PORT ADELAIDE senior coach Lauren Arnell is pleased to see how her side’s pre-season is shaping up, particularly with the addition of eight new players for 2023. 

The playing group will return to evening training at Alberton Oval on Wednesday for the first time this year, and with four new light towers now in place, the future has never been brighter. 

Arnell spoke to the Adelaide media on Wednesday to discuss pre-season progress, how her new recruits are faring, and the influence the men’s team success is having on the AFLW program. 

Arnell on pre-season so far 
“It's been great so far. I think I'll say this every pre-season – if you're not in good shape in pre-season then you'd be in a bit of trouble wouldn’t you. We're really enjoying it, embracing it, post our first genuine off-season, so that means significant gains for our whole group. That's been the exciting element for us and bringing in eight new players as well is certainly progressing us this year.” 

Arnell on her new recruits 
“It's been really competitive across the squad this year. We've strengthened our list – obviously two past All-Australians in Ash Saint and Janelle Cuthbertson significantly adds to the strength of your list and someone like Katelyn Pope who previously a West Coast Eagles listed player and performed exceptionally well as a training partner for us last year and at North Adelaide in the SANFL again this season. She's been another state league player that we invest in and has stepped into the squad with some real strengths.” 

Arnell on Ash Saint’s role in the forward line 
“We've certainly got another element down there with Ash and I think her smarts and her understanding of positioning in our forward line is pretty for underrated for Ash. I know she's been the leading goalkicker in the competition but a lot of people don’t understand what she's got to offer so we're very excited to have her, especially alongside Gemma (Houghton).” 

Arnell on the competition for spots 
“I think it's really important and you see in our men's team at the moment, the quality of our SANFL Magpies team, they're sitting fourth on the ladder at the moment and that speaks to the success of our AFL team as well. So, to have depth for us in our (AFLW) squad of 32 is really important. 

“I guess we’re hoping to play some pre-season and warm-up games through August at some point and so for me, I'm sort of counting that in five or six weeks' time we'll play oppo so that’s super exciting right now.” 

Arnell on Alberton’s new light towers 
“It's really exciting for us to have our lights on and training here at Alberton at night. It opens up the possibility of whenever the fixture does come out that potentially we can play some twilight or night games here and host our wonderful people and supporters and members here at Alberton. If we do have twilight games or a similar timeline to what training is tonight, you can come in and have a feed at The Precinct and watch our crew roll around so it's exciting for us. 

“Alberton is home for us and so being able to here for every single training session is wonderful. The more we come together as a group now it's our second season, the more we can really embed this as an intimidating place (for opposition) to play football.” 

Arnell on standout players this pre-season 
“I've been really excited with the two additions I mentioned earlier in Janelle Cuthbertson and Ash Saint. Obviously Maddy Keryk is another experienced AFLW player that we’ve added to our group from Geelong and then there's some exciting new young talent as well, Georgie Jaques out of Norwood is a father-daughter for our football club (her dad Danny played SANFL football for Port Adelaide) and Jasmin Stewart who I think is probably going to be one of those underrated players who is going to do some good things for us this year. Jazzy's moved over from Perth and had a really exciting start to her career at Fremantle and now I think we'll hopefully see the best of her at Port Adelaide.” 

Arnell on the success of the men’s team this year 
“I think there's a fair bit for everyone to learn about what our men's team has been doing this year. I've certainly had some great opportunities in a coaching capacity as well to work alongside our male coaches so there's heaps there and for us, we're just really excited about how our men's team is going and couldn’t be more pleased for Ken and the group.” 

Arnell on the aim for 2023 
“Our aims never change as a football club – we aim to win every single game we play and while we don’t yet have a fixture, we work towards that goal every day.”