The final whistle has sounded on North’s training camp in Utah and coach Brad Scott says he can’t wait for the games to begin.
“Quite often when you start preseason you take a little step back from the end of the year and then you try and build from there,” Scott told kangaroos.com.au during the last training session.
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“…I’m really looking forward to the season starting.”
The players will have one final day off before heading to the Salt Lake City Airport on Thursday (US time) to begin their journey home.
Scott says he’s been proud of what the group has accomplished this time around and believes the players have truly benefitted from three consecutive altitude camps.
“It’s been really successful I mean you expect each year to build on the previous year and we certainly feel we’ve done that. We had a really successful camp in the inaugural camp we did three years ago and this year’s just been another improvement again on last year.
“I think that’s a combination of the maturity of the group, and they’ve been able to train with greater intensity, but also the fact that we’re experienced campaigners now with this camp, we know what works and what doesn’t and we’ve refined it yet again.
“I think that’s probably the most significant thing; that our young boys have really developed. They’re looking physically a lot stronger; aerobically they’re far superior to where they were. The main reason we went to Utah three years ago was to educate the players as to the lifestyle we want them to lead and they’ve been doing that really well for three years now and we’re really reaping the benefits from that.”
He says each year, the focus of the camp has been modified with the coaches identifying particular areas for the players to work on.
“This camp the priority really has been around the intensity of our skill work and our skill development…I thought we took a step forward in that last year and you know we want to be a side that can punish the opposition with the ball in our hands and I think we’ve taken that to another level so you know we’ve had just amazing facilities to train in and I think that really has helped advance our skill level.”
Scott says the leaders have shown the way in their actions and attitudes.
“I said earlier that I was really pleased with Drew Petrie and Andrew Swallow our captain and Jack Ziebell, they’ve really driven our group forward this year and that’s what we need to get better and the young guys have followed their lead well.”
With those types of players setting the agenda, Scott says complacency won’t creep in.
“We’re fortunate…That’s always dictated by your leaders, there are a lot of older players (in the AFL) who feel like they’re backing up for the tenth, eleventh, twelfth preseason and it just becomes a chore but our guys are really driven to improve and that filters down through the ranks.”
Always measured, Scott was quick to point out that pre-seasons can be misleading because teams only have themselves to compete against and players are only compared to their team-mates at training.
“I really feel that we’ve built on where we finished last year and the home and away season and have just gone forwards in leaps and bounds. The proof will be in the pudding when we start to play games but like 17 other clubs at the moment, we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves.”
