Pre-season fool's paradise?

[Dry Rot]

I was talking to my footy guru last night, an old Sth Melbourne fan living in the Yarra Valley.

He is amused at the Melbourne papers coverage of every club's pre-season. He claims that every club is presented as bigger, better, fitter etc , even the Tigers, and all will have stellar years.

Is that so in the press down there? Is there anything one can gain or learn by tracking pre-season preparations? Or is it all just a fool's paradise where every fan thinks his/her team will do well?

[mjp]

'Everyone has a plan until someone punches them in the face'. M. Tyson.

Everyone IS going well at this time of year. For pretty much everyone. Players are generally pretty good in executing set training, and during pre-season that is what they have to do...train. So they do well. There are no confidence issues, collision injuries and very few planning meetings to endure...

So yes, it is a fools paradise, but what else would you expect?

[Sockeye Salmon]

SEN took some talkback the other day on the most common pre-season cliches.

Everyone is flying at this time of year. They've all put on weight (except Stewie Dew, he's lost it) and are running PB's.

So far, so good. Haven't lost a game.

Of course it's all bollocks.

[The Coon Dog]

When I was younger we always referred to players who trained the house down in pre season as March Champions!

[Templeton31]

in some ways its the best time of year for us footyheads - its all good with no evidence we are actually not as good as the Coach/publicity is telling us. I mean last years pre-season is getting a bit of a bagging from Rocket here and there (not fit enough, too many injured players) but I certainly dont remember any of that stuff being said last summer! And I'm being unfair singling out Rocket there - its the same for every club. ALthough for some clubs (Richmond) all the sunshine is a little harder to believe!!!!:D

I do it myself also. I remember a couple of summers ago when Rohde was still in charge going to a training session and during match play watching Streeta play as a forward pocket. he marked everything and kicked 3 goals in about 5 minutes. I went away thinking he was a gun fwd - what I needed was to watch a few videos of Streeta playing up forward in games. That would have brought me back to earth!

[LostDoggy]

'Everyone has a plan until someone punches them in the face'. M. Tyson.

Everyone IS going well at this time of year. For pretty much everyone. Players are generally pretty good in executing set training, and during pre-season that is what they have to do...train. So they do well. There are no confidence issues, collision injuries and very few planning meetings to endure...

So yes, it is a fools paradise, but what else would you expect?

No one is going to sell their club short this time of the year but when I look at the players I'm looking for small wins. A skinny youngster putting on 5kg or seeing improved skills.

Just having a near full strength team at the start of the season is what I look for.

[mjp]

No one is going to sell their club short this time of the year but when I look at the players I'm looking for small wins. A skinny youngster putting on 5kg or seeing improved skills.

Just having a near full strength team at the start of the season is what I look for.

Aha - but there you go...how do you know in Jan what a 'near full strength team' actually is? And how do you judge 'improved skills' at training? And is putting on 5kgs always a good thing?

[LostDoggy]

Nobody can lose a match in the pre-season, so using that logic everybody is doing well. It's annoying having to listen all of this talk (most of it about Carlton, which is getting a little bit old). I'm always impatient during the offseason, but I'd be lying if I said I was more excited about 2008 than I was about 2007, so I'm handling it a bit better, which can't be a good thing.

[LostDoggy]

Aha - but there you go...how do you know in Jan what a 'near full strength team' actually is? And how do you judge 'improved skills' at training? And is putting on 5kgs always a good thing?

You don't know in January if the side will be near full strength or not but it is encouraging to see all the players training.
Regarding skills, I have seen players take a noticeable improvement with their marking or tackling during the pre season training and it has translated to the proper season.
Regarding the weight gain, it will be encouraging to see the guys like Wight, Everitt, Hill and Lynch with a bit more muscle and weight.

[hujsh]

I agree that you really just look for evidence of improvement like increased endurance or a player appearing to be stronger for an indication of how that player might go.

[The Underdog]

When I was younger we always referred to players who trained the house down in pre season as March Champions!

I never turned up to pre-season until March:o.

[hargs37]

There was some honesty from the doggies this year. They did princes park(3.2km) and Danial Cross won. Thats not the surprise. They said he was well off his PB! Shock horror! He's normally towelling off after his shower at home, when the next player comes in!

[LostDoggy]

There are no games to talk about so pre-season goss-scraps are all we tragics have to live on, and as we all know, footy tragics are those of us who sit in a game forty-five points down at three quarter time going "ok, if we just kick the first three goals we're within twenty-seven, and there's no telling what might happen next..." ie, we're all crazy over-optimists, so there's no surprise we all get excited that one time of the year everything is guaranteed to be going okay... no real hidden psychological secret agenda going on methinks. ;)

It would be more worrying if we were all sitting around during pre-season going "oh, boy. things look grim. the kids have put on weight and it's such a long pre-season i hope they haven't burnt themselves out etc etc".

Oh no. I hope they haven't burnt themselves out.

Ps. Plus I think we've drafted/traded well. But we always think that, don't we, until the season starts...

[BulldogBelle]

There was some honesty from the doggies this year. They did princes park(3.2km) and Danial Cross won. Thats not the surprise. They said he was well off his PB! Shock horror! He's normally towelling off after his shower at home, when the next player comes in!

Last person I worry about is Daniel Cross - along with Boyd those two are the most dedicated training wise.

If Crossy was well off his personal best...makes me wonder how much slower the others were behind him.

[BulldogBelle]

It would be more worrying if we were all sitting around during pre-season going "oh, boy. things look grim. the kids have put on weight and it's such a long pre-season i hope they haven't burnt themselves out etc etc"....

Hey Lantern,

Don't worry some do say exactly what you have written above, one player goes down or is injured and suddenly the end of the world is here :rolleyes:.

Me, I just watch and listen and absorb all the write ups and just hope they reach the desired level of fitness by the time Round 1 rolls around.

[LostDoggy]

Don't worry some do say exactly what you have written above, one player goes down or is injured and suddenly the end of the world is here :rolleyes:.


Haha :)

[hujsh]

Last person I worry about is Daniel Cross - along with Boyd those two are the most dedicated training wise.

If Crossy was well off his personal best...makes me wonder how much slower the others were behind him.

After that injury he can be a bit off his best. But i thought the exact same thing as you regarding the rest.

May we just hope that Cross is just near impossible to beat

[mjp]

You don't know in January if the side will be near full strength or not but it is encouraging to see all the players training.
Regarding skills, I have seen players take a noticeable improvement with their marking or tackling during the pre season training and it has translated to the proper season.
Regarding the weight gain, it will be encouraging to see the guys like Wight, Everitt, Hill and Lynch with a bit more muscle and weight.

Marking and tackling improvements in January? Really? But how, pray tell, did you know that they have improved, given that they weren't doing it in a game.

As for weight gain, it often makes them LOOK stronger - but doesn't always make them play better...Lynch might lose a bit of zip and never become the player everyone hopes...he might not, but he might.

It is all stamp collecting at the moment.

[Mantis]

There was some honesty from the doggies this year. They did princes park(3.2km) and Danial Cross won. Thats not the surprise. They said he was well off his PB! Shock horror! He's normally towelling off after his shower at home, when the next player comes in!

He missed his PB by less than 10 secs.

To me that is still a pretty solid run. If he missed his PB by anything more than a minute I might be worried, but I suppose Cross sets himself some pretty high expectations which is a good thing.

[GVGjr]

He missed his PB by less than 10 secs.

To me that is still a pretty solid run. If he missed his PB by anything more than a minute I might be worried, but I suppose Cross sets himself some pretty high expectations which is a good thing.

You wouldn't think the first session after Xmas is the right time to set a PB either. Kudos to anyone who did but I'd bet the club was more than happy with the time he recorded.

[Bulldog Revolution]

You wouldn't think the first session after Xmas is the right time to set a PB either. Kudos to anyone who did but I'd bet the club was more than happy with the time he recorded.

Exactly right, you wouldn't want to see Crossy did a PB first session back, we want him building his training so that he is playing he is at his fittest and playing his best footy during the season

Many other sage comments on the preseason rhetoric. I'm a bit with MJP with respect to the weight issue. Its great if guys add a bit of size, maintain their mobility and throw their weight around on the field, and actually use it. But muscle for muscles sake is a waste of time if they dont actually start to throw it around, and its a disaster if they lose mobility. More than anything else players have to balance the speed and endurance needed to be able to keep up at an AFL level with the functional muscle mass to hold their ground, absorb hits etc.

[LostDoggy]

There was some honesty from the doggies this year. They did princes park(3.2km) and Danial Cross won. Thats not the surprise. They said he was well off his PB! Shock horror! He's normally towelling off after his shower at home, when the next player comes in!

Who knows. He might of been punching into a head wind

[Bulldog Revolution]

Who knows. He might of been punching into a head wind

I thought it was reported he was 5 seconds off his PB

[GVGjr]

I thought it was reported he was 5 seconds off his PB

Thats what I read. 5 seconds off your best over 3.2km is nothing

[LostDoggy]

I thought it was reported he was 5 seconds off his PB

exactly

[Bulldog Revolution]

exactly

particularly given he is carrying more muscle around - I've seen him running the princes park cicruit a few times and he just looks a million bucks

[Mantis]

particularly given he is carrying more muscle around - I've seen him running the princes park cicruit a few times and he just looks a million bucks

I think it is very important that he has been able to 'bulk up' a little. The role Cross needs to fill is the in and under type and his lean frame of the past few years has meant that he has been pushed off the ball a little to easily. It's a fine line to tread in terms of bulking up and also keeping his elite running ability, but this extra strength should be very beneficial to our fortunes.