Tigers plunge for fitness
Sam Lane
The Age
January 15, 2006
The Tigers go swimmingly at pre-season training, Samantha Lane reports.
Richmond has come up with some inventive ways to make Saturday morning pre-season training sessions that little bit more exciting. Yesterday, the Tiger squad was given a race of its own in the one-kilometre open-water swim at Cosy Corner, Torquay.
Plunging into the surf as a group might not have been as unconventional as the rescue simulations the team had with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade last month, but it was not a bad way to exercise, either.
Ruckman Trent Knobel, a former surf lifesaver from the Gold Coast, finished about two minutes ahead of brothers Joel and Patrick Bowden in a time of 15 minutes 32 seconds. "Everybody finished, nobody had to be rescued, which is always a bonus," he said afterwards. "A few boys chose the wetsuits, but most just went with the budgie smugglers.
"I suppose it just breaks up the everyday routine. You don't want to be stuck at Punt Road doing our training every day . . . it creates a bit of fun between the boys. I think while it was a tough thing for some, everybody enjoyed themselves."
Richmond's strength and conditioning coach Matt Hornsby said a couple of the younger players had requested the assistance of fins (rising star Brett Deledio might have been one of them) and, despite being granted that privilege, still finished towards the back of the pack.
Only Mark Chaffey, who is still recovering from a groin injury, and Will Thursfield, who has had some back trouble, didn't swim.
"We do a lot of running through the week and so on the weekend, we try and take the load off their legs, and obviously a swim is one way of doing that," Hornsby said.
"Early in January, when they've returned from a couple of weeks off, you generally find that by the end of the week, they're pretty exhausted . . . so we generally try and eliminate extra running sessions."
Forward Nathan Brown continues his return to fitness after breaking his leg last season.
"He's joining in full training. If we have any match simulation, he's not doing as much of that because he won't join in the full contact training until probably next month. But certainly for most sessions, he's involved in the majority of training and really looking impressive," Hornsby said.
"We did our speed testing and there was no difference with his speed from pre-injury to now, so that's a really good sign that he's got that power and speed that is a strength of his game.
"He obviously gets some soreness still, which I think is going to be ongoing for a fair period of time. But it's just soreness that is related to the reconditioning of the soft tissues around the area."
David Rodan is training unencumbered after having his left knee reconstructed last year.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/articles/2006/01/14/1137119005420.html
