Pies on the up: Clement
4:17:57 PM Thu 23 February, 2006
Jason Phelan
Sportal for afl.com.au
http://collingwoodfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=247518
It's onward and upward for Collingwood in 2006 according to James Clement, with the backman declaring the club is ready to put the woes of the past two seasons behind it.
Clement says the players have been buoyed by a relatively injury-free pre-season with the club finally benefiting from some good fortune after two years in the doldrums.
"It's been really encouraging, there's been no soft-tissue injuries at this stage - touch wood - which gives us a bit of confidence," Clement said after training on Thursday.
"You talk about how important pre-seasons are these days and you see players that don't get full pre-seasons under their belts not perform as well as they could do."
Josh Fraser, Anthony Rocca and Nathan Buckley have all had uninterrupted preparations and are set to return to the line-up after lengthy spells out with injury, but the 29-year-old warned supporters not to expect too much too soon from their returning stars.
"There's a lot of senior guys out there have missed a lot of senior football over the last couple of years which probably means that we can't expect them to be the superstars that we know they are straight away. It's going to take some time and that's what the pre-season competition's all about," he said.
Clement denied that the losing form of last season would play any sort of role for this group of players.
"I think the press has made more of that than we've really thought about it," he said.
"It's an interesting thing; yes, we have got that losing streak, so to speak, but pre-season's a funny thing - we're full of confidence, we're fit and we've got some blokes on the track that we haven't had for a long time - it's like comparing chalk and cheese at the moment."
4:17:57 PM Thu 23 February, 2006
Jason Phelan
Sportal for afl.com.au
http://collingwoodfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=247518
It's onward and upward for Collingwood in 2006 according to James Clement, with the backman declaring the club is ready to put the woes of the past two seasons behind it.
Clement says the players have been buoyed by a relatively injury-free pre-season with the club finally benefiting from some good fortune after two years in the doldrums.
"It's been really encouraging, there's been no soft-tissue injuries at this stage - touch wood - which gives us a bit of confidence," Clement said after training on Thursday.
"You talk about how important pre-seasons are these days and you see players that don't get full pre-seasons under their belts not perform as well as they could do."
Josh Fraser, Anthony Rocca and Nathan Buckley have all had uninterrupted preparations and are set to return to the line-up after lengthy spells out with injury, but the 29-year-old warned supporters not to expect too much too soon from their returning stars.
"There's a lot of senior guys out there have missed a lot of senior football over the last couple of years which probably means that we can't expect them to be the superstars that we know they are straight away. It's going to take some time and that's what the pre-season competition's all about," he said.
Clement denied that the losing form of last season would play any sort of role for this group of players.
"I think the press has made more of that than we've really thought about it," he said.
"It's an interesting thing; yes, we have got that losing streak, so to speak, but pre-season's a funny thing - we're full of confidence, we're fit and we've got some blokes on the track that we haven't had for a long time - it's like comparing chalk and cheese at the moment."
