Roos backs AFL’s NAB Challenge preparation

Melbourne coach Paul Roos has backed the current AFL pre-season format despite the long-term injuries that occurred in the first round of the NAB Challenge.

The season-long losses of West Coast’s Eric Mackenzie and young Bulldog Tom Liberatore to serious knee injuries just four games into the pre-season competition raised questions about the value of the practice games.

But Roos said the current system – which is a pared-back version of the old NAB Cup – was the minimum that clubs required to prepare their players for the AFL season.

“You just couldn’t possibly go straight into round one,” Roos said on Tuesday.

“You have to have a form of conditioning. We’re probably at the minimum level now … I don’t think you can go from nothing to playing a game – the jump would be just too dramatic, the injury rate would be enormous and the standard of footy would be ordinary.

“You don’t like to see any players get injured, but that’s just the reality of the game.”

Those injuries occurred on the back of Demon youngster Christian Petracca suffering a season-ending ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in training last month.

The 19-year-old initially harboured ambitions of returning to play this year after undergoing his knee reconstruction, but Roos wouldn’t entertain the prospect.

“The first thing he said to me was that the doc told him he could play in four or five months,” Roos said.

“I told him that the coach said you can’t – I’ve overruled the doctor.”

In other injury news, former Crow Bernie Vince is still in the frame for round one despite a setback with a hamstring injury, but Jack Trengove remains out indefinitely despite positive progress in his recovery from a foot stress fracture.

The Demons kick off their NAB Challenge series against Fremantle in Perth on Thursday night.

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