Port Adelaide Head of High performance, Stuart Graham (far left) and Head of Medical Services, Tim O’Leary (far right) with Australian Swimming Team coaches Simon Cusack, Wayne Lawes and Rohan Taylor at Alberton. Image: Matt Sampson.

THE trio who helped propel Australia’s greatest ever Olympic swim team in Tokyo visited Alberton yesterday to collaborate with Port Adelaide’s high-performance coaches.

Rohan Taylor, Head Coach of the Australian Swimming Team, was joined by State Technical Directors and Olympic team coaches Simon Cusack and Wayne Lawes.

Taylor steered the Dolphins’ history-making charge in the pool at the 2020 Summer Games, held last year, with the team winning 20 medals including a record nine gold.

Cusack is the coach of multiple Olympic and world record holders, sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell, while Lawes guides butterflier Matt Temple and 400 metre individual medley Australian record holder Brendon Smith.

The trio, whose charges have collectively won 14 Olympic medals, met with Port Adelaide’s Head of Physical Performance Stu Graham and Head of Medical Services Tim O’Leary.

Topics explored included the physiological, tactical, and technical transition from pre-season to competition; individual versus team preparation; and how to balance the need for high intensity efforts with building individual and team confidence.

"We’ve come to learn, listen, and share. We all have similar outcomes we’re after, it’s just how we go about it," Taylor said.

"Coming from a coaching perspective, it’s about how do we, in our sport, better implement coaching expertise to help enhance the coaching capacity and help enhance the athlete?

"Maybe they have solutions to things that we are looking for in relation to that performance support integration with the performance on the ground and working with the coaches."

Taylor said he admired Port Adelaide’s focus on monitoring performance resilience and athlete wellbeing.

"Absolutely, I think there are some things that we can take away that can help our athletes be better prepared when they compete," he said.

Cusack said there were more commonalities than people would think between swimming and football.

"All elite sports require a transition from pre-season or base training through to peaking and there are quite a few similarities around the intricacies with that," he said.

"Swimming has now gone to a hub model where we’ve got a number of hubs around the country so it will be interesting for us to learn from the AFL. The big clubs have been their own hubs for many years now, so how they use their support staff has been an interesting part of the conversation here."

Lawes said the way Port Adelaide monitored their playing group was of particular interest.

"It’s gaining new insights you can use - a little box of tricks - just by talking to other people who are at an elite level," he said.

"It’s really interesting listening to how they are monitoring athletes individually to get the best out of them when they are playing contact sport week in week out over 25 weeks."

Cusack and Lawes will return to Port Adelaide tomorrow for more reflection with the workshop participants.

The Australian Championships will be held in Adelaide from May 17-22. The meet will double as the selection trials for the FINA World Championships, Commonwealth Games and World University Games.