Stuart Graham - Head of High Performance

[It Just Is]

Good luck to him. Along with our drafting team this seems to be one of the highest performing areas of the club so happy to see internal candidate rewarded.

 

[BrockBlitz]

Fantastic news. Stu was one of the first employed by Burgo, was the first PHD candidate under the Burgo Academy set up, and has been Mackers 2IC since mid 2017.

BrockBlitz you have done some work with Stu, maybe you can fill in some gaps for people.

From the club's article

Current title - Head of Sports Science and Conditioning,
Mackers' title - Head of High Performance

New title - Head of Physical Performance as part of a revised structure in the High Performance Department.
His role will include sports science as well as conditioning and athletic development.

Sports Scientist, to Head of Sports Science, to Head of Sports Science and Conditioning, to
Head of Physical Performance.

The club’s Head of Medical Services, Tim O’Leary, will also take on additional responsibility as part of the revised departmental structure.

I spent a little time with him, many years ago. Very smart, super nice - excellent kick is about all I can offer.

 

[Sleezy]

Did Melbourne figure out the trick of working with Burgess? Have a team of inside mids, have someone else bulk them up with useless beach muscles and then get Burgo to teach them to run forever.

Bam. Hard ass hard running super team.

******* hell.

 

[ibd77]

Did Melbourne figure out the trick of working with Burgess? Have a team of inside mids, have someone else bulk them up with useless beach muscles and then get Burgo to teach them to run forever.

Bam. Hard ass hard running super team.

******* hell.

Watch the Crows fly next.

 

[Powerade 08]

Did Melbourne figure out the trick of working with Burgess? Have a team of inside mids, have someone else bulk them up with useless beach muscles and then get Burgo to teach them to run forever.

Bam. Hard ass hard running super team.

******* hell.

Hes shite, remember when Boak retired because his body was cooked.

 

[Shaucob_Burjan]

Isn't that what basically happened with us when Burgo joined.

Cam Balloon had our players try to be Geelong and we packed beach muscles. Then Burgo came, made them better runners

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Watch the Crows fly next.

Just remember there is no Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, May, Salem, Lever etc to work with.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Did Melbourne figure out the trick of working with Burgess? Have a team of inside mids, have someone else bulk them up with useless beach muscles and then get Burgo to teach them to run forever.

Bam. Hard ass hard running super team.

******* hell.

I think he finally worked out the balance of fitness and strength required for AFL. Melbourne were physically very impressive watching them up close at Adelaide Oval.

Having said that I doubt there is much difference in fitness between the top clubs. Even back in 97 and 98 everyone talked about Craig's secret formula for crows fitness. A senior football figure at the time said they're fit but have a look at their list.

 

[Lightning_Rod]

Isn't that what basically happened with us when Burgo joined.

Cam Balloon had our players try to be Geelong and we packed beach muscles. Then Burgo came, made them better runners

Didnt we have strings going left right and centre though

 

[OneGreatClub]

Getting the team together for Monty?

 

[PowerLil]

Getting the team together for Monty?



View attachment 1260537

Interesting OneGreatClub

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Looks like a interesting get. Profiled as a strength and conditioning coach.

Young guy too, so has time to develop a role.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Getting the team together for Monty?



View attachment 1260537

Would have spent 8 months with Monty at the Bulldogs. Maybe we get some of the Bulldogs mids fitness IP.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvin-philp-8199a2b1/?originalSubdomain=au

Western Bulldogs
Total Duration 6 yrs

• Title Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach
  Dates Employed Nov 2020 – Oct 2021
  Employment Duration 1 yr
  Location Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• Title Physical Performance Coach
  Dates Employed Nov 2015 – Nov 2020
  Employment Duration 5 yrs 1 mo

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Apart from Melbourne, the Bulldogs looked to me anyway to have the outstanding mix of physical size and functional strength to go with their running power.

Looking forward to see what he brings to Port.

Looks like we found some loose change behind the couch

 

[JimmyBC]

A bit off topic soz, but you look at the builds on Melbourne's players and wonder how we both had the same fitness coach.

Dylan plays an anaerobic strength based game close to goal so build his strength. He's never going to be a mid or run out of sight on a dark night.

There's no doubt in my mind Burgess has reined in some of his methods since his last stint with us.

 

[Rexie J]

As there is on-going debate about the lack of muscular size with many Port players, who is directly responsible for how the fitness team operates?

Does the coach say he doesn't want bulked up players, the fitness boss or the physios. Some individual players appear to have bulked up but as many posters have continually observed, very few others. Appreciating that doing weights for genuine strength is a real option as opposed to 'beach' bodies.

Even against the WC so often their players easily broke tackles, especially in the first quarter.

Anyway, just thinking out loud really.

 

[Mundusa]

Butters can stick tackles and he had the body of a 12 year old

 

[JimmyBC]

As there is on-going debate about the lack muscular size with many Port players, who is directly responsible for how the fitness team operates?

Does the coach say he doesn't want bulked up players, the fitness boss or the physios. Some individual players appear to have bulked up but as many posters have continually observed, very few others. Appreciating that doing weights for genuine strength is a real option as opposed to 'beach' bodies.

Even against the WC so often their players easily broke tackles, especially in the first quarter.

Anyway, just thinking out loud really.

There's a disconnect somewhere, look at the Burgo years we ran players into smithereens & looked light framed.
Then he goes elsewhere & surfaces at Melbourne where he'd obviously tweaked his approach with perhaps others making sure he didn't OD with the running stuff, look at guys like Petracca the weights & aerobic stuff was obviously well balanced.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Goodwin basically told Burgo to * off with anything he didn't like. And Goodwin likes physically strong players.

I did a summary of Season 2 Episode 1 of the Brukie and Burgo podcast series, from October last year about 3 weeks after Melbourne won the flag.

Mega Thread - Port Forum General AFL Thread Part 21

As we know they are always coveting Port and Port things and ideas. I think they have watched how our Bring Back The Bars Campaign has unified us, had a look at their own sparse history to find something similar and this is all they could come up with. After we got the hashtag We are Port...

www.bigfooty.com

At 47 minute mark Burgo talks about Goodwin at the start of the preseason said that they will do heavy physical contact work at training and he didn't care if they got injuries and told doctors and HP team to stay away 60m+ and not spook players with their concerns. Said 70% of their injuries were as a result of contact injuries in training.


And he has been forced to learn AFL players aren't EPL players.

At 33 minute mark talks about Melbourne fitness change - said Port had a lot of outstanding runners compared to Melbourne. Talked about Petracca not being an aerobic runner so he personally wanted to improve and Burgo didn't try and change him into a middle distance runner, but improve his explosiveness and burst speed. Petracca sounds obsessive to improve the 2 years Burgo was there. I think Burgo has learnt something compared to his time at Port.

But there are aerobically talented guys - like Ed Langdon

15

Ed Langdon

Age

28

Ht

182cm

Wt

78kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.0

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

9.0

5star

M

5.0

5star

T

2.3

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

20.3

5star

K

12.8

5star

HB

7.5

4star

M

4.5

4star

T

0.8

1star

CL

1.8

4star

D

13.0

4star

K

6.4

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.4

4star

CL

0.6

3star

that is encouraged to run and isn't huge physically. Pick the right target don't try and make everyone the same, seems to be his new thinking these days.

Talked about Ed Langdon

15

Ed Langdon

Age

28

Ht

182cm

Wt

78kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.0

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

9.0

5star

M

5.0

5star

T

2.3

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

20.3

5star

K

12.8

5star

HB

7.5

4star

M

4.5

4star

T

0.8

1star

CL

1.8

4star

D

13.0

4star

K

6.4

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.4

4star

CL

0.6

3star

and compared his aerobic capacity to Brad Ebert

7

Brad Ebert

Age

34

Ht

189cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.9

5star

K

11.4

4star

HB

8.5

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

5.2

5star

G

0.5

3star

D

14.6

4star

K

9.8

4star

HB

4.9

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

3.8

4star

G

0.6

4star

D

12.0

3star

K

8.2

4star

HB

3.8

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.2

3star

, said he thinks he has Brad covered. Said in a game he averages 15-16km running and 3,500 high speed metres and about 600-700m sprinting in some games. Said he rarely comes off for a break and jokes with him before the game and says see you in 3 hours time. I looked up his game time stats this year, 12 times he had 95%+ game time including 3 times 100% inc the QF, 9 times 90% to 94% and only 3 times in the 80%+ range. unbelievable stats for a wingman.

 

[GremioPower]

Pick the right target don't try and make everyone the same, seems to be his new thinking these days.

It seems to be the top approach: personalized training.

 

[Sleezy]

Players in noticeably better condition than last year:
SPP; Rozee; Farrell, Lord, Mead, Jones

Players in noticeably worse condition than last year:
Dixon, Motlop, Fantasia, Gray, Duursma, Butters, Wines, Lycett, Hayes, Jonas, Aliir

Players that should have progressed but haven't:
Williams, Drew, Bonner

How do we assess whether this is a fitness department issue, an injury management issue, a player accountability issue, or a mix of all three?

 

[tribey]

And he has been forced to learn AFL players aren't EPL players.

His obsession with insisting they undertrained in comparison was an enduring red flag.

Melbourne outscoring the Dogs 100-7 from the 16 and a half minute mark of Q3 of the Grand Final, to turn a 19pt deficit into a 74pt win, was like peeking at the parallel universe we should’ve lived through had he shelved the envelope-pushing and stuck to what he did best.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

His obsession with insisting they undertrained in comparison was an enduring red flag.

Melbourne outscoring the Dogs 100-7 from the 16 and a half minute mark of Q3 of the Grand Final, to turn a 19pt deficit into a 74pt win, was like peeking at the parallel universe we should’ve lived through had he shelved the envelope-pushing and stuck to what he did best.

Now he's gone to Adelaide it's like the old Piggy Muldoon line about how all the Kiwis moving to Australia raised the IQ of both countries, but in reverse.

 

[RossFC]

Players in noticeably better condition than last year:
SPP; Rozee; Farrell, Lord, Mead, Jones

Players in noticeably worse condition than last year:
Dixon, Motlop, Fantasia, Gray, Duursma, Butters, Wines, Lycett, Hayes, Jonas, Aliir

Players that should have progressed but haven't:
Williams, Drew, Bonner

How do we assess whether this is a fitness department issue, an injury management issue, a player accountability issue, or a mix of all three?

Pasini (before injury) and Marshall I'd put in the better condition category.

Bergman down probably due to injury and sickness. Skinner is a worse player here than at South.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Maybe his title should be Head of Mediocre Performance.

How many physically underprepared footballers do we have.

Richmond have rag dolled us all night.

Even sanfl teams beat up on our undersized undernourished players.