ADELAIDE defender Luke Brown is confident the club's young backline is re-establishing itself in the wake of an exodus of experience.
Since the club's final game of 2012 – a narrow loss to Hawthorn in the preliminary final – it has seen its most capped defenders hang up their boots.
That loss was Michael Doughty's 231st and final game, while Graham Johncock (227 games) retired in 2013 and Ben Rutten (229) departed at the end of last year.
If Brent Reilly (203) fails to return to the game after fracturing his skull early last week, the club will have effectively lost 890 games of experience in two seasons.
Brown's not worried though; he insisted the Crows' defensive core was getting used to playing without the experience usually so crucial to the game's best backlines.
The 22-year-old told AFL.com.au the club's young crop of defenders – led by fullback Daniel Talia – was busy creating its own dynamic.
"It's been like that for the last couple of years, we've been pretty young and we've been trying to jell together," Brown said.
"The likes of Talia, Brodie Smith, Matthew Jaensch – he's played a few games now – Ricky Henderson, myself, Rory Laird; we've had that taste of footy now and have played a fair few games together.
"We're starting to jell really well.
"I think it's got a lot to do with confidence; if you're confident that your teammate will do the right thing it makes your game a lot easier and the more you play alongside each other the more that confidence grows."
Brown also praised the influence recruit Kyle Cheney has had on the playing group.
Cheney crossed to West Lakes from Hawthorn last October in search of greater opportunity at senior level.
He has brought with him the ideals of one of the most successful clubs of the modern era and Brown said his input had been hugely beneficial.
As well as Cheney and his Hawks teammate Luke Lowden, the Crows added Phil Walsh as senior coach for 2015 as well as Ryan O'Keefe and David Teague as assistants – all of whom have tremendous experience from a number of different clubs.
Brown said the breadth of new ideas was helping the side raise the bar this pre-season.
"It's just good to get a few different heads around the footy club," he said.
"Phil Walsh brings a different side – he's been at a few different clubs – David Teague's been at a few different clubs and Kyle, when he came over he's just given a lot of advice of what Hawthorn do and how they go about their training and their standards.
"It's something we've taken into our training and he's been really helpful with that, he's been a good leader on the track and off the track."
