Googs’ Gabble – Adam Guglielmana Column Round 1

I DON’T think anybody enjoys pre-season. Five months of running, weights, skin fold measurements, long training sessions and more running is something not designed to be enjoyed, but endured.

Some like it more than others though, and the good runners at the club like Brendan Verrier and Ryan Cook make training seem easy to those of us hunched over at the back of the group gasping for air.

Others such as Adam McIntosh and Jarrod Parry rarely leave the gym, the only place where their two favourite things exist in the same place – dumbbells and their reflection!

As with every team at this time of the year, it seems from the inside as if our preparation has been almost perfect.

We have had very few major injuries, recruited a number of key players and managed to unearth a few youngsters since we started training back in November.

Ashton Hams, Steve Verrier and Haiden Schloithe returning to the club full-time has been a big bonus. All three have raised the standard of training, with the skills and knowledge they have acquired from AFL level, as well as lightening the mood with their unusual sense of ‘humour?’

It goes without saying Josh Pullman and James Sellar are going to be fantastic for the club. Both are entering the prime of their careers, are fantastic leaders and give us the big bodies we have been craving for the past few years.

Brock Higgins is much the same. In the short time he has been with us he has shown his hardness and willingness to play a role for the team, either down back or in the ruck.

Our biggest asset this year though, could well be our depth. Shaun Bewick and Lewis Harvey return from missing basically a whole year of league football, Jarrod Parry has been fantastic with his in and under work at training and Anthony Collica has found a young lady that most of the boys believe will help him play better football.  All four will be like new recruits and only two years ago before injuries struck, were the most promising players at the club.

As the year progresses we can expect to see some of the talented colts that Arthur Maskos has been grooming start to come through. Ben Sokol will be the first, he has fitted in beautifully to our forward line. He is smart and a great mark for his size, and will kick a lot of goals for the club.

Jarrod Pickett and Callum Ah Chee are others who have trained with the senior squad and will be seriously good players in the future.

Although the pre-season has been fantastic we all understand it counts for very little if we lose this weekend against Subiaco.

We know they have recruited very well and will be a much different side to the one we beat late last year at Medibank Stadium.

We expect them to play a hard, one on one contested game and we know we have to bring our best to beat them. Hopefully all the work we have put in since November will hold us in good stead.