Rate Our Preseason

[boydogs]

With just the North game to go, we have pretty much completed our pre-season now, with round 1 against the Bombers 2 weeks from Sunday.

So, how did we go during the pre-season? Did we get the required miles into the group, or were too many on modified programs? Have the younger players developed? Are our skills and fitness looking the goods? Did we have the sort of preseason that premiership years are built on the back of?

For anyone that wants to have a go at it, I would love to read a player by player analysis too, possibly with a score to show how well they have each done over the summer.

I look forward to reading your thoughts

[bornadog]

I would say overall the preseason has been good for us particulary with Ward and Higgins fit. Lake and Cooney had a distrupted preseason with Lake not getting any game time and probably the major worry. The biggest injury is to Hargrave, but overall, we are fitter than last year and well preapared for the season.

We have trialled a few of the younger guys in different positions and looks like we may have some depth.

I would say this has been our best preason preparation for a long time.

[Before I Die]

My only concern is whether we have seen any real development in our game plan. I am not too sure how obvious Collingwood's new style was during the 2010 pre-season, perhaps innovation is kept under wraps until the season proper begins. I don't think we lack for quality cattle, but have we got the structures and game plans to get the job done?

[Mofra]

Our two most important players (Cooney & Lake) have had interrupted pre-seasons so that is a negative, but our formerly injury prone types (Williams & Higgins) seem to be flying, and Ward looks over his injury troubles.

Ayce getting some decent minutes in will do his development wonders too. I am a bit worried about the quality of opposition we've faced - after the NAB Cup, we get Brisbane (poo), Freo with a couple of their runners out and now North again who are injury hit and not at our level of class. I just hope we don't get shocked in round 1 by a quick & confident Essendon.

[bornadog]

My only concern is whether we have seen any real development in our game plan. I am not too sure how obvious Collingwood's new style was during the 2010 pre-season, perhaps innovation is kept under wraps until the season proper begins. I don't think we lack for quality cattle, but have we got the structures and game plans to get the job done?

I think you will find that Rocket has been working on some game plans to counter the Collingwood and Saints types. A lot more clubs will start to copy Collingwood so defense is going to be under pressure from all clubs this year. In any case, defense is always important, but you have to kick goals to win games, something the Saints struggle to do, particlulary in the finals.

[Doc26]

Always concerning coming out of a pre season having had so many delays to players returning due injury interruptions; and this year would seem more concentrated to our back half with the irony being that Tom has come close to being the last man standing.

[Cyberdoggie]

In terms of personnel, squad depth and injury i'd say we are travelling nicely.

Results wise i would also say it has been perfect. I didn't want to progress through the nab cup as i think it distracts from your preparation for round 1.
For instance last week we got to rest all our top players and basically play our B side, and we won!. That would not of been the case if we were in the nab cup semi finals.

I think we will get far more out of that B side win on the road than any nab cup semi final win.

[Murphy'sLore]

I think we will get far more out of that B side win on the road than any nab cup semi final win.

Agree, that should have given some of the youngsters a real confidence boost.

[LostDoggy]

Our two most important players (Cooney & Lake) have had interrupted pre-seasons so that is a negative, but our formerly injury prone types (Williams & Higgins) seem to be flying, and Ward looks over his injury troubles.

Ayce getting some decent minutes in will do his development wonders too. I am a bit worried about the quality of opposition we've faced - after the NAB Cup, we get Brisbane (poo), Freo with a couple of their runners out and now North again who are injury hit and not at our level of class. I just hope we don't get shocked in round 1 by a quick & confident Essendon.

Definitely a worry.

In terms of personnel, squad depth and injury i'd say we are travelling nicely.

Results wise i would also say it has been perfect. I didn't want to progress through the nab cup as i think it distracts from your preparation for round 1.
For instance last week we got to rest all our top players and basically play our B side, and we won!. That would not of been the case if we were in the nab cup semi finals.

I think we will get far more out of that B side win on the road than any nab cup semi final win.

Great post.

[LostDoggy]

Let's wait till we see what transpires round 1. That should show what our preseason was really like. I don't want last year again

[LostDoggy]

I'm sure we would all agree we don't want 2010 again. It seems, apart from the injuries to Lake & Shaggy, most of our personnel are fit and firing. I am personally looking forward to some of our young guns (Libba etc) getting some game time this year. IMO, we appear to have a bit more depth this year, some of the younger players are into their third season, and hopefully will start hitting their straps against the bigger bodies. As someone else has posted, we haven't had very good opposition the last couple of weeks, but a great chance to play the B team and see what they produce! All in all, I'm excited (always am at this time of the year), and in a positive state of mind! Bring it on....

[Pedro Sanchez]

Will reserve my judgement until after the last Saturday in September 2011. Only then we can really tell...

[LostDoggy]

I'm not fussed about 2010. It was last year, literally and spiritually.

I know we've all felt that pain, and it makes you want to perhaps be a bit cautious before blowing the lid apart, but stuff that! I'm gonna go full fire on all cylinders from Round 1, let's have confidence in them, let's just show some faith and one day, when that faith is repaid, all that pain can be joyfully unleashed on some poor Footscray publican. :-)

[Ghost Dog]

I'm not fussed about 2010. It was last year, literally and spiritually.

I know we've all felt that pain, and it makes you want to perhaps be a bit cautious before blowing the lid apart, but stuff that! I'm gonna go full fire on all cylinders from Round 1, let's have confidence in them, let's just show some faith and one day, when that faith is repaid, all that pain can be joyfully unleashed on some poor Footscray publican. :-)

^^Like

[alwaysadog]

I was raised on the timeless bulldog supporters cry of "This year will be our year", so I'm hopeful but yet to be convinced. Mind you some Wallace coached teams looked awful preseason and then bolted once the season proper began.

The intro to the 2011 year has not been smooth, and for those hoping bad habits and weaknesses will be overcome then the jury is still out in those cases.

Lets start by looking at the individuals.

A significant number of our better to best players had ops and interrupted preseasons. Whether this will impact or whether we can manage that through improved science and other conditioning we'll have to wait to see.

We have a range of trades and none have set the world on fire but they seem to have something to offer, speed being amongst the qualities they add.

We have a group of new players, two are familiar names and won't alter the course of games immediately, a couple of the others have shown things, Zephaniah having made the biggest impact, but he too will need time.

The group of second and third year players look to be making progress but while many have had the odd good game none yet puts in consistent top level performances that says I'm ready to track to the elite level.

A couple of very skilled players in Higgins and Ward look to be in better health, though not yet showing game breaking form.

What we seem to have is much greater depth but whether we have greater talent / ability in the best 25 is open to question at this stage.

Now to a collective assessment.

The team has been up and down as it has been for several seasons. It accounted for North first NAB Cup outing, didn't really threaten the cats next up, made Brisbane look second rate, took a very young team to success in the West and today showed we still know how to lose from a winning position .

So I'm asking myself can we put in the consistent high intensity performance that builds to a premiership... and finding that I don't yet have the evidence. In fact the trend line is again up and down.

So my advice to those with heart problems is that they should make appointments with their specialists at regular intervals during the season and those for whom disappointments are an increasing problem should also make preparations; increased medication, extended meditation or further psycho therapy might prove useful.

About the only thing most Bulldog supporters agree with Malcolm Fraser on is that life was not meant to be easy. This year might be our year, but have we yet seen anything that suggests it might not?