The length and intensity of a footy pre-season can wear you down at times. Our fitness coach is all too aware of this as we constantly remind him what we think of repeat 300m runs, and that from our perspective somewhere in the 20-30m vicinity sounds a much better distance.

As much as we try to suggest this it comes to nothing, and before we know it we’re sprinting around the boundary once again… lactic acid pumping through the body, fighting for front spot… back and forth… over and over.

Recently we did have a welcome change up to training. We were told we would be playing a few small games of soccer to freshen everyone up.

Four team managers (non playing) were selected - Ben McGlynn, Nathan Gordon, Jude Bolton and myself. We would have a mini draft to determine who would play on each team.

With the number one draft pick McGlynn picked J McVeigh. I’m pretty sure McGlynn based his selection on wanting to suck up to the captain . As for me, I based my draft selections on more ‘old school’ approaches to picking a team such as skill, ability and merit.

As team manager I felt I was kind of like a José “The Special One” Mourinho but without the grey hair and Portuguese accent, and a little less arrogance. I was wary of Jude Bolton, the Sir Alex Furgeson of the group who is cagey, older than most and getting a little thin up top.

However, I had faith that I’d be able to pick the team I needed. So with no further ado allow me to put my recruiters hat on while I introduce my chosen team (please hold your applause until the end).

My 1st Round Selection
Heath Grundy: It’s well known defence wins you premierships, and in my opinion you can never have too many tall defenders.  “Reg” was going to be my marquee signing and the face of my team for marketing purposes. If I had a salary cap he’d be taking up most of that too.

My 2nd Round Selection
Tommy Walsh: Surprised that he was still available in the second round as he grew up playing with a round ball, but as he is new to the club there was an unknown factor to him.

My 3rd Round selection
Sam Reid: The Peter Crouch of my team. Great with the high ball. I signed him up to a five year deal.

My 4th Round selection
Nick Smith: Don’t be fooled by the kid with the nickname “Smooch”. As hard as they come and would only make my defence even more rock solid. I liken him to John Terry, but without the alledged racism.

My 5th Round selection
Jarred Moore: The man they call “Bulldog”. I liken him to a cross between Carlos Tevez and a brick wall. He’d be my frugal goal keeper.

Footballers are a competitive lot. It doesn’t matter if it’s lifting weights, eating food, or playing soccer... once it’s on, it’s on!

The games began and we’d play each of the three other teams once each, then a grand final to determine the winner.

To cut to the chase Ben McGlynn’s team was poor. If there was going to be another season I would have questioned if he was throwing games to get compensation draft picks. He started the tournament well but then went missing when it mattered. We beat Nathan Gordon’s “Rat Pack” team easily too.

As I feared, it would come down to Jude “Sir Alex” Bolton and myself in the Grand Final.  We kicked the first through Tommy Walsh, and Bulldog was impenetrable in goals. When we got the second goal through Smooch I knew we had it won. (Jude also began to question whether their goal keeper Lewis Jetta was accepting under the table payments to let goals through.)

We were the victors and head referee John Blakey awarded Tommy Walsh the Swans FIFA Ballon d'Or (best player). You can see some of the highlights here

The NAB Cup begins this weekend for some teams, and for us we’re now less than two weeks away from our first game of the pre season tournament, against Geelong and St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Friday February 24.

We are all getting ready and are very excited that the real football is almost back!

Ted Richards
Premiership Manager ‘Swans Soccer Tournament 2012’
@richards_report