The club had just three weeks off over Christmas before returning to the Rochester Recreation Reserve for twice-weekly sessions on January 10.
Rochester senior coach Steve Stroobants said the club had made the decision to start pre-season earlier than usual because of two seasons of interruptions its playing personnel had faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From its 11 games last year, the team finished with a 5-5 record and one draw to be fifth on percentage at the end of the home-and-away season.
Stroobants has high expectations for the team’s running power following the big pre-season preparation.
“We started on November 13, which made it a seven-week pre-Christmas program,” he said.
“Usually we do about six weeks.”
The Rochester mentor had his charges on the track two times a week and twice during the pre-Christmas period conducted a third session to “top up the training week”.
Stroobants said there was no specific focus to training, more of a “keep it simple” theory to remind players of the team’s game plan.
“We tried to keep it pretty simple. My aim is to keep trying to teach the young guys how we want to play,” he said.
Most of the Tigers’ playing personnel, at least those who attended the seven-week pre-season program, were from Rochester and Bendigo.
“Unfortunately the Melbourne-based players were unable to train much during the pre-season,” Stroobants said.
“We have five or six based out of Melbourne. The Atley boys (Shaun and Joe) got up for one session, but it was difficult with all the different travel conditions.”
Assistant coach and player Jordie Harper is in charge of the training regime for the Melbourne-based players, which also includes his brother Lachy, Mitch Treacy and Shaun and Jacob Atley.
The Harper brothers arrived at the club in 2020 and will be looking forward to a full season with the Tigers.
Stroobants is excited about the return to Rochester of 29-year-old Shaun Atley, a veteran of 214 games with North Melbourne.
He will join brothers Jacob and Joe at Rochester this season, although Joe is still a listed Essendon player.
Shaun and Joe managed to attend one pre-season training session before Christmas.
“Hopefully we can get them up for a few more in the next month,” Stroobants said.
While the Tigers are losing Logan Austin, who is coaching Bairnsdale this season, they have been busy on the recruiting front.
Doug Wren, a former best-and-fairest winner at Rochester, will return to the club after a season at Shepparton United.
Mitch Treacy who has played with Golden Square, is coming across to join the Tigers and Mitch Cricelli is an exciting youngster from Elmore who is also a new recruit.
“He won the Heathcote league’s rising star award last year and is a big key forward with plenty of promise,” Stroobants said of Cricelli.
The Tigers have a pre-season camp planned for February 26-27.
Until then, Stroobants expects numbers to remain at 25-plus, depending on the harvest season commitments of farm-based players.
Stroobants is travelling to Bendigo for the pre-season sessions.
"We will do an intra-club practice match in the morning of that training camp weekend, then camp together and I hope to have a leadership consultant involved in the weekend,“ he said.
