Just like Australia’s military personnel, they’re young, fit, committed and rely on practice and team-work. But on the eve of Anzac Day, Port Adelaide’s footballers received an amazing insight into the life of the modern soldier - as real as it can be away from the reality of a combat zone.
The Power squad spent Tuesday at the state-of-the-art barracks of 7 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, which relocated from Darwin to to Edinburgh in Adelaide’s north early in 2011.
The entire football department headed from Alberton to the base as part of Port Adelaide’s Defence Recognition Month, which has included the presentation of the Peter Badcoe VC Medal in the Round 3 game against Sydney.
The players prepared for training and held their line-meetings in a soldiers' mess, before running with the infantrymen to the base oval where carried out their skills drills. That was followed by a stretching session in the newly-built indoor gym before a weights workout alongside serving personnel and - for some - laps in the Edinburgh pool.
But most valuable to the players was the interaction with the soldiers, many of whom have seen action during the war in Afghanistan and are preparing for their next tour.
Even at just 19, Port Adelaide’s rookie-listed ruckman Mitch Curnow is older than the battalion’s youngest recruits.
“Looking around and seeing the faces - they’re the same age as me or maybe even a bit younger,” Curnow said.
“So just looking at that and thinking wow they’re going off to war and putting their lives at risk makes you think you’ve got it pretty easy as an AFL footballer.”
The players had the privilege of a hands-on experience at the barracks, driven around the base in 7RAR’s M113 armoured personnel carriers.
Accustomed to target practice in the form of hitting team-mates or aiming for goal, the players traded footballs for firearms - firstly in Edinburgh’s high-tech laser simulator and later in the firing range, using the Australian Defence Force standard issue Steyr rifles.
7 RAR commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mick Garraway, said his soldiers and the Port Adelaide footballers could learn from one another.
“I think there are a lot of similarities,” Lt Col Garraway said. “Obviously, we’re not in elite sport, but the challenges our blokes have in life are the same that young footballers have in life as well.
“In our training we go through cycles. We have peaks and troughs just like footballers do and we always have the requirement to go back to basics and practice basic individual skills, small team skills and also the large collective stuff so there’s a lot of similarities in what we do as an infantry battalion, individually through to collectively, that are very, very similar to the challenges you have as a football club.”
Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus thanked the Army for hosting the club.
“Hopefully our players in talking to these guys here will see some similarities between what your guys and doing and what we’re doing, even though what you’re doing … has got a bit to do with life and death more so than us of winning and losing,” Primus told the members of 7 RAR as they shared lunch with their visitors.
“But there are some similarities how you go about training and how you prepare your soldiers and how we’re tyring to prepare our athletes week in and week out .”
Curnow said the day heightened his appreciation for the freedom Australians enjoy thanks to the commitment of past and present servicemen and women.
“They go to work every day and train to fight and sacrifice their lives, where as we go to work every day to play football,” Curnow said.
“So it’s a bit of a comparison … and it really makes you respect them.”
The Port Adelaide Football Club will continue to build its relationship with the Australian Defence Force and thanks the soldiers of 7 RAR for accommodating its players and officials, and providing such a meaningful interaction in the lead-up to Anzac Day.
