Adelaide's new assistant coach and dual premiership captain Mark Bickley predicts an AFL season of plenty for gifted forward Trent Hentschel after a gruelling two-year rehabilitation from injuries that could easily have ended his career.

Hentschel was 23 and with the world more or less at his feet when he was crunched in a tackle by Port Adelaide's Matt Thomas late in 2006, sustaining torn knee ligaments and a broken leg - injuries more consistent with a car crash than a football clash.

Now 26 and one of the more senior members of the Crows squad, Hentschel seems to have shrugged off the soft tissue problems that bedevilled his comeback in the latter half of last year, and will soon be competing for a role in the Adelaide forward line where his creativity and touch has been greatly missed.

Bickley said Hentschel's pre-season training efforts had not been those of a player still trying to regain his feet, rather the confident work of a first team contender.

"Trent's always had the determination. I don't think he would've gone through two years of rehab without having the determination (to play AFL again)," Bickley said.

"But what I sense this year is that his body is capable of doing it. In the past couple of years, anecdotally, his body has let him down at varying stages.

"This year he hasn't missed a session and his 3km time trial this morning was within a couple of seconds of his personal best, prior to the injury."

The usual suspects were at the head of Adelaide's 3km time trial with athletic midfielder Nathan van Berlo setting a new club record of nine minutes and 29 seconds.

"Van Berlo was the standout, he ran a club record time this morning. And Tyson Edwards, who has played for probably 14 or 15 years, ran a personal best time too.

"That shows everyone at the club that the blokes at the end of their careers, or at the veteran stage, are serious about what they're doing and are keen to keep improving."

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