THE Crows want to win it, the Saints aren’t interested and the Power want to test their best squad out on the park during the NAB Cup round one series tonight.
Three different scenarios show the different methods clubs come to the line to play with in the NAB Cup.
Adelaide is an interesting one. It is the reigning NAB Cup champion and some critics believe it ran out of gas heading into the finals last season. It made the preliminary final and was one kick away from the grand final yet it looked exhausted.
Brenton Sanderson and his men want to do it all over again beginning with the NAB Cup.
“Yeah, we want to win it, we’d love to win both matches (today) and give ourselves a chance to play in that NAB Cup Grand Final again because it was such a great preparation for us last year,” assistant coach Mark Bickley said.
“We played a really good game against West Coast, and that gave us a lot of confidence to kick the season off (last year).”
“We really want to see guys like Tom Lynch and Lewis Johnston, and (Brad) Crouch and (Luke) Brown, and (Sam) Kerridge, and all those guys who got one or two games,” he said.
“So to be able to expose them to three or four games is probably more critical as well because we think they’ve developed a little bit more and we want to see if they’re going to stand up.
“You play low to mid-30s (players) per year if you’re lucky, which means a lot of these guys are going to play important minutes this year.”
St Kilda, conversely, don’t aim to win the NAB Cup and will focusing on its younger brigade.
“No interest, and that is certainly not a focus,” coach Scott Watters said.
“We want to be competitive every time we play. Whether it’s a scratch match or a handball game, our players want to come and win.
“But is winning the NAB Cup a focus? Not at all.”
Also on Football Nation:
The full 2013 NAB Cup Fixture
NAB Cup Squads Round 1, 2013 (Crows v Saints v Power)
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