Richmond fans are famous for their loyalty and there may be no more loyal Tiger than Andrew Sloman. Despite being based in New Zealand, “Slowy” rarely misses a game, travelling all across the country to follow the yellow and black. He has also often joined the team on their pre-season training camps, including making the trip to Arizona some years back. “Slowy” is with the team on their pre-season camp on the Gold Coast this week and we thought it would be great to get a fans perspective on what he sees on the camp and what excites him most about season 2019.

Day 1

Great to be back and able to share with all fellow Tigers the daily happenings of the 2019 Preseason Camp here on the Gold Coast. We are based in Nerang, but we will be travelling to various locations around the region over the next 5 days.

There are 105 people in the Richmond travelling party, so it’s no small logistical feat to move personnel and equipment to Queensland to support a high intensity week of training. The majority of our bags made it onto the Virgin flight, and the remainder are just arriving as I write, but the delay just meant that we can proudly wear the team travel kit for a little while longer!

The group has been split into teams for various activities and challenges throughout the trip. The team allocation also dictates the minibus on which you must travel through the week. So I’m in Team White where our Coach Representative and Bus Driver is Andrew “Mini” McQualter, and my fellow team members are David Astbury, Shai Bolton, Jack Graham, Callum Coleman-Jones, Mav Weller, Conor Menadue and Chris Dodd. We managed to navigate our way from Coolangatta Airport to Nerang whilst listening to Ash Barty’s success at the Australian Open.

After checking into our rooms mid-afternoon, we then had a snack to satisfy the players’ incredibly high metabolic rate, and then commenced a series of presentations. Damien commenced by setting the scene for the Camp and the 2019 Season generally. It’s always an amazing presentation to attend and the hairs do stand up on the back of your neck. Our values. How we want to play. What we want to be known and respected for.

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This was followed by some connectivity presentations where a group of attendees, including me, had to stand in front of the group and outline some facts about ourselves while partnered with a member of the playing group. Shane McCurry and Emma Murray then conducted leadership and mindfulness presentations where the players considered and documented their aims for the week, and Emma presented methods and techniques in which you could focus on the aim and stay present. The players have been given whiteboard markers and one focus technique is to write a word representing your aim on the mirror of your hotel room. Don’t worry as it will rub off, but I found this a really interesting and simple technique.

Finally, long time coterie member Cliff Gale gave a very moving and emotional speech about Tony Mangan, a person in whose name an award is given to the player who best represents a certain value set encapsulated by Tony, but also mirrors the value set defining us as a club. The Tony Mangan Award will be presented at the conclusion of the camp. Tony was a very dear friend to many at the Club and is missed deeply.

Afterwards, dinner was devoured rapidly while watching the Federer match on a big screen. Tomorrow (Monday) will be a massive day of skills and strength work. I will revert tomorrow night!