BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss said his club's strategy to avoid another poor finish to its season started back in October.
A stirring victory over premier Hawthorn in Launceston before the mid-season break sent the Lions to fifth place on the AFL ladder with the same win-loss ratio (7-5) as this time last year.
However, a horror 10 weeks to close 2008 produced just three wins and the Lions tumbled out of finals contention.
It was a similar situation in 2007; the season finished with a winless month when the Lions seemed in the hunt.
In an exclusive interview with afl.com.au, Voss said the mid-season break was still used to rest players, recharge the batteries and take stock of the season, rather than consider a different approach to tackle the final 10 rounds.
"Part of our season has been to ensure that we can survive the length of the season," he said.
"Perhaps we weren’t as fit as we could have been, or absolutely cherry ripe, come round one. But that was all in the big plan to ensure our players could get across the season and be able to play at a relatively high intensity."
Part of that strategy was to hold back some of the senior players from the rigours of early pre-season work, including captain Jonathan Brown who had minor hip surgery.
Voss said player workloads had been closely monitored – but not diminished – with a view to the 22-round schedule.
Brown has played all 12 games this season.
"We’re always looking for ways to keep the guys not so much fresh, but ensuring that the big picture is in mind or trying to get them through the course of a whole season, not only what this game brings," Voss said.
"That’s a fine balance because the next game matters the most. We think we’ve managed it carefully. At the moment it’s just a feeling, it’s a presumption, it’s a plan, but obviously we don’t get the chance to know what that outcome is until we participate in it."
The Lions are well-placed to crack the top eight for the first time since 2004, but also push higher.
As the ladder stands, they play just three other top-eight sides over that stretch.
Voss refused to look further ahead than Saturday night’s match against Melbourne, which has won just one game.
"That’s one of the challenges you face, that we don’t become influenced by external influences and one of those is where people sit on the ladder," he said.
"Each team in the competition, whether you’re playing the 16th or the first, they have capability. It’s just whether one team has more than the other and each one of those teams has the ability to win any game.
"The tendency is to look ahead, but all we’re doing is planning ahead. But we don’t live ahead. We live for the moment.
"Make no mistake: we’re very much about the now and what we’ve got to be able to do to prepare that’s going to give us the best chance to get the result. That’s not presuming anything."
