Brent Reilly Biography

Adelaide begins a significant restructure of their coaching department by moving on assistant coaches Michael Godden and Ben Hart, the latter of whom will be returning to Melbourne for family reasons.

Development coach Brent Reilly has been told he will no longer be an assistant coach, but his position within the coaching panel will be determined in the coming weeks.

Brent Reilly returns to Adelaide as a development coach.

Brent Reilly has retired from football immediately and has been advised to never play contact sport again.

"When you get the injury I did receive I obviously thought about [whether I'd play again] but as I said I'm glad I'm here," Reilly said.

"To get told that I can't play contact sport and also told that I'll never play football again was very tough.

"But I've made some very good inroads in my recovery and I'm hoping to live a normal life.

"My whole motto from the injury is: 'it is what it is and you've got to get on with it'."

Reilly has been invited by the club to continue on in 2015 in a coaching role, which would include a match-day role in the coaches box.

"We're going to offer that to Brent, he's been in there for a couple of games already, he's helped out with a little bit of training," Adelaide coach Phil Walsh said.

"We're also conscious that he's still in recovery mode at the moment, we don't want to welcome him into the life as a coach which is not that great."

Adelaide head of football said Reilly had helped instill a culture of integrity at West Lakes.

"To see the transition, I think what [we] saw this morning was just a real class person," Noble said.

"The integrity and the honesty that I think Brent's embedded in the culture of our football club – they're the people that you just love to have around the place."

Two months after fracturing his skull, Adelaide defender Brent Reilly can't drive a car let alone consider a return to the AFL.

"He was at training yesterday so progress is coming along," Crows coach Phil Walsh told said.

"He still has some rehab work that he needs to be doing at the moment, he can't drive a car at the moment, so we are just going to let him get his life in order and then we'll make those decisions."

Brent Reilly has spoken publicly for the first time about the training accident that left him in intensive care with a fractured skull.

"At the moment my health and my fitness is more important than thinking about football so, as I said, I'm down at the club helping the boys out but at the same time I've got to look after myself," Reilly said.

"I've been doing a lot of rehab with some doctors and a neuropsychologist.
I've also got a speech therapist that comes around twice a week.

"I'm showing some good signs. I'm on the mend and I'm just looking forward to getting 100 per cent fit again."

Brent Reilly enters the rehabilitation phase of his recovery from a fractured skull.

Adelaide's head of football David Noble said there was no concern surrounding Reilly's symptoms.

"He's definitely had irritations to the nerves on the left-hand side of his face, which is really common with this particular type of injury and post-surgery," Noble said.

"That's a normal occurrence.

"'Radar's' speech is really good, that nerve damage sometimes has a little impact on certain words but his comprehension is good, his memory is fine.

"The surgeon was really happy and thought that these symptoms were certainly temporary, they were quite comfortable with how he came through the surgery."

Brent Reilly is moved out of intensive care and into a private ward at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Adelaide club doctor Andrew Potter says it's too early to say when, or if, Brent Reilly might play again.

"It's far too early … it's less than 24 hours after the surgery," Potter said.

"As always with any surgical intervention there are some things that occur that are a normal part of the recovery, and we really have to wait until all of that settles down and see how Brent is progressing over the next week or so or even longer before we answer that question."

Brent Reilly will have surgery after sustaining a fractured skull in a collision at training.

Reilly received immediate help from club doctors at West Lakes but was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in an ambulance where he was diagnosed with the skull fracture.

In what he describes as possibly the "toughest" call he's made as Adelaide coach, Brenton Sanderson has denied Brent Reilly his 200-game milestone by dropping him from the side to face Collingwood.

"On the eve of a milestone game it seems like it can be quite cold…he's going to be fine though, he's played with a lot of resilience, he's obviously got a lot of experience – he'll be back, he will be a 200-game player," Sanderson said.

"Brent gets the ball for us but he's had some goals kicked against him as a defender the last couple of weeks – that's probably the main message for him.

"He won't be out of the side for long."

Adelaide are confident Brent Reilly's reconstructed shoulder will no longer pose a problem for the defender who will play in his first game for 2014 against the Power in round 2.

"We just wanted to make sure for his own confidence that we avoided those situations where he put himself under unnecessary risks," Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said.

"But he has said to me this week, and we have spoken to his surgeon, that shoulder is not going to pop out. They have really wound that tight."

Brent Reilly says he hopes to return to the side by round one as he recovers from a shoulder reconstruction.

"(The) shoulder's going okay, it's a little bit slow. I should be right for round one," Reilly said.

"I'll start contact training maybe mid to late January, so I'm looking forward to that."

Brent Reilly will undergo surgery after dislocating his shoulder against Gold Coast and will miss the rest of the season.

"We feel really disappointed for him," Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said.

"It's about a six-month injury, so we'll get Brent ready for next season at Adelaide Oval. I'm sure he's got plenty of good footy left in him."

Adelaide assistant coach Scott Camporeale reveals that Brent Reilly was asked to slim down after being dropped from the side prior to the bye.

"The game's getting quicker and faster and guys need to cover the ground a lot easier and we just thought that it'd be in his best interests that we needed him to just slim down a bit," Camporeale said.

"He did a fair bit of [endurance work], changed his weights program [over the break] and he's looking really good."

Brent Reilly is dropped from the side to face Richmond with Crows assistant coach Mark Bickley saying the defender has been out of form this year.

"The expectation as a defender is you have to be responsible for a player and defend and we feel he hasn't quite done that to the level that we expect of him," Bickley said.

"If you do a really simple comparison of what he was able to do last year and what he's doing this year in terms of being able to shut his man down and get off and intercept – he probably hasn't been at that [same] level."

With the Crows sitting at 2-4 after 6 games, Brent Reilly says the team must lift their training standards.

"We need to lift our standards up on the track. [I'm] not saying they're poor, but we just need to get back to that training standard we had last year," Reilly said.

"It's probably showing in our game we're not doing that consistently enough. We know what works and that's what makes us play well."

Brent Reilly is set to become a one-club player after re-signing with the Crows for two years. Fellow Crows Tom Lynch and Cameron Ellis-Yolmen have also inked new deals.

Brent Reilly says playing as a run-with midfielder in the past has made his transition into his current role as a defender seamless.

"I can use my marking and my kicking and it's a role I really enjoy," he said.

"With my tagging, I was used as a bit of a link-up player also, I wasn't just a set tagger, but it's obviously helped me in defence, beating off my opponent and then worrying about getting the ball myself."

Ben Rutten and Brent Reilly receive life memberships during Adelaide's 2012 season launch after both players tally 100 games and 10 years of service at the club.

"It seems a long time ago that I was on the rookie list here. To spend 10 years here and play 169 games at one club is fantastic," Rutten said.

"I've been involved in some good sides earlier in my career and, unfortunately, we didn't maximise our opportunities. I'm sure I speak on behalf of all the older boys here when I say we've never been more desperate to win a premiership."

Reilly says that life membership at the Crows is an honour.

"It's been a journey," Reilly said.

"When I first came over from Melbourne I was raw. I had no idea about life or football, but I've come a long way. I've grown up here and I'd like to call myself a South Australian."

Adelaide midfielder says he'll see out his career as a one-club player ahead of 150th game this weekend against St Kilda.

"It took me a couple of years to settle in and start playing some good footy," he said.

"Every time a contract came up, I always thought about going home. I had some offers to go back home, but I've met some fantastic people here who have really helped me out. I didn't want to let them down and I want to be a one-club player."

Adelaide onballer Brent Reilly has been working hard to develop into a tagger this season after Crows coach Neil Craig suggested it as a possible role for him.

"I did a little bit of tagging when I first came over just helping out off the bench. I hadn't really done it for any length of time, but I thought I should grab the opportunity with both hands and make the most of it," Reilly said.

"I'm just after some team security at the moment. I've been thrown around in a lot of positions over my career and I'm keen to settle down in one spot and make it mine for the whole year. If it's a tagging role, well I'm looking forward to the challenge."

A change in mindset has done wonders for skilful Crows midfielder Brent Reilly who has turned his form around after a stint in the SANFL by averaging 27 disposals over the last month.

"I was getting myself tied in a knot. I just worried about too much and I had too many things going on in my mind. I wasn't concentrating on the things that make me play better, and it was just a big build-up of negative thoughts in my mind," Reilly said.

"It spilled over to the game, and I wasn't performing.

"I needed to become a bit more relaxed around the club and not stress out so much. I think I've let myself play my natural game, and it's been working."