'Inner Sanctum Experience'

[sante]

What an experience that would have been. Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[the_optimist]

good stuff toppstar

would love to see kingys routine. no wonder he's mental

 

[toppstar]

Thanks for sharing, would have been a fantastic experience!

Is that Chris Guest you speak of? If so he is reallyyyy helpful and such a nice guy, very good at his job!

Yes it was Chris Guest. A great guy, really helpful. The prize was only meant to be for myself and a friend to come. I asked him if i could bring another 3 people with me in to the rooms who i go to the footy with every week and without hesitiation he said no worries. So we all had a great day

 

[JR#8]

Good Work Toppstar!

The Kingy warm up seriously made me laugh out loud when I read it!

 

[Jamdonut]

Awesome post mate, the kind of stuff we all like to hear. Particularly like the part about Astbury

 

[Bojangles17]

On Sunday I had the best day at the footy that I have ever had!
I was fortunate to receive a call from the club last week telling me that I had won the competition on the website for the ‘inner sanctum’ experience before the game. I was able to go in to the rooms with my father before the game and see the boys warm up and go through their paces. I was also extremely fortunate to have Justin Leppitsch provide myself and a few others in the room a private 10 minute talk about the game plan for the day.
So given that we are all so passionate about this great club I thought that I might pass on some of the things that occurred in the “inner sanctum” before the game.

· Leppa spoke about Sydney generally playing a very good player on the oppositions best half back players rather than just a real tagger with limited skill. Leppa believed that Sydney would target Deledio and Newman. So our tactic was to create a 2 on 1 situation whereby if Deledio was being tagged by the Sydney half forward then our other half back player (Newman or Connors) would then go and tag Deledio’s opponent in order to create a 2 on 1 situation and allow at least 1 of our half back players to be free.
· Leppa also spoke about their being a focus on denying handball receives. Rather than all our players being sucked in to the Sydney player with the ball, the instruction was to only have 1 or maybe 2 players target this player and the rest to focus on denying other Sydney players in the area from receiving a handball. I guess you could liken it to the way that a point guard might defend a player in basketball.
· Leppa made mention of Kingy going to Malceski and tagging him. Moore was set to play on Goodes when he was in the forward line. As soon as Goodes goes in to the midfield then Jackson would take him.
· We had the opportunity to ask a few questions before we left the room. In summary of those questions
[FONT=&quot]o [/FONT]Most rotations around the ground are pre-determined before the game. The only players that aren’t really affected by the rotations and who would play the majority of the game were Thursfield and Astbury.
[FONT=&quot]o [/FONT]90% of our game plan is the same each week. The other 10% changes based on who we are playing.

After the speech we got to just sit and watch the boys warm up and go through their drills before the game, some observations from this were:

· Dimma and all the assistant coaches were really relaxed and cracking jokes with each other. I must say they were also very friendly to us visitors and said hello. It’s only a small thing but says a lot about them all given we were visitors.
· When players returned to the rooms after their pre-game on field warm up Chris Newman was walking around whilst everyone was doing stretches really pumping up the boys and very clearly indicating what was expected from the day. From memory some of the things he said were about our intensity, ferocity at the contest, staying focused and maintaining a 4 quarter effort.
· To my surprise the other player who was really sort of reinforcing the words of Chris Newman was David Astbury. Whilst not quite as strong as Newman he could certainly be heard around the rooms supporting the captain’s words and motivating the boys.
· Ben Cousins was randomly going up to some of the young guys such as Collins, Graham, Nason and just having quick 1-2 minute talks with them. I watched this really closely and you could really see the respect the boys have for him and how closely they were listening to what he was saying. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought he was a Richmond Assistant coach.
· Once the boys got in to their handball and tackling drills this is when things just got unbelievably crazy. The noise that was coming from all the boys was incredible. It was the sort of motivation that made you think you could run through a brick wall. The intensity at which they complete the warm up drills is just amazing! I’m shocked that guys don’t pop shoulders out in the warm up when they do their tackling drill. I particular, Trent Cotchin got in to a real ferocious grapple with Matt White and Angus Graham. It was so intense that any longer and I wonder if they might’ve started throwing punches at each other.
· Big Gus Graham appeared to dislocate a finger during the handball drill warm up
· Finally, just after they finished the warm up and were about to run out everyone had left the floor except for Kingy who went through this bizarre and almost hilarious routine. He would bend over and one of the fitness staff would grab a large tackling bag and just belt him over the back and sides for about a minute with it! The thuds that it was making were unbelievable. It was almost like it was some sort of punishment lol.

I’m 22 years old and have been to 2 finals in my life in 2001. So I’ve pretty much seen very little success. Given the way we won yesterday and my ‘inner sanctum’ experience before the game, it was possibly the best day of my life to date! I’m confident that we are really going in the right direction. I’m loving the way we are playing at the moment and hope it will further improve in years to come. Well done to the RFC and in particular a guy named Chris who looked after us while in the rooms for providing me with memories I will never forget. I will be emailing the club this week expressing my satisfaction.

A lot to read, but I hope you enjoyed it all.

GO TIGES!

cheers topps, great read, sounds like a helluva time

 

[mcuzzy]

did Lids write anything on his hand?

 

[PHX]

Excellent post. A good insight.

 

[tugga]

cheers topps, great read, sounds like a helluva time

Of course it will never rival your Subiaco inner sanctum experience. That was a once in a lifetime.

 

[True Thylacine]

I was lucky enough to have the exact same experience before the Dreamtime game where sadly I came out pumped as hell to then watch us get flogged. Cuz was amazing. Finished the on field warm up early jogged down the race and spun around in front of us and plonked himself in the chief stewards chair then said..."G'day fellas how TF are ya?" Then proceeded to chat for the next 10 mins while he waited for the rest of the team to return at which point I got collared by a certain Tasmanian from the forward line Inside the rooms was a very similar experience and really got me revved up along with the team, it was almost impossible not to be after listening to them and watching them go through their paces. I'm just shitty my night ended so badly, I am very jealous! Anway I'm off to the UK tomorrow, you guys better get some wins organised while I'm not around to supervise!

 

[Greggy]

Great read mate, good work!

Did you get to go into the rooms for the song?

Did you notice how many players were listening to music or eating before the game and were any reading the record?

And a topical question, were caffeine tablets taken before the game?

Some trivial questions but I like details.

 

[Darth_Tiger]

thanks for posting mate, awesome stuff

 

[mcuzzy]

...how does one get to experience this?

 

[toppstar]

Great read mate, good work!

Did you get to go into the rooms for the song?

Did you notice how many players were listening to music or eating before the game and were any reading the record?

And a topical question, were caffeine tablets taken before the game?

Some trivial questions but I like details.

Nah didn't manage to hear the song, it was only for before the game.

The only player that i saw with any headphones on was Cuz.

And as for any tablets being taken i didn't see anything. All i did see was a crowd of guys lining up for some powerade every 5 minutes. Obviously hydration is a massive thing for them before the game

 

[guruisatiger]

awesome post really well written really enjoyed reading it cheers

 

[toppstar]

...how does one get to experience this?

I was fortunate enough to win the landcare victoria competition that was being run on the RFC website

 

[mcuzzy]

I was fortunate enough to win the landcare victoria competition that was being run on the RFC website

oh wow, i must've skipped that part of your post.

well done! very lucky

 

[Hu$tler]

Fantastic read mate

Even though it was Richmond, you are still one lucky SOB

 

[TheProwler]

Awesome, one lucky young chap

Add to this the fact that we WON and I can see how much of a great day you must have had.

 

[rfctigerarmy]

Thanks for the insight. A great read.

 

[richoatthedisco]

Of course it will never rival your Subiaco inner sanctum experience. That was a once in a lifetime.

What was that?

 

[tugga]

What was that?

BJ was sitting in the crowd at Subi and the club was a deckhand short and a dude asked him if he'd be interested. Popped a RFC media polo on him and he got to go out on the ground and kick balls to the players in their warm up. Basically his job was to hold the sponsors sign at all the breaks etc, fetch drinks. Got to go into the rooms before the game and actually mingle although he did say he didn't abuse the position and kept out people's way. I vaguely remember he took a piss right next to Cuz. Sounded like heaven.

 

[mcuzzy]

BJ was sitting in the crowd at Subi and the club was a deckhand short and a dude asked him if he'd be interested. Popped a RFC media polo on him and he got to go out on the ground and kick balls to the players in their warm up. Basically his job was to hold the sponsors sign at all the breaks etc, fetch drinks. Got to go into the rooms before the game and actually mingle although he did say he didn't abuse the position and kept out people's way. I vaguely remember he took a piss right next to Cuz. Sounded like heaven.

dream job!