Borrow his ideas!

[eastfreo75]

Interesting too that Darren Burgess doesn't believe in high altitude training but instead gets them to train in extreme heat.

Port trained for 9 days in Dubai in the pre-season this year.

I wonder if he got that idea from when he was at Liverpool?

I think he did. Also, Port players are on a modified scandinavian diet.

 

[ep2018]

Aren't Port also on the 'high fat, low carb' diet as well? Apparently that gives you more energy to burn in the later stages of a game.

 

[Halfbaked]

So how much earlier can our preseason start this year compared to last year?

I don't understand the training in Dubai that port undertook,it's going into their winter.

If Port want heat they should head to Marble bar.

Stuffed if I know?






Maybe the frequent flyer points?

 

[couldhavebeen]

Webber is one of the leading fitness guru's in the country so we are one of the best running teams in the AFL .

Just so everyone has a better understanding of where we are at and what out fitness people have to cope with .West Coast and Fremantle have the most travel of any other teams in the AFL .
In the pregame interviews on ABC radio before the Port ,Hawthorn game they were interviewing Koshie and he stated that the only serious training Port could do was the PRESEASON and that for the rest of the season they were only able to do recover and light training drills.
If any of their players missed that then they were relegated to the reserve team so that they could get some training and then try to force their way back into the team .
The days of heavy training mid season in preparation for the finals is long gone . Skills and minor changes to the game plan is all that the players can cope with during the season. For a player to be able to run out a game they need to have the best recovery .
Watching the recruit gave me a better understanding of how important that side of the game and coaches see this side of a players attitude and professionalism has changed . The American sports science has had a huge influence over the last 10 or more years .

If we are to get the best out of our players for longer then we need to get the AFL to change our games schedule so that we have less travel . I'm not suggesting more home games but blocks of games on the East Coast and blocks of games on the West Coast .
If we played in 3 game blocks East and the 3 games on the west the players would have far less travel and more time to train and recover .
The Club would effectively have 2 home grounds and greater opportunity to recruit members and therefore be financial .
Yes players like to sleep in there own bed and Married players would be inclined to have the wife with them but international ARU and Soccer players deal with this all the time as do basket ball players so AFL players should be able to cope with it as well their not children and this would prolong their careers .

 

[eastfreo75]

The Spurs in the NBA rested key players at different times to be cherry ripe for the finals. I know it's a different sport but I feel that some sort of rotation to give players rests when they need it. Example might be McPharlin,where we reduced his travelling by missing some trips.

I know of saying "don't flirt with your form" but I remember the old saying never to kick across your goals.

 

[gaskin]

So how much earlier can our preseason start this year compared to last year?

2 weeks since we finished the season 2 weeks earlier than last season.

 

[Gekko71]

The Spurs in the NBA rested key players at different times to be cherry ripe for the finals. I know it's a different sport but I feel that some sort of rotation to give players rests when they need it. Example might be McPharlin,where we reduced his travelling by missing some trips.

A good point. Thinking back on last year, we had injuries to key players at different times throughout the year, so each of our key players (with the possible exception of Walters, Clancy, Ibbo and Elvis IIRC) got a two to three week rest during the season proper while they were recovering from soft tissue injuries.

As a result, most of our guys were really fresh for the finals - with the exception of Walters who played injured, Elvis who got a calf injury before the GF, Ibo who was injured prior to the GF and Clancy who was also injured just prior to the GF.

Granted I'm going from memory here and may well be wrong in the personnel and timing of their injuries - but I do distinctly recall that the players who had an enforced rest during the season were fresher during the finals and performed well - while many of the guys who did not get an injury-induced rest either broke down prior to the GF or went in with an injury.

I've said it before but it bears repeating: Freo need a rotation policy - not just to give our 2nds better exposure to AFL-level pressure and encourage depth in our youth, but also to alleviate the unholy trinity of a longer season, higher running loads under the RTB game plan, and a grueling AFL-mandated travel schedule.

I appreciate that the NFL has added much sports science to our game, as has soccer. But each NFL side has two separate teams which alternate between offence and defense which makes it hard to compare, and soccer doesn't have to factor heavy body-contact into their thinking. Our game and our geography is unique and it require a unique approach.

RTB can go on about 'no excuses' all he likes - the human body has limits, and IMO the unique nature of Freo's situation tests those limits to their utmost. I very much doubt that DVT is a major consideration in the fitness regimes of other clubs, but with our guys it would have to be a factor.

Blood-clotting in humans is a complex series of chemical reactions brought on by damaged tissue in the presence of oxygen. After a hard game, there a lot of damaged tissue in player's bodies. I can't imagine that then being forced to sit for hours in a plane immediately afterwards is the best environment for the body to heal in.

In addition to which, the waste bi-product of muscular contraction is lymph. Our lymphatic system is not powered by our heart - lymph drainage requires body movement to happen properly. The reason people get stiff and sore after a long plane ride - even when perfectly healthy - is they aren't moving enough to drain lymph away from their muscles... which is why you need to get up and stretch your legs after a couple of hours. Our guys would have lymph coming out their ears after a game, and they need to move to ensure its drained into the lymphatic system. But injured muscle tissue doesn't want to contract and move - on the contrary, doing so may aggravate injury further if that tissue is weight-bearing.

It is not an excuse to say that a six-day break fatigues us and affects our performance the following week, it's statistics. Sure the Eagles won two premierships back in the 90's with a more grueling travel schedule - but the game was also far slower back then. As time has gone on and as the game has gotten faster, the Eagles have been unable to make it to the GF ever since, and look less and less likely to do so frankly. And we - for all out preparation and training - have also failed to win the big one and a lot of that has to do with injury management.

Consider the fact that RTB himself has acknowledged that a lot of our training week goes into recovery, as opposed to skills development. Considering that we have failed in two consecutive finals campaigns due to a combination of player injury and poor goal-kicking skills, I think that's something for the coaches and fitness team to dwell on.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that west-coast clubs need to have far greater depth than other teams and need to approach fitness management differently to compensate for all the extra travel that only we are exposed to.

One possible answer may lie - surprisingly enough - in the airline industry, which monitors and strictly controls the number of flight-hours a flight crew perform each month.

Keeping track of the number of flight hours each of our players have to travel, and then using a rest-and-rotation policy to ensure that no player racks up too many flight hours over the course of a 12 week period may be a missing link in our approach to fitness. The extra bye next year may go some way towards alleviating this, but I doubt it will be enough on its own, as the eastern states clubs would benefit more from the extra resting time than western clubs IMO - our extra travel might negate some of the benefits.

Sure this is all just a crazy theory right now - but once you're out of sensible options, the crazy ones start to look particularly attractive.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I wonder if he got that idea from when he was at Liverpool?

Funnily enough, despite how much money is in the Premier League, the backroom staff are generally terrible. Australians do really well over there and are pretty well regarded, I reckon it's because of how many different injuries fitness and medical staff have to see and take care of in comparison. He probably taught them!

I still think you could have an awesome EPL side if you had an AFL experiment over there. I remember a manager was in Perth, it might've been David Moyes actually, when a side played the Glory. Anyway, he saw a Freo game and took the idea of passing around the backline to switch the sides and make space and started using it. They're pretty similar games; that is, extremely simple games no matter how much people love to rabbit on about it. If you were coaching a side like West Brom, where you can't afford amazing footballers, you could make a side like Arsenal absolutely punishable if you employed some Ross Lyon tactics – just non-stop running and pressure on ball carriers.

 

[eastfreo75]

For me, we need to track how players bodies are going. Give rests especially after six days when travelling. Maybe don't play the likes McPharlin on a six day break.

Team selection can based on form, physical condition, and who we are playing.

 

[Square Peg]

I remember a manager was in Perth, it might've been David Moyes actually, when a side played the Glory. Anyway, he saw a Freo game and took the idea of passing around the backline to switch the sides and make space and started using it. .

Really? I gave up playing competitive soccer twenty years ago but that was a basic tactic even in my day. "Start again" as my coach used to say, if you were moving forward with the ball up one side and there was nothing on ahead, you'd just turn around and pass it back to switch the play to the other side of the field rather than give the ball away. David Moyes must be unctuously polite

 

[manpurple]

I like the idea of another team out in the west just because of what it does to even up the travel. For us one or two less trips interstate which is not much but on the other hand it would guarantee that all teams have to travel out this way at least one possibly twice.

Additionally I like to the idea of our away games in Melbourne being clumped. Wont work for all matches but if we would play 2 or three games in Melbourne in a row then you really drop the number of trips you make. Say you play 3 on the road in Melbourne and there is a 6 day gap for one of them. There are 6 less flights and you are only away for 14 days. Most american sports do this and it's normal. Heck that's a soft FIFO roster.

 

[Nothing]

I like the idea of another team out in the west just because of what it does to even up the travel. For us one or two less trips interstate which is not much but on the other hand it would guarantee that all teams have to travel out this way at least one possibly twice.

Additionally I like to the idea of our away games in Melbourne being clumped. Wont work for all matches but if we would play 2 or three games in Melbourne in a row then you really drop the number of trips you make. Say you play 3 on the road in Melbourne and there is a 6 day gap for one of them. There are 6 less flights and you are only away for 14 days. Most american sports do this and it's normal. Heck that's a soft FIFO roster.

Like FIFO rosters the problem is that the time away puts significant pressure on relationships as well as contributing to mental health issues. I'm pretty sure we'd rather not do that.

The NFL return home after every game, which is much closer to AFL than NBA/NHL/MLB.

 

[beetz]

I've always been a fan of the idea to play a block of away games even if it's just 2 away. That's only 8-9 days away from home.

 

[Purpletown]

I am not sold on this idea that Port are fitter than all other sides. In 3 of their last 4 (Freo, Freo & Hawks) games they fell well behind the team they were playing and rolled the dice to play catch up and only won one of those games. They changed the way they were playing by just running forward at all costs and that tactic as much as anything got them back into those games. That way of playing footy can get ugly if you get it wrong - think North a few years back when they would score 18 goals but the other side would get 20.

 

[Nickos66]

Aren't Port also on the 'high fat, low carb' diet as well? Apparently that gives you more energy to burn in the later stages of a game.

Not sure if he's strict on the whole list for adhering to it, but he's a big advocate of LCHF and fueling performance with fat instead of carb loading that most pros do before big events.

 

[UFO Tatsu]

I am not sold on this idea that Port are fitter than all other sides. In 3 of their last 4 (Freo, Freo & Hawks) games they fell well behind the team they were playing and rolled the dice to play catch up and only won one of those games. They changed the way they were playing by just running forward at all costs and that tactic as much as anything got them back into those games. That way of playing footy can get ugly if you get it wrong - think North a few years back when they would score 18 goals but the other side would get 20.

running kamikaze style in the last quarter after getting smashed in the previous quarters ... i dunno but you have to be fitter than the opposition for them to let you get away with it

 

[smokingjacket]

They're pretty similar games; that is, extremely simple games no matter how much people love to rabbit on about it. If you were coaching a side like West Brom, where you can't afford amazing footballers, you could make a side like Arsenal absolutely punishable if you employed some Ross Lyon tactics – just non-stop running and pressure on ball carriers.

Pretty much how Atletico Madrid play. La Liga trophy and a Champions League final aint bad on a QPR budget.

 

[Taylor]

I think that if our side had as many young first round picks, particularly top ten picks, then we would look just as silky and quick as Port do.

It's just that where we get our players is more towards the part of the draft where you either get fast OR skillful OR long running and very rarely all at once.

 

[freofc1994]

I've always been a fan of the idea to play a block of away games even if it's just 2 away. That's only 8-9 days away from home.

I agree 100% i would much rather play 2 games away twice a season than the back and forth across the country every week. I'm sure the Melbourne clubs wouldnt be to happy about that though.

 

[manpurple]

I agree 100% i would much rather play 2 games away twice a season than the back and forth across the country every week. I'm sure the Melbourne clubs wouldnt be to happy about that though.

Why? They could do the same thing. One trip over play both us and the budgies and go back to Melbourne. Heck call it a tour and say that you are using it for team bonding. Easy sell to me.

 

[Purpletown]

running kamikaze style in the last quarter after getting smashed in the previous quarters ... i dunno but you have to be fitter than the opposition for them to let you get away with it

You may well be right about that. The point I was trying to make was that in round 23 Freo put the cue back in the rack to some degree thus leaving the door open when Port changed their game style in response to being well behind. Ports fitness did not get them a win that time so it was a case of too little too late.

It seems to have been a factor in the QF two weeks later when they ran over the top of Freo.

Last weekend in the Prelim Final the Hawks tried to play out time from too far out IMO, you will often see teams cut it fine when they do that and from time to time go down. The question in those games is was it the Hawks changing what has been working up until that point? Was it Port changing what has not been working up until that point? or was it a case of Port being fitter? Even if Port were fitter it still didn't get them over the line so once again too little too late.

At the end of the day it's a combination of factors and fitness is very important but if teams leave too much to do at the end they will be held out by the better teams more often than not.

 

[malpaso]

Fitness aside, the key is to have your forwards and possibly some backs rotate through the midfield. Port have Wingard and Gray that move through the entire ground (mostly the forward and mid regions), even Monfries moves up. We need to get better production from our 'part-time' midfielders so that our 'core' midfield has the legs in the latter stages of games.
This is one reason that Sylvia was recruited however for whatever reason he's dropped his end of the bargain in his first season.
MDB, Suban are IMO failures at the present time at delivering quality in the midfield and they need to be moved on.