loris bertolacci

Essendon Fitness and Peter Power

Dons ‘are not fit’ – Herald Sun

I listened with interest to Peter Powers on SEN talk about fitness and Essendon Football Club

Wow.

Pete was the fitness guy in 84/85 and also 88/89/1990. He went to Collingwood for two years between.

But of course 84/85 was the VFL and there was no draft and the game was slower and the grounds were muddy and small and so on and so on. I was the strength and conditioning person at Essendon from 1987 to 1993. I went to Collingwood in 1994 and then back to Essendon till 1998.

I was there in 1988 when Peter Powers came back from Collingwood. Ann Quinn ( British Sports Science Tennis now) also was there. I also was there in 1991 when he left and Danny Corcoran ( CEO Atheltics) and my mate Oscar Kenda ( Parade Schoolteacher) teamed up with me to do fitness.

I also did a session he claimed was brutal myself given I could run Ok for an ex- hammer thrower in my early 30’s. 10*200 and 10*300 was the session and it was hard but could be done. I used to train with Franz Stampfle and even as a thrower we ran 5km before training and heaps of other running. After all Franz was the lunatic who started 100*100m in the 70’s.

I even remember sitting in Franz Stampfls hut at Melbourne University when he helped Fitzroy for fitness. Players would come in on a hot day and ask him what to do. He would take a sip and say….”100*100 metres”. HA. Out they would go and we wouldnt see them. He would say “bloody footballers” HA. And that is where the famous 100*100’s started.

What was done hard in the 80’s was the length of training ( Skills to running to weights all in one session after work in the dark). It just got slower and slower and more aerobic. I did some heart rate analysis in the early 90’s and much of this long work just became aerobic.

Things like training without drinking and huge long sessions that drained players so they were dragging themsleves around. But were they fitter? Were they mentally tougher.At the end of the day I find all this crap about the “good old days” crap. One could say that training with the Gladiators and the Spartans 1000’s of years ago was tough. You didnt get delisted. You got killed. Older coaches should just learn from history and inspire young athletes. Not bore them with how they were tougher in the good old days.

Lists were huge in the 80’s so players dropped off like flies and also there was an under 19 system which fed players in. All different to now where the system is tight and heaviloy scrutinized.

Osteitis was groin pain and players just slowed down and wore bike pants and had an operation at the end of the season. These players would get exposed now.No comparisons.

When I arrived at Essendon in February1987 I was “somewhat” unimpressed with the general levels of fitness and conditioning given I had come from athletics. In 1988 we fitness tested players in the laboratory and there was nothing outstanding. If they were so fit then why didn’t they test amazingly in maximal tests?

Things have improved. I have tested players in maximal VO2 tests at many universities, and Beeper tests and TAN Runs and Princes Park Runs and Phosphate recovery tests and 100m sprints over the last 20 years, and I hate to tell Peter that there has been huge improvements since the late 80’s.

Also old players always tell “fibs” when you ask then whatthey ran for a TAN Run. I know because I have statistics going back to they 80’s!. Raw hard data boys!

Also players ( apart from a few) were weak in the gym. Very weak . Very very much weaker than now. Players could play with 80kg bench presses in the late 80’s and get away with it due to “pointy elbows and violent knees”. Again there were exceptions.

But some players were verging on being “woosy” in strength and conditioning. Power was for the genetically gifted. Sure they might be tough and cork you and there were hard nosed country boys one would be very scared of in the mud at Windy Hill. Different game now. But bones break the same now!

But make them jump up stairs or squat with 100kgs to parallel and many would collapse under the strain. Simply many had little core strength or range of motion and just couldn’t cut the mustard.

In the preseasons of 1991/92/93 Danny Corcoran and Oscar Kenda and myself did the pre-season. Danny did fartlek and general running and Oscar did hard nosed speed endurance work and I took all the specific needs and strength and conditioning and rehabilitation. T

This was tough. IE Lactate levels through the roof doing hard and fast running…..Repeating speed at high intensity was th key on the back of some obvious base work….Jumping and bounding and power plus work. The lists of the mid 90’s with player slike Lucas and Lloyd and Hird had to do a lot of heavy fast Olypmpic Lifitng giving them a strong base. It you couldnt power clean 100kgs and run 14 beeper and break 3 secs for 20m in 1996 you were a little bit against it. Now players are leaner and better at repeating speed due to the Skills drills they do and the cross training many do.

Everyone is doing drills at breakneck speed and with short rests and with smaller number than the good old days. AAAAgghhhhhh. And so on!

So on and on we go.

Obviously pre season is critical. Geelong had a great pre season this year. Started early with all the players available and worked hard. Lots of running and lots of skills and trained 24/7.

Kangaroos did the same. Lots of repeat speed This is critical.

It is harder when you reach finals because there is usually a long injury list and operations and players have a long rest before starting again due to the CBA rules. And so on.

I would back Cameron Ling and Ryan O’Keefe and all these boys any day against the 80’s boys. I saw Steven King run low 10 min 3km in his prime. Hird would sprint and run distance and lift weights that some of the old boys would cringe at.

I think if we transplanted boys from now into the 80’s in a time capsule they would be be 100% ok and even better. But thirsty!

Matthew Lloyd has kicked heaps of goals. But he ruptured his hammy last year. It takes dancers 50 weeks to repair hams that are not ruptured and sprinters can take 16 weeks to get little hammies back to normal. He was bulked up years ago. He was that skinny in 1994 when drafted and simply bulked up non stop over a decade. Had to. Scarlett is a huge squatter in the gym. Unsubstantiated comments with no knowledge.

Players go on the KOKODA TRAIL now and have commandos take them on week long camps with little food or sleep. Their skinfolds have to be very low.

So was it tougher in the old days? Playing at Moorabin in the mud with cold showers!

Sessions were longer and less intense and weights were lifted in mediocre fashion at 9pm with players wanting to go home. So who knows.

But remember data is the key. not opinions. They are like arseholes. Everyone has one.

Peter Power did a great job in 84/85 and 1990 and is a very nice bloke.

August 8, 2007 - Posted by Loris Bertolacci | AFL