As I said last week, the 8 weeks after Australia Day can be season defining. As clubs ramp up the competitive training, the grounds are hard and players' bodies are not match hardened then injuries will happen.
I hope that all 18 clubs are injury free come round one and I would like to beat a full strength Poort Power in round 2. So far we only have three players unlikely to be cherry ripe for round one (Jaensch, Hendo and Otten) but given the secrecy of the new Crows, we could have half the team in Ward 19.
I wish Charlie Dixon a speedy recovery however missing training time over February and March often leads to problems later in the season. I am thinking of heading over to Vanuatu until Easter so I don't hear any bad
news from West Lakes 
.