West Adelaide coach Mark Mickan blames poor pre-season for disappointing SANFL campaign

WEST Adelaide coach Mark Mickan has thrown down the gauntlet to his players to have strong pre-seasons, saying poor preparation last summer was a large reason behind the club’s slide.

WEST Adelaide coach Mark Mickan has thrown down the gauntlet to his players to have strong pre-seasons, saying poor preparation last summer was a large reason behind the club’s slide.

The Bloods ended their 2014 campaign with a 21.5 (131) to 10.8 (68) loss to Woodville-West Torrens at Woodville on Saturday.

The result confirmed West’s fall from preliminary finalist to second-bottom on the ladder and Mickan said his side had been playing catch-up all season.

He refused to blame anyone for the sluggish pre-season but said his players needed to be ready to go on November 10 this year.

“At the start of the year we tried to mask the fact we had a really poor pre-season,” Mickan said.

“Our planning for this year will be that we get as many as humanly possible on the track, get all the surgeries and operations out of the way so we go into the pre-season full of running.”

Utility Ben Fisher announced his retirement before the Eagles game and midfielder Shane Birss hung up his boots last week.

Mickan said the club would target a few recruits with outside run and skill but was confident his side could improve without too many changes.

“Sometimes the best recruits are the players you’ve already got.

“I know if we get up squad up and running and fit, we can still be a formidable team.

“But that won’t happen without hard work.”