I have spoken to many people regarding the effect our pre-season had on the club this year, the one's I have taken most notice of are 2 friends of my daughter who were assistant coaches at the bulldogs, another friend who was a 300+ game player at the bulldogs and my grandson's godfather who played for the saints and bulldogs and was a 2 time winner of the JJ Liston trophy and they all say for that many players to have missed so much of the pre-season it would have had a dire effect on the teams overall performances during the year.
Add the injuries we copped during the year, we had no chance really.