As another AFL pre-season leaves an injury toll, will the league scrap the “Mickey Mouse” games in 2020?

AFL pre-season over ... and the coaches (and players) get a four-day break before the premiership season turns into a battle of attrition.

Port Adelaide’s Paddy Ryder is helped off the ground by a trainer in the last quarter during the 2019 JLT Community match against the North Melbourne Kangaroos at Alberton Oval. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty

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ANOTHER AFL pre-season closes ... and was it the last with official pre-season games?

AFL football boss Steve Hocking is prepared to put the question of scrapping the pre-season to his study group that last year came up with rule changes.

“If you have a look at how many players have ended up injured during the February period, that’s a concern for the industry,” Hocking says.

Port Adelaide might have become part of this “concern” had All-Australian ruckman Patrick Ryder suffered a serious injury - rather than a “dent” to the right cheekbone - in Saturday’s pre-season game against North Melbourne at Alberton Oval.

“We’ve got to get better at that and make sure they get the ideal preparation leading into a season so we’ve got the best players available to play the best games,” Hocking added.

“We just need to step back from that and understand what a future pre-season looks like and how do we not disrupt players from their loading phase. We’ll do that work over the next six to eight months and see where we land.”

Some will approve, arguing the two pre-season games are “Mickey Mouse”. Others will not, emphasising the case that players need competitive hit-outs against rivals to be fully prepared for a premiership campaign.

Official pre-season games could always be replaced by intra-club matches. But the players, such as West Coast premiership ruckman and Port Adelaide recruit Scott Lycett, does note that in-house matches are - as Malcolm Blight would say - comparable to “dancing with your sister”.

“I (was) glad to see the end of the pre-season and the (chance) to play against teams that don’t know what we are trying to do,” Lycett said last month.

“It has been a bit hard in training when you are trying things ... and other people know exactly what you are doing (because they have been in the team planning sessions).”

It all gets very serious from next Thursday, March 21 with the so-called “traditional” season-opener between Carlton and Richmond at the MCG.

All 18 AFL coaches from last season return to deal with the marathon battle of attrition in one of the world’s toughest sporting competitions. No AFL coach falls out of contract this year. But will all 18 still have their jobs by the end of the season?

This week the Roast looks at the “Coaches Pressure Index” to review how each of the 18 AFL senior coaches stands on the eve of the race to the top-eight finals in September and glory with the AFL flag.

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