Matthew Agius: Let’s get the ball rolling with a simple one. How will the upcoming pre-season differ to last year’s in terms of the way you work with the entire list and perhaps your overall strategy for the summer?
Darren Burgess: The positive is that the guys have already had one pre-season doing this type of training. That’s a good starting point because they’ll know what to expect and will have built up more durability compared to this time last year. The negative is that we’re probably three to four weeks behind where we were last year in terms of the time available for training. So that means there’s a little bit more importance on each session and we need to make sure each session counts. The content of pre-season won’t be drastically different - we might tweak things here or there – but overall it will be a similar sort of thing to last season.
MA: People say two days makes a lot of difference in terms of the break between games during the season, so does that mean starting pre-season three to four weeks behind your opposition sets you back just as much, if not more?
DB: Yeah, it is significant and there’s five other teams in that boat. We feel like we got a jump on some teams last year because we came back to training early and had a really good start to pre-season. We also went to London and Milan quite early. What it means is that we need to manage our guys as best we can and keep that in mind. It’s one of the consequences of having a good season, but you’d take it every year if it means you get to play in September.
MA: Is that why so many players have come in to start some training off their own bat?
DB: Yeah it is, and as you say the boys have come in off their own bat to work in the gym or run on the track. They’ve been around the place a lot and working pretty hard so I’m expecting they’ll present themselves pretty well on Monday when we start.
MA: In terms of the heat, it’s been your mantra that we need heat more than altitude training to find an edge. Going to Dubai at this time of year means the players will get those high temperatures much earlier than in 2013, does that change things at all in terms of the way you approach pre-season and manage the group?
DB: We’ll be able to get a lightly larger volume of training in during that time [in Dubai] because of the camp environment. The players are together 24/7. We think it’s the way to go both from a training point of view and a practicality point of view. We’re excited about that. The real benefit of a training camp like this is not only the opportunity to train in the heat longer but also the benefits that come from having our whole group together and we'll be able to manage them as individuals throughout the whole program.
MA: You’ve said the players should expect a similar program to last year’s, but is there anything up your sleeve that will be different?
DB: There’s a few things I’ve got in mind, but we’ve also brought in Phil Walsh and a guy with his experience will have a few ideas of his own which we’ll listen to and implement. From a fitness training point of view it’s going to be pretty similar to last year and it will simply be a matter of seeing what each individual player can do and how we can get the most out of them. Without going into specifics, players should expect something pretty similar.
MA: Last year Port Adelaide’s trademark was its ability to come from behind in tight games and, more generally, run games out very well. Now that the rest of the competition is aware of that good fitness base, do you try to maintain that ability or somehow work to enhance it?
DB: When we came in last year we had a three-year plan to build some really good, solid durability into these players so we’re a third of the way there if you want to look at it that way. Hopefully the players also have the belief that they can 'come back' as a team. You don’t want to rely on it, and a lot of things go into coming from behind that aren’t necessarily fitness. I certainly hope that the boys realise this pre-season is going to be another hard one and will help them get on the way to being a really elite, running team.
MA: You mention durability. Port Adelaide had the third youngest list in the competition last year and on that basis alone you would probably expect them to blow up at some point, but they kept going and managed to show some of their best running work right through to the semi final. Even though you’re a third of the way through that fitness development, is that possibly a sign that their durability is ahead of where you would have originally expected it to be at this stage?
DB: Yeah it’s a really good sign for their physical durability, but also for their mental durability and their desire; I don’t think we can discount that at all. Certainly their durability was good last year, but over and above that their commitment and desire to win and never give up was right up there. It’s a good sign and probably helped them to push right through the season. It’s the most exciting part of working with this group.
MA: The Magpies group will start training next week as well with quite a few players vying to be part of the League or Academy lists. Do you have any involvement with their program at all?
DB: Absolutely, I’ve worked pretty closely with their fitness coordinator Greg King in designing their programs and making sure their pre-season program will be similar to the AFL list. We’ll train together once a week so that they’ll be able to gauge themselves against our main group and vice versa. It’s great to have the whole club under one umbrella and training together.
MA: So for all intents and purposes and from at least a fitness perspective, the League pool will have players in it who are at the same physical standards as the AFL list?
DB: That’s the plan and we’ll certainly put them through a tough pre-season and they know that. It’s probably an exciting thing for those Magpies guys to know they’re going to be put through an AFL pre-season.
Port Adelaide's 1-4 year AFL players will commence their pre-season training on Monday, while an invite-only group of candidates will commence pre-season training for the club's SANFL teams later in the day.
Stay tuned to portadelaidefc.com.au's special Summer Campaign coverage throughout the summer as we detail all the news, views and insights from the second pre-season under Ken Hinkley and Darren Burgess.
