Footy training for Adelaide players
Every SANFL club has juniors coming through its under-age grades, so every spot is contested — from an under-16 list to a League side. The zone your local club sits in decides whose pathway you are in.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.
Adelaide is split between the SANFL clubs’ development zones: Central District and North Adelaide in the north, Woodville-West Torrens, West Adelaide and Glenelg in the west, Norwood and Sturt in the east, and South Adelaide in the south. Their under-18 and under-16 teams are the talent pathway, and amateur football runs through the Adelaide Footy League.
The season runs April to September, so pre-season happens in the hottest months of the year.
Find your part of Adelaide
Adelaide’s SANFL zones interleave, so these regions each name the two or three clubs that share them. The SANFL club finder confirms yours.
Adelaide’s north & the Barossa
Central District and North Adelaide zones — Elizabeth to Prospect, Gawler and the Barossa.
See the regionAdelaide’s west & north-west
Woodville-West Torrens, West Adelaide and Glenelg zones — the LeFevre Peninsula down to the bay.
See the regionAdelaide’s east & the Hills
Norwood and Sturt zones — Tea Tree Gully to Unley, and up into the Adelaide Hills.
See the regionAdelaide’s south
South Adelaide’s zone and the Southern Football League, with slices of Glenelg, Sturt and West Adelaide.
See the regionWhich club your address belongs to
Eight SANFL clubs run junior development zones in metropolitan Adelaide, each with a country region attached.
- Central District
- Elizabeth. The outer northern suburbs and the Barossa.
- North Adelaide
- Prospect. The northern suburbs, and Port Pirie and Port Augusta.
- Woodville-West Torrens
- Woodville. The north-western suburbs and the Yorke Peninsula.
- West Adelaide
- Richmond. The inner western and southern suburbs, the Riverland and Roxby Downs.
- Glenelg
- Glenelg. Sections of the western and southern suburbs, and the South East.
- Norwood
- Norwood. The eastern and north-eastern suburbs, and the Eyre Peninsula.
- Sturt
- Unley. The inner southern and eastern suburbs and the Adelaide Hills.
- South Adelaide
- Noarlunga. The southern suburbs, the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.
Every community club in South Australia is associated with a SANFL League club. The SANFL club finder and zone map show which zone your local club sits in — the SANFL is the authority, and boundaries are reviewed (the next review is due in 2027). Adelaide and Port Adelaide also field SANFL sides, without junior zones.
The competitions
- SANFL League, under-18 and under-16
- The state league and its talent grades. April to September.
- SANFL Women’s
- The state women’s competition.
- Adelaide Footy League
- Amateur football across Adelaide in senior, reserves and C-grade divisions.
- Southern Football League
- Community football in Adelaide’s south, and one of South Adelaide’s zone leagues.
Set it up for Adelaide
Four things, in the order the app asks them. None of them needs a coach.
Choose footy, then your team nights
Onboarding asks “When do you train with your team?” Pick your club nights — SANFL League, under-18 and under-16 or wherever you play — and your gym and conditioning are scheduled around them, lighter the day after a big one. Tell it your equipment and any niggles and every exercise is fitted to both.
Match the program to your league’s start
The app treats March as the start of the footy season. SANFL and community footy in South Australia starts in April, so you can hold the pre-season through March by setting the phase yourself. The phase lives in Program → Your year.
Know your numbers on day one
Your first testing session is ready immediately: 2km time trial, Bench press 1RM, Max pull-ups, Trap-bar deadlift 1RM, Running vertical jump. It is re-run every 8 weeks, and the results re-price your training weights and conditioning paces.
Put your suburb on the board
In Social → Town, set where you train. Your minutes count toward that town’s weekly conditioning and strength top-10 boards — only the town is kept, never your location.
What you start with, by the month you join
Every block is four weeks — three building, one deload — so a free month is one complete block.
The footy year in Adelaide
- October
- Off-season. Rest, then rebuild general strength.
- November – February
- Pre-season, through the hottest months. Aerobic base first, then strength, then power.
- March
- Final preparation. Practice matches and testing.
- April – September
- Season. The SANFL runs April to September with the Grand Final on the penultimate weekend of September. Volume comes down, weights hold.
Adelaide heat is the pre-season’s other opponent
Adelaide summers are hot and dry, and runs of very hot days are part of every pre-season. Dry heat is deceptive — you lose fluid without feeling soaked. Train the hard running early or late, treat a heatwave week as extra load rather than pushing through it, and use the Sports Medicine Australia heat guidelines your club likely already follows.
Coaching a side in Adelaide?
A club licence is A$8 per player, per month (minimum 5), and every player on it gets full Train Smart membership at no cost to them. You write the block once, it lands in each player’s app, and the console shows who actually did it.
Footy in Adelaide: questions
What are the SANFL clubs?
When is the SANFL season?
How should I train for footy through an Adelaide summer?
Where these facts come from
Checked September 2026. Zones, grades and dates change — if something here is out of date, the governing body is right and we are wrong.
Nearby and related
Eyre Peninsula
Norwood’s country zone — the Port Lincoln, Great Flinders, Eastern and Western Eyre leagues.
OpenYorke Peninsula
Woodville-West Torrens’ country zone — the nine-club Yorke Peninsula Football League.
OpenThe AFL pathway
From community level to state league and the draft — and what gets tested along the way.
OpenTurn up to round one already fit
Pick footy, tell it your team nights, and your first block and testing session are ready before you leave the car park.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.