Fitness Staff

[joffa5]

I am a long term reader of this forum and this is my first and possibly last post.

I have been reading thousands of posts about the coaches, the players, the recruiters and player development. However, there is never any mention of our fitness/conditioning staff.

I go to the majority of games in Melbourne (have most of my life since the early 80's) and watch every game on TV and I firmly believe that the majority of our troubles are due to poor conditioning or lack of fitness in the players. Our players are not fit enough to implement the game plan (perhaps the wrong game plan) and seem to run out of puff early in quarters from chasing tail. This impacts on our skill level and our ability to make the opposition chase us. They also lack strength and presence in the contest both on the ground and in the air.

To me this has been a problem since our current conditioning staff have been in place. Even when we had our down years with Scott Watters, I always felt that our guys were super fit and could run out games, but lacked maturity and experience. Now that we have the maturity and experience, we can't back it up with fitness.

I will admit that we have been better in second halves and last quarters as the season has progressed but it has been too late. I didn't particularly like our game plan and style in 2009-10 but at least we knew then that if it was close at 3/4 time nobody could go with us.

I have faith in Richo and I also think that we have some unfulfilled talent on our list. They just have to be able to get the best out of themselves and play aggressive, arrogant football . The fitness staff have to turn these players into elite footballers.

[BackFromUSA]

Agree. Some lack of fitness was due to pre-season injury e.g. Newnes, Longer, Hickey but some players were not fit enough early.

We simply have not recruited running power and current top level AFL footy is all about burst running and running in waves.

BUT I agree - we started the season well down on AFL level fitness requirements.

Needs to be addressed.

[Enrico_Misso]

Certainly hope that isn't your last post here.
Unlike 83% of posts on this site, yours actually makes sense!
... Welcome aboard.

[chico2001]

Agree Joffa 5, dont hear much about them at all.

Talked to a player or 2 who headed west a few yrs ago to a successful AFL club and they couldnt believe the difference in fitness levels, they were a fair bit off the pace to say the least. IMO if you are down a tad on ability you can make up for it with superior fitness. Every single AFL player should be as fit as the opposition players at the start of the year apart from those who have had operations over the summer.

[saintspremiers]

This is why our goal kicking is shyte when we play well around the ground against quality sides.

We are stuffed up forward and nothing left to have an accurate kick on goal.

Expect the Gresh, who has kicked 23.4

And he is AFL fit!!!

[Legendary]

In 2015, we won 12 last quarters, despite only winning 6 games for the year. Adam Basil had us supremely fit and we made a number of late comebacks in games that we ultimately lost.

Over the past three seasons, I've felt that our ability to run out games has deteriorated progressively. I'm not sure whether this is because of a gameplan that's harder for the players to implement, a younger side, or a training program that's not good enough?

Funnily enough, since Basil joined the Melbourne Storm at the end of 2015, they've played consecutive grand finals for one flag...

[parkeysainter]

I agree, it seems our fitness and conditioning isn't up to scratch (compared to some sides) at the moment and we weren't really ready in pre-season.

Its a balancing act though as we have alot of young players at the club. You can't train them like blokes that have been in the system for 5-7 years already. Alot of injuries (minor and major) haven't helped players reach the required fitness levels too.

Lethers would no doubt be looking into this side of the club also so I'm pretty sure we will see changes.

[Sanctorum]

Good point Joffa5! I watch most the Saints games on TV (living in Brisbane) and it has long been apparent that with few exceptions most players show signs of fatigue throughout the game. Just look at Jack Billings, Luke Dunstan and Blake Acres who regularly stand gasping for breath after a brief run. Paddy McCartin is another one. It really saddens me to see how quality young early draft picks come to St Kilda and become mediocre players, and that is solely due to poor fitness and conditioning training and coaching.

Lets hope that Simon Lehtlean's review results in an overhaul of this department as well, it is certainly needed!

[Wayne42]

Our Simon knows all about fitness, servicing 2 masters.

[stonecold]

Wayne Kerr!!!!!

[samuraisaint]

I am a long term reader of this forum and this is my first and possibly last post.

I have been reading thousands of posts about the coaches, the players, the recruiters and player development. However, there is never any mention of our fitness/conditioning staff.

I go to the majority of games in Melbourne (have most of my life since the early 80's) and watch every game on TV and I firmly believe that the majority of our troubles are due to poor conditioning or lack of fitness in the players. Our players are not fit enough to implement the game plan (perhaps the wrong game plan) and seem to run out of puff early in quarters from chasing tail. This impacts on our skill level and our ability to make the opposition chase us. They also lack strength and presence in the contest both on the ground and in the air.

To me this has been a problem since our current conditioning staff have been in place. Even when we had our down years with Scott Watters, I always felt that our guys were super fit and could run out games, but lacked maturity and experience. Now that we have the maturity and experience, we can't back it up with fitness.

I will admit that we have been better in second halves and last quarters as the season has progressed but it has been too late. I didn't particularly like our game plan and style in 2009-10 but at least we knew then that if it was close at 3/4 time nobody could go with us.

I have faith in Richo and I also think that we have some unfulfilled talent on our list. They just have to be able to get the best out of themselves and play aggressive, arrogant football . The fitness staff have to turn these players into elite footballers.

Long time reader first time poster. Welcome to the club Joffa.

[Linton Lodger]

Agree. Some lack of fitness was due to pre-season injury e.g. Newnes, Longer, Hickey but some players were not fit enough early.

We simply have not recruited running power and current top level AFL footy is all about burst running and running in waves.

BUT I agree - we started the season well down on AFL level fitness requirements.

Needs to be addressed.

Didn't know Hickey and Longer both had interrupted pre seasons. That may put our rucking issues into context. Maybe the situation isn't as bad as we think?