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courtesy of www.portadelaidefc.com.au
Port's New Zealand adventure
A party of 57 Port Adelaide players, coaches and fitness/medical staff has flown to New Zealand for a high-powered three-day training camp designed to stretch mental and physical resources.
The so-called ‘adventure’ camp is in the Rangitata region about 60-90 minutes out of Christchurch on the south island.
General-fitness, team-bonding and leadership-identifying exercises will include running in a forest, mountain-bike riding in a gorge, hiking in mountain ranges, kayaking, white-water rafting and a demanding high-ropes course.
The Port party flew to Christchurch on Tuesday, will spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday enduring the ‘torture’ tests and will do some exercise with footballs early on Saturday before flying to Sydney, where it will spend the night, before arriving back in Adelaide on Sunday morning.
Port coach Mark Williams said he thought it was ‘wonderful’ that the club had seen fit to provide the opportunity to go to New Zealand.
“The players have to pay half the money – and the coaches as well – but we’ve all thought it’s something worthwhile and we’ll get something more out of it by going to New Zealand,” he said. “It’s somewhere different so we’re looking forward to it.
“We really don’t get too much time to spend together. It’s normally on the job, but now we’ll get four or five days together where we can have some enjoyment and socialising.
“But, at the same time, there are a lot of challenges there that they’ve never seen before. There’ll be a bit of apprehension about some of the challenges and a little bit of deprivation of sleep and food and all those things that might just add to the mix.
“You have to work your way through it and obviously some of the leadership skills of different people will shine through.”
Asked if the sleep deprivation applied to the coaches, too, Williams quipped: “If you’ve got four kids (as he has), you’ve always got that. Yeah, we’re all doing the activities so we look forward to it.”
Was he concerned that it could all be a bit too tough, even dangerous?
“Some of the events are bordering on dangerous but we try to eliminate as much as possible,” Williams said.
“To get the thrill of the event, you have to push it as far as you can. We’ve got people leading the party who are experienced in these areas and we’ll just see what they say.
“We’re putting it in the hands of a company down there and some people are going to facilitate it. That adds to the excitement of it as well. No one can get too much of the details. I think in the end you really achieve more when you don’t know what it’s about.
“There’s white-water rafting, which is dangerous, especially in those big waters in New Zealand, and there’s some hikes over a very steep, dangerous mountain.
“It’s a volcanic mountain that you have to kind of slide down the other side! It takes 30 minutes to come down so I look forward to that! There’s also high-ropes courses, there’s mountain-bike riding …
“We’ll be having debriefs every night and a major one at the end. That’ll be continued on through the pre-season.”
Asked if it would be an alcohol-free trip, Williams said: “We’re about training. This is our training mode. There’ll be a little bit of (free) time one night, but apart from that, everyone will be switched on to making sure we’re looking after our fitness and health.
“And we’ll have a bit of a kick over there on Saturday morning. Three weeks ago we started (training). The guys are really going and are really excited about it all.
“There are a lot of opportunities for players to take positions (in the team). Probably three or four positions are up for grabs and about 10 players, even the new ones, are all jockeying for those positions. So there’s going to be keen competition in this club.”
Port captain Matthew Primus said: “The boys are looking forward to it. I don’t think the coaches are too keen.
“It’s something different. It breaks up the pre-season and hopefully we can get a bit out of the group, not only with the dangerous bit but also a bit of leadership, too.”
Port's New Zealand adventure
A party of 57 Port Adelaide players, coaches and fitness/medical staff has flown to New Zealand for a high-powered three-day training camp designed to stretch mental and physical resources.
The so-called ‘adventure’ camp is in the Rangitata region about 60-90 minutes out of Christchurch on the south island.
General-fitness, team-bonding and leadership-identifying exercises will include running in a forest, mountain-bike riding in a gorge, hiking in mountain ranges, kayaking, white-water rafting and a demanding high-ropes course.
The Port party flew to Christchurch on Tuesday, will spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday enduring the ‘torture’ tests and will do some exercise with footballs early on Saturday before flying to Sydney, where it will spend the night, before arriving back in Adelaide on Sunday morning.
Port coach Mark Williams said he thought it was ‘wonderful’ that the club had seen fit to provide the opportunity to go to New Zealand.
“The players have to pay half the money – and the coaches as well – but we’ve all thought it’s something worthwhile and we’ll get something more out of it by going to New Zealand,” he said. “It’s somewhere different so we’re looking forward to it.
“We really don’t get too much time to spend together. It’s normally on the job, but now we’ll get four or five days together where we can have some enjoyment and socialising.
“But, at the same time, there are a lot of challenges there that they’ve never seen before. There’ll be a bit of apprehension about some of the challenges and a little bit of deprivation of sleep and food and all those things that might just add to the mix.
“You have to work your way through it and obviously some of the leadership skills of different people will shine through.”
Asked if the sleep deprivation applied to the coaches, too, Williams quipped: “If you’ve got four kids (as he has), you’ve always got that. Yeah, we’re all doing the activities so we look forward to it.”
Was he concerned that it could all be a bit too tough, even dangerous?
“Some of the events are bordering on dangerous but we try to eliminate as much as possible,” Williams said.
“To get the thrill of the event, you have to push it as far as you can. We’ve got people leading the party who are experienced in these areas and we’ll just see what they say.
“We’re putting it in the hands of a company down there and some people are going to facilitate it. That adds to the excitement of it as well. No one can get too much of the details. I think in the end you really achieve more when you don’t know what it’s about.
“There’s white-water rafting, which is dangerous, especially in those big waters in New Zealand, and there’s some hikes over a very steep, dangerous mountain.
“It’s a volcanic mountain that you have to kind of slide down the other side! It takes 30 minutes to come down so I look forward to that! There’s also high-ropes courses, there’s mountain-bike riding …
“We’ll be having debriefs every night and a major one at the end. That’ll be continued on through the pre-season.”
Asked if it would be an alcohol-free trip, Williams said: “We’re about training. This is our training mode. There’ll be a little bit of (free) time one night, but apart from that, everyone will be switched on to making sure we’re looking after our fitness and health.
“And we’ll have a bit of a kick over there on Saturday morning. Three weeks ago we started (training). The guys are really going and are really excited about it all.
“There are a lot of opportunities for players to take positions (in the team). Probably three or four positions are up for grabs and about 10 players, even the new ones, are all jockeying for those positions. So there’s going to be keen competition in this club.”
Port captain Matthew Primus said: “The boys are looking forward to it. I don’t think the coaches are too keen.
“It’s something different. It breaks up the pre-season and hopefully we can get a bit out of the group, not only with the dangerous bit but also a bit of leadership, too.”

