Port Adelaide’s Head of High Performance Stuart Graham says the squad is in a “really good position” to continue improving throughout 2025. 

Graham, who is responsible for physical performance, strength and conditioning, is pleased with the latest capacity testing results, with most players achieving new personal best records following the Christmas break. 

Speaking with the Adelaide media on Wednesday, Graham discussed the specific areas of focus throughout pre-season, the progress of players in rehab, and Todd Marshall’s injury setback. 

Graham on the squad’s current condition  
“Really good. We're in a really good position. The first phase of pre-season is the one where clearly we've done all our capacity testing in the gym and on the field to get a look at the guys. Our drill intensity, we're really happy with where they're positioned now. We've got a healthy list. Our rehab boys have made strong progress and have tracked on plan, and now we're really positioned for the second phase of pre-season, where our training minutes and our match playing minutes really bump up, and everyone's positioned ready to start that.” 

Graham on measuring improvement 
“Well really capacity testing is probably the one (measure to demonstrate improvement).  You're looking at year on year improvement. And we chase PBs for that reason, just to show that quite often, you're on a journey of trying to progress each year and want to see these qualities just continue to build. And that's what the testing shows us, that we've been on a pathway now for a good three, four years, focusing on things and they’re just continuing to develop. It also demonstrates the attitude of the group, that there's energy and want to get stuck into this season.” 

Graham on the areas of focus 
“Yeah, just building on, so they were already at a strong level, but our ability to repeat speed. We've brought in some new testing to test that, and we've also targeted our gym, particularly our upper body strength, which we've wanted to make some changes in there, and both have improved.” 

Graham on how strength and conditioning supports game style 
“Our focus areas around particularly our running patterns and the conditioning I provide is to support that program. So what we are really chasing is greater speed output from our group in the style we play, particularly in defence, and we're chasing that hard. It’s making them faster, and making their ability to repeat intensity better, and be more resilient.” 

Graham on the new players in the group 
“They've come in ready to adjust to our style of running and program. Both Rory and Jack have come from a really strong program, physical performance program, and they've settled right in. And then Joe Richards, as an athlete, he's really strong, and so he's fitted in really easily to our methods of training.” 

Graham on players in rehab 
“Finishing deeper (into finals) last year, we accumulated some guys that were managing little niggles through the year, and collaboratively, we've looked at it and gone well, we've got to take some time to settle them down through the off-season and through this early phase of pre-season. So I'm referencing probably Burto (Ryan Burton), Bergman, Boak and Drew in particular that we've just thought, they're experienced players and we've got to take our time to make sure that they're arriving at the start line feeling good and still have preparation to perform at a high level. And we certainly believe that they're at that level. 

“Well, actually we don't feel like they lose anything (from not being in full training from day one), and in many senses, it's a refresh for them that they've been in the system, most of them, for so long that to draw more out of performance, sometimes a little bit of a lesser approach and a management approach is going to draw out more performance. And that's where we feel all four of those are at. Their capacity testing was PB level as well. So that's an indication of that.” 

Graham on the draftees 
“All three of them (Berry, Whitlock, Moraes) have got their strengths and have brought those to the table from day one, and they have expectations to play round one, as they should, and they're going for it. So that's the attitude you want.” 

Graham on Sam Powell-Pepper 
”Yeah, very much so, he's on track (for round one). He's at the very end stage now. He's ticked off all the functional testing that we get done externally for him. He's ready. He's just got the final stages now, going back into match play, you’d see him out there with the pink (non-contact) hat. That’s just precautionary stuff. I think he's one week away from dropping that and going into full match play minutes. So he's super excited. He's such a footballer. With his conditioning and that side of things, he attacks it, but he loves being on field and going for it, and he's ready.” 

Graham on Todd Marshall 
“Yeah, we're all shattered for Todd. It’s a long rehab for him ahead as well. He's shown so much resilience with the injury adversity has faced across his career, and he's had the surgery today, he's recovering well from it, in the early stages, and it's all gone successfully. So we've got on the front foot, and it's happened, but we are here to support him. It's going to be a long rehab, and I'm sure he'll get through it, given how he attacks his rehab and how resilient he is. 

“Yeah, it can be six months plus really. We’ve got to see more and, I guess, establish his functional capacity first, and get some range of motion and see how he goes post op, before we can really settle on a timeline. But yeah, shattering news, and the boys are all getting around him, and we’re really disappointed to see that happen to him, because he had started really strongly in pre-season. 

“(It was an) innocuous incident, there was no one around him…he was out in space by himself. It's a movement he's performed thousands of times in training. So there's nothing there could that could have predicted that type of injury. Unfortunately, it just happens, and it's an unlucky incident for him.” 

Graham on Marshall’s concussion history 
“All the diagnostic tests we had done (after the last concussion) suggested that there was no risk of (his career ending). He was tracking well and recovering well from the concussions. But that could be a silver lining out this, some additional recovery time. But we were managing him through non-contact drills, and he was tracking really well, we were just being over cautious there in that space. But yeah, time will tell.” 

Graham on the feeling of the group when injuries happen 
“Yeah you can feel a shock response by everyone. The coaching staff that are immediately in the drill and the playing group sort of takes a little bit of adjustment back into training from it. And there's a lot of initial support (for Todd), particularly his closer mates that get around him to support him immediately. And you could sense it was a serious injury.” 

Graham on Kane Farrell 
“(He’s tracking) really well. He's in the Powell-Pepper category that he's tracking well in rehab, as planned, and we're hopeful and open that round one is very much on the table for him. Again, he's an experienced player that knows now how to get himself mentally right to perform, and he's hit all the conditioning standards, so it's just again, some of the top end speed, intensity, change of direction movements that he's got to tick off.” 

Graham on Ollie Lord 
“Someone like an Ollie Lord is really ready to want to grab that opportunity in front of him. But there is contingency in the list (to cover for Marshall), and those guys are going to go harder at it. We’ve proactively got a little bit more size into (Lord) and changed his muscle mass and increased that. The other forwards we’re possessed with are really good runners as it is, so just making their strengths even bigger. But Ollie Lord’s the one that's made a shift and he’s hungry for it. His running engine is slightly different to a George (Mitch Georgiades) and a Lukosius, in that he's better suited to more a contest, battles, work-rate type forward.” 

Graham on Soldo and Visentini 
“They're on a longer rehab, both slightly different knee injuries, so it's a longer rehab plan for them. They’re tracking well. Soldo’s ahead of Vis at the moment, just based on the severity of the injury that Vis had, but they are tracking well and looking to integrate into training over the next week for Soldo and Vis the week after.”