CARLTON Reserves coach Damian Truslove believes his group is ready to turn its focus to their season opener against Williamstown on 29 March after completing its final hit-out of the pre-season.

Speaking following the side’s last practice match, Truslove reflected on the performance and the work the playing group has put in throughout the pre-season as they build towards the start of the campaign.

On how the final practice match played out:

“It was a really impressive win: we had a strong focus on our system and how we want to play throughout the season. What was impressive was the effort in the first half, but Richmond brought great pressure which made it challenging.

“In the second half, we really ticked off our roles and our team spirit indicators that we wanted to tick off. There were some really good individual performances as well.”

On which players stood out:

“I felt like it was more a team balance but there are a couple guys who are knocking on the AFL door for a role.

“Talor Byrne was really good, and I thought even Rob Monahan it was probably one of his better games, one of our Irish boys who is working really hard on his game.

“Darcy Tucker as a strong leader for our VFL performed really well and then Liam Reidy came back to us in the ruck today and I thought he competed really hard. We saw some growth from Lucas Camporeale as well.”

On how the system stacked up:

“There has been a lot of change over pre-season and the way we want to play and to see that develop over the last couple of practice games has been great.

“Seeing the boys getting more confident with it puts us in a really good position for our first game against Williamstown.”

On the clash with Williamstown in Round 2:

“We’ve never actually beaten Williamstown as Carlton VFL so it’s a big challenge, we know how big and strong they are as a club.

“But we get to play them here at IKON Park and if we can put our system in place and perform like we did against Richmond, then we’ll give ourselves a chance.”