Coaches grapple with disruptive schedule, managing player workloads over eight-week stretch

A quirk in the Premier League fixture means clubs will play four games across eight weeks and while it’s frustrating for coaches, they have a plan to get through it.

It will be the final week of footy for the Premier League before the competition goes into overdrive with four games played across eight weeks due to representative footy and coaches are facing a unique challenge.

Rounds 9-12 are played across June 14, June 28, July 12 and July 26 with the Tasmanian state team and SFL against NTFA matches being played in between those weeks.

Clarence coach Grant Fagan said it is tough to manage.

“It’s just all about buy in from the players,” Fagan said.

“We have allowed them two weekends off from the four and the other weekends we will train and keep up our standards.

“It will be a tough period though because you can lose your way a bit if you are not playing footy every week.”

Kingborough's men's Trent Baumeler and Clarence's men's coach Grant Fagan preview their clash for the SFL Premier League. Picture: Jacob Doole

The Roos take on the Tigers on Saturday with Kingborough coach Trent Baumeler echoing Fagan’s frustration.

“It is something we have definitely looked at and prepared for,” Baumeler said.

“It is also sort of governed with how many players you have in the rep squad, how many you have in the state program which will start rolling up again in the middle of June.

“We have sort of got a plan in place around what training looks like and we have certain players like Will Clifford and Mitch Brouwer who have played a lot of footy this year, we’ve got to sort of give them some time off in that and manage them through but also keep their workflow consistent because they are aspiring to play state footy in July.

“It will be a little bit of suck it and see the first couple of weeks, because it is an eight week block of four games.

“We will just back in our coaching staff that we get that right and will know if we got that right in about August when we are back.”

The Roos will host the Tigers on Saturday with both teams coming off wins in round 7.

Clarence were too strong for North Hobart to claim a 25-point win to hop into second spot while Kingborough faced a tough first half but were too strong in the second half and ran out to beat Brighton by 62-points.

The last time the two teams met back in round two, the Roos won by 29-points at Twin Ovals with the Tigers looking to give them some payback when they kick off at 1.30pm at Ninja Stadium.