By ADEM SARICAOGLU
INCOMING playing coach Brad Murphy has instilled a new level of professionalism into the Melton Bloods’ preparation for the upcoming Ballarat Football League season.
The former Western Bulldog and Hoppers Crossing captain is currently printing his stamp on a newly revamped Bloods squad in what has so far been a heavy pre-season on the track.
Coming off a disappointing 2013 season that yielded just one win, Murphy has been keen ensure his side is ready to compete this time around.
“We’re slowly filtering in a bit of game plan stuff through to the players at the moment,” Murphy explained.
“We’ve got a session this week designed to sit down and go through the whole thing. I’ve put together 10 pages of documents for each player and we’ll go through that this week about how we’re going to be playing and different setups and all that sort of stuff.
“We’ve also been doing a lot of speed testing and fitness testing and our speed testing’s gone through the roof. But we also understand that you can run as many laps as you want – it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to win you games of footy.”
For all the video analysis and specialist training Murphy has overseen so far this summer, he said it remains difficult to assess just how the new-look Bloods will stack up in the BFL this coming season.
For now, Murphy would rather wait and see just how Melton’s intense pre-season will manifest itself on the field come April and beyond.
“We really don’t want to put a win-loss ratio on our improvement, it could be straight to the top of the ladder or it could also mean we don’t go up the ladder at all,” Murphy said.
“I think our improvement’s going to come from within and what we see as guys improving. We want guys to individually improve but we also want the club to improve on and off the field.
“Until the season starts we’re pretty unsure of where we’re going to finish but I’d hope to see some pretty drastic improvement individually and as a team.”
Having already announced a host of new signings prior to the New Year, Melton has since added Hillside premiership hard man Justin Chircop, among others, to its growing list of experienced recruits.
Murphy said he hopes Melton’s increased fitness in combination with the experience the club has managed to obtain will result in more free-flowing Bloods’ football in 2014.
Melton will begin its new BFL campaign at home to Sebastopol in mid-April.
