The climb to premiership glory has officially started for the Navarre Football Club.
Returning from their Christmas/New Year break last Wednesday, the Grasshoppers look to be in good shape for their 2010 season.
Although not getting the numbers they would hope for on the track, several players have been working hard in their four week lay-off.
Jeremy Harrington, Nic Murphy, Louis Hannett, Matt Newton and Rhett Murphy are just some of the dozen or more players who have returned to training bulked up and raring to go.
``It's disappointing that we can't get more on the track, but we do have a lot of players on shift work and others that live out of town,'' senior coach Ben Martin said.
``It'd be good if we could get some reserves and under 17 players there, especially at this time of the year.''
Navarre has been training at the Stawell Secondary College oval every Monday and Wednesday night and will remain there until North Park is available.
``When North Park's right to run on then we will go back to training on the hockey oval, like we were before Christmas,'' Martin said.
``We're hoping to be able to use North Park again on a Monday night under lights like we did last season.
``Once we get back onto the hockey oval we will be training at Navarre every second Wednesday.''
Martin's main aim during the first month will be mainly trying to get the miles back in the legs.
Not just running is on the cards though, skills are set to become a key focus, with players set to put in a solid month.
``We're looking at really starting to build the fitness and hone in on the skills,'' Martin said.
``It's going to take a little while, but as soon as we get those miles back in the legs then we'll really start getting it going from there.
``All the boys looked after themselves over the break so now it's time to kick start.''
The Grasshoppers are heavy on the recruiting side of things, with four more players likely to join the green and gold this season, adding to boom recruits Daniel Parkin, Ian Moreman and three Strathmore players.
With the Hoppers not having organised a practice match as of yet, a team from Melbourne will be conducting a training camp at the Navarre and Martin is hopeful for a `scratch match' against the visitors.
``Hopefully we can have a small scratch match against them and maybe join in on a few things they're doing,'' Martin said.
``We haven't sorted out an actual practice match yet. We haven't had too good of a run with those matches in the last couple of years.
``We always seem to get a few injuries out of the game, so I'm not sure just yet which way we'll go.''
Training begins at the Stawell Secondary College oval from 6pm each Monday and Wednesday night.
Last Modified on 02/03/2010 22:14