Lappin admitted that with many players not starting back at training after Christmas, the Cats are a little behind in their development but they should still be in good enough shape to win their round one match against Essendon.
The Cats have adopted a 'September-ready' philosophy going into 2010 as they try to win their third premiership in four years.
"We know that we're probably not going to be at our best in round one, but we still should have a really good team, and we'll still be able to play really well, but we'll hopefully play better footy as the year goes on," Lappin said.
"A lot of our players haven't come back until after Christmas and our senior ones probably haven't worked on some of the things as thoroughly as we'd like to have in a football sense.
"Physically the boys are really good - all the guys have shown they've come back in really good condition, in fact they've improved on most of their results from last year, and that's always one way to measure their commitment."
Geelong's premiership defence is all about striking the right balance throughout the season, according to Lappin.
Lappin said master coach Leigh Matthews - who broke a decades-long premiership drought with Collingwood in 1990 when he guided them to the flag before he took the Lions to their hat-trick - knew the value of pacing.
"We [the Lions] never finished top - a few times we finished top-two - but that's just one of this things, it is difficult," Lappin said.
"Leigh would often say to us, 'I don't expect you to be 100 per cent motivated this pre-season, I know you've been through a few, but all I can ask is that when you present yourself to train that you do it well and just get the best out of yourselves.'"
