Q – Looking at that data you’ve collected – you said when you started at Essendon Football Club you were planning for a three year program, we’ve completed two – are we on track?
A – Yes we are on track. I wouldn’t say the year has gone as smooth as we would have thought. Some people might say we are under achievers because we lost the Grand Final. When you look at the facts in front of you with no emotion involved you’d have to say maybe we over achieved by making the Grand Final and maybe the Grand Final was a measure of the heart the players have. I think that is a great testament to them. It was a hard year – I can’t even begin to imagine that next year will be as challenging as this one. I hope not because if we can just miss out on winning the flag carrying all the baggage we had this year.
Q - What do you expect of the players between now and when they return for pre-season?
A – The expectation of the players themselves has gone up. They know what it feels like to be fit. They know what it feels like, they know what it looks like. They’ve had three to four weeks off now so they’ll be starting to do their own training. Each player has been given recommended training to do, fitness wise and strength wise. My expectation is that they would start training about now – I’m not too worried if they haven’t done much – the demands of the year are so much that they need to have a mental and physical break. They will be feeling the need to start to get back into things and start to get back into shape again. It is interesting being here in an office environment, we just over look the gym and players come in of their own accord and doing their own training. We probably had eight players in today doing their strength work and I know that other players are doing running. My expectations are that they are professional players and they’ll train according to that.
