Melbourne coach Steven King has offered an expansive and honest insight into the way AFL clubs should approach training.
Following reports the AFL is set to limit contact training hours from next year onwards, King indicated it would not have a significant effect on the way he goes about things.
"I'm a very risk averse coach at training, availability is our best friend, I'm not one who is about bringing your mouthguard to training. If anything, I'm more a mock pressure type of guy, train contact in confined areas where it's safe," he said.
"My worst nightmare is putting my players in a position at training or in a work place that's unsafe so my priority is availability for all our players."
The Melbourne coach, however, believes the new mandate brings pre-season contact hours with players into the spotlight.
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expires at the end of next year, stipulates non-finals sides cannot return until the last week of November - one week earlier for first to fourth year players - while it is a week later for sides which compete in September.
King highlighted the difficulty of implementing meaningful change and striking a balance given the earlier season start has brough practice matches forward to February.
"I think as an industry we do that really well, I think the AFL could spend more time at clubs and understand the time frame we have with our players to prepare them for what's coming in a season," he noted.
"So to give some context on that, I get this job, my first day with the entire playing group back at work is only three weeks before Christmas, then they get a three-week break, then we return and we play games within three weeks because the season starts earlier.
"I'm not sure when I'm meant to introduce contact or not contact but I think our players return fitter than ever but if you don't make finals, you shouldn't just get one less week off...so I think there is a discussion there with the AFL and AFLPA around what's a perfect lead-in time to start the most combative sport in the world.
"It's a 360-degree game - if I'm a player, I can be the fittest coming back but I haven't done full 360-degree decision-making drills - your perception's a bit out.
"I think there needs to be a really mature discussion around what's best practice but if there's people at the AFL who think we throw our players in really dangerous situations, they'd be mistaken.
"I think there needs to be a balance but health is paramount to me for our playing group, I don't want to lose anyone full stop let alone at training when we're training against each other. I think we need to come to a decision that works well for the game and playing cohort."
The Melbourne coach was also quizzed on the distraction of the lawsuit brought against Melbourne by Sachi Dade, the partner of former player Steven May.
The club offered an apology for an invasion of privacy.
"I've had a lot of distractions this year. In terms of (that) as a distraction, not so much. I think I'm really good at being able to park things to the side and deal with what's really important," King said.
"For me it's more about what it's created for the team of people around me and the footy club and the footy club in general. I'm really glad it's all done now and been taken care of and I think as a footy club, we admit we would do things a bit differently if we had our time again so we've apologised for that and move on. The footy side is going okay at the moment, but it has been an eye-opener for me as a first time coach around issues that are always there and bubbling away in the background."
Speaking ahead of a trip to Tasmania to face Hawthorn, King dismissed concerns of the club's inability to win a game on the road this season from five attempts.
The Demon coach said he hoped to get Christian Salem and Xavier Lindsay back in the team soon, while Jack Viney is targeting a return to the field for the last month of the year having been sidelined all year with injury.
