We’re expecting a fierce, competitive game this weekend at ANZ Stadium against our cross-town rival, GWS. There is no doubt that GWS’s form has been really good throughout the NAB Cup and even last year they set the standard with their attack on the ball and their contested ball numbers, so we’re expecting them to have a real crack.

We’ve watched GWS’s defence pretty closely over the last few weeks and they have a good mix of key position players and smaller players. They’ve got Tim Mohr who had a really good year last year and Phil Davis, who is their captain, and then they’ve got Stephen Gilham who they picked up at the end of last year. In addition to those experienced key defenders, they’ve got Tomas Bugg and Adam Kennedy, who are the smaller type defenders who have shown some good form as well. They certainly are a well-equipped back six and it will be a challenge for our forwards.

It’s always hard to gauge how much improvement GWS will have made in one year. There will certainly be some improvement, but it’s difficult to tell. We’re expecting that their young players have had another big pre-season. One year on, it’s clear that  they are now starting to build those bigger bodies and they’ll certainly be a formidable opponent to any side this year, and not just us in round one.

Looking back over the last month, we’ve had mixed results up forward this pre-season. If we’re going to be honest, our structures probably didn’t function as well as we would have liked, but we did have some new players down there and it was exciting to see some of our younger players like Brandon Jack, Jake Lloyd and Jed Lamb spend some time in the forward line. It’s been good to see them have a go up there, and while we know there are a few structural things we still need to work on, we were pleased with how our younger players took to those structures and we are always looking for ways to improve.

As we head into the opening round, what we’ll be looking for is a general step up across the board this weekend from our 22 players. We’re looking to go another step from the NAB Cup and I think the players we’ve picked for this weekend’s round one clash have had a really good preparation.  If you look at the forwards, Sam Reid has had a really good pre-season and has played every NAB Cup game, Adam Goodes has played two games back now, and Benny McGlynn has played three games, so we’re expecting those guys with some game time under their belt to step up again.

It’s going to be great to see Benny back out there again in round one. He missed the last two finals last year, which was tough for him, but since he’s come back from his injury, he’s trained really well and his form has been okay in the NAB Cup, so we hope he gets going on Saturday night.

We go into Saturday’s game expecting a hard and tough battle against a team of very talented up-and-coming players, so we won’t be taking GWS lightly this weekend.