ve definitely got a couple of extra players who can fit into our starting side, plus we’ve got a lot of juniors who obviously improved last year and will improve again.
“And a couple of players we picked up the year before played SANFL footy last year and will be pushing for spots as well.
“So, yeah, we’ve got a real strong list and you’ve really got to approach pre-season as hard as you can and put a lot of pressure on yourself to make sure you’re doing everything you can to get a game.
“The squad is in good nick. A lot of young players are coming on really well and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on for spots.”
When asked whether he was looking forward to the Wizard Home Loans Cup pre-season competition and some of the rule changes for it, Ricciuto said: “I haven’t really thought about it too much, to be honest. At the moment I’m just worried about preparing for it.
“I know we’ve got a big first-up game against Port (Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on February 22) and that’s a game we want to win.
“We certainly won’t be just cruising into the Wizard Cup this year. We want to do what we did last year and get away to a good start and get some winning form on the board, so that game against Port, who we haven’t beaten for a while, will be a big one.”
Of Adelaide’s weights program, Ricciuto said: “We’re not doing any more weights than we have. There’s a group of younger players who are doing more weights – three or four sessions a week. But the players who are the right size are doing only two sessions a week.
“It’s a funny part of football where some clubs do three or four sessions a week, some do one or two. I think Geelong apparently are doing a lot more weights than they have before after getting pushed off the ball a fair bit last year by Brisbane.
“It’s just a bit of a trend that some clubs go through. They’ll think they need to be stronger or they’ll think they need to be quicker. It’s all dependent on what club you are talking about.”
Ricciuto said last weekend’s training camp at Strathalbyn was “solid again”.
“They always make sure you come back from that pretty tired,” he said. “We had Monday off to recover from it and we needed it.
“We’ve done it for a few years now so the players who have been around know what to expect. They probably make it a little bit easier because they can guide the other players through.
“But certainly the running, the ball work and the Star Force (police drills) make it a very tough weekend.”
