We've had the balls in the hand the whole time....

[Westy Boy]

Just read an article on us (at &*^%*# last! :mad

, and it mentioned that Wallace had concentrated on skills this preseason far more than other years.

Different approach from our usual "FITNESS FITNESS FITNESS" regime, and Terry actually contrasted it to Blight's method at the Saints.

What do you all reckon? I'm thinking that our best years in 97 and 98 came down to our superior fitness (and "burning out in the second half of the prelims beacuse of such a tough program" is complete and utter crap IMO).

Melbourne's team were also at a higher level of fitness this year, and although I wasn't entirely impressed with them, we cant forget they reached the Granny, so it would have been a contributing factor.

So are we going the right way about it?.... particularly when considering the "extra kilos" from such a long pre-season. If we do see a significant increase in disposal efficiency, it will be worth it, (and our disposal- especially in the our depth in quite poor).

But I'm not too sure whether a "few" more effective disposals would be worth more than being able to run out a game full of running. We depended on that ability quuite alot in our come from behind wins...

Anyone been to training to check out how they're doing? Anyone agree/disagree with the approach?

 

[CJH]

Westy,

The Doggies have always had exceptional skills under Wallace, so any improvements here would only be minor. The Doggies superior fitness enabled them to implement a running game that covered your one deficiency – lack of height! I think if the Doggies try and play skilful without their fitness base they will be slaughtered, especially by teams that have play tall as their ability to run around these taller opponents will be diminished.

As the Doggies again – haven’t recruited for height Wallace should be implementing a program that involved players stretching; maybe growing an extra few inches!


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This is a hallucination and these faces are in a dream. A computer generated environment; a fantasy island you can do anything and not have to face the consequences.

 

[LastCall]

The Doggies need to change their training methods each season as many players do not respond well to the same grind each season.

Purely fitness based programs rarely last the
full season and most players struggle during the season for one reson or another.
Most clubs would prefer to have the players peaking physically around early to mid season.
Last year the focus was fitness based and yet we struggled early in the season for wins. It wasn't the fitness it was more the skill level.

 

[Woofer]

Fitness alone doesn't win you a flag. What it can do is win you a couple of games early in the season when the skills are not quite there. This is what happened in 98 when we got off to a flyer. By mid season we had probably played our best footy and we looked a tired side against Adelaide when we got flogged.

What has annoyed me is that we absolutely flog guys like Westy, Romero, Johnno early on and don't rotate and rest. When we were flogging side early 98 and 99 you would never see these guys rested and they couldn't win us the games at the end that mattered.

I suppose the ideal is a bit of both but hopefully Wallace has analysed what we need to do and knows his players.