North Wagga don’t intend to go into 2017 under-done, with coach Kirk Hamblin adopting a slightly old-school approach to pre-season fitness.
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The Saints have three practice matches scheduled, beginning with Hume League club Osborne on Friday week.
As always, March rolls around sooner than ever for clubs and coaches, but Hamblin hopes his side will be fit and firing by the end of the end of the month.
“We’ve changed it a fair bit,” Hamblin said of their pre-season approach.
“Last year was a lot of game-sense training and trying to get our fitness in with the ball.
“This year, we’ve gone back to a bit of old school and we’ve dedicated a fair bit of time to running without the footy. It makes blokes mentally tougher I reckon, just running, and you can’t really hide either.”
North Wagga had their pre-season camp at Borambola last week, with the coach raving about the venue and facilities at the sport and recreation centre as the club looks to bounce back into contention after a disappointing 2016.
Saints retained the majority of their list but have gone gently in terms of off-season signings.
But the first hit-out against Osborne, likely to be at Maher Oval, will be an opportunity to look at a couple of new faces.
“It’s a chance to blow the cobwebs out and it’ll be great to see how our Orange blokes go, Tim Barry and Chris Rothney,” Hamblin said.
Barry is a premiership-winning forward with Orange Tigers and brings size, being a similar build to Daniel Jordan (who switched between full-back and full-forward last year).
Rothney is a bonus pick-up who will travel down with Barry.
“He’s a 21-year old defender who’s from WA originally,” Hamblin said.
“I don’t know too much about him but he just rang out of the blue and was keen to come across and have a crack at this league).
North Wagga expect to have a good understanding of where they’re at come the start of the year.
Their final two pre-season matches are against likely Riverina League improvers Turvey Park (March 17) and reigning premiers Wagga Tigers (March 24).
“That’s what we want – three really tough games and to try and work on our structures,” Hamblin said.
“By the time we play Tigers we want to be going okay.”
They open their season at Barellan and face premiers East Wagga-Kooringal away in round two.