That’s when the Lions will face the Western Bulldogs for premiership points in their official AFL season-opener at Etihad Stadium.
Assistant Coach Gary O’Donnell told LIONSTV that the Club viewed the NAB Cup competition simply as an opportunity to fine-tune the team’s game plan and provide players with a chance to put their hands up for early senior selection.
“We’re trying to get the team that’s going to be playing early in the season for us together,” O’Donnell said as part of the Vero Coaches’ Wrap.
“We want players familiarising themselves with other players that will be in the same area of the ground.”
“Fairly quickly we’re going to try and get the team that’s going to front up in Round One, but still experimenting with the way we want to play and some players in various positions as well.”
But O’Donnell far from discounted the team’s impressive first-up performances, hoping they could help build confidence among the group.
“It was a very good night for us to get a couple of wins, get our confidence up, and give the players a little bit of validation for what they’ve done in the pre-season,” he said.
“OK, it’s only Round One (of the NAB Cup), but there were certainly some good performances by individuals and good ball-work by the team.”
The 33-man squad that helped defeat Hawthorn and Gold Coast will need to be trimmed back significantly when the Lions name a 25-man squad for this Saturday night's NAB Cup match against Greater Western Sydney in Wagga Wagga.
And with Jed Adcock and Pearce Hanley being touted as potential inclusions for the Giants match, positions in the team are already becoming hard to come by.
