It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here for over a week. Time flies when you’re having fun doing plenty of hard work!
Today we had a scheduled half day of training in an attempt to manage fatigue after a gruelling seven consecutive days of work so far.
As a result we were given the morning off and a few of us headed for a promotional photo opportunity at the world famous Atlantis Hotel.
Think of the most opulent, luxurious place on earth and then times it by 100 and you’d have the Atlantis. This is a seriously magnificent hotel and a far cry from our Holiday Inn in down town Al Barsha. Not that we don’t love the Holiday Inn. The service here has been absolutely magnificent.
Anyway back to the Atlantis Hotel for the moment. The Atlantis is built on a manmade island and is situated within the Arabian Sea. To get there you have to travel via an underwater tunnel which is spectacular in itself.
Once at the Atlantis we were kindly taken on a guided tour through to its own private beach. It was here where the boys posed for a few initial shots kicking the Sherrin around to the amazement of the hotel guests.
Westy re-enacted his famous checkside goal against Geelong in the semi-final at the MCG when he calmly slotted one through a minute gap between two palm trees.
But the big moment was still to come. With the cameras clicking Schulzy had an opportunity to kick a drop punt through the famous arches built into the structure of the hotel. And he did not disappoint. Whether anywhere in Australia or Dubai Schulzy does not miss and with pin-point accuracy he slotted the ball straight through the arches. Fortunately our media manager Daniel Norton snapped a shot on his mobile phone that has captured the moment forever.
Once we had finished having a kick down by the beach we were then fortunate enough to be given a private tour of the Royal Suite. At $25,000 Australian per night this suite has been rented by people such as the local Sheiks to Michael Jordan to the Kardashians. It is a sight to behold. Ten bedrooms, marble floors, multiple spas, a private bar, grand dining room, massage room, a $45,000 television and a vast balcony on one side looking over to the city skyline with another massive balcony over the other side providing infinite views of the Arabian Sea.
It was a truly amazing experience and we thank the kind staff at the Atlantis for their generosity.
Soon after we were quickly back to reality and on our way to the Dubai Sports City for a gruelling afternoon of running from 2.00pm. It was to be a day when no footy boots would be required because we would simply be doing running, running and more running.
We started with our usual yo-yo running exercise as a warm-up indoors after which we headed outside for a couple hours of running. Put simply, we broke into our teams and ran relays all afternoon competing against other teams for points toward our overall team competition. The winner of this competition will be revealed on our final day tomorrow.
The highlight of the day was an incredible one kilometre match-race in two between the two Kanes – Mitchell and Cornes. By pure coincidence these two found themselves pitted against each other in the final leg of the relay.
Mitchell had about a four metre start on Cornes due to the order of the relay. Quickly Cornes pushed hard and within 200 metres had gained the ground on Mitchell and was sitting on his shoulder. At this point Mitchell pushed hard and pulled away again to lead by about two metres at the 400 metre mark. Cornes then pushed again and fought back to just nudge in front of Mitchell after 600 metres. But Mitchell wouldn’t lie down and he kicked again and put in an astonishing next 200 metres to lead by three metres with 200 metres to go. This was a battle royal. The battle between Cornes and Mitchell was not dissimilar to the epic contests from yesteryear between John Landy and Herb Elliot.
So we were down to the last 200 metres. Mitchell was on the verge of having a small win on the running track against his nemesis Cornes. But Cornes wasn’t about to surrender. With every player and coach cheering the two on Mitchell turned for home with 100 metres to go with a metre lead but with Cornes breathing down as neck every step of the way. Both were going stride for stride for the next 50 metres. Then, with nothing left in the tank, the old wily veteran Cornes found something to draw level with Mitchell with twenty metres remaining. And with one last effort Cornes willed his way in front and hung on to beat Mitchell by a foot.
The whole group absolutely loved it and it was so inspiring to see both players not give an inch after eight days of consecutive training. Cornes, who himself has admitted to feeling fatigued over the last 48 hours, just found something extra and it is this sort of effort that inspires the younger players to follow and makes Kane such a champion of our club for the way he goes about his training.
After a light run and stretch we headed back to the hotel for recovery at the team hotel at 5.00pm.
With the night free a group of players decided to head to the Dubai Mall – the world’s biggest mall – and a trip up the Burj Khalifa, the highest building in the world.
I’m not one for heights so I was a little toey when we heard we were heading up to the 124th floor, some 800 metres in the air. It took the lift less than a minute and suddenly we arrived at the observation deck. We were so high that our ears started to get blocked in the same way as they do on an aeroplane. We were literally up with the clouds and my legs were feeling a little jelly-like. You know when you hover close to the edge and your hamstrings and glutes tighten up into a spasm. As you can see I was a touch nervy early but I settled soon after and took in the magnificent panoramic views of Dubai at night. Just to make sure we had every base covered on this camp Dom jumped down for 10 push ups before we left so that the old warrior could say he did some altitude training as well.
Soon after we caught the lift back downstairs in record time and I was quite relieved when the feet hit terra firma. On the way out of the Dubai Mall we stopped to check out their highly acclaimed water fountain feature. It happens on the hour every hour for four minutes and hundreds and hundreds of people line this vast waterway to watch a truly spectacular fountain display synced with music. The only way to describe it is like fireworks but with water. It was well worth stopping to see.
Speaking of fireworks, on our bus trip down the freeway back to our hotel we were treated to a spectacular fireworks display from the top of the Burj Al Arab hotel to celebrate national day for the UAE.
By 9.00pm we arrived back at our hotel and totally exhausted I was up to my room getting ready for a good night’s sleep.
Tomorrow, our final and ninth training day straight, is a full day and will incorporate plenty more running, skills and gym along with a cross bar kicking challenge where each player and coach will represent a randomly selected member and have one kick to hit the cross bar from 25 metres to win that member a signed guernsey.
Be sure to check out portadelaidefc.com.au for a full wrap of the crossbar kicking challenge as well as the final instalment of my diary.
Cheers
Jasper
