Scrap NAB Cup tri-series: Clarko

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson is no fan of the tri-series format. Source: Herald Sun

HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says the NAB Cup will never fully prepare players for the rigours of the season proper.

Clarkson said he would be glad to see the back of the triangular series he labelled a TV gimmick, but stopped short of saying the NAB Cup should be canned.

He praised the AFL for changing its rules to allow teams to field three substitutes each during the two-week trial of 80 rotations.

But that was about as far as the coach's love extended for a competition he said was "all about game time for our players and getting them conditioned" for Round 1.

"(In) NAB week four last year, I think we played 100 minutes of game time and in our first round of the season, we played 133 minutes - that's a full quarter of footy," Clarkson said yesterday.

"So we've got to get as much conditioning and game time into our players as we can, knowing that whatever we do in the NAB still isn't going to prepare us fully for the first round of the home-and-away."

Asked if he would prefer to have the NAB Cup reduced further, Clarkson said: "That's another debate again.

"(And) that's probably going to be had at coaches and footy managers' level with the AFL," he said.

"But we're happy with the NAB series. NAB (week) one is probably a bit Mickey Mouse; I think it's more a television thing with the triangular series. It's just a nightmare for coaches and players to manage that each year.

"It's just too higgledy-piggledy for mine. I'd just rather it be more stable, have players know where they're playing, for what game time and not have to worry about using alternative rooms, alternative boxes, doing media at all different stages throughout the course of the game.

"Ideally, you've got 18 sides and so nine sides play another side that week."

Clarkson said the extra allowance of substitutes gave teams flexibility to ease players back, citing the example of Xavier Ellis (calf) and Liam Shiels (late start to pre-season) who are set to return next week.

"We've got the flexibility to play them for 40 or 50 per cent game time, and that's probably ideal," he said.
 

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