Quote: Nankivell "Why do people keep banging on about the pre season. The Salford players had a pre season like everybody else. The fact that the club was going through financial difficulties should have had no impact on the coaching and conditioning experienced by professional players.
If they had been kids I could have understood the comment, but we are supposed to have professional players who should have been totally focussed on their game and who should have known that the harder they worked, the more likely they would have become more attractive to another prospective club if things had gone badly.
If you were to comment that the coach and the conditioner didn't prepare the players correctly then I might agree, but they were there and being paid to do it. And the club's financial difficulties are no excuse for them not having done so.'"
Wrong.
Pre-season is the most important time for a Club. Pre-season training is designed by the coaches to meet the needs for the upcoming season. They have to plan and target specific areas of training, team bonding, fitness, and tactics. They may require certain players to bulk-up, lose body fat, gain speed, or adapt to a new position or play style. They have to design and refine tactical options, moves, and drill them until they become second nature. Overall cardio fitness has to be pushed towards each players max steadily over the course of the pre-season. Carefully managed to not peak to early or burn them out or injure them at the wrong time. Integration of new ideas, systems and players has to be manged and worked on. Injuries and rehabilitation need focus for those that require it for them to push on get to the same level as everyone else. This is done carefully by medical and coaching staff so as not further injure those in already in a recovery state. Diet and supplements need to be designed, sometimes individually depending on what outcome the coaches require of that player.
Now please tell me how you expect a group of players and coaches with uncertain employment prospects, severe lack of equipment and money, poor training facilities, and no direction from the Club to organise all of the above themselves?
You can be as professional as you want to be but it's no substitute for it done properly. There's a reason pre-season is done by large teams of coaches, diet experts, fitness trainers, physios etc etc It's because it's the most important aspect of a Clubs forthcoming season, setting benchmarks and being as ready as possible.
Would Warrington or Wigan go through their thorough and incredibly designed pre-seasons if, like you said, they are all pros let them get fit themselves and the moves will sort themselves out. Injured players would be fighting fit. Everyone would be trim, at peak fitness and raring to go?
So, no. No. No. No.
Pre-season was a wash-out for Salford this year. Speak to any of the Players. They didn't even have enough Rugby balls at one point. So for the team to have done what they've done this year is fantastic. So please understand what pre-season actually involves, and take it from me who has experienced it under Kevin Tamati. It's vital, essential, demanding, and complex from a management perspective.
