Q. Do you get a feel that the group is mentally fresh from the eight week break?
A. Yes, they are excited to be back. I think as a group, eight weeks is definitely a long enough break. If you start going beyond that, the players start to go very stale and can go too far out of routine that it is hard to get them back. They have had a long enough break and we are just keen to put the trade and delistings stuff delistings behind us and start the new year.
Q. You met with the players this morning, what did that involve?
A. Firstly a welcome back and then we touched briefly on what has happened since we had broken up and an overview of what the year is going to hold - particularly the pre-season and what the expectations are. We also discussed how we are going to assess the pre-season and what the basic fitness goals are until the end of January.
Q. So everyone has the same understanding of what is expected and everyone is working towards the same goals...
A. Yes, everyone is aware of what is expected.
Q. Are the players eased into pre-season slowly, or is it straight back into it?
A. The expectation is that they have been doing fitness work while they have been away. We do ease them in slowly, however I am still anticipating they come back in shape. So the first week is tests and then it is right back into training, it is full-on. We don't have time to be waiting for people's bodies to get into condition to train. These are professional athletes we are talking about and the expectation is that they come back ready to go.
Q. Is it a new look pre-season program this year - is there many changes to previous years?
A. Not drastically changed in structure, but there are some changes that give it freshness. I am going to be emphasising different things this year. Our strength program has come under a review and our speed program is targeting individuals a lot more than it has done in the past to bring out individuals best.
Q. It must be a big positive starting the year with a refurbished gym, considering this time last year, the gym was a construction site?A. Not only is the training area finished, we have recovery pools now and all of our meeting rooms are finished - everything is in place. We are so much more organised this year, compared to any other year I have been here - it has to make a big difference.
