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February 03, 2006
Swans Fully Fit, Firing and Readt to Go
"This year we've had less players getting operations, so there's probably at least half a dozen senior players that are a fair way ahead of where they were last year," Roos said. "Leo Barry is probably a month ahead, Benny Matthews a month ahead, Mick O'Loughlin is probably three months ahead. We are definitely ahead of where we have been the previous year."
and
Even Michael O'Loughlin, who has rarely played pre-season games in past years due to ongoing fitness issues, is poised to play a couple of practice matches.
and
Roos will stick to his policy of recent years and keep several of his senior players out of the first couple of pre-season games, against Essendon at North Sydney Oval on February 17 and the Swans' initial NAB Cup fixture against the Kangaroos at Manuka Oval eight days later.
This is good news to read on three fronts.
1) We are going to be heading to the premiership defense with a fitter squad than last seasons premiership winning squad and thats with 3 weeks less time to prepare to boot.
2) We are going to stick to our guns regarding the NAB Cup and Practice Matches and slowly bring the senior players back into action, rather than go all out and win matches when they don't count for much.
3) Magic is going to be fit to play BEFORE Round One for the first time under Paul Roos (Cross fingers, touch wood and all that). He always has been the spark to get us going early in a season when he returns from his interupted pre seasons, so imagine what he and the team will be like with him fully fit and firing in Round One.
All in all pretty positive news to be reading at this stage of the pre season.
Posted by robbieando at February 3, 2006 05:53 PM