Police boot camp behind Tigers' new resolve
Jon Ralph | March 24, 2008
RICHMOND hard nut Jake King says a six-month pre-season led by Victoria Police's special operations group is the secret to his side's tight bond and new aggressive approach.
The Tigers eventually overran Chris Judd's Carlton in a 30-point win on Friday night, showing a steely resolve lacking in recent seasons.
Both Cleve Hughes and Richard Tambling marked after surging back with the flight of the ball, while the team continually roughed up Adam Hartlett in the third term after he floored teammate Cam Howat behind play.
King says it is all about committing to an ethos of togetherness brought on by the SOG's efforts to mentally test the Richmond list.
"The six months were run by the SOG boys. It was that tough, it was unbelievable. You had to be there to see it," King said yesterday.
"They did four days (straight), then they popped in at the club every now and then and took us for sessions.
"It was pretty much them trying to break us mentally, but they didn't. It actually became such a big bond over the last six months. It's been an enormous turnaround for us."
The SOG's training camp in the Dandenongs and Anglesea famously saw King punch out more than 300 consecutive push-ups, with the vision a feature of the AFL's season launch on Thursday.
"The whole six months, they would come in and we would be training and then think training was over and the boys would switch off.
''Then all of a sudden they would stick their heads in and and say, 'All right boys, you are ours now'," he said.
"And everyone had their hearts ripped out and tried to run away. But we had to fight through it and we didn't want to be broken by them, so we got up, even though our bodies couldn't take it.
''We got up and kept pushing through."
King said the training camp was as intensive as anything he had been put through.
"They sent us out into the bush and said, 'Find your own food, find your own sleeping arrangements', and we had to find our own water, so they were busting our chops for so long.
''It was two o'clock in the morning and they were letting off these little bombs to wake us up and we were out there doing push-ups," he said.
"It was a good bonding session and I don't think we are going to go away from that. We will keep doing the hard work."
King did not see the Hartlett-Howat collision, but it is believed some Richmond players say they witnessed Hartlett elbowing Howat in the head behind play.
Howat was carried off by trainers and the Tigers pointedly harassed Hartlett - with King leading the charge - then rallied to kicking seven of the last eight goals.
"We are going to have one another's back through the whole season, whether they are right or wrong," said King of the team's collective unity.
"I am a bit old-fashioned and I reckon if you see one of your teammates down, you go over straight away and I will have their back, just like everyone had (Howat's) back."
While King is a self-confessed aggressor, he has plenty more strings to his bow.
The former plumber and AFL rookie who turns 24 this week vied for best-afield honours with veteran Matthew Richardson on Thursday night.
"I have never been one to look at myself and say, 'I am an AFL player'.
''I have looked at myself as the boy next door. I just love having a crack.
''I love being on there with the boys I play beside and I will have a crack no matter what," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23420953-19742,00.html
