PRAWNS, mince pies and pudding are among the delights on offer over Christmas, but for power forward Chris Dawes, the festive period will be all about building his fitness base.
The key Demon had a frustrating first year at the club, when several injuries kept him to just 12 matches. But he is taking the Christmas/New Year period to make some genuine inroads, before returning on January 6.
“It was a tough year and I was ready to have a big off-season, leading into the pre-season, but I ended up having a clean out of my knee. I only started running the other week, but it hasn’t stopped me getting some good work into my legs especially,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“But this is when I get one of my biggest conditioning blocks in. I did it over the Christmas break last year and I’ve been encouraging most of the boys to be good.
“Anybody who’s had injury concerns I’ve said ‘don’t think of this as a break’. It’s time away from the club, but it’s pretty important that we maintain our training standards.”
Despite suffering hamstring, ankle and calf problems in 2013, Dawes said it wasn’t hard to remain upbeat, because of the challenge that was presented in front of him and the rest of his teammates. And he is determined to do something about lifting the fortunes of the red and blue.
“Right now, it’s a pretty exciting period for the club, so that’s not too hard. With the players we’ve brought into the club to improve our list and the signing of Roosy and the new footy department. That’s brought a lot of hope to the group,” he said.
“It’s renewed a lot of confidence in the group, so it makes it a pretty enjoyable place to be around. Personally, I’m just excited – and I felt this way through the tougher times as well last season – by the challenge.
“It certainly hasn’t fatigued me or worn me down, where I wondered why I’d come to work each day – it’s quite the opposite. I’m enjoying coming to work, because there is a lot of work to be done.”
Dawes was convinced the list had improved significantly with the addition of key midfielders Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson and Daniel Cross, “who all bring experience from other clubs”.
He said further development from several Demons would also improve the squad, while adding the fact that he, Mitch Clark and Jesse Hogan had yet to train together – let alone play.
“You look at the development of guys like [Jimmy] Toumpas, [Jack] Trengove, [Jack] Viney and Jack Watts who have been in the system [for a few years] and that’s where our improvement is going to come from,” he said.
“Mitch and I – and that’s not even including Hoges – haven’t had a training session together yet. I’m looking forward to the day when that comes.”
“I’m hoping that we can develop that into a bit of on field chemistry.”
Still, Dawes was optimistic he would be ready for the NAB Challenge period in February, even though round one was the long term aim.
“I can’t see why I couldn’t be ready for NAB Challenge, just given that since the operation, I haven’t missed a beat. If anything, I’m ahead of my timeframe in terms of my rehab,” he said.
“That said, there is no real requirement that I play in the NAB Challenge and the physios – as much as I’ll push them – they’re loathe to putting a recommended timeline on it.”
“They want to see how I’ll progress and do it to tick off the boxes conditioning wise, rather than saying ‘we’ll get you ready in this amount of weeks’. But that said, at this stage, I can’t see why I’d miss the NAB Challenge.”
