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Jon Ralph
November 11, 2008 12:00am
THE Western Bulldogs yesterday kick-started their pre-season with heightened expectation, a new fitness coach, and a bolstered development structure.
The young Bulldogs completed a 3.2km time-trial around Princes Park, joining North Melbourne and the Blues in using the Carlton venue for pre-season training.
Star midfielder Ryan Griffen just beat home Shaun Higgins, although their time was significantly slower than Carlton captain Chris Judd several hours before.
The older players will return next week to work on their fitness base before the club's high altitude camp in Arizona from November 28 to December 8.
Former Australian triathlon coach Bill Davoren, fresh from guiding Emma Snowsill to Olympic gold in Beijing, took his first public session with the club.
The Bulldogs have already had two testing sessions, with some players shaving 30-40sec off best times around the Princes Park circuit.
Several players have had post-season surgery, but the injury list is small.
Robert Murphy is several weeks behind after knee surgery, while Tom Williams will have his pre-season delayed after shoulder surgery.
Brian Lake had minor hip surgery, but is not far behind the main group, while Daniel Giansiracusa is in a brace after dislocating his elbow.
Yesterday the club announced the appointment of former North Ballarat Rebels coach Chris Maple as its development coach.
He will join Williamstown coach and development manager Brad Gotch in helping the first-to-third year players, as AFL clubs continue to focus on fast-tracking their young players.
Maple will replace Simon Dalrymple, who has moved into the Dogs' football operations department.
While the Dogs have had a late start because of their preliminary final appearance, a host of players have been into the club early to start their pre-season campaigns.
Once unable to afford the support structure that rivals such as Collingwood have, Maple's appointment and the camp in Arizona show the Dogs are now able to compete with the heavy hitters.
Maple has coached the Rebels for the past two years, as well as working as a physical education teacher at Ballarat High School.
"We are delighted to have him on board and look forward to having him continue the work we started this year with the expansion of our development program," Dogs football manager James Fantasia said.
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