Coughlan in for the long haul
05 December 2004 Sunday Herald Sun
Jon Ralph
DECEMBER sunshine basks Punt Rd Oval and the Richmond pre-season is in full swing. Coach Terry Wallace plays the jester, arching his back comically for his best goal umpiring impersonation and the squad hollers as Richo bangs another through post-high.
High-fives are thrown willy-nilly, banter flies thick and fast, and the feel-good vibe is infectious.
It is fitness achieved the easy way -- together with your mates, when anything is achievable in 2005 and the hurt of recent disappointments cast aside.
Mark Coughlan has done pre-seasons that way, but knows it is not for him.
The pain of ongoing groin complications means his pre-season training isn't about countless sprints and stride-throughs, but plenty of pain in a place his teammates have titled "The Dungeon".
It is a solitary, tedious existence in the new training base in Richmond's basement filled with swimming, bike riding, boxing and stretching.
But it is one Coughlan knows has him on track to make a full recovery from the dreaded osteitis pubis.
Coughlan has lofty ambitions -- he wants to be fit not only for Round 1 but Round 22, and whatever post-season action might follow.
Coughlan, 22, says the good news is that club medicos say he can make a full recovery from the complaint that restricted him to only seven games last year. The bad news is that it will not come easy.
"I wouldn't say I am back on the road quite yet," he said after another two-hour session of swimming and boxing with young tall Jay Schulz.
"It's been a long time since I have started running, but I am feeling pretty fit with my swimming and all the rehab I am doing. I think I will only need a month of solid running before I get back to solid fitness.
"I was probably right to start running a couple of weeks ago, but we have just been really careful and it's been a couple of months off running now.
"The aim is to have the body feeling really good and to be 100 per cent and to be feeling good about myself, and whether that is Round 1 or the first game of the Wizard Cup or Round 5, whatever . . ."
For Coughlan, famously picked instead of father-son candidate Jason Cloke in the 2000 draft, the highs have been rapturous but always accompanied by another injury clutching at his heels.
He is a game from the 50-match milestone, but to understand the expectation is to have witnessed his virtuoso performances in 2003.
Already a rising star on the back of a third in the 2002 best-and-fairest, Coughlan exploded.
Against the backdrop of another disappointing 7-15 season for the Tigers, the young No. 24 was suddenly blowing away some of the onball elite's best names.
If he was not winning the hard ball in close and distributing it 492 times with class and poise, he was a frenzied pursuer, diving full-length on to the loose ball, relentlessly dragging down opponents, harassing them into turnovers.
In the last game of the year he amassed 27 touches against Hawthorn and confirmed his first best-and-fairest award, but was also left with what seemed to be a slight groin strain. The rigors of his first pre-season resulted in him contracting osteitis pubis almost from the day he arrived at the club, but a careful rehab program had given him three injury-free years.
HE soon found the golden run couldn't continue.
"The first signs were in the last game of 2003," he said. "They went pretty quickly with the few weeks off we had and that 2004 pre-season I was fine.
"I had no dramas with it until before the Wizard Cup started and that created a few dramas because I was quite fit and I just got the signs at the wrong time.
"We were under the pump as a team and everyone was under pressure to perform well. I just wanted to be out there with the guys, but as it turned out it didn't really work out.
"In the end we just had to make a decision on it and I am glad we made that decision because now it's going to benefit me in the long run."
What followed was three months of rest that eventually allowed Coughlan to play the last two matches of the year.
He might not have hit his straps, but it gave him the knowledge his body could withstand the ravages of AFL football again.
A cautious approach means he is in no rush to train with the main group yet, but according to strength and conditioning coach Matt Hornsby wild horses could not stop him from getting into peak shape.
His weekly plan involves two hours a day of aerobic activity comprised of swimming, boxing, riding and rowing, as well as considerable core stability work.
Two yoga and four pilates sessions a week also continue to strengthen his fragile groin, with a return to running likely in the near future. "One of the great things about Mark is his work ethic," Hornsby said.
"We have been reasonably conservative with his preparation so far, but the progression to Christmas will be a little more rapid than the last six weeks."
Teammate Nathan Brown said if anyone deserved some luck with his body it was Coughlan.
"For someone as young I have never seen anyone demand excellence as much as he does and to have him back there with his hardness, his football smarts for his age, and his size around the pack and as a leader, he will be a fantastic inclusion this year," Brown said.
"For all the young guys coming through like (Brett) Deledio and (Richard) Tambling, if they watch Mark Coughlan I think they can get a good grounding on how far they can go in three or four years."
Even if he does not hit Round 1 with a full running regime under his belt, Coughlan said he could make an impact again in 2005.
"I have had a good chat to Joel Bowden who went through this last year and you look at the year he had and it gives you a lot of confidence knowing that you don't have to have a full pre-season to have a good season," he said. "I don't think Joel started back running until after Christmas. People were jumping on his back and he certainly turned it around."
A three-year contract extension means Coughlan's future is at Punt Rd, but he says talk of captaincy is premature.
First there is the matter of proving to his teammates again he can be a consistent performer and match-winner.
"If you are the captain or vice-captain of an AFL club, it means you are consistent for a good few years and I haven't done that, so before you start talking about leadership and that sort of thing you need to have at least two or three good years under your belt," he said. "That is what my aim is to do."
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