Not long to go now until the premiership season starts, and we’re all pretty excited about that.
The pre-season is always an interesting time as a player because so much is read into team performances by the media – and as an extension of that, by fans – when most if not all teams are still fine-tuning.
Whether you are involved in the NAB Cup competition or not, coaches still will try different guys in different positions from time to time.
They will also have a set amount of time that they want different guys to play, which can also impact on the overall team performance.
I guess what I’m saying is, ‘don’t read too much into pre-season results’.
You only have to look at Carlton having won two of the last three NAB Cups but not making the premiership top eight in either of the those years as proof of that.
From memory, Essendon is the last team to have won the pre-season and premiership season double, back in 2000.
They were men on a mission that year after being unexpectedly eliminated in the preliminary final the previous year, and nothing was going to stop them. They only lost one game in the premiership comp in 2000.
Sure we have lost our three NAB Cup and practice games to date, but we have been easing some guys into the workload and trying different things along the way.
The newspapers say we look rusty and they are probably right, but we still have one more game (against Sydney in Canberra) and a week off before the ‘real’ stuff starts.
It’s great to see that our membership has ticked over the 20,000-mark. There’s obviously a few people around the place thinking we’re going to do okay (and yes I’m one of them).
I guess the message to all you kids is to use the pre-season for your personal development.
If you have some practice games before you get into the premiership season with your club or school, try some new things that might take your game to the next level.
Don’t worry if you are not getting results on the scoreboard – your trial and error might win you some games down the track.
It was only 12 months ago that Daniel Merrett was given an ‘extended trial’ at full-back in our Lions team, and by the end of the year people were talking him up as a potential All-Australian.
So use it to your benefit. Who knows, you might even ‘ambush’ a team or two at the start of the premiership year.
See you all next week.
- Jed
