Chris Bryan of Collingwood evades Bachar Houli of Essendon during the NAB Cup Match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Essendon Bombers at the Docklands Stadium. Slattery Images
The response to my pre-season article on Wednesday said it all. AFL fans really aren’t that bothered by the NAB Cup, and it is an attitude brought on by clubs not necessarily wanting to win the cup.
The AFL’s annual trial rules certainly don’t help, but the differing attitude of clubs towards the NAB Cup (which is totally understandable prior to the season proper) means fans shouldn’t read too much into pre-season results.
Adelaide coach Neil Craig summed it all up when he said, “If they’ve got any niggling injuries … they won’t play, but if it was for four points they would.” Most clubs will heed such caution, but to differing levels in pre-season.
Brisbane, for example, will head for the season proper with an extra element of caution by resting veteran duo Jonathan Brown and Simon Black in pre-season as they try to preserve the pair for Round One.
On the other hand, Craig, who won’t be resting players, did admit despite fielding the best available squad in his club’s NAB Cup opener, he would experiment with players in unfamiliar positions.
Indeed, these are the factors which show the intent of the coaching staff from respective clubs about the pre-season competition. How cautious they’ll be in selection, whether or not they’ll trial and experiment with players, or even how intense their tactical focus will be.
And, of course, the players need to be interested, too.
Nonetheless, the stances of the clubs, whichever way they may be, are fair enough, as after all the NAB Cup is just the pre-season before the real stuff kicks off in six weeks time.
But it does raise the question of who does actually want to win the 2010 NAB Cup?
Centrebet have rather predictably installed last season’s Grand Finalists Geelong and St Kilda as favourites followed by 2009 top-five clubs Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs.
But it is never so simple with the NAB Cup.
History will tell you, Hawthorn have won the most pre-season/night series premierships with nine, followed by Essendon (6) and North Melbourne (5), while the West Australian clubs along with the merged Brisbane Lions have never lifted a trophy prior to Round 1.
But to get a better idea on the current context, we need to look on a more microscopic level with the current respective coaching staff around the AFL.
Centrebet’s favourites Geelong have a good recent history in the NAB Cup, lifting it last year and in 2006, whilst making the semi-finals in 2007.
Cats coach Mark Thompson simply seems to like seeing his players go out and get some practice doing what they do best and that means they loom as big dangers.
The players will want to put behind the Mathew Stokes saga, too.
Centrebet’s other favourites St Kilda won the trophy under Ross Lyon in 2008, but were knocked out in the first-round of the NAB Cup last season. Lyon played it down when he said this week, “It’s a NAB Cup but we’ll be up and about, it should be a good test for us.”
The Saints may be without Lenny Hayes, who will have an eased workload prior to Round 1, but gun forward Nick Riewoldt should be onboard after a rare uninterrupted pre-season in an ominous sign.
On the other hand, teams like Paul Roos’s Sydney and John Worsfold’s West Coast (who played off in the 2005 and 2006 AFL Grand Finals) have incredibly both not won a NAB Cup game, with the Eagles last competitive pre-season victory coming in the rebadged Wizard Home Loans Cup back in 2005.
Indeed, their example is proof the best teams don’t always do well in pre-season.
Roos, who has never coached his side to a competitive pre-season victory, did label Sydney’s results in last year’s NAB Cup as ‘irrelevant’ although after a big off-season turnover the Swans seem to have a new attitude towards pre-season.
Melbourne coach Dean Bailey has never coached his side to a NAB Cup triumph either, but after a big pre-season and with expectant fans the Dees may want to build some momentum early this year.
Essendon coach Matthew Knights has taken the Bombers to the NAB Cup semi-finals in his two seasons in charge at Windy Hill and his youthful side could be roughies.
Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse is never one to give too much away so who knows with the Pies, while Carlton have fancied the NAB Cup in the past and the players will be keen to put behind a troublesome off-season.
Indeed, there’s differing incentives for clubs, coaches and players, and at the end of the day it makes for a very unpredictable competition.
The fans won’t read much into it all. But, on the other hand, nobody minds a bit of silverware.
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