Arrivals
Onfield: Farren Ray, Tom Lynch, Rhys Stanley, Nick Heyne, Paul Cahill, Alistair Smith, Colm Begley, Zac Dawson (rookie), Steven Gaertner (rookie), Sam McGarry (rookie), Tom Simpkin (rookie), Ross Tungatulum (rookie)
Off-field: Leigh Tudor (assistant coach), Andy Lovell (Sandringham coach)
Departures
Onfield: Robert Harvey (retired), Jayden Attard (rookie - delisted), Shane Birss (delisted), Glenn Chivers (rookie - delisted), Matthew Ferguson (delisted), Aaron Fiora (delisted), Charlie Gardiner (delisted), Fraser Gehrig (retired), Michael Rix (delisted), Luke Van Rheenen (rookie - delisted).
Off-field: John Barker (assistant coach), Anthony Rock (assistant coach)
Pre-season training started: Monday, November 17
Post-Christmas training resumes: Monday, January 5. The bulk of training will be held at Moorabbin.
Medical room
Jarryd Allen (hip): Injured his hip in the semi-final win over Collingwood and had to have it operated on. Mid-season return most likely.
Matt Maguire (foot): Progressing well and should play in the NAB Cup.
Sean Dempster (knee): Required a full reconstruction after injuring his knee in the final home and away game of the season. Will miss most, if not all of next year.
Luke Ball (hamstring): Back in full training and has made a complete recovery from his the injury that finished his 2008 season.
Who's burning?
Leigh Fisher has been the club’s best runner since coming back from the end of season break. He has been leading the time trials and impressing all at the Saints.
Robert Eddy and Jarryn Geary have also been up the front of the pack and will be looking to build on their debut seasons.
Pre-season training camps
The Saints were on a training and development camp on the Gold Coast in mid-December and will return for the Telstra AFL community camp in February.
Pre-season training overview
“You need your mids to be running a bit better than your full-backs and full-forwards, but we have guys like Max Hudghton who is on a program specific to him. It’s really specific to the individual, whether it is determined by age or training history or the position they play.
“We’ve probably upped our focus a bit more on strength this year but we also want to build on our running base we got last year. We’re trying to work on everything at this stage because we don’t have games on the weekend and we’re able to do that.”
– Strength and Conditioning General Manager David Misson
What coach Ross Lyon says:
“We were top four but there were three wins separating fourth and 11th. We’re realistic about where we’re at. I think every club has played in a preliminary final in the last 10 years so that next step is the hardest.
“Clearly Geelong is the benchmark team with Hawthorn, who were the best team in the finals right behind them.
“We feel we can improve our system and players like Luke Ball, (Nick) Dal Santo, (Brendon) Goddard, (Justin) Koschitzke and (Sam) Gilbert have got real improvement in them.”
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club
