Arrivals
On-field: Rookie elevation: Scott Clouston
NAB AFL Draft: Todd Banfield, Todd Cornelius, Kieran King, Bart McCulloch, Jack Redden, Daniel Rich
NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft: Tom Rockliff
NAB AFL Rookie Draft: Daniel Dzufer, Daniel Murray, Adam Spackman, Joel Tippett
Off-field: Michael Voss (coach); Wayne Brittain (assistant coach); Daniel Collins (high performance manager).
Departures
On-field: Nigel Lappin (retired); Colm Begley (St Kilda); Anthony Corrie (Collingwood); Robert Copeland (delisted); Matthew Moody (delisted); Wayde Mills (delisted); Chris Schmidt (delisted).
Off-field: Leigh Matthews (coach); Paul Hudson (assistant coach).
Pre-season training started: Monday October 27.
Medical room
No major concerns at the Lions although small forward Rhan Hooper is still serving a 28-day suspension from the club for repeated breaches of his playing contract during pre-season. The suspension concludes in the first week of January.
Who's burning?
Jed Adcock was slightly down last season on the standards he set in his stellar 2007. But the newly appointed vice-captain is turning heads at training and with a midfield maestro like Voss in charge, watch for Adcock to return to the AFL's elite midfield brigade in 2009. Rebounding defender Josh Drummond has also put an injury-plagued run behind him and is setting personal bests in most training indicators early in the pre-season.
Pre-season training camps
The Lions headed to Couran Cove on Stradbroke Island from November 25-28. The camp covered everything from player and coaching staff meetings to some tough physical examinations on the sand with both running and tackling drills.
Pre-season training overview
"There's a few different things this year. Vossy has upped the skills load a lot more so we've managed how much running we've been doing. We've cranked up the strength, particularly for the first- to third-year players and made some significant improvements. They've been working four to five times a week and guys like Troy Selwood and Tom Collier have added five, six or seven kilos.
"We've analysed everyone on the playing list and identified what they need to improve to fit into Vossy's game-plan; for example, guys like Selwood and Collier have improved their strength and Albert Proud has worked hard on his endurance.
"Another area we've worked on is our contact work. Michael wants the players to be physical in and out of the contest."
– Strength and conditioning manager Lachlan Penfold
What coach Michael Voss says:
"One of the things we spoke about was we want to change training, the way we train, and we needed to be more active at this time of the year.
"What we wanted to achieve at this time of year is quite critical, and considering that we're putting in some new things a new game style, [the players] needed to be more ready to move the ball quicker than what they have in the past."
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
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More pre-season reports
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