WESTERN Bulldogs ruckman Will Minson has questioned the length of clubs' pre-seasons in the wake of Tom Liberatore's season-ending knee injury.

Liberatore tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first quarter of the Bulldogs' opening NAB Challenge match against Richmond and will miss the entire 2015 campaign.

Minson said it was a huge blow for the 22-year-old reigning best-and-fairest to go down during the pre-season competition. 

"If you just look at it from Tom's perspective it's the perfect storm as far as what every footballer dreads," Minson told radio station SEN.

"You train your backside off all summer, you put in every day since November. Everything's geared up towards the next year.

"To come out and last three minutes of a practice match, that's just what every player goes into a game thinking 'I hope that doesn't happen. I just want to get through and the real stuff's in a few weeks' time'.

"It couldn't have been a worse outcome for poor old 'Libba' because it doesn't matter what kind of injury it is, nobody likes to get injured in the NAB Cup. 

"And certainly nobody likes to get injured when they're going to be out for the whole year." 

Liberatore's knee injury on Saturday came just 24 hours after West Coast club champion Eric Mackenzie suffered a year-ending ACL rupture.

The injuries sparked debate about the value of practice matches when many players are focused on getting through unscathed in their preparations for round one. 

Minson said he struggled to see the sense in the off-season being longer than the premiership campaign.

"There's definitely a lot of people that feel there's a better way that the pre-season can be structured," said Minson, who is on the AFL Players' Association board. 

"I know this year has been a unique year with the later start to the season as a result of the Cricket World Cup. The extra couple of weeks of the pre-season is quite unique in that regard. 

"But I think there's been for quite a while a bit of momentum along the lines that it is a long pre-season. 

"If you ask me it doesn't seem to make much sense that the off-season's actually longer than the in-season. That to me seems slightly out of balance. 

"You want to be playing games of football that count and games of football that are going to put you on the premiership ladder."

Also speaking to SEN, Brisbane Lions midfielder Daniel Rich – who returned from an ACL injury in his side's three-point win over St Kilda on Saturday – pondered whether increasingly tough pre-seasons would take a cumulative toll on players' bodies. 

"There's a fine balance. You obviously need a good base to get you through the year or you're going to fall down later in the year," Rich said.

"It's important to play against other teams; you can play as much as you like against your own teammates but at the end of the day there's nothing like playing against opposition with a different game plan.

"But the pre-seasons are pretty long and tough. Whether they're going to have a toll on players' bodies in years to come is the big question." 

Rich, who had not played since round three last season, said he was excited to return in the Lions' new-look midfield – which included former Collingwood star Dayne Beams, who gathered 25 touches in his first hit-out.

"(Beams) reminds me a little bit of 'Blacky' (Simon Black). He's not the quickest bloke going around … but he just seems like he's got that bit of extra time and got that class," Rich said.

"It's fantastic to have him, especially in the middle, hopefully we can climb the ladder with him leading from the front."