USE it or lose: that is the simple message to all players on the Werribee Tigers list in 2009.
Coach Simon Atkins will move into the second year of his three-year plan to take the club to the Victorian Football League grand final and he will be ruthless when it comes to shaping his squad for year three.
It shapes as a make-or-break season for players on the fringe.
"What we'll do this year to back up our first year is identify who we think can continue to stay in our system," Atkins said.
The Tigers will defy convention and re-sign players mid-season to ensure greater stability and avoid panic off-season signings.
"We'll start signing players halfway through the year to get our list to 30 or 31 so you get uniformity of your list," he said.
"Heading into the third year you'll have 30 players and then you're only looking for 15 or 16 to top your list up.
"Our plan is to get blokes to put pen to paper in May."
Atkins, a former AFL midfielder, sped up the re-signing process this season, having 21 players retained from last season's squad before the team had bowed out in the preliminary final.
He will finalise his current squad by the first week of February - not March, as in past seasons - to allow sounder preparation for the new season.
"We'll be able to get our team rules and structures in place a lot earlier," he said.
"I've known a fair bit about the 21 players and it makes it much easier to go about your structure."
Atkins stressed the importance of injecting speed into the legs of his players and limited ball work pre-Christmas. This focus should breed an exciting, turbo-charged style of football, which Atkins favours.
"I told them they wouldn't be touching the footballs much prior to Christmas, which probably disappointed them a little bit," he said with a chuckle.
"We just had to work on the deficiency as a group."
Life after James Podsiadly begins at Tigerland.
A Liston medallist, regular 70-goals-a-year forward and inspirational leader is always going to be hard to replace, but Atkins is adamant his new-look forward line will be in better shape this season.
"As a coach I had a bloke that would kick me 70 goals a year - guaranteed," he said.
"To replace a life member, a captain and a Liston medallist is hard.
"I say this with all due respect; we move on."
The Tigers wasted little time injecting height and strength into the forward 50.
Alongside the towering figure of former North Melbourne and Hawthorn forward Nathan Thompson is one-time AFL-listed forward Marty Pask and promising youngster Tim Bongetti - the TAC Cup's leading goalkicker two seasons ago.
"I'm not going to match apples with apples, but Nathan Thompson is a pretty good replacement," Atkins said.
"What we've been able to do is get Marty Pask, and six of his seven games he played were as a hit-up centre half-forward with the [Brisbane] Lions.
"We've also been lucky enough to get Tim Bongetti - everyone thought he would have been drafted as a lead-up forward."
Atkins predicts a fit and firing Thompson - albeit a different style of player to Podsiadly - to offer the 50-plus goals and become the Tigers' go-to man.
Where he sees the improvement is in the second and third targets in the forward 50.
"Our second leading goalkicker has kicked a maximum of 20 goals," he said.
"Hopefully Bongetti and Pask will kick 25 each and there is 50 instead of 20.
"Despite their three-year plan for a grand final appearance, the reality is the Tigers came close to playing off in the grand final last season.
Atkins is aware the supporters will not want their side to drop the ball this season.
"I will tell you now - I want to win the grand final this season," he said. "If you are a coach and you said anything other than that the board would sit there and say I don't think we've got the right person."
Source: www.werribeebanner.com.au
Last Modified on 09/06/2009 22:16