GVGjr
24-02-2007, 12:26 AM
Dogs rush to add even more pace (http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2007/02/23/1171734022804.html)
Samantha Lane
February 24, 2007
As they take the field today at Canberra's Manuka Oval, the Western Bulldogs, like 15 other teams, are saying they will be stronger, harder, wiser, meaner, hungrier, faster.
Hang on — faster? Surely not.
Preposterous. Outlandish. Impossible. Apparently, we'd better believe it. Last year, you'd blink and miss them, but the word is that, when watching Melbourne's team of the west this year, it could be inadvisable to close one's eyes at all.
It was the second week of September when Rodney Eade's side was ruthlessly ejected from its first finals campaign in six years by eventual premier West Coast.
It was an ugly ending to a rather beautiful season during which Eade magically directed a brigade of small forwards to rewrite the law about the supremacy of the key forward. All year, the Dogs were roundly lauded for their fleetness of foot and dexterity.
Of many boxes to be checked off, pace was one that surely deserved double ticks and a stamp. However, as Eade set about his initial preparations for 2007, which required — urgently — the appointment of a new head conditioning coach, a suggestion was made to him that defied belief — his Dogs should be quicker.
It was Cameron Falloon, who has worked with soccer clubs in Victoria and Britain, and who had begun directing Geelong through its next pre-season, who said it.
The Bulldogs had sought out Falloon and, after a short period of deliberation (on Falloon's behalf), he had taken up office at Whitten Oval.
Now, after almost four months of sweating in sunshine, the AFL's speediest team is even speedier.
On Wednesday, in the lead-up to today's match with Sydney, the Dogs' main training session looked like a workout designed for track-and-field athletes who happened to work with footballs.
It was punchy, intense and diligently carried out by a team that, at times, resembled a circus troupe practising tricks. Towards the end of the session, there were as many as eight groups meticulously honing at least eight different areas of their bodies.
Some Bulldogs stood on balancing circles on one leg; others lifted long metal poles. Any number of stretch, lunge and jumping combinations were being executed.
Falloon spent the early part of Thursday morning writing tailored weights programs for each of the 42 team members in Canberra for the club's community camp (the injured Adam Cooney and Luke Darcy stayed at home).
"We're a very good running side, but the focus for us is actually to get quicker. And to become more powerful," Falloon said this week.
"The guys have been through, unfortunately, a lot of transition with fitness over a few years. Five years ago, they weren't doing leg weights at the club.
"In the past, they've done a lot of endurance running, like lots of one-kilometre time-trials and 400s and three-kilometre time-trials … but when you run long distances, you tend to get in a real rhythm, and a lot of the work's happening in the front side of your body. You can over-stride and you're not using your glutes and hamstrings as much."
That's where the real power comes from and, apparently, where it was lacking in the Dogs of 2006.
Eade says he hasn't watched the West Coast semi-final but the deficiencies of his side were blatant enough that night at Subiaco five months ago. "The size of our bodies," the coach reflected from a sunny Canberra hotel room this week. "We were underdeveloped compared to the rest of the competition.
"I think that was shown in the wet in Perth, and that's fine. That was always going to catch us out at some stage.
"Hopefully, with increased size, we can be better body players in tight, better at stoppages.
"There was the lack of height, too, but that's something that we can live with, I think. And I think we've proved that. I don't think you necessarily have to have height, but you certainly need body strength."
It was a weakness Geelong had identified in the Dogs. Having gone down to the Bulldogs by one point in round four, the Cats later pipped them by a point, in round 16, in their second contest at Telstra Dome.
Farren Ray and Ryan Griffen, who were part of the team that was flicked aside in Perth, are two that have benefited most from the new regimen.
"Our guys are very good on the fly, very good when they're up and running and the ball's heading in the right direction. But when we make the transition from offence to defence, or from a stoppage to explode out of a pack like a Cousins, they just didn't have that type of base in them," Falloon said.
"You look at the best sides and the hardest runners, like Cousins, who's been in the system for six or seven years now. He's got such a durable body."
Cooney and Griffen aren't Brownlow medallists yet, and it may be a year or two before the Dogs seriously challenge for a flag. But sure as anything, they're charging up.
Samantha Lane
February 24, 2007
As they take the field today at Canberra's Manuka Oval, the Western Bulldogs, like 15 other teams, are saying they will be stronger, harder, wiser, meaner, hungrier, faster.
Hang on — faster? Surely not.
Preposterous. Outlandish. Impossible. Apparently, we'd better believe it. Last year, you'd blink and miss them, but the word is that, when watching Melbourne's team of the west this year, it could be inadvisable to close one's eyes at all.
It was the second week of September when Rodney Eade's side was ruthlessly ejected from its first finals campaign in six years by eventual premier West Coast.
It was an ugly ending to a rather beautiful season during which Eade magically directed a brigade of small forwards to rewrite the law about the supremacy of the key forward. All year, the Dogs were roundly lauded for their fleetness of foot and dexterity.
Of many boxes to be checked off, pace was one that surely deserved double ticks and a stamp. However, as Eade set about his initial preparations for 2007, which required — urgently — the appointment of a new head conditioning coach, a suggestion was made to him that defied belief — his Dogs should be quicker.
It was Cameron Falloon, who has worked with soccer clubs in Victoria and Britain, and who had begun directing Geelong through its next pre-season, who said it.
The Bulldogs had sought out Falloon and, after a short period of deliberation (on Falloon's behalf), he had taken up office at Whitten Oval.
Now, after almost four months of sweating in sunshine, the AFL's speediest team is even speedier.
On Wednesday, in the lead-up to today's match with Sydney, the Dogs' main training session looked like a workout designed for track-and-field athletes who happened to work with footballs.
It was punchy, intense and diligently carried out by a team that, at times, resembled a circus troupe practising tricks. Towards the end of the session, there were as many as eight groups meticulously honing at least eight different areas of their bodies.
Some Bulldogs stood on balancing circles on one leg; others lifted long metal poles. Any number of stretch, lunge and jumping combinations were being executed.
Falloon spent the early part of Thursday morning writing tailored weights programs for each of the 42 team members in Canberra for the club's community camp (the injured Adam Cooney and Luke Darcy stayed at home).
"We're a very good running side, but the focus for us is actually to get quicker. And to become more powerful," Falloon said this week.
"The guys have been through, unfortunately, a lot of transition with fitness over a few years. Five years ago, they weren't doing leg weights at the club.
"In the past, they've done a lot of endurance running, like lots of one-kilometre time-trials and 400s and three-kilometre time-trials … but when you run long distances, you tend to get in a real rhythm, and a lot of the work's happening in the front side of your body. You can over-stride and you're not using your glutes and hamstrings as much."
That's where the real power comes from and, apparently, where it was lacking in the Dogs of 2006.
Eade says he hasn't watched the West Coast semi-final but the deficiencies of his side were blatant enough that night at Subiaco five months ago. "The size of our bodies," the coach reflected from a sunny Canberra hotel room this week. "We were underdeveloped compared to the rest of the competition.
"I think that was shown in the wet in Perth, and that's fine. That was always going to catch us out at some stage.
"Hopefully, with increased size, we can be better body players in tight, better at stoppages.
"There was the lack of height, too, but that's something that we can live with, I think. And I think we've proved that. I don't think you necessarily have to have height, but you certainly need body strength."
It was a weakness Geelong had identified in the Dogs. Having gone down to the Bulldogs by one point in round four, the Cats later pipped them by a point, in round 16, in their second contest at Telstra Dome.
Farren Ray and Ryan Griffen, who were part of the team that was flicked aside in Perth, are two that have benefited most from the new regimen.
"Our guys are very good on the fly, very good when they're up and running and the ball's heading in the right direction. But when we make the transition from offence to defence, or from a stoppage to explode out of a pack like a Cousins, they just didn't have that type of base in them," Falloon said.
"You look at the best sides and the hardest runners, like Cousins, who's been in the system for six or seven years now. He's got such a durable body."
Cooney and Griffen aren't Brownlow medallists yet, and it may be a year or two before the Dogs seriously challenge for a flag. But sure as anything, they're charging up.