ELITE performance manager Dave Misson says Melbourne’s main theme this pre-season is for the players to “take the next step”.
Speaking to Dee TV, Misson said the club’s biggest emphasis this pre-season was to teach the players how to play at the highest level and to get them to understand what’s required to play in the AFL.
“To be able to do that, they need to be at a certain physical level, ensuring that all of the physical attributes are ticked off,” he said.
“Most importantly, [we need to make sure] they are in tune with what we’re trying to teach them.”
Misson said a lot of testing would take place this pre-season, but the major emphasis was on the game itself – such as skills, game plan and development.
“Our focus is probably more on football this pre-season. We feel there is a lot of work to be done in that area and a lot of education to be done,” he said.
“The younger players have so far come back in good nick and we assume the older guys will as well [when they return next Monday].
“Once we tick off our testing and they’re at a level that we want them to be – then we’ll start launching into the footy program.”
Misson said the first to four year players – now in their second week of pre-season – had come back in good condition.
“All of the boys have come back in pretty good nick,” Misson said.
“We’ve hit the footy stuff reasonably solidly straight away and that’s going well.
“The boys have come back enthusiastically and keen to get stuck into the program, knowing that they’ve only got five or six weeks before Christmas.”
In terms of the draftees set to come to the club via the NAB AFL Draft and NAB AFL Rookie Draft, Misson said it would depend on their each individual how they fit into the pre-season program.
“From a general point-of-view, you’re probably looking at them only doing three quarters of the program, as it’s their first foray into the AFL,” he said.
“But it does depend on where each of those individuals are at, but we’d be keen to start integrating them as soon as possible.”
Misson said players such as Jake Trengove (foot), Nathan Jones (neck) and Heritier Lumumba (who had both ankles operated on this off-season) were making progress in their respective rehab programs.
“Jack Trengove is going really well. He’s kept his work right up through the off-season and he’ll be doing a run with the group on Monday morning, as will Nathan Jones,” he said.
“Nathan with his neck injury – that’s come on really well since surgery. He’s doing some really good running sessions at the moment, so those two guys are going excellently.
“Heritier Lumumba had surgery on his other ankle a couple of weeks ago, so he’s probably got another six weeks before he runs. But he’s moving around and doing a fair bit of work in the gym and we don’t expect any issues there. There will just be a bit of a delay from a running point of view, but we don’t think that will hurt him.”
