The Claremont Football Club has begun pre-season training for 2015 and with some familiar faces returning to “Tigerland” it promises to be an exciting season ahead. I recently caught up with League coach Michael Broadbridge to discuss how the Tigers’ preparations are coming along.

Michael, good to see you again. Pre-season I imagine is an exciting time not only for the players, but also the coaching group?

Yeah, it is. The pre-season’s a fantastic time and we really enjoy it. It’s an opportunity to get some work into the players without the pressure of the week in, week out stuff and to see how much we can improve. We’ve got a lot of young players and a lot of young talent so we’re getting our hands dirty and making some significant gains, hopefully.

What about since the season finished? I imagine all the players and coaches have had a decent break in between?

Yeah, absolutely. I think everyone’s nice and enthusiastic and refreshed. Clearly we didn’t make the finals and so we finished early and had a longer break than perhaps what Claremont’s used to, and so like four other clubs we’re well and truly into it now. We’re into the third week (of pre-season) and we’re going well.

Your second pre-season with the club since taking over as senior coach, have you had a different approach from this time last year in any way?

(Pauses) I don’t think it’s necessarily different, I think it’s more that I know the system now and I know the people. I know the players, and the staff. I think I have a good handle on what we really need to focus on where as last year I was pretty much coming in cold and relying on a lot of other people’s feedback and what they thought. Clearly we’re in a healthier position. The players who we have here (at the club) I know intimately and we can design programs to develop them as opposed to last year where I think we were learning along the way.

You’ve pretty much answered it, but do you feel as if you’re better prepared now to really get your message across to the playing group?

Yeah, definitely. They certainly understand where I’m coming from, the guys who played last year, I don’t think there’s any surprises there. We don’t devote a lot of work pre-Christmas into style of play, it’s more about individual development in fitness and skills and we really try and instil an attention to detail and make sure that they’re (players) making every minute count at training.

What about the players, they’re looking quite sharp, are you happy about the way they’ve returned from their break?

Yeah, I am very happy. Most of the guys came back and hit the targets that they needed to and they’ve hit the ground running. We’ve got new conditioning staff with new standards and expectations and the guys are starting to learn what’s required of them and so I’m very happy at the moment, Dan.

Are there any standout individuals who have come back in tip-top shape who may’ve caught you by surprise?

(Pauses) Not so much caught me by surprise, but you’re happy for guys who were thrown challenges and you weren’t 100% sure how they were going to respond. Josh Tilley is a very tall, developing ruckman who’s come back and given himself every opportunity to take massive steps in his game. I think someone like Kiefer Yu who’s been around for a number of years, his limiting factor has normally been his ability to cover the ground, but his fitness level has now really embraced that and he’s just not missing a beat and really working hard to improve that element of his game. Keegan Knott is very similar. He doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed as a small forward, he now wants to develop his running capability to play further up the ground and so those types of players have impressed me so far.

You alluded to it earlier, the way training is at the moment. There’s a focus on fitness, endurance and also a bit of game plan? Is that the direction heading into Christmas?

Not so much game plan. We coach specific skills which I suppose are relevant to our game plan, but we don’t really get into a style of play too much. We’re not going to tweak too much of what we did last year. We need to improve in certain areas, definitely, and there’ll be some adjustments that we make, but in terms of the general style of play, we’ll probably wait until mid-January before we start to educate the guys and practice those types of things. Right now it’s just a matter of making sure the fundamentals are up to the level that they need to be.

We’ve got a few players returning to the club such as Ian Richardson, Tom Swift and Beau Maister. Unfortunately with Beau he’s got a bit of a shoulder infection?

I don’t think it’s his shoulder. He had a “golden staph” infection which I think can strike down anybody at any time, particularly if you’ve got an open wound and somehow he managed to get that and it’s a nasty bug. He was really laid low and he’s been in hospital for a period of time and so it’s really going to derail his pre-Christmas training, but I think we’ll have him back on deck in January. It could even be a slightly delayed start to the season for Beau, but hopefully he doesn’t miss too much footy.

To have those players return (Richardson, Swift and Maister) - we had Luke Blackwell, Andrew Foster, Trinity Handley and Matt Orzel all retire at the end of last season and so it must be good to get some experience back into the team?

Absolutely. We knew there was going to be a likelihood that we would have a couple of those players come back for 2015 and it was always part of our planning. I think it’s very hard to replace a Sandover Medallist in Blackwell, but we’re doing our best to fill those holes. We’ve got some talented kids coming through who we hope can step straight into the League side next year and I think the team should improve from what we did last season. We certainly finished the season well, but missed out on the finals and so we need to take another step.

Mitchell McGovern had a really big impact at senior level last season and subsequently was drafted by the Adelaide Crows, I imagine that gives you great pleasure as well as everyone else at the Claremont Football Club?

Absolutely. I think Mitch really knuckled down as the season went on and deserved his elevation to AFL status. I’m really rapt for him, he’s a fantastic young man and I think he learnt a lot last season about the requirements that are required to play League football at WAFL level. That held him in good stead and clearly he’s got the skills that will mean he can be a success at AFL level. It’s just going to take a year or two given his size and fitness levels to get him up to scratch. When he does, I’ve got no doubt we’ll see him taking those big pack-marks and kicking goals from 50m which is really exciting.

The 2015 season is still a few months from getting underway, but we definitely encourage all the Claremont Football Club members to re-sign or get on board?

Absolutely, Dan. I think we gave great value for money last season to all of our members and supporters. The Show Grounds is a fantastic venue to watch football, we’ve got great facilities there for the members to enjoy from a hospitality point of view and I think that if you want to see great talent, complimented by some really exciting senior players such as Ian Richardson, Tom Swift and Beau Maister, then it’s a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.