THE pain of the 2012 grand final loss to Sydney burns deep for the Hawks as they completed a gruelling week on the Sunshine Coast on a pre-season camp. While some other clubs decided to complete intensive training overseas, the Hawks stuck to Aussie turf with more lingering pain than ever in their bodies; scarred from yet another close but not good enough result.
This time last year, it was that slim preliminary final loss to Collingwood. Players were hurt that they couldn’t go one step further. This time, it is that last term where they failed to deliver a knockout blow to the Swans that will live on, perhaps forever in their minds.
Head fitness coach Andrew Russell said it hasn’t hurt the club starting a bit later than most others.
“I don’t see it (starting pre-season later than most other clubs) as a disadvantage at all. You need three months of good preparation to be ready for an AFL season. So if your group’s healthy, it’s no issue at all. It’s just if you come out of a finals series very unhealthy, or you hit a number of roadblocks early in your preparation, then there’s no buffer. We’re in a pretty healthy state, and we haven’t had any significant interruptions in our first four weeks,” Russell told the Hawthorn website.
Brian Lake appears to be as fit as he has been for four or five years, while new recruits Tim O’Brien and Kaiden Brand have settled in well. Watch out for Brad Hill and Mitch Hallahan, as well as another recruit Jonathan Simpkin in 2013 after having strong starts to the pre-season.
NAB Cup schedule:
Round One: v Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast, Metricon Stadium, Saturday, February 23
Round Two: v Western Bulldogs, Etihad Stadium, Friday, March 1
Round Three: v Richmond, Aurora Stadium, Saturday, March 9
Click here for the full 2013 NAB Cup Fixture
Photo appears under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Source: Flickr.com, User: kabl1992
