CONFIDENCE UP AT WEST PERTH BUT NOT OVER THE TOP

UNDERSTANDABLY West Perth coach Bill Monaghan has noticed a greater self-belief in his playing squad after winning last year's premiership, but he has not seen anything whatsoever that could be considered over confidence.

Monaghan simply feels that the self-belief is more of a confirmation that success can come if they do everything right that the coaching and fitness staff ask of them.

There have been little changes to the West Perth playing squad from 2013 with the only premiership players moving on being Jason Salecic, Josh Mellington and Mark Hutchings.

Then Michael Pettigrew, Frank Stockley and Anton Saylor are the only other players who played a league match in 2013 who aren’t still running around with West Perth in 2014.

With 19 premiership players remaining and the likes of Brayden Antonio, Matt Johnson, Trent Manzone and Anthony Tsalikis who will be desperate to get that feeling themselves this year, West Perth's pre-season work has been something that Monaghan has been impressed with.

He has been impressed with the attitude of the group as well which remains ground despite having the confirmation last year that if they do all the right things, they can finish up with the ultimate success.

"Obviously confidence in themselves and that of the group is huge after winning a premiership and you can't be successful probably at anything in life if you don’t have some sort of self-belief. What we all have to guard against is making sure that belief and confidence doesn’t go into arrogance and I don’t think that's the case with our group," Monaghan said.

"I've been really happy with how grounded the players have been and they've all come back in good nick and knowing that they have to do a certain level of work in preparation to play. There is a confidence amongst the group as there should be as the reigning premiers, but there hasn’t been anyone I've had to pull up and tell to pull their head in.

"It has all been about focusing and making sure we are doing all the little thing that add up to success, not looking at the end result and thinking we are going to win another grand final. We know a huge amount of work needs to be done for that to even be a possibility let alone a reality."

West Perth's pre-season program didn’t change hugely, but Monaghan put faith in strength and conditioning coach Craig Soley to make some changes in the running and strength work being done, and he has been tremendously happy with the final results ahead of the season kicking off.

"I have been really happy with our pre-season in terms of the attitude of the players. The program we've run has changed a little bit from last year and there has been slightly different focuses in our speed running and strength work, and that's an on-going process as it is with all conditioning coaches," Monaghan said.

"We are trying as hard as we can to stay up to date with the latest trends in conditioning but the attitude of the players has been fantastic. Whether that translates into winning games is the great unknown, but all I know and all we have been able to control is the fact that when the players have come to training, they have trained with enthusiasm and intent.

"We think that will hold us in good stead for the season, but how much other sides improve and how much we improve, and how strong the aligned clubs will be are all questions we don’t know the answers to.

"All we can do now is hit Round 1 against East Fremantle and put in our best effort, and if our best effort is good enough to win then everyone will be happy. We are confident that we are well-placed, but that doesn’t mean that we just rock up in Round 1 and will win."

BY CHRIS PIKE