Hasleby happy with Bulldogs' season preparation

SOUTH Fremantle coach Paul Hasleby was impressed with his team's final pre-season hit out against Swan Districts on Saturday to head into this week's Round 1 clash with Claremont at Claremont Oval.

South Fremantle led Swan Districts at Fremantle Oval by a point at half-time and then booted 11 goals to four in the second to run out 41-point victors.

After being relatively unimpressed in much of what he saw over the first two pre-season matches, Hasleby was glad to see the team put in a much-improved showing against Swans to gear up for the season proper that kicks off against the reigning premier Claremont this Saturday.

"In the first half we were executing what we were trying to do 90 per cent of the time but were giving them some easy goals coming out of our back 50," Hasleby said.

"In the second half we eradicated that and got it out of the game, and that's why we put it on the scoreboard but the effort was there for the four quarters and that's what we've been asking for.

"We can have all the game plans in the world but unless the effort and intensity's there, we can't perform but we did well for the most part this week."

Even though South Fremantle lost its opening two pre-season games to Perth and West Perth, Hasleby wasn’t too concerned as players like Paul Mugambwa, Andrew McCarrey and Brendon Gulley had just come back from interrupted pre-seasons.

With Warrick Andreoli, Anthony Collica, John Sgherza, Adam Carter and Shaun Bewick still to come into the line-up as well, Hasleby has no doubt the Bulldogs will keep building early in the 2013 season.

"The last couple of weeks haven’t been that enjoyable, but we always knew that we weren’t going to put our best side together until Round 4 to be reasonable with a couple of guys still to come back in and another couple who had interrupted pre-seasons like Gumby, McCarrey and Gulley," he said.

"The more time these guys spend together then we think we will be very competitive this year and we got some confidence out of this week that we need to take into Claremont now."

Former Port Adelaide midfielder Mitch Banner and Claremont big man Alistair Gillespie are two of South Fremantle's top recruits for 2013 and were tremendous in Saturday's win over Swans.

Banner gathered 26 possessions and kicked two goals in the midfield while between the ruck and up forward, Gillespie ended up with 15 touches, five marks, five hit outs and two goals.

Hasleby is excited by what both will be offering throughout 2013 for South Fremantle.

"He's (Banner) had two good games, the second one was pretty ordinary. His attacking ability is first-class and he gets his hand on the ball a lot for a high-possession rate and he does know how to get on the end of it to kick some goals. He has been a really good recruit for us so far," Hasleby said.

"Gillespie really started to show some of his best form as well particularly in the ruck to give us that extra midfielder around the ball. He would have had six or seven inside 50s himself and he looked good."

While Gillespie will provide a strong forward target while helping out Tighe in the ruck, deeper in the forward-line worked well on Saturday as well with West Coast forward Ashton Hams booting five goals and last year's Bernie Naylor Medallist Ben Saunders three.

Hasleby was glad with how the pair worked together and is confident Saunders is ready for another strong season, but for Hams' sake hopes he doesn’t see too much of him. He'll gladly have him whenever offered though.

"Saundo is another one who has been interrupted with his pre-season and he only came back just before the first round of pre-season, but he always bobs up to kick goals and all we ask of him is great effort and for his tackling pressure because we know the goals will come," he said.

"Hamsy was terrific and it certainly puts him back in the mix for the West Coast Eagles team. I hope for his sake we don’t see him very often, but that's all dependant on his performance.

"If he kicks five goals every week he will be back in the Eagles line-up quick smart I will think, so we'll see how he goes but we love having him down at South Fremantle."

The South Fremantle midfield undoubtedly is looking strong for 2013 with the additions of Banner, Reece Adams and Mitch Carter, return from injury of Toby Bairstow and with captain Ryan Cook, Haiden Schloithe and Adam Guglielmana to come back into the side for Round 1 who didn’t play against Swan Districts.

However, once again 279-game WAFL veteran Kris Miller is leading the way and picked up another 22 possessions on Saturday against Swans to show he's ready for another strong campaign.

"There's a lot of competition in our midfield for spots and we had Cook and Guglielmana who didn’t play this week, and we have Collica to come on and everyone knows that they need to play well," he said.

"Millsy's in that boat. We played him in the forward-line the first couple of games to give other guys the opportunity, but he was back in there this week and he's certainly very smart around the clearances and knows what we are trying to do. Hopefully he can have another good year.

"It probably happened by accident because we lost Schloithe on Friday and we needed another wingman, so we gave Mitch (Carter) a go there and he had six inside 50s in the first half. We know he has a long kick and he just kicks it over the opposition defence and puts us in a strong position. We have been really happy with the way he's been going."

Overall now that the pre-season is over with Round 1 just days away, Hasleby has been pleased with how the whole campaign has gone to get ready for the 2013 season with the physical condition of his squad vastly improved on what he inherited last year when he was appointed coach.

"We've had a big focus on our pre-season remembering last year that I wasn’t here for the planning stage of pre-season," Hasleby said.

"With Mike Vegar coming on board we think we are fitter than last year, we are certainly stronger for spending time in the gym and now against Swans we put it out on the oval into match play how we wanted.

"We think that's going to hold us in very good stead not just for the first few games, but over the whole season and the preparation has been geared on having us cherry ripe come the end of it."

By Chris Pike