I'd be surprised if "showing our hand" was a consideration. These decisions would be made on player loads leading into the season.
All efforts would be made to ensure every player is 100% conditioned for Round 1. We're not good enough or smart enough to be playing silly buggars beyond that.
AFAIC, Friday was a great opportunity to give the kids a semi serious taste of AFL footy. It was also an opportunity to freshen the experienced guys up.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

All you need to do in some cases is stick them at the wrong end of the ground and rotate heavily enough that you're taxing them when they run to the bench and it's pretty much a done deal that it'll cause structural issues.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.