Day 2 - Tuesday, September 30

THE SECOND morning started off with the agility, speed and vertical jump test.

They are all important tests, because of the physical attributes in our game.

Testing was quite quick. We got more players through tests this year, with 100 as opposed to 75 in recent times.

It’s the first year we’ve had two agility tests running concurrently.

It’s a great test, where players zig-zag around poles.

Joel Hocking and Adam Paulo, our fitness guys, came up on Tuesday and they analyse the running actions and styles of players.

They also analyse the dynamic of the players and look at where some of the challenges may occur. And they look at the composition of their body and how they move with that.

We get good feedback from the fitness staff. So when we’re asking questions about the suitability of players, we’re not just looking at times. They’ve actually sighted the player and seen how the player moves.

We give them the game-day information we’ve observed.

Also, our full-time physio Sam Pietsch and doctor Andrew Daff came up to do our medicals today.

We prioritise on certain players to make sure they’re physically sound, so we can marry up that information. The medicos are also armed with information from the AFL.

It is a lot of information and facets coming together throughout the week. This week is about the mental, physical and the medical coming together to back up what we’ve seen on the football field.

As the medical screenings went on throughout the day, we were able to grab the players and conduct further interviews.

Our first night was all scheduled interviews, as it was again on day two, but we did as many as we could throughout the day.

We had three interviews scheduled and spoke to a few others in the evening.

We requested 30 interviews, but it’s widely accepted that clubs grab others to speak to throughout the camp.

The great thing is we can have players speaking in front of the coach and other football managers. It’s important this occurs, as we know the challenges that can arise when they arrive at the club.