Rate your clubs pre-season

[Choota]

Don't worry about game results, interested to hear how people rate their clubs preparation in terms of match style, developing players and most importantly, fitness of the list.

For the hawks, i'd give us a 9/10. Our 2009 and 2010 seasons were almost shot before they started with key injuries and underdone players. This year most of our best players have gone through the full pre-season unscathed and ready to go. Roughead is back and looking fit after nearly 12 months off. Developing players Smith, Savage, Gunston and Shiels look capable of significant improvement. The injury to Bailey is the only scar on an otherwise excellent preparation.

Of course you can never tell when a gun player might get injured once the real stuff starts (like Gilham, Stratton and Roughead last year), but overall i'd say our list is looking as healthy as it has entering a season in many years.

 

[saint jack]

Saints:
There were several good points that came out of the pre-season: Lenny Hayes is back;we tried a lot of our youngsters out and gave them some good exposure and we were competitive without winning. Where I felt disappointed, was our continued inability to score goals freely and the inability of Riewoldt to dominate. Of course Rooey wasn't the only one of our "stars" not to have shone during the pre-season and I imagine that all that will change. Still based on the pre-season, we can't go into the game against Port in Adelaide with a huge amount of confidence.
Having said all of that, I like Scotty as a coach and it goes without saying I am right behind the team as we try to prove the critics wrong.
Go Sainters

 

[Igloo]

We have had a pretty good one. Injuries to Williams, Sherman, Djerrkura, Tutt, Gilbee and Griffen haven't been ideal, to go on top of the always injured Lake and Cooney.

A lot of our kids have shown a fair bit, enough to warrant selection in the senior side. I expect to see a lot of them during the year, which is very exciting, since we haven't had many young guys play these last few years.

Our contested ball work has improved a lot, and it's not only being done by the usuals in Cross and Boyd. Libba, Wallis and Clay Smith have all done very well in that area.

Kicking efficiency has been letting us down as of late, so if we can fix that, we will be well on our way to improving.

I'd give us maybe a 6 or 7/10

 

[Honeyboy Wilson]

8/10

The only two games we lost were to the two teams who made it to the NAB Cup Grand Final, and we lost those games by 1 point and 5 points respectively. We seem to have upped our skill level from last year, playing a more structured and deliberate game plan and our contested ball work at stoppages is almost to the level we need it to be at to compete with the best in the league. Still a fair way to go, but couldn't ask too much more of the boys with how they've played so far. Not gonna give 10/10 cos we didn't win every game, plus a coupla niggling injuries sorta popped up plus the ridiculous Butcher report. But can't say I'm unhappy at all with how things have worked out. Won't get my hopes up though - and I hope other Port supporters won't either. Not this year, anyway.

 

[Marlin01]

It's hard to assess the Eagles pre-season. The positive for me was the form of our fast skillful hb's that were left out of the nab cup final. They added another dimension to the side IMO. It will be interesting to see how much opportunity they get in the home and away.

We've copped injuries to LeCras, Kennedy, Lynch and Nicoski which is a fair chunk of our forwardline.

 

[MaddAdam]

The 20 minute period against Carlton yesterday where it all came together - the Scott plan - and we slammed on seven goals and held them to stuff all was brilliant.

Tres confident for Rd1.

 

[Tas]

No major injuries, no spankings, a fair few wins and only a couple of modest losses means I am fairly happy.

We also resisted giving 40 blokes a run and played within the normal team rule setup so was good to see guys getting a full on practice for the real thing.

I still think our skill level is up and down a bit, could use with some more polish but overall fairly content for the pre-season.

 

[J_Moore]

Forward line still a mess, skills still questionable. Doesn't look like we've got too much worse from last year, but doesn't look like we've improved, either.

C.

 

[Plugger35]

Pretty ordinary pre-season to be honest.

We've had terrible luck with the weather with the Essendon game being cancelled and playing an intraclub instead in torrential rain, the next game was played in almost 40 degree heat in Perth and then our game against Collingwood was played in wet & greasy conditions. Hardly ideal preparation and as a result we've looked pretty rusty.

On the upside we've got some good experience into some of our youngsters like Ledger, Stanley, Cripps, Saad, Milera and Simpkin and all have showed enough to be in the mix for Rd.1. We also haven't had any major injuries, other than Hayes being knocked out and concussed against Collingwood but he should still be OK for Rd.1.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Pre-season has been meh at best

Still learning a new game plan so naturally teething problems were to be expected and the results themselves haven't been too convincing.

Have copped a few injuries (list stands at 13 last I checked) and really, big players like Mundy, Barlow and Sandilands will be underdone for Round 1 which doesn't inspire me a great deal

I'd give it a 6/10 (generous 6)

 

[Glenno23]

Pretty much faultless from Adelaide (on field )

Given 38 players a run, didn't lose a game and no major injuries in games. Only significant player that mised in pre season was Ben Rutten and there's a chance he may come back for round 1. He is super important to our chances at scraping into the 8 this year though

Seen a better gameplan implemented by the new coach, stronger bodies and a very "Geelong" look about us

9.5/10. Just need it to transfer to when it counts now! If we stuff up now, it was all for nothing!

 

[HARKER]

Pre January: 9.5/10
Once the injuries started piling up, that figure was dragged back by some.

Not concerned for the games except somewhat disappointing for the kids and borderline players, not really showing up.

 

[Dazb86]

Quite happy with the new coach.

Not all doom and gloom like I thought. We'll be competitive this year.

 

[lamaros]

9/10.

The games out west were poor, but I get the feeling the club didn't really care. It was hot and we had the week off afterwards, so most of the team wasn't there and we were still training very hard.

The game getting called off against the Saints wasn't a great look, but football-wise it didn't seem to hurt us that much.

We had a very good hitout against the Swans, a really decent contest that we controlled well at stretches, then fought our way back to win when challenged. Then we had another good game against Brisbane which we dominated. Both were against close to best 22 sides, so we have a good line going in to round one.

Everyone seems to have found enough fitness and form, especially our key players, and some of the younger guys have been impressive. Dempsey's return has been very good news.

On top of that no one has picked up any significant injuries; we have probably the best injury list in the AFL at the moment. Our depth has played solid hitouts for the VFL club, and we have Winderlich on his way back, with Gumblton and Prismall looking to play some games early in the year too.

Been very happy with it.

 

[GarnerSmash]

Physically in a great spot compared to this time last year. Only real concern is around our key defenders with injuries in the games to L. Delaney and Grima.

Plenty of players got a run over the preseason which was great to see. Blokes like Arron Mullett, Sam Wright, Keiran Harper and Jamie Macmillan seem to have grown in confidence which will really help clean up our disposal efficiency which has been a real issue. Others such as Aaron Black and Cam Delaney have shown good signs as young, under developed key position players.

Game style appears to have been tweaked somewhat with less emphasis over the preseason on winning contested ball and clearances and more on using handball to work through the zone. Our handball to kick ratio was almost 50/50 over the course of the preseason as opposed to 60/40 last year whilst we were beaten in each game in the contested stuff, which was a big strength last year. It will be interesting to see if both aspects of play can be combined over the course of the year, which I reckon will be a big focus for 2012.

Very interesting year ahead.

 

[telsor]

The big positive is that there were no injuries of note, so we're both (close to) full strength going into the regular season and the players got their planned build ups to the regular season. (most injuries over the pre-season were the ones carried over from last season, so were planned/allowed for)

Adding Ross Smith to the coaching panel certainly seems to have improved our defence across the ground, and Ivan Maric looks likely to make us more competitive in the ruck contests both of which were major weanesses last year.

NAB Cup results were nice and should help the list gain confidence in the game plan (so they'll be more likely to stick to it under pressure), but mean little in and of themseves.

 

[ScoobySnacks]

Apart from the wrist injury to Max Bailey (thank god it wasn't a knee) the preseason couldn't have gone better. Young players seem to be developing nicely and showing signs of improvement from last year, and the guys coming back from injuries sustained last season look to be well on track, especially Roughead. And the form of Buddy is looking very, very promising. The results of games don't faze me in the slightest

 

[fpm84]

6/10 for Geelong.

Injuries to Wojcinski, Varcoe, Christensen, Podsiadly, Enright and now Josh Hunt - on top of the long term injuries to Menzel and Vardy - have robbed us of some backline stability and a couple of our most promising youngsters.

On the plus side, Pods played two NAB Cup games (initially he wasn't expected to play any and was meant to be in doubt for the early stages of the season) and thankfully his shoulder injury sustained in last year's GF doesn't seem to have hampered his marking ability.

Scott doesn't seem to care about the NAB; only putting out one strong team which was on Saturday when we beat the Bulldogs. It meant some of our younger players were given ample opportunity and many of them impressed - especially Guthrie and Motlop. Good to also see Smedts in action, who should play a few games this season, and Mitch Brown injury free and showing promising signs.

Hawkins also seems a far more imposing figure than before, even if his goalkicking is just as bad. Orren Stephenson played as our number one ruck all pre-season and was solid without being amazing.

 

[hoddo22]

Terrible. 3/10 at best. Don't care much about the winless pre-season but the injuries and who they were to have definitely soured the summer.

Not all doom and gloom though. Kruezer is looking the goods again, Waite played a good game on the weekend and my call of Mitch Robinson stepping up to top shelf (provided he can improve his kicking) coming good.

Another positive is the timing of these injuries. None are season ending or too long term. I would rather them now than in 22-24 weeks time.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

6/10

Have been happy with our efforts so far. Our intensity has been great and we've been playing every game until the final siren

Unfortunately that has been dampened by a series of injuries, some setbacks for other players looking at returning from injuries. Add to that there have been players who have hardly been seen in the NAB cup (not that they played crap, they just haven't been named) and Walters being sent back to the WAFL is not a good luck

 

[Madison]

Couldn't really be happier with Richmond.

Lids missed a couple weeks but was apparently running within the week, and Conca got suspended so they missed a little bit of match practice but they still got to train almost fully.

Aside from that it has been smooth sailing. No other injuries really, the kids look like they are playing well together and we have been able to up the intensity as we have liked through the nab cup.

The wins were nice but the other stuff is nicer.

 

[MCG-Unit]

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Not quite all doom and gloom just yet though, wait till after after Round 10

 

[Stamos]

I'll rate our pre-season in September

 

[AllenJakovich13]

awful 2/10

 

[Macca19]

- Clearly worked on skills
- Have a definitive game style (as opposed to none last year)
- Clear improvement in fitness
- Physically more imposing
- Solid recruiting re: Ebert, McCarthy, Wingard
- Losing just 2 matches by a combined 6 points

I'd rate Ports PS an 8/10.