Carlton big man Matthew Kreuzer says a smooth summer of training has him expecting much bigger things this season after last year's frustrating fizzer.
But things aren't going so well for Collingwood star Alan Didak, who will lose a valuable chunk of his AFL pre-season, after tearing a leg muscle at training.
Kreuzer only returned from a serious knee injury in round 12 last year. He failed to recapture top form, before his season ended abruptly, when foot numbness forced him out for the finals. It was a cruel blow for the Blues, who came within a whisker of making a preliminary final, despite also missing fellow big men Jarrad Waite and Shaun Hampson and versatile star Bryce Gibbs.
Kreuzer had minor post-season surgery to clean up the knee, while the foot problem, found to be caused by a cyst in his calf, cleared up after several weeks' rest.
That enabled Kreuzer to attack pre-season training with vigour, with the key Blue saying he had developed much greater confidence in his knee.
''Last year I did all the rehab and that, but you just don't have the games under your belt, so you're not sure how it's going to cope,'' he said yesterday.
''But a full pre-season, you're jumping, marking, doing everything, you forget about it really.'' Kreuzer said the setbacks of the past two years had fuelled his motivation to make the most of this season.
Meanwhile Didak, who turns 29 next week, will be sidelined for a month after scans revealed a torn adductor muscle.
The forward-midfielder should be ready to play in Colllingwood's opening home and away clash with Hawthorn on March 30.
But it is still a concern, given the veteran had a mediocre season by his standards last year, when he was also coming off an injury-interrupted pre-season. The 202-gamer said the setback was particularly frustrating, as he had felt in excellent shape to improve on his 2011 form.
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