HOPE springs eternal in the human breast. That is especially true of football folk at this time of year. But it is also true in football that as soon as hope springs, it begins to be dashed.

Not so long ago, Carlton coach Denis Pagan questioned the worth of off-season press conferences, since every club invariably was having its best-ever pre-season and none had yet lost a match that mattered.

Since then, though, the thunderclouds have rolled in. West Coast, the premier, has fallen into well-publicised crisis. Apart from the obvious distractions, it will begin the season without Ben Cousins and Chad Fletcher on the field. In matches as finely balanced as the Eagles play against Sydney, it is likely to tip the scales.

None of superstars Nathan Buckley, Shane Crawford, Anthony Koutoufides, Chris Grant, Warren Tredrea or Cousins will play in round one, variously because of injury or suspension. Severe doubts hover over Matthew Richardson, Nick Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke. It is an ill-starred season that already has started to go awry in March.

Neither Jeff Farmer nor Brodie Holland will be anywhere to be seen; a long suspension will do that. Nathan Thompson and Daniel Bradshaw are gone for the season, victims of the knee curse. One day, Thompson was on The Footy Show, talking up the Kangaroos. The next, he was on crutches and a waiting list.

Adelaide has lost a ruck division, Richmond, too. Collingwood has misplaced half a forward line. The Brisbane Lions repatriated Jonathan Brown, but lost Bradshaw. St Kilda no longer has a training services department, but still a long list of players unavailable or in doubt.

Ruckmen have done it tough: no Troy Simmonds, Rhett Biglands or Steven King. Captains, too: Mark Ricciuto and Richie Vandenberg, for two. Anticipating this, Brisbane, Sydney and St Kilda have plenty.

It's been a long way to square one. For Alan Didak, Paul Medhurst, Sean Rusling, Michael Johnson, Josh Carr, James Kelly, Lynden Dunn, Ken McGregor, Jason Johnson, Bryan Harris, Tim Notting, Trent Hentschel and Lewis Roberts-Thomson, it was too far; none will play this weekend.

Some clubs have not yet won a match of any sort, and although pre-season matches have limited meaning, it is still preferable to win. Small wonder that so many football fans are fatalists. Moreover, that so many think that an untoward end is their destiny exclusively. Listen to them this weekend: "Why does it always happen to us?"

Geelong folk think they have the franchise on doom and gloom. But St Kilda, Richmond, Melbourne, Collingwood, even Essendon, all do a good line in it. It is the refrain of the unredeemed.

Of course, much good and grand has transpired between seasons, too. Draft picks are bound to excite, since in the pre-publicity all are superstars, Olympic-class athletes, and of impeccable character, too. But the statistics show that only some live up to their billing, and in the mind of the grizzly diehard, the suspicion will not go away that it will be their prize recruit who has an as-yet-unrevealed congenital weakness in his knee. It's always ours.

Hope is the most frail commodity in football, but also the most imperishable. No matter how often it is crushed, it springs to life again.

Despair-filled as the pre-season has been, it has been even more inspiring.

On the weekend, of course, the grounds will be full again.