Fit and fast
12:25:43 PM Fri 4 February, 2005
Jay Clark
Geelong Advertiser
Shannon Byrnes fired a warning shot at his rival Geelong midfielders yesterday with blazing times in the club's final fitness test.
The pocket rocket topped the 20-metre sprint test in a personal best 2.77 seconds, which was .05 seconds ahead of his nearest rival in new recruit Nick Batchelor.
The 20-year-old was just as impressive in the following beep test, notching the third highest number of timed shuttle runs with a score of 14.13.
He fell just short of Jarad Rooke with 15.3 and Cameron Ling on 15.4.
According to Byrnes, it is a timely reminder to the coaching staff that he is the fittest he has ever been.
"Obviously I want to be right up there in speed because being short and slow doesn't really cut it these days,'' Byrnes said.
"This stuff isn't make or break, but it is nice to have something like this in the back of the coaches minds when they are tossing your name up against someone else.''
VFL ruckman Mark Blake was next best in the sprint session with 2.82sec.
Tim Callan was a fraction behind in 2.83sec. Byrnes said his personal best time was also a satisfying win in his battle with fellow speedster and room-mate Kane Tenace, who had previously had the wood over Byrnes with a best time of 2.8sec.
"I just wanted to beat Kane because he has been getting into me about it all year,'' he said.
Byrnes played four games last year and said he was desperate for more senior action after being promoted from the rookie list last year in place of the injured James Kelly.
An injury free pre-season and plenty of touches in the Cats' opening intra-club game on Monday has Byrnes fully primed for the Wizard Cup and hopeful of a round one guernsey.
That's despite the red-hot competition in an overflowing Geelong midfield.
"This pre-season I've done everything. I'm definitely hungry for it,'' he said.
Strength and conditioning coach Chris Dennis said he was delighted with yesterday afternoon's results, particularly considering most of the players had spent the day on their feet touring schools and a hospitals in cold conditions.
He said the performances of Byrnes and Ling were standouts but also commended a number of major improvements in beep test times by Jarad Rooke, who set a personal best, as well as Tom Harley and Corey Enright with 14.7.
In the speed test Brenton Sanderson cracked three seconds for the first time after recovering from an ankle injury while James Rahilly, Joel Corey and Jarrod Garth all set personal bests.
"I'm very happy with the results considering we've spent the past two days on a bus,'' Dennis said.
We're loooking alright.''