PORT ADELAIDE vice-captain Ollie Wines has described how he fell asleep on the couch like a first-year draftee during the club’s “camp week”.
Players have increased their workload and taken part in team building activities this week, making up for the usual pre-season interstate camp that the club holds.
On Monday, senior assistant coach Michael Voss said it would be the heaviest week of training for the season and Wines told portadelaidefc.com.au that it certainly has been testing, and not just for the young players.
“I was actually in the sauna talking to one of the older guys in Boaky (Travis Boak) and he was telling me he was falling asleep on the couch last night and I was exactly the same,” he said.
“At about four or five o’clock I was pretty knackered.
“It has been a big week for us but we know it’s so important for setting up our year and it’s been really beneficial for us.
“Our camp over the past few seasons has been a really important part of our pre-season, not just the work that we get out of it, but the connection spending so much time together and building that connection off the field that then flows on it.”
If there has been one positive for the players it is that because the camp has come later in the pre-season, after the Christmas break, and because players returned in good condition, there have been more football drills and match play incorporated into the programme.
“It certainly makes the running easier when you’re doing it in a bigger drill or match simulation,” Wines said.
“As much game play as we can get this time of year is really beneficial.
“This week we’ve been able to make the most of that and get a lot of good quarters of match play in and match simulation.”
But it has not been all about hard work, with team building activities also a focus to ensure the new players have settled in and the group remains connected.
One of the activities was a backyard cricket event on Wednesday afternoon where players were spread into three teams representing the club’s joint major partners GFG, MG and KFC and coaches made up a fourth team representing the coaches’ partner Tyrepower.
“I was a part of the GFG Steelers and we weren’t really crash hot at cricket,” Wines joked.
“But the boys had a lot of fun and I think the MG Marvels got up in the end, led by Hamish Hartlett who still bangs on about being a state cricketer or something.
“They were probably due to win. I tell them tennis is my sport so once we get the tennis going that’s when I’ll come out.”
Players will now enjoy four days off before returning to prepare for the club’s intra-club match next weekend.
