Richmond turns up for Darwin match Bruce Matthews
Herald Sun May 25, 2011TRAINING sessions in a heat chamber are helping prepare Richmond players for the heat and humidity they will experience in Darwin on Saturday night.
The Tigers began exercising in the chamber last week at the $20 million ME Bank centre at Punt Road Oval to acclimatise to face Port Adelaide in the Top End.
They have had supervised aerobic workouts on treadmills, stationary bikes and rowing machines in the specially designed chamber to ready themselves for Northern Territory temperatures as high as 30C.
"We think that will provide some benefit," Tigers football manager Ross Monaghan said.
"They can work on rowers and bikes, treadmills and things like that in humid conditions to simulate a warmer climate.
"We think our players are in pretty good condition and should be able to cope pretty well."
The club moved into the modern training and administration building at the start of the season.
The important match-conditioning for the Darwin match would have been impossible in the old changerooms.
"We can accommodate the best part of a team in there (the heat chamber) at once for a period of time on a regular basis," Monaghan said.
Each competing club has a coolroom at the stadium in Darwin for pre-game preparations. And there are electric fans beside the interchange benches and ice-vests available during the quarter-time and three-quarter time breaks.
Richmond flies to Darwin on Friday morning and the team will have a light run at TIO Stadium soon after their arrival.
Port will head north tomorrow for a training session early at night to prepare for what will be the Power's fifth game there in the past three seasons.
AFL clubs take an extra player interstate in case of an emergency and the Tigers may consider adding one more to the travelling party.
Richmond's backline, already missing Kelvin Moore (hip) and Will Thursfield (leg), must replace Dylan Grimes, who tore his right hamstring against Essendon last Saturday night.
Experienced forward Brad Miller has recovered from a virus to be available for the match. The match committee met yesterday.
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