Richmond fans are famous for their loyalty and there may be no more loyal Tiger than Andrew Sloman. Despite being based in New Zealand, “Slowy” rarely misses a game, travelling all across the country to follow the yellow and black. He has also often joined the team on their pre-season training camps, including making the trip to Arizona some years back. “Slowy” is with the team on their pre-season camp on the Gold Coast this week and we thought it would be great to get a fans perspective on what he sees on the camp and what excites him most about season 2019.
Day 2
Well day two on the Gold Coast has been massive on a number of fronts.
The day commenced at 5.45am with a few almond milk coffees followed by an outdoor meditation session facilitated by Emma Murray. This is my fifth preseason camp and the mindfulness and wellbeing elements of the camp continue to grow over time. And breakfast is fundamental to wellbeing, which was duly devoured prior to a pre-training meeting at 7.30am. Peter Burge emphasised the importance of training intensity and reinforced some fundamental messages with the playing group. Blake Caracella ran through the drill program consisting of many varied tasks focussing on skill and gameplan. The morning workload was considerable.
Day 2 Program and strategy. See you soon @Richmond_FC Queensland fans pic.twitter.com/DNrmVxLVqw
— Andrew Sloman (@KiwiTiger12) January 20, 2019
We then drove via minibuses to the Bond University Oval, the home of the Bull Sharks! And Bond University of course is named after a former Richmond Club President. It was great to arrive and see so many Queensland based supporters already in attendance. We trained for over 150 minutes in the 31 degree heat. The key drill was the 6 versus 6 match from end to end. I was impressed with the movement and disposal efficiency of Riley Collier-Dawkins. Syd Stack did some mercurial work, including a freakish mark whilst tripping over! At the conclusion, the squad was commended by Damien for the quality and level of intensity. The session met the brief.
Our morning pic.twitter.com/q04nV2HcDF
— Andrew Sloman (@KiwiTiger12) January 21, 2019
A rehabilitation session followed back at the hotel pool followed by lunch. The competitive juices and banter continued to flow as we watched the NFL Play Off Game between New England and Kansas City. Many of the squad are mad NFL fans, as is the Coach! Some controversial referee calls divided opinion.
Anyway, when the NFL game concluded, we jumped back on the buses and headed to the Bond University High Performance Centre at the Robina Stadium. One team bus, driven by a former triple premiership player and now coach, managed to go to the wrong location. This was his second driving faux pas for the day and a suitable punishment for the former Sunshine State resident is being formulated as we speak.
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We conducted 3 rotations of sessions including weights, skills and Richmond Man leadership workshops. Rotations were by line and I followed the Forwards. As always the Richmond Man session was incredibly interesting and focussed on visualisation and connectivity.
On the way back to Hotel, we stopped at a martial arts and boxing facility. The players took part in a grappling and boxing session, culminating in a UFC style octagon bout between Patrick Naish and Jack Higgins. Learned judges scored it in favour of Patrick, but only just! Again the level of intensity at this session was very high.
The workload for the players today was massive. I ran water and Gatorade, and fetched footballs, and our group of helpers are exhausted. And thank you to the marvellous Queensland Tiger supporters who not only attended today but fetched footballs behind the goals. Your efforts were great. Until tomorrow!
