Hey everyone, welcome to my list of...

*drumroll*

morell's Football Myths!

1. You play the way you train.
2. Pre-seasons are really important in amateur football.
3. Stretching achieves anything, ever.
4. Every club pays players.
5. Getting to a game early allows for a superior preperation.
6. Business slacks make you a more professional and disciplined club.

I could not disagree with you more on most of these points. If this is the attitude of most of the people at MP, then no wonder you languish between D6 and 7.
I think you do play the way you train. Training at high intensity for the skills used on the weekend are of much more use than just going for a kick and a catch, or pissing around not giving a fu^k. You won't improve unless you push yourself at training.

Pre-seasons are really important in my opinion even at amateur level, it brings everyone together earlier, uniting the group, and like my point above, if you push yourself to get something out of it, you will get beneficial results. There is a huge difference in fitness and attitude between the clubs I know who start training in November, and the ones who start training in January. You may say that most players will keep themselves in good shape, but this is unrealistic; I think you'd get a couple per side that would actually do this, especially to the same standard as pre-season training.

I'm no doctor or physical well being expert, but in my case stretching is important to my performance on the track and recovery. I'm not the most flexible bloke going around, so it may not be critical for everyone.

Getting to a game earlier does allow for superior preparation. At least from my own experience anyway, in terms of getting into the right frame of mind, getting a feel for the footy, strapping/massage, etc. Even in my summer sport of gaelic footy which isn't taken as seriously, and is less strict on report time, I know that in general, the earluier I get there, the more prepared I am to perform at my best.

Maybe not every club pays players, but a majority would these days I'd reckon.

And on the whole slacks debate, I don't know whether it would actually make you perform better on any given day, but it does represent a buy in by the group, and a uniform approach. I have played for sides which do and do not enforce the policy. I don't really mind either way, but it requires little effort and organization, and does make for a more professional looking playing group than guys rocking up in trackies and ugg boots. It might even signify to some players to take their preparation more seriously and professionally. In my experience, you can tell the guys who don't buy into the group culture, and aren't on the same page as the rest of the group, as they are the one's who manage to 'forget' or 'misplace' parts of it each week, or are too lazy to buy a $10 pair of slacks from K-mart.
I don't see why you're so against it. It seems like you're arguing against it just for the sake of it.

Hey everyone, welcome to my list of...

*drumroll*

morell's Football Myths!

1. You play the way you train.
2. Pre-seasons are really important in amateur football.
3. Stretching achieves anything, ever.
4. Every club pays players.
5. Getting to a game early allows for a superior preperation.
6. Business slacks make you a more professional and disciplined club.


This has clearly been done to death morell, BUT,

1. You DO play the way you train, over the season and not week by week.
2. Pre-seasons are critical in amatuer footy. To build the bond and unite the group. Not trash em.
3. Stretching is EVERYTHING at amatuer league level, it dramatically improves recovery before a night on the piss.
4. Most clubs pay a handful of players, that's why they progress.
5. Professional clubs encourage A grade players to get to the oval early to support the B's. Thus improving preparation.
6. Club attire is a 50/50. For me, most of the class of 2011/12 at MP were plumbers, electricians, concreters, mechanics, brikkies, laborers etc, etc. More than half of them worked for themselves so getting dolled up to go to the footy and play Saturday was like going to a wedding or funeral for them. So all I asked was to wear a club top and dress like you liked yourself. They all dressed to the nines for club functions I might say, and that was their choice as a group. Tells you something about a premiership team I guess. :)