Sydney coach John Longmire says the club will carefully monitor players during AFLX
IF somebody was devising a way to pull a muscle, it would be hard to come up with something better than Sydney’s AFLX draw. But how do the Swans plan to overcome it?
Sydney
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FOR John Longmire, AFLX is more of a hindrance than a help to preparing his team for round one, but the Sydney Swans coach is putting those objections aside for the greater good.
The born-and-bred New South Welshman believes the AFL has to think outside the square and play inside the rectangle to grow the game in his home state.
“I’m OK with AFLX,” Longmire said. “It has a role to play, particularly in the northern markets where there aren’t as many ovals and we need to be able to trial different games that appeal to kids at facilities which are available or not available.”
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Longmire may not be as charitable Saturday night should any of his senior players, like Dane Rampe, Jake Lloyd, Sam Reid, Nick Smith, Nic Newman or George Hewett pick up an injury.
The prospect is real especially when there is almost two hours between the club’s first game against the Western Bulldogs at 4.38pm and its second at 6.30pm against the Gold Coast Suns.
If somebody was devising a way to pull a muscle it would be hard to come up with something better than Sydney’s AFLX draw.
Throw in the already heavy pre-season workloads and wait for the laptops and phones to be clobbered in the coach’s box.
“We have to be mindful of cooling down and warming up,” Longmire said.
“As far as playing time it will be a maximum of 15-18 minutes (each player) and there is an hour- and-a-half break before the next game. You only get 15 minutes of work in, is that enough for a week? But anything new is worth trying.”
The problem for Longmire is the players who play in AFLX have to be rested before they play to avoid injury but don’t get much of a training effect from such a short workout.
“Two 10 minute halves mean a few of the senior blokes need to train really hard on the Saturday rather than play two 15 minute games,” Longmire said.
The Swans have named the strongest team of the Sydney Tournament with six of their best 22 lining up in Rampe, Lloyd, Reid, Smith, Newman and Hewett.
They also have another eight players who played senior football last year including Ollie Florent, Harry Cunningham, Jordan Foote, Robbie Fox, Dan Robinson, Harry Marsh, James Rose and Dean Towers.