MELBOURNE director of sports performance Neil Craig says the club has “more than enough GPS units” and is not lacking in the sports science area.
On Sunday, Essendon great turned media commentator Matthew Lloyd wrote an article in The Age about the gap between the haves and have-nots in football, including a focus on GPS units.
He said: “Spending all of my time at Essendon, I thought it was standard practice that every player was monitored throughout every session with GPS data to get 100 per cent accuracy on workload and fatigue. This, obviously, costs money but I was shocked to hear that in 2012 only some players at the Dogs and Demons can be monitored each session as they don't have the funds to monitor all players.”
In speaking to debunk the comments made by Lloyd, Craig said that Melbourne was well equipped to analyse its playing list via GPS units.
“We’re able to monitor our overall level of fatigue, and more importantly, the level of physical training we are doing from a coaching point of view,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“We’re not sitting here as a club wishing for more in the area of GPS units.
“In actual fact, if we had more money to spend, it wouldn’t be on GPS units - it’d be on, in my opinion, people. It’d be trying to attract world class people, and that to me would be a better way to spend your resources.”
Craig was adamant that “the club isn’t wanting for anything in that area” and added that AAMI Park was world class.
“We operate out of a high performance training facility, in terms of recovery and cross-training. I’m talking swimming pools, hot and cold recovery pools, sleep room, the anti-gravity treadmill and we’ve also got access to an altitude chamber. We have bikes, we have treadmills, we have rowing machines and we’ve got a world class weight training area and an indoor training area that we can use,” he said.
“On top of that, we train in the same environment as the [Melbourne] Storm and Melbourne Victory. We couldn’t wish for any more.
“So in terms of us being able to do the basic minimum work that we need to do to create a high performance culture and playing performance in our footy club - we have the facilities here to do that.”
The former Adelaide coach said that specialist coaches were becoming more prominent in the game, and forecast that this would continue in coming years.
“What’s happening is that the concept of specialisation is the way the AFL is going - providing players with specialisation in terms of coaching and support staff,” Craig said.
“As more money becomes available, I’ll have a strong push to spend it on people - not GPS units or more equipment. Good people, outstanding people, are the best resource you can have.”
Craig praised the work conducted by GPS load analyst Katy Mouritz.
“I could argue we need more people to help analyse. Our current sports scientist who looks after GPS - that person (Mouritz) needs more help from a personnel point of view - she doesn’t need more units. More people who can analyze and apply the information are crucial,” he said.
“She (Mouritz) does a great job and we have more than sufficient GPS units.
“Competitive advantage comes from getting the best people available - whether that be coaching, sports science, medical, physio, welfare or management; staff members who can deliver ‘winning’ - that’s where your competitive advantage will come from’.
On Sunday, Essendon great turned media commentator Matthew Lloyd wrote an article in The Age about the gap between the haves and have-nots in football, including a focus on GPS units.
He said: “Spending all of my time at Essendon, I thought it was standard practice that every player was monitored throughout every session with GPS data to get 100 per cent accuracy on workload and fatigue. This, obviously, costs money but I was shocked to hear that in 2012 only some players at the Dogs and Demons can be monitored each session as they don't have the funds to monitor all players.”
In speaking to debunk the comments made by Lloyd, Craig said that Melbourne was well equipped to analyse its playing list via GPS units.
“We’re able to monitor our overall level of fatigue, and more importantly, the level of physical training we are doing from a coaching point of view,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“We’re not sitting here as a club wishing for more in the area of GPS units.
“In actual fact, if we had more money to spend, it wouldn’t be on GPS units - it’d be on, in my opinion, people. It’d be trying to attract world class people, and that to me would be a better way to spend your resources.”
Craig was adamant that “the club isn’t wanting for anything in that area” and added that AAMI Park was world class.
“We operate out of a high performance training facility, in terms of recovery and cross-training. I’m talking swimming pools, hot and cold recovery pools, sleep room, the anti-gravity treadmill and we’ve also got access to an altitude chamber. We have bikes, we have treadmills, we have rowing machines and we’ve got a world class weight training area and an indoor training area that we can use,” he said.
“On top of that, we train in the same environment as the [Melbourne] Storm and Melbourne Victory. We couldn’t wish for any more.
“So in terms of us being able to do the basic minimum work that we need to do to create a high performance culture and playing performance in our footy club - we have the facilities here to do that.”
The former Adelaide coach said that specialist coaches were becoming more prominent in the game, and forecast that this would continue in coming years.
“What’s happening is that the concept of specialisation is the way the AFL is going - providing players with specialisation in terms of coaching and support staff,” Craig said.
“As more money becomes available, I’ll have a strong push to spend it on people - not GPS units or more equipment. Good people, outstanding people, are the best resource you can have.”
Craig praised the work conducted by GPS load analyst Katy Mouritz.
“I could argue we need more people to help analyse. Our current sports scientist who looks after GPS - that person (Mouritz) needs more help from a personnel point of view - she doesn’t need more units. More people who can analyze and apply the information are crucial,” he said.
“She (Mouritz) does a great job and we have more than sufficient GPS units.
“Competitive advantage comes from getting the best people available - whether that be coaching, sports science, medical, physio, welfare or management; staff members who can deliver ‘winning’ - that’s where your competitive advantage will come from’.
