Richmond’s Physical Performance Manager Peter Burge provides ‘Roar Vision’ with a summary of the Club’s 1-4 year players’ start to pre-season training yesterday.
First day back on the track
“First day, they’re all a little bit nervous. We have our meeting pre-training and go through what it’s going to look like this year. Then we got out on the track and did a skills session, did some conditioning, tested the players with some shuttle running, and they did some other different types of skill work. It was really an introductory day, but it was pretty solid . . .”
Standout performers from the outset
“Everyone was pretty good. Patrick Naish looks like he’s done some work, Jack Higgins, Callum Coleman-Jones looks like he’s been working really hard. And we also had Tom Lynch today as well, even though it’s the first-to-four-year guys . . . It was good to see him here with all the boys. There were a lot of smiles on faces. I think the guys are really excited about getting into it.”
Gradual building of intensity
“It’s tough, but it does get tougher each week because we start to increase the training load towards Christmas. And then we get to a position where we have to start managing individuals and not tipping them over the edge of the cliff, so to speak. We’ll get to a point in a couple of weeks where we’ll be pushing the guys to their limit and trying to take them to new levels . . . That’s what it’s all about. It’s trying to help them improve, and keep them healthy at the same time.”
Tom Lynch injury update
“He’s doing a lot of strength work in the gym and started doing some work in the rehab group outside today. It’s just little running drills . . . he’s in the very early stages. He’s not actually ready to start running, but he’s pretty close. So we’ll make an assessment on that in the next couple of weeks. Just building his strength in the gym with his knee, his range of motion, and starting to gradually teach him how to run again pre-Christmas. We want him in a position post-Christmas where we’re doing some solid conditioning and then introducing footy skills somewhere through January. Our first game in the JLT (Community Series) isn’t until March 3rd, so we’ve got time on our side. And he’s a pro. He’s been training for a long time . . . he’s been in the system for eight on nine years now. We only have to watch him do some of the things he does in the gym to know that he’s going to make the most of his rehab time and he’s going to come back bigger and better than ever.”
Garthwaite and Graham progression from on surgery
“’Garthy’ had a very minor ankle surgery. He’s running today almost flat out. Just got a couple of things we need to tick off there with change of direction. Jack Graham had a shoulder reconstruction, so he’s going to be a little bit more longer-term. He’s doing all the conditioning at the moment, but obviously he’s not ready for football with his shoulder. So we’ve got to keep building strength in his upper body and gradually, post-Christmas, introduce some low-level contact work and then resume training, hopefully, mid-late January.”
Importance of a strong pre-season
“For every club it’s all about a strong pre-season . . . you hear the same clichés every year. We’ve had some good luck with health. Obviously there’s a little bit of luck involved there. But, ultimately, it comes down to the players and what they do in their break. So we have to give credit to those guys how well they take care of themselves over the off-season and the pre-season. And, hopefully, that trend continues.”
Pre-season program changes
“We always find different ways to do things . . . different focuses for different players. It’s really down to the individual and what their focus is. But some things remain the same. They’ve still got to kick the ball between the big sticks, and they’ve still got to be able to run up and down the ground. There are some different types of training sessions that we’ll do. There’s some other little things we might be doing in the gym. But, overall, the themes are similar. It’s just the minor detail which tends to change or evolve. And the game changes a little bit as well. There’s new rules this year. So are there differences in the way we condition certain players at certain positions? They’re things we’re going to work through over the pre-season. But all in all, it’s fairly similar. And most clubs are probably the same.”
The pre-season camp
“We’re looking to go to the Gold Coast at the end of January, our second week back. A full week of training up there, balanced out with some team activities that we’ll do. By that stage we’ll be getting into some full-ground footy training, so it’ll start to ramp up and get quite serious. But the weather up there will be great and there’ll be some other good, fun things to do while we’re there.”
