PORT ADELAIDE has welcomed a host of new faces through the trade period and drafts. One of those is Josh Sinn, who was claimed with pick 12 of the NAB AFL National Draft last month.

In the third post of his draftee diary, Sinn gives an insight into living with a Brownlow Medallist, the punishing camp week at training and his plans for the Christmas break.

It’s pretty surreal to move in with a Brownlow Medallist. I moved in with Ollie (Wines) after my first week in Adelaide and he’s been really welcoming and he’s embraced having a new kid in the house. He’s taking me everywhere because I don’t have a car at the moment so he’s become an Uber driver as well.

Through Ollie I’ve gotten to know Housto (Dan Houston) and Cluz (Tom Clurey) better - people who I might not have had a lot of time with otherwise and that has helped broaden the connection I have with different guys at the club.

I was pretty eager to see Wal’s (Ollie’s) medal but I didn’t ask to see it because I didn’t want to seem weird or anything but he brought it out when we went and had a hit of tennis, which was pretty cool. I took a few photos with it in the car so it’s definitely in the memory bank.

Wal can definitely play tennis. I’m horrible at it. All I can do is serve. It was on our day off so it was just a bit of fun and something to do.

Generally, around the house we give each other a bit of space but we have been watching some cricket with the Ashes and the Big Bash on. His partner Liv has also been in and out of the house and she’s lovely so it’s worked out pretty well.

Camp week at Alberton

When I heard about camp week, I instantly thought it would be a week of hell. It delivered some of that but I thought it was actually pretty cool to be together so much and training so much. It’s how you get to know each other really well and helping push each other along.

Doing two or three sessions a day, it’s been a really solid week in terms of the kilometres we’ve covered and the load in our legs. But it was also mixed in with a bit of fun.

They’ve divided us into different teams so we’ve got a few challenges where they’re keeping tallies of our points. We’ll stay in those teams throughout the pre-season and continue to compete against each other. One was changing the tyres on some MGs and I don’t think any of us went very well.

Paintball was good fun on Thursday. I’ve never played before but I think I’ll definitely play again. It’s not fun getting shot but it’s definitely fun doing the shooting. I’ve got a few welts on my arms but I think I was lucky that I am pretty thin and could hide pretty well in the trees.

The beach session was probably the hardest because we’d had a full training session in the morning on the track and a gym session over lunch then went out to the Snake Pit. As a supporter growing up you see things on social media where clubs are doing beach sessions and it never looked like fun. It was definitely pretty painful for a couple of hours but I think it brought the group closer together because we got through it together.

We were all encouraging each other, even right at the end going up sand dunes holding bricks. It was my first beach session but I’m sure there’ll be more to come.

Wal and I were joking in the car on the way to the beach saying that we wanted to go with Jase Burgoyne for the contest stuff but we didn’t really get a choice. I was just lucky to be standing right by him at the time we picked partners. Jase is pretty slim so it was a good choice for the grappling exercises. I was smiling at the time but it was a good battle and we helped each other throughout the whole thing. The Slim Reaper does have some pretty sharp elbows though so when we were wrestling with the footies there were a few elbows thrown, but it was all in good spirits and copping a few blows is all part of it.

Heading into the Christmas break

The body is pretty cooked now. I’ve gone from no footy last year to minimal footy this year with minimal training and now into three weeks of full-on pre-season training, pretty much backing up every single day. It’s been quite challenging but it’s really rewarding to know I’ve had such a solid three-week block that I can keep building on into next year.

I’ll head up to Queensland for about a week to see Mum’s family now and then come back to Victoria and spend some time on the beach at Sorrento. I’ll drive back to Adelaide after that and head in to live with my host family.

I met (host) Rocket the other night and he seems like a ripping fella. I know a few of the boys have gone through his house. Hayesy (Sam Hayes), Miles (Bergman), X (Xavier Duursma) and maybe Dyl Williams stayed there too. It’s also pretty cool to think my best mate’s dad used to live with Rocket back in Melbourne, so we’ve already created a bit of a connection there. It’s a small world.

I’m excited to go see my family but at the same time looking forward to getting back to the club.