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There were plenty of interesting comments from Coaches Paul Roos and Leigh Matthews leading into Saturday's Wizard Cup match between Sydney and Brisbane.
The New Pre-season Format
Roos expressed a preference for a pre-season round-robin competition instead of this year's knock-out format.
"The last couple of years having the round-robins it's easier to prepare," Roos said. "At the moment we don't know if we are going to Cairns or to Coffs Harbour."
Sydney Captain, Stuart Maxfield, agreed with Roos on the preferred format.
"I'd prefer a round-robin competition. You play on better grounds, everyone takes it a little more seriously," Maxfield said.
Matthews said the Wizard Cup was a "very difficult coaching assignment", and that it was a "juggling act" trying to fit a number of agendas into a game.
"It's a competition and a practice-match series all at the same time," Matthews said. "This year being a knock-out competition you can't plan a great deal ahead about where you are going to be playing in the next couple of weeks.
"We are bringing down our best team ... I sense the mood of our guys last night was that the holiday is over. Now all of sudden you are going to have to test yourself again."
The New Pre-season Rules
Roos said he had spent 10 minutes talking to the players about the new rules and they were "irrelevant" because they would not be in use once the season proper began.
Matthews was more positive and believes awarding nine points for a goal kicked from outside the 50-metre zone will add extra excitement.
"People love the ability of players to kick the ball 60 or 65 metres," he said. "There could be something to be said for adding that aspect to our game even in the normal season. There will be enormous excitement when that happens."
The quick return kick-in after a point rule was expected to cause the most upset to established patterns of play out of defence. Both coaches said techniques to cope with the new rules would evolve as games were played but the focus would be the regular season and its regular rules.
"It's just going to be a matter of getting the ball from behind the goals and bang," Roos said. "Normally you would have a designated kicker. But by the time Paul Williams gets down to take the kick the opposition would have time to set up a zone."
"We've said to our guys who ever is closest pick up the ball. So there might be some terrible kicks coming up."
Paul Roos on the Brisbane Lions -
Roos admitted that he looks to the Lions as the competition benchmark. In fact, he used Brisbane as his example of the ultimate team in the manifesto he presented to the Sydney board during his interview for the coaching job at the end of last season. At that point Roos estimated Sydney were about 15% behind Brisbane.
"There is no greater test than a game against Brisbane," Roos said. "And this will be a good experience for us, give us a chance to look at a few of our younger players in pressure situations and get a guide as to just where we are at the moment.
"I'm really keen to see just how much the guys have learned over summer and how they perform."
Swans Injury List
Missing from the Swans line-up tomorrow are Michael O'Loughlin, Leo Barry, Jason Saddington, Jason Ball, Stephen Doyle, Jared Crouch, Brad Seymour and Nick Davis. Skipper Stuart Maxfield is also in doubt after injuring his foot at training this week.
"We do have a lot of our top guys out and Brisbane are at near full strength," Roos said. "But this game gives us an opportunity to see some of our younger players up against the team everyone acknowledges is the competition's yardstick."
"So the younger players get another chance to show us what they can do. I'll be looking at guys like Mark Powell, Adam Schneider and Luke Ablett to do some good things."
"But we are taking it pretty low key, we are mindful it is only a pre-season game so we won't be asking some of our better players like Barry Hall, Paul Williams and Daryn Cresswell to play more than about three-quarters of the game. This is all about getting ready for the first game of the season."
Swans' Vice-Captaincy
Sydney captain Stuart Maxfield is unlikely to have a vice-captain this season, but instead he will have a leadership group of nine players to support him.
Last year's vice-captains Matthew Nicks and Michael O'Loughlin are in the group, plus Leo Barry, Jude Bolton, Jared Crouch, Ben Mathews, Brad Seymour, Andrew Schauble and Paul Williams.
Coach Paul Roos said the broad leadership style would encourage more players to "step up".
"If we don't appoint vice-captains, we are not demoting them in any way. We see that group as very important, that nine is very important," Roos said. "We've talked briefly about it, but we'll decide over the next week, whether it's worth going with vice-captains."
The New Pre-season Format
Roos expressed a preference for a pre-season round-robin competition instead of this year's knock-out format.
"The last couple of years having the round-robins it's easier to prepare," Roos said. "At the moment we don't know if we are going to Cairns or to Coffs Harbour."
Sydney Captain, Stuart Maxfield, agreed with Roos on the preferred format.
"I'd prefer a round-robin competition. You play on better grounds, everyone takes it a little more seriously," Maxfield said.
Matthews said the Wizard Cup was a "very difficult coaching assignment", and that it was a "juggling act" trying to fit a number of agendas into a game.
"It's a competition and a practice-match series all at the same time," Matthews said. "This year being a knock-out competition you can't plan a great deal ahead about where you are going to be playing in the next couple of weeks.
"We are bringing down our best team ... I sense the mood of our guys last night was that the holiday is over. Now all of sudden you are going to have to test yourself again."
The New Pre-season Rules
Roos said he had spent 10 minutes talking to the players about the new rules and they were "irrelevant" because they would not be in use once the season proper began.
Matthews was more positive and believes awarding nine points for a goal kicked from outside the 50-metre zone will add extra excitement.
"People love the ability of players to kick the ball 60 or 65 metres," he said. "There could be something to be said for adding that aspect to our game even in the normal season. There will be enormous excitement when that happens."
The quick return kick-in after a point rule was expected to cause the most upset to established patterns of play out of defence. Both coaches said techniques to cope with the new rules would evolve as games were played but the focus would be the regular season and its regular rules.
"It's just going to be a matter of getting the ball from behind the goals and bang," Roos said. "Normally you would have a designated kicker. But by the time Paul Williams gets down to take the kick the opposition would have time to set up a zone."
"We've said to our guys who ever is closest pick up the ball. So there might be some terrible kicks coming up."
Paul Roos on the Brisbane Lions -
Roos admitted that he looks to the Lions as the competition benchmark. In fact, he used Brisbane as his example of the ultimate team in the manifesto he presented to the Sydney board during his interview for the coaching job at the end of last season. At that point Roos estimated Sydney were about 15% behind Brisbane.
"There is no greater test than a game against Brisbane," Roos said. "And this will be a good experience for us, give us a chance to look at a few of our younger players in pressure situations and get a guide as to just where we are at the moment.
"I'm really keen to see just how much the guys have learned over summer and how they perform."
Swans Injury List
Missing from the Swans line-up tomorrow are Michael O'Loughlin, Leo Barry, Jason Saddington, Jason Ball, Stephen Doyle, Jared Crouch, Brad Seymour and Nick Davis. Skipper Stuart Maxfield is also in doubt after injuring his foot at training this week.
"We do have a lot of our top guys out and Brisbane are at near full strength," Roos said. "But this game gives us an opportunity to see some of our younger players up against the team everyone acknowledges is the competition's yardstick."
"So the younger players get another chance to show us what they can do. I'll be looking at guys like Mark Powell, Adam Schneider and Luke Ablett to do some good things."
"But we are taking it pretty low key, we are mindful it is only a pre-season game so we won't be asking some of our better players like Barry Hall, Paul Williams and Daryn Cresswell to play more than about three-quarters of the game. This is all about getting ready for the first game of the season."
Swans' Vice-Captaincy
Sydney captain Stuart Maxfield is unlikely to have a vice-captain this season, but instead he will have a leadership group of nine players to support him.
Last year's vice-captains Matthew Nicks and Michael O'Loughlin are in the group, plus Leo Barry, Jude Bolton, Jared Crouch, Ben Mathews, Brad Seymour, Andrew Schauble and Paul Williams.
Coach Paul Roos said the broad leadership style would encourage more players to "step up".
"If we don't appoint vice-captains, we are not demoting them in any way. We see that group as very important, that nine is very important," Roos said. "We've talked briefly about it, but we'll decide over the next week, whether it's worth going with vice-captains."