While the NTFA season will see no football played before at least July 13, teams are still mentally preparing for their shots at glory.
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In the sixth of a series of previews on the NTFA's premier division competition,The Examiner looks at Hillwood, who have lost several big names from their premiership-winning side.
Coach: Nathan Lowe
Captain: Damon Howe
2019 finish: Premiers - finished home-and-away season in third with 11 wins and five losses before beating Bridgenorth in the grand final by 23 points.
Ins: Karlton Wadley, Che Haines, Nash Digney (all North Launceston), Bradley Templar (Launceston).
Outs: Tom Bennett, Mark Walsh, Nathan Pearce, Dan Withers (all North Launceston), Brad Dikkenberg, Patrick Rodman, Jye Balym, Jake Chamberlain (all St Pats).
Breakout year: "I think Isaac Thompson will take another step forward this year, he's going to change his role as a midfielder this season for us," Lowe said.
"Mack Blazely, after his first year, he will have a big influence for us in his role this season.
"Young Sam Hoffman, he's a local boy, one of the only local boys in our team, he's been in and out of the senior side for two or three years and he's really keen to cement his spot in our forward or back half."
Coach says: "We set up a running program, eight groups with our leadership team, and we set a challenge for each player to run 25km a week and basically nearly every player in those groups is running 25km a week.
"They wouldn't have covered that many kilometres in our pre-season but they are definitely getting them into the legs to get them up and running that's for sure.
"I think with the players we have left and the new players coming on board, it's just about the culture we are trying to build and the game plan will be basically the same as we had last year.
"The majority of our team already knows that and with the players we've lost, if we make the top five, it's all good - anything is possible from there, so making finals with losing so many players is the key for us this season.
"For the pre-season that we had together, from the start of December through to when the COVID came in, our training was good and the players themselves gelled really quickly with one another.
OTHER PREVIEWS
- Old Scotch
- University of Tasmania
- George Town women's
- Deloraine
- George Town
- Old Scotch women's
- Bracknell
- Perth
- South Launceston
- South Launceston women's
- Old Launcestonians women's
- Old Launcestonians
- Rocherlea
- Scottsdale women's
- Lilydale
- Meander Valley women's
- Meander Valley
- Bridgenorth women's
- Longford
- Evandale
- Evandale women's
- East Coast
"There was a bit of banter and some challenges thrown in so it was really good, basically the same pre-season as we had last year where everyone bought into what we were trying to sell to them and they know it pays off.
"It's just that time of year where it's hard to keep them involved and positive about it when none of the coaches or clubs know what's happening either.
"We try and interact with them as much as we possibly can and send out as much stuff on our Facebook page and individually on our players' group as to what we can actually do to keep them positive."