Young gun Andrew McGrath says gaining a deeper understanding of his teammates off the field is a key goal for the club’s ongoing pre-season training camp in Coffs Harbour.
Now into the third day of the five-day camp, McGrath says the rare opportunity to genuinely bond with his fellow Bombers on a 24-hour basis has already proven beneficial.
“It’s nice to get out of your comfort zone a little bit and spend every minute of every day with your teammates and really get to know what they’re like outside of football,” McGrath told SEN on Tuesday.
“We came up on Sunday, so five days is plenty for us, we get a good fix of each other and we have a four-day break post this camp. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of days and it’s been a good start so far.”
The Dons wasted no time on Tuesday, waking bright and early to endure a tough morning session on the beach.
And while challenging physical training remains important on the camp, McGrath said it is now crucial to balance it out with meaningful off-field sessions.
“We were up pretty early this morning and crunched out a little session on the beach, which was beautiful and challenging at the same time.
“Yesterday was mainly a football day, so it was a normal footy operations day – we did our session, weights and massages.
“This afternoon we’ve got a whole range of meetings to hopefully break down a few barriers between players and really get to know each other on a deeper level, which is the ideal outcome of these sort of camps.
“Just spending 24 hours with your teammates is something that you never really get to do. It’s a good challenge for us, to just focus on each other for five days and really get the most out of it.”
With little more than a month remaining before Essendon’s return to the field in the Marsh Community Series, McGrath said the Bombers can display a more recognisable and consistent brand of play in 2020.
“You’ll see a lot more consistent football from us, I think our brand will stand up a little bit better and more consistently,” he said.
“We’re big at the moment on just improving every day and working on our system and our team defence, and I think we’ve really made a lot of inroads in that area.”
The Dons’ first pre-season clash is against West Coast on Thursday, February 27 at Mineral Resources Park in Perth before they take on Geelong at Central Reserve in Colac on Monday, March 9.
