7:30 am
I enter the Mess Hall for breakfast and am greeted by midfield development coach Aaron Greaves.
“A bit jumpy last night?” he says to me with a grin.
Midfield coach Brian ‘Choco’ Royal also walks past and says g’day with a chuckle.
I soon learn that the loud clacking noise across the steel mesh window last night - when a group walked past my room - was made by a member from the esteemed coaching panel, minus the coach, of course!
As I recall, yes, I did jump - somewhat - out of my socks, when I was tapping away on my laptop writing Saturday’s diary, but it was simply to answer the door and say g’day. Not to startle the absolute - you know what - out of me!
When the incident occurred, it was pitch black and the coaches had walked past. And given my room was the last one in a certain row in ‘Tin City’ (that’s genuinely the name of the accommodation we are staying in) - the coaches were able to dart off around the corner into the night.
Naturally, chuckling was heard, following the incident.
8 am
The bus departs for Gardens Oval, another picturesque ground in the Top End.
It’s used for NTFL matches, but has also had international women’s cricket played there.
Once preparation for the training session has been done, director of sports performance Neil Craig takes the first drill, which focuses on accountability.
It’s fascinating to see Craig in head coach-like mode again. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Craig holds the record for the most games coached at Adelaide (157) and finished with a 55 per cent winning record - bettered only by Brenton Sanderson in his first season this year. He also guided the Crows to five consecutive finals series.
It’s a real insight watching all of the club’s coaches address the players with their drills and perspectives on the game.
Neeld gives his coaching staff genuine ownership of their particular focuses and areas. And it’s impressive to watch.
A transition drill, game-style kick and running exercises at the end of the session are also part of today’s training, which lasts - with hydration breaks - for roughly, 80 minutes.
Video guru Jack McCowan follows Mark Neeld around the field and mics up the coach for DeeTV.
During the session, GPS load analyst Katy Mouritz monitors the incoming data from the players. A mountain of information is provided, among it, the distance run by players, a breakdown of speed zones and work rate.
“After a shock to the system on Monday, the GPS results are definitely up today,” she says.
For example, Daniel Nicholson, Tom McDonald and Nathan Jones are thriving in the heat.
The aggression shown in the drills and skills seem to have lifted a notch from Friday’s training session at Palmerston.
And there are some fine individual displays too.
Jeremy Howe’s diving smother on Sam Blease is a super effort. It’s unconditional - a theme strongly pushed by the coaching staff.
Aaron Davey’s chase and run down on McDonald, after the big man initially broke clear from ‘Flash’, was an indication of the fleet-footed veteran’s desire not to give up. Still, McDonald can seriously run for a player of his size.
In the final running drill, I focus on Nicholson for several minutes. His hustle and determination is there for all to see. His tank gives him the opportunity to be a genuine competitor, but his work-ethic confirms it.
Mouritz says about Nicholson: “He always goes in hard. He’s an excellent runner.”
During the session, a die-hard Melbourne supporter, Corey Patten, who is originally from Tasmania and has since resided in the Northern Territory for the past eight years, watches training with delight.
He’s rapt to see the Dees in action and eager to talk and mingle with a few of the players afterwards, including Melbourne’s first pick in this year’s NAB AFL Draft: Jimmy Toumpas.
At the conclusion of training, players are relieved to have a break. But there is also plenty of positive talk emanating.
Howe gives an adamant response when he leaves the field, bashing his boots together, to rid the grass from the soles.
“Another one bites the dust,” he says.
New Demon David Rodan says the session is tough because of the full ground and accountability drills in the heat and humidity.
“The heat makes it very hard, but the boys did really well,” he says.
“For the new boys - the first year players - it was the first time they had got out and trained with the whole group. They really impressed.
“They obviously struggled a little bit later on, as the heat got a hold of them, but they showed themselves, and the group, that they deserved to be out here.”
Neeld is also pleased with the result, calling it a “good” session.
“Today was centered on decision-making - [for example, what we do] with and without the ball. They are game-like activities. What we try and do is replicate game-like intensity, and decisions that need to be made,” he says.
“At times, we overload the defence and offence, which gets the players to work even harder. Cleary due to the conditions up here, with the heat and humidity, we altered the timing with a couple of extra breaks.”
“One drill was an offence drill, with not a huge amount of decision-making, but a little bit more ball movement. Again, what we did was extend that drill in the [hot and humid] conditions, so we could really get as much out of it as possible.”
11:30 am
We depart for Robertson Barracks, but something is not quite right.
One of the mini buses - which would have plenty of leg room, given it’s not at capacity - has left a tad early. It leaves about half-a-dozen people without transportation back to the army base.
In the meantime, the last mini-bus, which includes Neeld, Jack Watts and James Frawley, plus a handful of staff, is about to leave Gardens Oval.
Alerted to the fact that several people are about to be left behind, Neeld quickly gets on the phone, as does Watts and a few others, eagerly trying to tell the said mini-bus to come back to the ground.
Sure enough, all is soon sorted.
The mini-bus that disappeared then reappears and collects the remaining players and staff.
After a few gags and light-hearted cracks at the coach in question, all is back on track - or, at least the few people that were in limbo, are now on the bus!
12 pm
Lunch and sleep are among the activities for the players upon arrival back at Robertson Barracks. These take up the next two hours before a team meeting is held at 2pm.
2 pm
The players and coaching staff congregate at the Rowell Centre, which is a briefing and lecture theatre.
Firstly, Dr Dan Bates reinforces the health and safety aspects of training and living in heat and humidity, before Neeld drives home some messages to his players.
Neeld’s address is clear, concise and straight to the point.
No one is left in any doubt as to what his message is - and it’s all about unconditional traits for his squad. That includes in environments such as the one we’re experiencing now.
It’s great fly on the wall stuff. Believe me, only a pin drop would’ve been heard.
Neeld also addresses the leadership voting process, which will be conducted late in the camp.
But details of the 2013 leadership group won’t emerge until probably mid to late January.
Neeld says that this year’s group made strong headway, given its relative youth and inexperience. And he is adamant it will continue to build next year and beyond.
2:30 pm
For the rest of the afternoon, the players are involved in massages, treatments, divisional meetings and weights.
For several members of the coaching and football department - plus a handful of admin types - it’s an opportune time to have a quick break and dip in the pool.
By mid-afternoon, the conditions seemed to have fluctuated a bit. Or maybe I was just heat affected! Either way, there was instant relief by cooling off in the pool.
What was also shown in the pool was that Neeld, Craig, football manager Josh Mahoney, forward line development coach Paul Satterley, strategic relationship manager Tom Parker and McCowan were all strong swimmers - for non-Olympic participants!
They all managed to swim more than half-way under water without coming up for air. McCowan took the honours, but they were all pretty impressive.
6pm
Chief executive Cameron Schwab arrives in Darwin from Melbourne roughly 15 minutes before being treated to the Mess Hall dinner. Again the food was top notch and well earned!
Schwab is up for one night with the team.
After dinner, the coaches take the players through another walk through session, as they did on the first night they arrived.
Oh, and while, there wasn’t another steel mesh incident, I did feel for the young Demon this evening, who accidentally opened my door and walked straight in as if it was his room.
Given torches are the go in the evening around here and the décor of ‘Tin City’ is of similar colouring, it’s easy to see how it could be done.
