Shiny new toy. Only a matter of time before gets thrown out of the cot.
…
Here’s hoping Murphy does a stellar job though.
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No. Idiots will probably still blame Crowey.
If we can still blame Peter Jackson then why not.
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I like how he wants them training with the football. Not sure if this is or isn’t more or less than what we have done previously, but it’s imperative we do this. Hird’s podcast spoke about how he always had a footy in his hands, and how important to was to develop that touch. Shane Warne ditto with a cricket ball.
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If the UK tabloids can be believed, Warne had his hands full but only rarely with cricket balls.
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true - I believe what he had needed nursing…
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Warne would be pretty chuffed with himself got to bang Liz Hurley lols
it’s funny cos i was thinking the opposite. this team relies way to much on ball use at the expense of fitness and defensive effort and tackling.
I’d have thought that should be the biggest focus at this point of pre season.
Then again i have nightmares watching that bullshit “skills” session that got posted around here early in the season.
But We now have 2 coaches from richmonds recent success so if that’s what they were doing there, so be it and hope it works here.
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I get that. It’s a case of both. Need to get our fitness and strength up to elite levels. But also our ball handling skills as well.
There’s no point in being able to run all day with repeat efforts if all we do is butcher our disposals, miss hitting targets and can’t kick between the big posts. The better skilled teams will get the ball and use it more effectively
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Let’s hope that he is the good doctor.
I’m thinking it’s part of lizs life she’d rather forget
Apparently taking the group in a new direction fitness wise according to Redman. Pretty interesting comment really.
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Saw this the other day also which was interesting for AFL relevance
Top sports fitness guru busts the biggest AFL pre-season myths
Many AFL clubs are back training, with first to fourth-year players – and some veterans – being put through their paces with time trials, fitness drills and more.
- November 7, 2019 4:49pm
- by Julia Montesano
- Source: FOX SPORTS
Nick Blakey, Will Hayward and James Rowbottom run hard on the first day back at training. Picture: Phil HillyardSource: News Corp Australia
But is this pre-season structure really benefiting the players? After all, the season doesn’t start until March.
New Melbourne fitness coach Darren Burgess, who has worked at sports clubs all over the world including Arsenal, Liverpool and Port Adelaide, outlined to SEN Breakfast what he believes is best practice for today’s players and how the AFL compares to other sports.
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Melbourne great Garry Lyon and Sydney coach John Longmire also assessed the current state of AFL training on SEN Breakfast , with both having experienced life as a player and coach (Lyon coached Australia’s International Rules side from 2001 to 2004).
Buddy’s pre-season begins
1:01
Do players come back to training too early?
John Longmire: “I think the fact that the players get 10 weeks off, the conditioning staff and the medical staff like to get them going. They get a good break. I’m probably of the mind that I think that it’s not too bad as it is.”
Garry Lyon: “If the AFL turned around and said no-one, and I mean no-one, can go near their own home ground until December 10, would it have an impact on the footy season? I just have a feeling we’re coming back too early. We’re turning football into this 11-month-of-the-year game and I wonder why. I think (coming back later would achieve) a big freshen up, mentally. If you’ve got an option to go nowhere near the place (football club), you’re going to mentally check out of your footy club better.”
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What components are missing from AFL training compared to other sports?
Darren Burgess: “It’s 97 per cent skill (in soccer) and the outcome of the game of soccer is determined by skill, very rarely by fitness. The fitness team is never going to win the competition. The one thing that the Premier League players do a lot better than the AFL is agility and power off the mark. Someone like a Robbie Gray who we think has got the best agility in the world would be a bang-average centre back in the Premier League in terms of agility.”
Sam Walsh in action during Carlton’s pre-season training. Photo: Sean GarnsworthySource: AAP
What components are AFL players better at compared to those who play other sports?
DB: “In terms of endurance running and strength, upper body strength in particular, it’s AFL all day.”
Is heat/altitude training really beneficial?
DB: “With Port Adelaide, we went to heat (Dubai in 2013 and 2014), just because you could play footy there. I just didn’t really believe in going to altitude, where you’re hiking up hills and you’re at indoor NFL grounds and stuff like that just because between Ken (Hinkley) and I, we just wanted to make sure we could teach the players footy. To do that in heat, the physiological benefits of heat and altitude are almost identical. So if you can find a place where it’s hot and you can still play footy, that would be my preference for sure.”
How does pre-season help injury recovery?
JL: “If they (players) generally have a good pre-season, their injury rates drop dramatically. If they’re able to get a good, consistent pre-season, it generally holds them in good stead to get through the season injury-free and I think we have to be mindful of that.”
How does AFL differ to other sports?
DB: “They (soccer players) train a lot more. For example, we had times at Arsenal where we trained 13 days in a row and they got through just fine. (That was) in-season, including games. There were days where they would only do three or four kilometres and it’s the same as say, a captain’s run, here in the AFL. Straight away, people say, ‘Yeah, but you don’t get tackled, there’s no contact’, so I get that, I understand that. But the average Premier League game has about 15 to 16 times more accelerations and decelerations than what an AFL game does. What most clubs overseas do is they train a lot more and the players become a little more durable to that.”
Port Adelaide’s first to fourth year players are put through their paces. Picture: Brad FleetSource: News Corp Australia
How much say do the fitness staff have on pre-season training in other sports?
DB: “The coaches dictate 98 per cent of what goes on. The best managers in the world, they dictate what’s going on and the fitness staff sort of mandate around that. One of the attractions of coming back to the AFL is to have a greater impact on the team performance week to week than what you’d do in say NBA or NFL or soccer, because the coaches generally listen a lot more.”
How much say do players get on training?
DB: “It depends on your club culture. You hear stories, for example, at Paris Saint-Germain, where Neymar decides if Neymar trains or not. But we had a really good culture at Arsenal and none of the players own physios or fitness coaches, but in other clubs, it’s not that way. Certainly the enthusiasm from the players and the coaches (at Melbourne) is unbelievable. The number of text messages and requests from players that I’ve got that I haven’t even met yet saying, ‘What should I be doing here?’ or ‘I’m in Hawaii, what should I be doing?’ or ‘I’m in Bali, what should I be doing?’ — that happened from back in July.”
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Thanks for the post.
There are some hilarious quotes in that.
To select one;
Suggestions from the Blitz Travel Thread? Or other?
A solid 5 week training block before Christmas and a return to training in the second week of January sounds about right to me…
It’s not necessarily one or the other. We NEED to get our fitness up. To me this is number 1. But, you can do that with footys in play, doesn’t have to be just pure running drills. Help gets the skills up too, which frankly is a massive need also.
Tbh though this was Crow’s philosophy also. But they probably implement that philosophy in different ways
So Melbourne players went on holidays at least as far back as July?
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Ski season?
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Stringer credits the recruitment of former Hawthorn fitness guru Sean Murphy for getting him and his teammates in shape“Last year (my preparation) was pretty good, but this year has been taken to a new level,” he said.
“It’s been one of the hardest pre-seasons I’ve done.”
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Stringer also said he beat his 2/3 km time trial by 20 seconds and that Murphy has pushed them both physically and mentally.
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