Preseason all set to commence

Perth's 2017 journey begins on Wednesday evening, with this years graduating colts hitting the track for night one of preseason.

The remainder of the squad return on Friday in what will be the first full squad session of the club's 2017 campaign.

Due to the redevelopment currently taking place at Lathlain Park, 2016/17 preseason will be based at Higgins Park in East Victoria Park.

Perth Football Operations Manager Tyson Beattie says Higgins Park is conveniently located and the relocation shouldn't cause any disruption to the club's preseason training. 

"We needed somewhere reasonably close to the club so that players can continue doing their weights and rehab back here," Beattie says.

"The town of Victoria Park helped us organise with one of our junior clubs, Vic Park Raiders Junior Footy Club, at Higgins Park which is a really good facility.

"It’s bigger than one oval, it’s got more space, so it will give us a chance to actually spread out in preseason, do some conditioning, break into groups and all that sort of stuff.

"It also has a pretty good building which is fairly new as well." 

There will be three main training sessions a week held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at Higgins Park.

Additional Tuesday evening and Saturday morning sessions will take place at the club, which Beattie says will primarily be weights training.

"Mainly a focus on weights and building up our weight training into specific players," Beattie says.

"But for some players who are looking to get fitter rather than stronger, they might be doing some specific running training in the Lathlain area."

Beattie says the main focus for the preseason from a conditioning point of view will be speed and agility.

"Speed and agility in particular will be a focus area so that we have the opportunity to take advantage of our more highly skilled players," Beattie says.

"Any game plan in the WAFL probably does rely on that ability to run and spread and create options and to do that you really need to be agile and repeat sprint so I think that’s a pretty big focus for our new strength and conditioning coach."

Beattie says it's expected that training will move back to Lathlain by round three of the regular season.

"With the redevelopment taking place now, we hopefully plan to be back by the first round or two of the regular season," Beattie says.

Be part of the journey...2017 memberships available here.