Gotta love Bigfooty. Yeah, Matt’s signed with Willy, he’s happy to be playing with a few of his mates from U18’s days too. They’ve recruited pretty well so hopefully they can have a good season.
They’ve been training at Whitten oval up til Christmas but I don’t think he’s looking forward to training down at Willy during the middle of winter. I can imagine some pretty cold nights with a fresh southerly blowing straight off the bay.
Yeah I played there a few times in the 80’s. Bloody cold when the wind is blowing. Worst was playing for the two’s and kicking the dew off the grass. I struggled with the conditions & couldn’t get a kick down there…then again that problem wasn’t exclusive to Williamstown! :rolleyes:
A few of the VFL grounds are so close to the water conditions get ugly pretty quickly. I remember a game I played at Sandy early one season, day started at about 25 degrees before the weather turned. The worst part was being made to do a rehab session in the bay straight after. Could’ve almost surfed the waves that day.
Not that the problem is limited to the bayside grounds, North Ballarat was bloody freezing on more than one occasion as well.
Just to revamp…we have a national team in Italy…partecipating in a promotional EU cup in Samobor , Croatia, first week of october.
There was a good interest after all the games from TV, and after 3 months of tryouts, we ( I have been selected) start this adventure, with our coach , an italian-australian lawyer , and even another Italian satellite sport tv.
http://www.aussierulesinternational.com/home/tournaments/eu-cup/2009
Youngy , can you help me in finding some resources for fitness training for aussie rules? ( as a player, and also for the team…)
I discovered that it is played in almost all european countries, and according to some guys with Aussie college experience, even with decent level…cool!!
Hi eroszag,
Great to see the world’s 2nd greatest sport (to T&F 
), is alive and well and prospering in Europe.
As Aussie Rules ‘footy’ is such a complex game requiring extraordinary & different fitness or conditioning levels, (depending on what position one plays), it’s hard to put in a nutshell what sort of training one should do.
ie: midfielders, especially ‘outside’ players can cover up to 15 or 16kms per game in a variety of different speeds - walking, jogging, sub max running with several bursts of max efforts.
I’ve been involved with the sport since the 1970’s in a variety of roles, firstly as a player then as a fitness consultant and most recently a sprint coach with the Adelaide Crows (AFL). The demands of the sport have increased as the game has evolved as has the sports science that has gone into developing a training program.
At the Crows I don’t have any say in the actual conditioning of the players. My role is simply as a sprint coach, teaching a select few players how to be more effective (and faster!) off the mark and over distance up to 30m and perhaps more energy efficient so they can run faster more often.
Having a coach (one of the few, if not the only coach in the AFL) with a sports science background, including stints at the SA Institute of Sport and the Olympic cycling program, the Crows have a very scientific approach to its conditioning program based on GPS data and physiological testing before, during & after matches, taken over several years.
A pre-season program includes:
Running in various forms - sprints, runs up to 3km including a exercise where they run solidly around a rectangle that is something like 80m-20m-80m-20m.
They do a lot of cycling for cardio vascular development. They are very fortunate to have former Olympic cycling head coach Charlie Walsh supervising the program.
Weights including a lot of bodyweight stuff like chin ups, dips & push ups.
Skills sessions which ican be individualised depending on the player. ie: the tall blokes do a a lot of rucking drills; Defenders will work on negating tactics; forwards on leading & goal scoring; all would do tackling drills and moving the ball quickly by hand or foot.
Some of the skills sessions involve a lot of running hence they do not do a lot of specfic run sessions but incorporate the running into the general football training. players are tested at random to ensure the training intensity matches or replicates that in an actual game.
Recovery - massage/ice baths/salt water or pool/stretching/yoga etc.
Sample program:
Mon AM: Warm Up then Football Skills
Mon PM: Recovery
Tue AM: Warm Up then more game specific skills
TUE PM: Weights
Wed: REST/RECOVERY
Thu AM: Testing incl - skinfolds, beep test, cardio.
Thu PM: Football session with perhaps a meeting.
Fri AM: Running/Individual skills session/game knowledge
Fri PM: Weights
Sat AM: Running or bike ride or both!
Sunday: Rest/Recovery
Hopefully that gives you an insight into what they do.
Coincidentally, I arrived home last night to a package sent from the Adelaide Football Club. Inside was a player’s guernsey, signed by captain Simon Goodwin, on which he thanked me for my assistance. It was accompanied by a letter from coach Neil Craig. A very thoughful & kind gesture and certainly makes one feel proud to be involved with such a professionally run organisation.
As Always…great Youngy!! ( btw, I think I saw a younger Youngy on a Bradley’s book picture:))
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26088138-5012432,00.html
Happened to see this in today’s newspaper. David Misson has a terrific record in Aussie Rules and the conditioning of elite level sports teams; no wonder the Saints are now firing after chasing Misson last year.
The X-factor keeping Saints on paddock
Jenny McAsey
The Australian newspaper
September 18, 2009
HE is St Kilda’s X-factor as the club tries to end a 43-year premiership drought, though he has never played an AFL game in his life. But take a look at the hardened, stable Saints team, and his fingerprints are all over it.
When fitness manager Dave Misson, 42, left the Sydney Swans to join St Kilda in late 2007, coach Ross Lyon gave him two simple goals: make the players fitter and, crucially, make sure more of them were available each week.
As the Saints prepare to play the Western Bulldogs tonight for a place in the grand final, you could say that, to this point, it is Misson accomplished.
Former Sydney player Nick Davis, now living near Melbourne, says Misson is the most underrated person at St Kilda.
“I was talking to a few Saints supporters and I pointed out that no one speaks about Misso, but he is the most important person they got last year. He has made the difference to why they’ve had such a great season,” Davis says.
“The coaches do the game plan and tactics, but Misso was super-important in everything else. He basically gets you to the game in the shape you need to be in, and the right mindset, then you just follow the coach’s instructions.”
After being held back for years by what a rival team doctor says was “soft-tissue chaos”, this season St Kilda has the competition’s best injury record.
In 2005, when the Saints bombed in the final term of the prelim and lost to the Swans, no fewer than eight senior players, including Brendon Goddard, Justin Koschitzke and Leigh Montagna, missed chunks of football due to hamstring strains.
This season, under the injury prevention system introduced by Misson in concert with his off-sider Peter Mulkearns, the club has used only 30 senior players, and 10 have managed to take the field for all 23 games.
That puts the Saints at the top of the AFL on both counts, and was pivotal to the team winning 20 of 22 home and away games.
At Sydney, club doctor Nathan Gibbs, who, along with Misson and Swans physiotherapist Matty Cameron, devised the original “training load analysis” program, is not surprised by the Saints’ healthy list. There are currently no regular senior players out injured and last night the Saints named an unchanged side to meet the Dogs.
It was a similar story at the Swans in 2005, when the club broke its 72-year premiership drought. Sydney used 32 players, and nine played every match, a cleaner record than any other club. Lyon was then a Swans assistant coach and knew how pivotal Misson’s approach was.
In the final 10 weeks of the season, Sydney made just two selection changes, and only one injury-related. The fitness program – where players’ “wellness” is monitored daily and they are not pushed to train hard if they are fatigued – was held up as a model.
“The whole concept of soft-tissue monitoring and injury prevention takes time, but if you get it right it has a huge effect, as you can see at St Kilda,” Gibbs said yesterday.
"It has taken two years, with the first year as the transition, and now they’ve got it up and running and are reaping the benefits.
"It’s all about managing training load, and day-to-day monitoring of players. You train hard and get maximum performance effect when you feel well, and train easy when you feel bad.
“It sounds simple, but if you are having a bad day, that is not the day you should be pushed at training because disaster will happen, you will tear something.”
The system has no doubt been vital for the Saints’ marquee man, captain Nick Riewoldt, who has been carrying a nagging knee injury and admitted two weeks ago it had been “managed” all year.
“Misso has taken his management philosophies with him and I’m sure some weeks, Riewoldt, if he’s feeling fine, does a lot of work,” Davis says. “If he wasn’t, he’d have a light week. That’s what it was like at our joint, and it worked.”
Gibbs stresses the program, finetuned in 2006 after the Swans medical staff visited AC Milan in Italy where injuries were cut by 90 per cent, relies on dedicated people such as Misson.
“Misso is top notch,” Gibbs says. “If you haven’t got the right people, the program won’t work. There is a fair bit of subjectiveness about it so you need honesty between players and staff. That relies on the rapport Misso has with players.”
Davis, delisted last year after a roller-coaster career, credits Misson with keeping him in the game when he struggled for fitness and motivation.
Misson was also close to Barry Hall, and helped get him in the right frame of mind to perform. Before every final in 2005, after Hall finished his stretching he would have a one-on-one boxing duel with Misson to sharpen his reflexes.
Davis says Misson’s gift is that he listens and relates well to players. “He gets their trust,” he says. "Before he came to St Kilda, they had such a good list and I think they wanted to win so desperately that they over-trained them and they broke down with hamstrings.
“He is so important to getting the Saints to a grand final.”
David Misson has moved to a new club after 4 years with St Kilda.
Demons snare Saints elite performance manager David Misson
By Mark Robinson
From:Herald Sun
September 21, 2011
High performance manager David Misson has switched clubs, from St Kilda to Melbourne. Picture: Michael Dodge Source: Herald Sun
MELBOURNE’S new elite performance manager, David Misson, did not quit the embattled Saints because good friend Ross Lyon defected to Fremantle.
Misson said yesterday he was looking for a new challenge and Lyon’s decision did not prompt him.
“Horsy (Lyon) and I had a really close relationship and it was disappointing he was going, but at the same token I was looking at a bit of change myself to be honest,” he said.
He said he did not consider following Lyon to Perth.
“My wife has a pretty good job in Melbourne (principal of Melbourne Girls’ Grammar) and my kids would never let me forget it if we moved away from Melbourne,” he said.
Misson met new Demons coach Mark Neeld for the first time yesterday, along with chief executive Cameron Schwab, and agreed to switch clubs, working in the same role as he had at St Kilda.
It’s understood the Demons first contacted Misson last week, as Lyon was quitting St Kilda to join the Dockers.
Misson’s departure came on the same day it was revealed Saints assistant coach Peter Berbakov had also quit the club, meaning three key football personnel had left within a week.
“Rossy probably summed it up when he said it was the end of an era, and maybe that put it in people’s minds that maybe it was time to look for other opportunities as well,” Misson said.
"St Kilda is a great club, it’s got some great leaders on and off the field and it’s going to survive.
"But for me it’s about a new challenge.
“Speaking with Mark Neeld, he is an impressive guy and it’s an exciting time.”
The club has announced its coaching sub-committee to replace Lyon. It doesn’t include a former AFL coach, but does have former Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson.
"It consists of chief executive Michael Nettlefold, head of football Chris Pelchen, director and past player Nathan Burke and left-field choice Clare Prideaux, a former Hockeyroo and now manager of coaching, athletic and program services for the NSW Institute of Sport.
An advisory panel consists of Johnson, Coles managing director Ian McLeod and psychologist Pippa Grange.