WILLIAMSTOWN faces a stern first-up test against defending premiers Geelong Cats in the Victorian Football League season-opener at Torquay Football Ground on Sunday.
Seagulls coach Peter German believes his side will tackle every challenge head on this season, if their preparation is any indication.
Speaking at the Seagulls’ season launch last week, he was impressed with his players’ ability to overcome a trying situation on their pre-season camp at Bright.
“The time that I actually did start to think we do have a good quality group was when we went to Bright,” he said.
“We spent about three days there and crammed a lot of physical work, a lot of educational work and we had some good training up there, but probably the hardest thing we did was a day trek up and down the mountains.
“With how hard it was, I didn’t hear one player whinge — well certainly not while I was around — but I really felt the group bonded well. You could see they’re so eager to learn and also be part of what we hope is a team this year that’s going to go forward in leaps and bounds.”
The Seagulls brought in three big-name recruits during the summer.
Cameron Wood was highly sought after, but the Seagulls beat all others to the punch. The former Collingwood big man is likely to command the No.1 ruckman position. Justin Sherman, who was on the Western Bulldogs’ list last season, opted to continue his career with the Seagulls.
Brent Prismall, who works as a player well-being officer at the Bulldogs, signed on after an injury-hit AFL stint with Geelong and Essendon.
While delighted with the additions, German revealed the Seagulls had knocked back other former AFL players so as not to “overload” the squad at the expense of young up-and-coming players already on the list.
“I think if you look at how we finished off last year with a lot of the players who were performing weekly late in the year and going into finals, they were Williamstown [-listed] players. So we wanted to make sure we didn’t overload our list so that it stymied some of the young players who were starting to develop,” German said. “To that fact, we actually knocked back two or three quality players, who were ex-AFL players who we quite easily could’ve recruited, but again that shows the real faith in the players that we’ve got at the club in the last two or three years, but also with the new players that we’ve got.”
The first bounce on Sunday is at 2pm.
