Finding pleasure in the pain of an interminable pre-season
Nathan Brown | February 15, 2009
PRE-SEASON training is a long stretch. As hard as it is physically, mentally it's just as long. And as much as football training has changed scientifically since I started, with the introduction of GPS tracking devices, dietitians, heart-rate monitors, ice baths and skinfold measurements, some things, thankfully, will always stay the same. Every year, players and clubs will come out and say with eternal optimism that this is the fittest and strongest I — or we — have been.
Luckily, I have faith in our fitness staff who seem to be flogging us in endurance running and repeat sprint work, all with grins across their faces — a grin that only a fitness coach could wear as he watches men hurt to the point of collapsing.
Every year we get an influx of draftees that surely seem to be way too young to be coming into such a demanding environment. It takes me back to a time when I was that age and a lot less self-assured, missing my mum and heading back to the refuge of Bendigo every chance I could.
The first pre-season is easily the hardest. Moving away from home, adapting to schedules, learning the rules, completing three sessions in a day, is a lot for a young kid to handle.
Then they face the daunting task of shower time. At Punt Road, we have 10 open showers, five on each side facing one another. Wearing your underwear in the shower is a big mistake because footballers are interested in how they stack up in the shower compared to their mates and a quick glance up and down is common. Kids these days must take some great vitamins, or the food is healthier, because they all come down packing a punch in the pants department.
Then there's the 3.89-kilometre Tan run around Melbourne's beautiful gardens, which doesn't seem too daunting, but somehow manages to get to you mentally every time with a sleepless night beforehand. I've narrowed it down to the Anderson Street hill, which just keeps going and going and going. But as Terry "Plough" Wallace said one day this pre-season, "I've never seen anybody die of hard work on the training track. The day someone does we'll look at changing the program".
Pre-season training wouldn't be the same without someone driving past Punt Road oval where we train and yelling out "Riiiiiiiccccho!" or the guy in the truck driving past with the windows down yelling ,"Richmond sucks, go Pies!"
Then there is the guy known as the January hero. He's the guy who runs the best times, lifts the biggest weights, does the most extras, has the loudest voice and has everyone talking. If only the poor fella could get the Sherrin when it counts. Instead, he has trouble getting a kick in a karate fight.
A point of different this pre-season is our recruit Ben Cousins. It's a great story for a guy who gets a second chance, a great story for Richmond and a great story for football. We live in a society that wants to cut down the tall poppy — and Ben stood as tall as anybody in football and celebrity circles. But as soon as they are down and have become the underdog, we pick them back up and make them the hero again. Strange world we live in.
Whatever the outcome, to have a Brownlow medallist, best and fairest, All-Australian and premiership player walk into your club gives everyone a lift and more confidence. I believe Ben will be a huge success again and can't wait to run out with him in round one.
Football clubs are harsh, unforgiving environments where you need a thick skin and where things happen that just wouldn't fly in a normal working environment, yet at the same time can be so generous in their reward.
Having 40 mates to work hard with, to spill blood with, to share a joke or have a beer with, is all part of a culture that I feel privileged to be part of as we all work together, with the hopes and dreams of our supporters hanging on the hard work of our pre-season and our quest for premiership glory.
■ Richmond plays Fremantle in the NAB Cup in Perth today.
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