SFNL: Cheltenham is going old school with its preparation for its premiership defence
Reigning Southern league Division 1 premier Cheltenham is bucking the modern pre-season trend as it plans to defend its crown by peaking at the perfect time.
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Reigning Southern league premier Cheltenham is going old-school with its approach to pre-season.
Instead of starting its program in late November or December like most clubs, Cheltenham is kicking off on January 22 – just under 10 weeks ahead of round 1.
The Rosellas went all the way in 2023 and plan to do so again in 2024.
New coach Justin Pickering said timing the players’ peak is why they’re holding fire on getting the cones out.
“The first couple of weeks will be ticking the legs over and we’ll step up the levels, making sure they get the right amount of kilometres in their legs,” he said.
“We’re trying to get them to a level where they’re going to be ready for competitive football.
“We don’t want to be ready to go by early March, we want to be ready to go by April and build all year – not just the first half of the year.”
The players haven’t been doing nothing, a selection have been training with VFL clubs and a strong core of leaders have put an onus upon themselves to be ready to go come night one.
Pickering said it will be obvious who has put in the work over the summer months.
“A lot of them take it upon themselves, we’ve got a pretty good senior group that have access to the balls and have gathered other senior and junior players to do running and doing ball work,” he said.
“A few of them are getting together on Thursday to do their own stuff, you can’t ask for more than that.
“If you’re not doing some sort of work, you’ll be found out.
“I know a few participated in half marathons and fun runs, you’re not doing those if you haven’t done some sort of base.
“I am confident they will come back in reasonable shape and our job will then be to get them match fit.”
The Rosellas start their season by hosting Cranbourne in the grand final rematch on Saturday, April 6.
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