Strathalbyn again

[Crowked]

Crows head for the hills
By ANDREW CAPEL
15nov05

ADELAIDE will hold a pre-season training camp at Strathalbyn next month.

The Crows will head to the hills just before Christmas while arch-rival Port Adelaide soaks up the heat at its training camp at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.
While the Adelaide players are not due to report to full-scale training until next Thursday (November 24), Port upped the ante at training yesterday with two groups working at different times at the parklands in front of the Adelaide University gymnasium.

All the Power players are on deck with Brendon Lade, Josh Mahoney and Kane Cornes showing their determination to have big 2006 seasons by returning to training a week earlier than expected.

They joined their younger team-mates last week while midfielder Steven Salopek, who nearly quit Port to return to Victoria at the end of the season, has been one of the early training standouts, recording some sizzling times for the 3.5km time trial.

The Power's weekly training program until Christmas includes four-to-six running sessions, two-to-four weights sessions, skill and competitive work.

In February, both SA clubs will continue the tradition of taking football to the country as part of the AFL's Community Camps project.

Adelaide will spend three days at Victor Harbor and the Power three days in the Barossa.

The Crows, premier Sydney (November 21) and St Kilda (November 28) are the only clubs yet to start pre-season training.




With many AFL clubs traveling the globe (Collingwood to the US, St.Kilda to China, ect), and others travelling interstate for camps, like the Porkers in sunny Queensland. Why do we only ever go to Strathalbyn? I know its the work you do, not where you do it that makes a preseason, but with the financial position of our club compared to most others, why dont we ever take the lads for a camp abroad? Are we saving up to buy Strathalbyn or something? Seems strange that we dont ever try the Kokoda Trail or treking the alps or something to build team spirit and comradary. If we never try it, how do we know if its a better preparation or just a waste of money? I'm just wondering.

 

[Cove Cobra]

Keep on wondering mate

There is no earthly reason why we should go abroad to bring team spirit when it is ALREADY there.

There is no reason to tear away OUR boys from their families and so on in pre-season. IMO it is a waste of time to travel abroad in pre-season.

We have some of the toughest environments right here in SA. Craig and Co. AGAIN are spot on in their pre-season strategy.

 

[Crowz Gal]

Going overseas = overrated.

Unless they do it to get out of the summer heat, but arizona or going on the kokoda trail wouldnt exactly have hospitable weather.

Could have something to do with the flights
Dont want to run the risk of DVT or the bends??????

Players have had their holidays, they probably prefer to be "at home" close by to their families.

Anyway where would you rather go, Sunny QLD or Strath.....

 

[Crowked]

Since travelling abroad and interstate is over rated and non benificial, why do most other clubs do it?

Surely going on the Kokoda trail or training in inhospitipal conditions is about facing adversity, and being challenged beyond your comfort zones, creating group unity in the face of adversity, ect.

While I dont think we miss out on too much, to dismiss it as over rated or a waste of time is at least a little niave. Hell if we never do it, how would we ever know. IMO, going to Strathalbyn is as much value as going to the sand hills at Semaphore, some value no doubt, but not much other than the physical conditioning.

Its been a long time now since we won anything. Just maybe we need to do something out of the norm, a change up to break the sequence of good to average seasons. IMO the occasional preseason trip can be valuable for the reasons you guys have used as reasons not to go. To get the players away from their families and their comfort zones, to make them face some adversity, to challenge them in unfamiliar surroundings. I dont claim its guarenteed to work mirracles or win premierships, but for such a rich club, the cost isnt a big issue, and the benifits could be significant, but it seems we will never find out.

Seems like Uncle Scrooge is pulling the financial strings to me.

 

[dA Crow]

Surely going on the Kokoda trail or training in inhospitipal conditions is about facing adversity, and being challenged beyond your comfort zones, creating group unity in the face of adversity, ect.

Anyone here actually been along the Kokada trail? As for inhospital conditions, maybe a training camp in Bhagdad would keep the lads on their toes.

 

[Crowked]

Anyone here actually been along the Kokada trail? As for inhospital conditions, maybe a training camp in Bhagdad would keep the lads on their toes.

No, but one day I want to. I think it would be a character building experience.

Sorry for thinking something other than a B&B in Strath might be worth while. Good to see we're living up to the East Coast stereotype of people in Adelaide, the ultra conservatives. Just out of interest has anyone lashed out and tried the beef with three veg? ********s all over a chicken parmigiana.

 

[Cove Cobra]

No, but one day I want to. I think it would be a character building experience.

Sorry for thinking something other than a B&B in Strath might be worth while. Good to see we're living up to the East Coast stereotype of people in Adelaide, the ultra conservatives. Just out of interest has anyone lashed out and tried the beef with three veg? ********s all over a chicken parmigiana.

ROFLMAO!!!!

TBH with you Crowked I really don't see the need to travel abroad. Character building experiences?? We as a side have to go over yonder to do that?

I thought that was what end-of-season trips were all about. Comraderie and team bonding occurs on these trips. Unless you think they go O.S. and then go their separate ways when they are over there?






What about the mighty Silverside?

 

[Crowz Gal]

You say we should do something "out of the norm"
And then, that every team goes overseas. So, wouldnt not be going OS be out of the norm.

Undoubtedly going OS builds character, but u can do it here. It is over rated because you can get the same bonding and fitness levels here (unless u go high altitude which is over rated anyway be cause it is a short lived biological process).

Yes the Kokoda trail would be a very bondworthy experience, so would Gallipoli, and it would be very tough. But the boys work so hard all year. Do we want them over-pushing themselves. We want them fit. Not-strained. Remember 4 weeks off per/yr is not that much.

I think the boys would rather be close to home then away from their families is another important thing.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Anyone here actually been along the Kokada trail? As for inhospital conditions, maybe a training camp in Bhagdad would keep the lads on their toes.

Also, the kokada trail didn't exactly help the Hawks climb up the ladder in 2005.

The location of a training camp isn't going to make much of a difference to building team spirit and comradary. It's not going make the players train harder either.

 

[Cove Cobra]

I think the boys would rather be close to home then away from their families is another important thing.

Spot on.

The location of a training camp isn't going to make much of a difference to building team spirit and comradary. It's not going make the players train harder either

Spot on.

Reading the article by Allan Sheil in another thread only reaffirms my belief that we are the most professional outfit around at the moment.

Neil Craig, fantastic ideology and outside thinker. You can't imagine how many humble pies I've eaten over the past 15 months!

 

[Crowked]

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,17459480%255E20322,00.html

Kokoda ordeal bonds Lions
05 December 2005 Herald Sun

BRISBANE Lions midfielder Simon Black may have a cupboard full of individual honours, along with three AFL premierships, but he says tackling the Kokoda Track ranks alongside his toughest assignments.

The 2002 Brownlow and 2003 Norm Smith medallist said the five-day 96km trek along the track made famous by Australian soldiers fighting in New Guinea in World War II had prepared the team for the rigours of the 2006 season.
"It's the toughest thing I've ever done in my life," Black said after arriving back in Brisbane with 30 other players and nine coaching staff, including coach Leigh Matthews.
"It was probably 12 hours a day, every day with constant walking up and down hills and I don't think anybody realised just how tough it was going to be."
But he said it was worth the effort.
Players were paired up with a teammate every day to look after and urge each other on, which Black said helped galvanise the team.
"As far as a team aspect it was a huge, huge benefit," Black said.
"This is my ninth year and we've never had a team do an exercise like this and I believe it is going to benefit the club."
Black said the team had to cope with mud, vegetation blocking the track, steep rises, dangerous descents and sheer drops, as well as eating only canned food and getting little sleep.
He said he was impressed by how the youngsters in the side coped with the trek.
"They showed they were willing to have a crack for the guys and get their buddies through and help the guys who were battling more than they were and to think of others rather than themselves," Black said.
During the trek, guides explained the significance of points along the track during the World War II fight to hold back the advancing Japanese army.
"The guys got a real appreciation about what it was all about and just how easy we were doing it, compared (with) how they (the soldiers) would have done it," he said.
The Lions will continue training until December 22 before having a break over Christmas and returning early in the new year.



These sorts of things dont have a definable value, the benifit isnt measurable in isolation, but IMO they are worth while. People grow from these types of experiences, they dont necessarily get any faster, fitter or stronger physically, but they do grow mentally. IMO we would benifit from it, as a team and as individuals. Its a shame we never even bother, since mental strength is our obvious weakness. I know some will want to stick it to me for writing it, but 3 times in the last 4 years we have been in a position to win a flag and we've blown it deep in the finals series. IMO, its not physical, we are fit, we are fast and we are strong, yet we cant seem to tough it out and collect the prize. We lack mentally and we arent even trying to over come it. I'm not saying the Kokoda is the be all and end all, just that we need to recognise that we are doing something not as well as we could and make an effort to change it. Something like this just might get that job done, but we will never know if we never try.

 

[missionpossible]

Anyway where would you rather go, Sunny QLD or Strath.....

Sarcastic question but I will answer it anyway

strathalbyn by the length of the flemington straight.

Only one thing wrong with sunny queensland and that is all the queenslanders. Been there once and hopefully I never have to go there again and spend time with the most up themselves people in this country.

 

[afc9798]

Sarcastic question but I will answer it anyway

strathalbyn by the length of the flemington straight.

Only one thing wrong with sunny queensland and that is all the queenslanders. Been there once and hopefully I never have to go there again and spend time with the most up themselves people in this country.

Chad and Warren are Queenslanders????

 

[Crowked]

Sarcastic question but I will answer it anyway

strathalbyn by the length of the flemington straight.

Only one thing wrong with sunny queensland and that is all the queenslanders. Been there once and hopefully I never have to go there again and spend time with the most up themselves people in this country.

Never been to Sydney?

Seriously, the people of Sydney the city, not rural NSW but the city dwellers would be about the most arrogant, up themselves, self centred people anywhere in the world, never mind Australia. Their like New Yorkers on ego steroids.

 

[missionpossible]

Never been to Sydney?

Seriously, the people of Sydney the city, not rural NSW but the city dwellers would be about the most arrogant, up themselves, self centred people anywhere in the world, never mind Australia. Their like New Yorkers on ego steroids.

Love sydney, or at least the ranwick, bondi, coggee area. The pub life was so great, anyone would speak to anyone, everyone was just friendly. CBD I cant comment on.

 

[Crowked]

Love sydney, or at least the ranwick, bondi, coggee area. The pub life was so great, anyone would speak to anyone, everyone was just friendly. CBD I cant comment on.

Their all either tourists or people being nice trying to sell stuff to the tourists. Next time your in Sydney, make the trip into the city, and you will no doubt learn that Queenslanders are just very normal, average people in comparison.

 

[drakeyv2]

Hawthorn did the kakoda last year. I didn't notice any obvious onfield benefits.

 

[Crowked]

Hawthorn did the kakoda last year. I didn't notice any obvious onfield benefits.

Yeh, this has been mentioned before. I dont think anyone can say that they did or didnt benifit from it for that one particular season. The year before they finished last, so if were hanging everything on it, they improved by 2 places, which is a benifit. If we improve by 2 spots we're in a GF. The reality with Hawthorn though, is that they were a very young squad and werent ever going to be world beaters no matter what they did in the preseason. In years to come though that experience might hold them in good stead when their chances come.

I think if you asked the Hawthorn players and coaching staff, just like their Brisbane counterparts, they would say it was huge in building the character of the team and the individuals.

I'm just concerned that the one percenter that might be the difference between finishing 3rd or 4th again and being premiers might have been under that rock we refuse to look under. Its not like doing it is going to set us back, but not doing it just might. We've tried the Strath camp for how many years? It would seem to me we've been there and done that so many times now, why not try something else?

How does that saying go?
Insanity = Doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result.

 

[Crowked]

Awed Lions humble in the jungle
07 December 2005 Herald Sun
Michael Stevens

MICHAEL Voss knew of the hellish conditions Australian Diggers faced on the Kokoda Track in World War II through an uncle, Charlie Lynn.

But he says after walking the 96km trek in six days with his Brisbane Lions teammates and coach Leigh Matthews, he has a much greater appreciation of the Anzac spirit.

"I'm keen to read a little bit more of the history and how it eventuated," he said.

"For me to experience that now holds Anzac Day in a different light because I've always taken it for granted that these people served in the war, but never truly understood what they've gone through.

"Having to walk it and being in an uncomfortable state myself and just getting not even a snippet really of what they actually went through . . .

"But the terrain they had to deal with alone, without necessarily the opposition shooting at them at the same time, is something to behold."

Despite being massively outnumbered, young Australian soldiers turned back the advancing Japanese on the narrow track across Papua New Guinea's Owen Stanley Range in 1942.

Voss said the walk would help bond the Lions on several fronts.

"Some handled it better than others, but I think what it convinced many guys is that whatever the mind says you can't do, it goes to show that your body can still keep going," he said.

"You think that you can't go any further, but you prove to yourself once you've done this that you can push a little bit harder and know that you've still got a bit more left when the mind tells you that you've had enough.

"No one sat down and said they weren't going to go any further. They all took it on board and realised that we had to get to a certain destination at certain times, and worked really hard.

"I anticipated that we'd probably have to pull out a few motivational things to get people over the line, but the guys attacked it with a lot of spirit, which I thought was exceptional."

How the trek will translate during a game of football is difficult to quantify.

"We don't know that," Voss said. "We'd like to think it has something to do with football.

"Leigh spoke about it today . . . we like to think we fight this mini battle on a football field in a much more controlled state every week.

"The principles are much the same on what we're trying to achieve and some of those things are reaffirmed on how important they are.

"Little things like we know we've got the big goal we've got to get to, but to be able to do that we've got to attack the next hill.

"And to do that you've got to take the next step. It's as simple as that.

"What you found as you're walking along, if you took the step and looked up, the hill looked too far away, and the mental anguish you went through was really challenging.

"But if you actually concentrated on each step you took it was surprising how much easier it made it."

Having Matthews participate was also inspirational, according to Voss.

"He was collapsing in many instances, but just kept going," Voss said.

"I'm sure that the guys have a new-found respect for him, if that's possible."

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,17488133%255E20322,00.html

hmmmmmmmmmmm. another 3x premiership winning Brownlow medalist thinks its a pretty worth while exercise. He seems to think he personally and his team mates will benifit from it. I guess it must be a waste of time then.

 

[drakeyv2]

hmmmmmmmmmmm. another 3x premiership winning Brownlow medalist thinks its a pretty worth while exercise. He seems to think he personally and his team mates will benifit from it. I guess it must be a waste of time then.

He is hardly going to say it was a stupid waste of time, money & effort, is he? On a personal level I am sure it is rewarding, but will he get even 1 more kick this year because of it?

 

[Crowked]

He is hardly going to say it was a stupid waste of time, money & effort, is he? On a personal level I am sure it is rewarding, but will he get even 1 more kick this year because of it?

Maybe not, but just maybe when others have conceded their race is run deep in the last quarter, he or one of his team mates might emerge with the ball and kick the winning goal, because they believe they can.

Who knows for sure?

I only know one thing is absolutely true. If you dont try, you will never know.

 

[drakeyv2]

Maybe not, but just maybe when others have conceded their race is run deep in the last quarter, he or one of his team mates might emerge with the ball and kick the winning goal, because they believe they can.

Either that or he kicks to the wrong spot because he was out climbing mountains in tropical rain forrests instead of practicing set plays at Strath.

I didn't see much never say die, ANZAC, digger spirit from Hawthorn in the last 1/2 of the game they played against our evil cousins at footy park this year. I saw a team that gave up.

I understand where you are coming from, but I am not convinced it is of any REAL long term benefit.

 

[Crow-mosone]

He is hardly going to say it was a stupid waste of time, money & effort, is he? On a personal level I am sure it is rewarding, but will he get even 1 more kick this year because of it?

lol

sorry crowked it's pretty hard to argue with this.

 

[Crowked]

Either that or he kicks to the wrong spot because he was out climbing mountains in tropical rain forrests instead of practicing set plays at Strath.

I didn't see much never say die, ANZAC, digger spirit from Hawthorn in the last 1/2 of the game they played against our evil cousins at footy park this year. I saw a team that gave up.

I understand where you are coming from, but I am not convinced it is of any REAL long term benefit.

I think there will be very little time spent doing set plays at Strath. Even if there are set play sessions, they can be done anywhere, any time, a week long challenge like what Brisbane did cant.

I dont think Hawthorn is a club that should be used to measure the benifit, they were a basket case, and probably still are to a degree, but we arent. Lets see what the young blokes at Brisbane do over the next few years.

I am convinced a week at Strathalbyn is a waste of time and travel, as short as the trip is. We might as well do it on Max Basheer Reserve, it in combination with the sand hills at Semaphore offer the exact same challenges. Also I think after half a dozen consecutive years of doing it the same way, without any real success to show for it, something else might have been more benificial. My whole point isnt that the Kokoda is the undeniable way to go, its just one option. My point is that to produce something different, you need to do it differently. IMO we are following the same path that has lead to nowhere for the past 5-6 years. Why would we expect a different result? I'm tipping we go well in the minor round, make the 8, maybe the 4, but bow out in the Semi's or Prelim. again.