Melbourne aren’t planning to rest any of their players through the condensed AFL season, with coach Simon Goodwin saying the Demons are prepared for short turnarounds.
Starting on July 29, there will be 33 games across 20 days of consecutive football – which covers rounds nine to 12 – but Goodwin says his team are ready thanks to their high performance manager Darren Burgess.
“What we did do through the first COVID-19 break was to prepare our players for four-day cycles,” Goodwin said on Thursday from their new Sunshine Coast base.
“Darren Burgess has had a lot of experience in putting programs together for elite sporting teams around short breaks and we prepared our players through that period so they’re used to the load that they’re going to have to carry.”
While some AFL coaches are pondering when and how to rotate and rest players through the compressed fixturing, Goodwin said it wasn’t on his radar.
“Our plan is not to rest anyone,” he said.
“Our plan will be to pick the best team.
“We won’t be reckless with that – if players are sore then they won’t play but our plan is to pick the best team available.
“We’ve prepared them to handle the loads that are going to be presented to them and we’re going to make sure we get our best players out there to perform really strongly.”
The Demons are settling into their new digs at Twin Waters alongside their regular AAMI Park neighbours, NRL club Melbourne Storm.
Goodwin said they had reinforcements on the way, with 12 players joining them next Friday when they get out of quarantine.
While they have banked wins from their last two matches, their next challenge is a step up, taking on second-placed Brisbane Lions at Metricon Stadium on Sunday night.
“Brisbane play a really contested style of footy in the forward half of the ground and they do it consistently well so we’re looking forward to that challenge,” he said.
“It’s the way we like to play the game so it’s going to be two teams going at it pretty hard.”