Speaker 1: I mean the way that Cyril was treated at the
Speaker 1: football I've never seen anyone else treated as well.
Speaker 2: I've never seen anyone else treated with as much respect
Speaker 2: as Cyril.
Speaker 1: And his Ever, the week before Cyril leaves, he tells
Speaker 1: me it's the happy it's ever been the club.
Speaker 3: I'm John Ralph and I'm Glenn MacFarlane.
Speaker 4: Welcome to Sacked, a podcast that explores what really happens
Speaker 4: when the ax falls in the AFL world.
Speaker 5: Will take you behind the scenes with some of the
Speaker 5: biggest names.
Speaker 4: In football and find out how they found out their
Speaker 4: time was up and.
Speaker 5: Who pulled the trigger.
Speaker 6: Today the High Performance Guru, Part one of our chat
Speaker 6: with Andrew Russell. When Andrew Russell was called into Kevin
Speaker 6: Sheety's office at the Old Hilton Hotel as a teenager
Speaker 6: and offered a job, not in his wildest dreams would
Speaker 6: he have been able to predict the three decade high
Speaker 6: performance career that included six premierships across three clubs that
Speaker 6: was to come. Russell was there at the end of
Speaker 6: the Bombers dynasty, ports for Choke Breaker, and the start
Speaker 6: of the Hawks decade of dominance from Stuart due to
Speaker 6: Luke Hodge and Si. Really he made a career out
Speaker 6: of preparing premiership players.
Speaker 4: Take us to the start. So you're a fifteen hundred
Speaker 4: meet at Runner National Runner, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I said of ran the National, you know the gone
Speaker 1: pri meets and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: And I came in pretty late to that.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I grew up in Ballarat and I.
Speaker 1: Trained with Steve Wantaghetty and I was on leak true
Speaker 1: you know, straight record. So yeah, I loved running. I
Speaker 1: love physiology. I was a swimmer growing up as well.
Speaker 1: I played footy, but I was a bum. Was very
Speaker 1: good rent all day and up and down. And then
Speaker 1: I got involved in I got involved at the Victorian
Speaker 1: Student Sport.
Speaker 5: Because I haven't done a degree or well I was
Speaker 5: during my degree.
Speaker 1: I got there and it, Yeah, it was an internship
Speaker 1: and I went for my best me and my best
Speaker 1: mate went for it, and the clip of the coin,
Speaker 1: I got it, and I got paid eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for a full time job. And I thought it was
Speaker 1: the best thing of all. She just loved it. And
Speaker 1: so I came to Melbourne v I S and those
Speaker 1: days are VS was really highly regarded as sport, like
Speaker 1: that was the place to be and so I'd go training.
Speaker 1: I had some unbelievable mentors, you know, Paul Gaston, Troy
Speaker 1: Flannagan who's in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the most highly regards to.
Speaker 1: Sciences in the world. You know, Ver McMillan, Mar McGrath,
Speaker 1: strength and conditioning. So I had this real sports science
Speaker 1: strength nditioning, go to work every day and you see
Speaker 1: it was foursome.
Speaker 2: Dale Evans in the gym.
Speaker 1: I did some work with Kathy Freeman speaking conditioning for
Speaker 1: a while, sonor Sullivan.
Speaker 4: Who's right, you know, that's athletes the world I'm either
Speaker 4: watching or working with.
Speaker 2: And at that stage the AFL, they were doing their
Speaker 2: own thing.
Speaker 1: They weren't really interested in people outside, and a couple
Speaker 1: of people sort of looked over the corner when I
Speaker 1: was Kevin Chedy. I was doing the draft camp. Actually
Speaker 1: I was running the all the testing of the draft is.
Speaker 3: It was out of Waverley. Yeah, yeah, Waverley days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lawis Pearl Archie heard your shoulder and they said,
Speaker 1: winning someone else to help out. So she's I literally
Speaker 1: did the first bloke he saw. First bloke walked across.
Speaker 1: You know, you had no idea I could I could
Speaker 1: have been terrible what I did. And he said, I
Speaker 1: made you want a job, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was, I was doing so much
Speaker 1: in my life, It's like, yeah, so I just dropped
Speaker 1: everything and started working at the Bombs.
Speaker 2: I was at the Bombs part time, still at the
Speaker 2: VS Man. Yeah. Look, it was an unbelievable grounding for me.
Speaker 2: Lauris burl Archie was outstanding.
Speaker 1: I got to see some of the best players who
Speaker 1: played the game up close so early on.
Speaker 5: You did your.
Speaker 2: Matthew Lloyd's and your Herds and mccury's.
Speaker 3: What a time to be involved in late nineties, late
Speaker 3: ninety so.
Speaker 1: I was, you know, ninety seven just walked through the door,
Speaker 1: which was not a great year for us, and then
Speaker 1: and then ninety eight they were a bit better.
Speaker 2: And then ninety nine.
Speaker 5: Was should have Yeah.
Speaker 2: The end of ninety nine, Porter lad knocked on my
Speaker 2: doors twenty.
Speaker 1: Two and said, do you want to come and run
Speaker 1: out of program at twenty two years of age, and
Speaker 1: I was on holidays with Matex. I was driving in
Speaker 1: the car and driving in the car and I actually
Speaker 1: thought it was pretty funny, you know, but I thought
Speaker 1: there was something about essenon why they lost in ninety nine.
Speaker 1: It was so she's made them go to the Grand
Speaker 1: Final ovious there and watch and a few of us
Speaker 1: stuff with them, and it was extraordinary impact had on
Speaker 1: that group. And then I remember going back to the
Speaker 1: pullman after it. Yeah, and she's office and.
Speaker 2: He certainly spent more time than there. He still does,
Speaker 2: and he got him in and basically said, that's this group.
Speaker 2: You know that was embarrassing today. You know, they sat
Speaker 2: there and the.
Speaker 1: Crag got stuck into him and they were the shreds really,
Speaker 1: you know, and the players hated it, but it was
Speaker 1: part of that drive and obviously been part of a
Speaker 1: few groups that have done some pretty special stuff. That
Speaker 1: group was that determined and so they approached the preparation
Speaker 1: like lunatics.
Speaker 2: Like that, wele lunatics.
Speaker 6: You stay there, you get the premiership. But they come
Speaker 6: knocking again, don't they. The year after, I.
Speaker 1: Still don't know Rob Snowden, no idea, you knew someone
Speaker 1: at Essen and he rings me up again and I said,
Speaker 1: I said what I said, Well, he rings me up
Speaker 1: and I had an interview with Choco.
Speaker 6: Wouldhel Welsh so imposing characters to have interview with.
Speaker 1: So I walked in and I'm so young and raw
Speaker 1: and brash or not not not not brash, just I
Speaker 1: thought I had a good understanding of what I thought
Speaker 1: the game should be and and part of that was
Speaker 1: based on Essendon, and part of it was based on well,
Speaker 1: I want to grab what they did and do, and
Speaker 1: I then want to build on that because I thought
Speaker 1: there were things that that could be.
Speaker 2: Done as well.
Speaker 1: So and I remember sitting and and Chocko, as we knows,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the way the game is, this
Speaker 1: is what it's going be played, and I said, I
Speaker 1: don't agree with that. I think this is the way
Speaker 1: the games going, you know, and she's like, you know, really,
Speaker 1: I made a decision. I remember thinking I'm going to
Speaker 1: live and die by the sword here. I'm either walking
Speaker 1: out the door and they do not want anything to
Speaker 1: do with me and I'm done, or they might like it.
Speaker 1: And so I learned a lot. I stood up to
Speaker 1: what I thought where the game was going.
Speaker 5: Which was what well.
Speaker 1: I came from a middle distance running background, so I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you know, bring bring some science and physiology to this game.
Speaker 1: And for me, it was a blend of speed, repeat
Speaker 1: speed with a layer of endurance. And so at that
Speaker 1: time back in the AFL, because we're going from semi
Speaker 1: professional to professional, so a lot.
Speaker 2: Has changed in that time of the century. Teams were
Speaker 2: very speed orientated, or teams were very durance orientated. So
Speaker 2: I went to a.
Speaker 1: Football club, Port Adelaide that was very endurance, done a
Speaker 1: lot of endurance work.
Speaker 2: So I knew that. I worked that out. I did research.
Speaker 2: So I said, well, we can make it. Put a
Speaker 2: lot of.
Speaker 1: Speed, repeat speed, the John Quinn stuff, and then and
Speaker 1: then maintain these Arabic qualities and then build on that.
Speaker 2: I think we've got a great product.
Speaker 1: I went down to the track I got and so anyway,
Speaker 1: Choco and Phil obviously you know there's something in what
Speaker 1: they heard. And I realized then the truck, I need
Speaker 1: to be chalanced, like I had to go at him
Speaker 1: smartly at the right time, pick the moment.
Speaker 2: But and he was. He was extraordinary to me, Like
Speaker 2: I mean, for.
Speaker 1: Someone who'd never done anything in the game. The amount
Speaker 1: he backed me in was it because the players are
Speaker 1: older than me. I walk in there, the players are
Speaker 1: older them and Walsh as well, I mean those two.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the reason it worked for me because
Speaker 1: they backed me to the hill. Just like if any
Speaker 1: criticism kind of my way to bang, they just shut
Speaker 1: it down straight away.
Speaker 4: So would they confront you or challenge you behind closed doors?
Speaker 4: But then in front of the players, this.
Speaker 2: Is our man. And I remember I went down to
Speaker 2: the running.
Speaker 1: Track, I got the job. Breught Montgomery said, mate, where
Speaker 1: a debarcle?
Speaker 2: You know what are you gonna come? What are you
Speaker 2: doing to us? I went to the and best and
Speaker 2: Ferris and I just won it. And I hope people
Speaker 2: come up to you for realsk your case. Are you doing?
Speaker 2: What are you doing? And I'm like, I had no idea.
Speaker 1: I walked in the first training session and just come
Speaker 1: from Cedon Too, supposedly as good a team as ever,
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh my god, how good are these
Speaker 1: How good are their skills? Their skills are better than
Speaker 1: this day one. Really were better than senate skill level.
Speaker 1: And if you look back now, you think, well, so
Speaker 1: that's what they became. We became a hard running, highly
Speaker 1: skilled team playing up against Brisbane who were tough and
Speaker 1: ruthless and highly skilled team. And so you know, we
Speaker 1: won whatever was seventy percent of the game.
Speaker 5: A coupleships yeah, we.
Speaker 1: Lost four games two years in a row, and then
Speaker 1: we and then we you know, then we look So
Speaker 1: anyway back to when I got there, I had ten
Speaker 1: weeks of pre season before Christmas in.
Speaker 5: The first year, which you might get three or four.
Speaker 5: And now with the whole group.
Speaker 1: And I what I put them through. I've never put
Speaker 1: another group like I went hard, as in as in
Speaker 1: really hard. So people wouldn't believe what we did for
Speaker 1: a training week. And this is the ridiculous of us.
Speaker 1: Very very quickly, on Monday we do like this repeat
Speaker 1: speed hard track like fast and hard. Monday afternoon we
Speaker 1: do light skills waits. Tuesday morning we would do like
Speaker 1: an individual needs session aerobic session running was half the group.
Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon's main skills. Tuesday night the midfielders. We then
Speaker 1: go and play at the local touch rugby in the park,
Speaker 1: so we Josh cars Do Franco and Nick Stevens. We
Speaker 1: go and play against the public and play seventy seven.
Speaker 4: For fun or for skill, for skill fitness like it
Speaker 4: was part of the training.
Speaker 1: Then Wednesday we want to back up. We do a
Speaker 1: two hour aerobic like big aerobic running in sand dune'es.
Speaker 1: Thursday was our Friday, we did two sessions speed power skills,
Speaker 1: and then Saturday morning we did a massive, big up
Speaker 1: to fifteen k running session and then the guys who
Speaker 1: were in good shape, we then ride our bikes up
Speaker 1: Mount Lofty get home at lunchtime.
Speaker 2: That's not happening these days.
Speaker 5: And so what.
Speaker 2: Happened is we had an unbelievably fit.
Speaker 1: Group, but we broke some blokes as well, and so
Speaker 1: we had some guys we had quite a few grown injuries.
Speaker 1: So we had seventy five percent and the were in
Speaker 1: an amazing shape, twenty five cent broken. So then I
Speaker 1: had to tweak and change. And the latest year I
Speaker 1: was there was four. That was our lightest training program.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you've got and fit by that stage as well,
Speaker 4: or because that was the right way.
Speaker 5: To do it.
Speaker 1: No, well, it was like, well, it became very It
Speaker 1: was like I knew what each individual needed. It was
Speaker 1: like he needs more, he needs less, you know, because
Speaker 1: then it's not about you got to get him into
Speaker 1: good shape. There's one thing getting a team in good shape,
Speaker 1: and then it's actually getting him to play well at
Speaker 1: the end of the year. And there's that's different, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's hard to do winning.
Speaker 2: And I remember a couple of games. I remember a
Speaker 2: couple of games where.
Speaker 1: I put more work into on a Thursday, I said, chocko,
Speaker 1: you know, and one we lost and one we just
Speaker 1: got over the line and difference.
Speaker 2: Between the top two and top four and not.
Speaker 1: And I skirted the edges that many times load and
Speaker 1: most of the time got away with it and then
Speaker 1: page your back later on.
Speaker 2: But it's a fine line.
Speaker 4: And that a bit of it's like a bit of
Speaker 4: its science, a bit of it, as you say, he's
Speaker 4: knowing how good the group is, the team you're playing against,
Speaker 4: Like tell us that the mix of that across twenty
Speaker 4: five years, because it's because when you get it wrong, it's.
Speaker 5: You know, you get it really badly wrong.
Speaker 1: No, you do, you do, And there plenty have got
Speaker 1: it wrong. And I've been part of that getting it wrong.
Speaker 1: But you know what, You've got to get it wrong
Speaker 1: to know how to get it right. You have to
Speaker 1: be pushing the envelope. You have to find out their
Speaker 1: breaking limits. You have to, and you've got to work
Speaker 1: out whether they're whether they can do it, because you
Speaker 1: can't win it unless you know, because they know how
Speaker 1: hard they can push. So there's real psychology unit as
Speaker 1: much as there's physiology in it.
Speaker 2: You've got to make them believe.
Speaker 6: You have to make the mental sides every bit is
Speaker 6: important as the physical side in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: Too absolutely, I mean, but it builds together.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to build resilience, Yes, becomes where
Speaker 1: you only build resilience by doing the work and knowing
Speaker 1: where your breaking point is. And so I was really
Speaker 1: comfortable pushing the envelope, really comfortable knowing that, guess what,
Speaker 1: every now and then you're going to be criticized, but
Speaker 1: in the big picture, you're going to get more wins
Speaker 1: than losses. And and so then as I went through
Speaker 1: my journey at the clubs, I learned which players I
Speaker 1: couldn't which players I couldn't. So remember, you know, going
Speaker 1: into the final series at Hawthorne, it's just like, these
Speaker 1: guys need work, like they threw live off it.
Speaker 2: So in the end the program ended up going like
Speaker 2: this in the second half of the year. So injury
Speaker 2: forms some of that.
Speaker 1: It's just like and the benefit of players getting injured
Speaker 1: in season is huge if you get the right top
Speaker 1: of injury, because you then go back and do some
Speaker 1: top up conditioning work and the top up conditioning work,
Speaker 1: and I think Richmond, I've spoken to their guys. They
Speaker 1: reckon they won one based on a lot of injuries.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of injuries in the year. They
Speaker 1: came back and they're fresh, fresh because you haven't played
Speaker 1: a lot of and physically you've done the work. Hawthorne
Speaker 1: and fourteen were a bit like that. Yeah, very stories
Speaker 1: go back. Probably calves are the big ones carves because
Speaker 1: you can't run, but their hardest one she was Hammis
Speaker 1: you can run them. There's a lot of injuries you
Speaker 1: can run, so if you can run. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know, Born Picket heard his shoulder in four did
Speaker 1: a collar bone, so he's out for eight weeks, ten weeks.
Speaker 2: He wasn't in good shape and basically me and Clark
Speaker 2: grabbed him.
Speaker 1: Clark and said, you know what, we are going to
Speaker 1: train this guy like he's never trained in his life
Speaker 1: before and probably struggled a little bit with the physically
Speaker 1: and what we've got him down to forty eight skin folds,
Speaker 1: which is phenomen well.
Speaker 5: Would he have been at to start that eight week period.
Speaker 2: I think he was about seventy and then he went
Speaker 2: to Melbourne. I remember the Melbourne Yeah, yeah, right when
Speaker 2: he left. Yeah, So we would training twice a day.
Speaker 2: We'd going to the hills. We'd ride bikes in the mountains.
Speaker 2: We're walking up and down the hills. We would just
Speaker 2: we just we just we are not going to give
Speaker 2: him it out.
Speaker 1: And guess what, he loved it. He just turned up,
Speaker 1: you know, choppy. If you didn't times turn up, wouldn't
Speaker 1: turn up. If your times turn up at five a m.
Speaker 1: Eleven am, two pm, six pm, He'd be there every
Speaker 1: single time.
Speaker 5: He loved the routine of it.
Speaker 2: I love the routine.
Speaker 3: Hewed to win the Norms with battle on, you know,
Speaker 3: one of the biggest.
Speaker 1: You know, so there are some there are some benefits,
Speaker 1: but your team's got to win enough.
Speaker 4: You talked about essen of blokes training like lunatics. Mark
Speaker 4: Chocko Wims is lunatic in the best possible way. It
Speaker 4: give us your best Chucko's story if you think about
Speaker 4: the you know, those crazy years I like.
Speaker 1: To make certainly our major sponsor are in the phone
Speaker 1: and Alan Scott's You're wrong. His passion for the game
Speaker 1: and his passion like every moment of every day just
Speaker 1: came out so and he and he just and he
Speaker 1: wanted perfection.
Speaker 2: He wanted perfection.
Speaker 1: He's a skill He's a brilliant skill coach, right absolutely,
Speaker 1: how he teaches players skill of the game and breaks
Speaker 1: the game down.
Speaker 5: Did you know how good he was going to be?
Speaker 4: And how did it eventuate that he became the Hawthorne
Speaker 4: coach and you came with him?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look he was so when we travel into state
Speaker 1: when he was assistant coach, he would basically find the
Speaker 1: best coach, the most high profile person, someone he could
Speaker 1: learn off when he's on the road, and he.
Speaker 2: Would ring anyone. He would just find a number, I mean,
Speaker 2: just whoever.
Speaker 1: It was his first and drive was enormous, enormous, So
Speaker 1: if he was going to fail, he was going to
Speaker 1: fail going down swinging that was in really like he
Speaker 1: puts so much energy into it, working on his craft,
Speaker 1: to getting the latest knowledge. He didn't care where we
Speaker 1: got it from, get it from anywhere around the world.
Speaker 1: I'll grab it and then i will adapt it to
Speaker 1: this game and my players, and then I'll make him believe.
Speaker 1: So he went in and you know, and what he
Speaker 1: did was really smart. He went in and he went
Speaker 1: in with a plan. He went in with a this
Speaker 1: is how the game is going to be played, which
Speaker 1: is a bit different to what it was being played.
Speaker 1: He sold it unbelievably well to my knowledge. And he
Speaker 1: went in selling that he's got this.
Speaker 3: Group of people around, which was the key to the
Speaker 3: people around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the group here is my group. I trust him
Speaker 2: and we're going at it.
Speaker 5: And did you have you on board at that stage?
Speaker 2: Well he did verbally?
Speaker 3: How did you he did verbally?
Speaker 6: How did you break it to CHOCKO, I'm out of here?
Speaker 1: Well there's actually a really good sort. I changed my mind,
Speaker 1: so I completely fluffed it. So I said yes to Clarko.
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I didn't probably think you get the job.
Speaker 1: I think he could do the job and do an
Speaker 1: unbelievable job. But like everyone was just like geez, the
Speaker 1: chances are low. Port adelaid that stuffed me around, not
Speaker 1: giving me a contract. They offered me five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: more to stay, and I wasn't getting paid much at all, Like,
Speaker 1: will hang on, this is ridiculous, This is like a
Speaker 1: round sixteen or fifteen or whatever. I was a bit
Speaker 1: like come on, you know, like that's a bit of respect.
Speaker 1: So I said I'll take my chances. See Clark, I
Speaker 1: jumped in very very smart the way he does it.
Speaker 2: And then I.
Speaker 1: Changed my mind after we win the Grand Final. So
Speaker 1: I just had a verbal agreement.
Speaker 2: Changed my mind terrible.
Speaker 1: The emotion got me so and the reason so the
Speaker 1: way I changed my mind was on the Monday after
Speaker 1: the Grand Final, We're at the pub and I said, Chuck,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving and he said, no, you're not, and.
Speaker 2: So Chocko Welsh.
Speaker 1: Phil Welsh, the CEO Matthew Primus basically bundled me into
Speaker 1: a car, grabbed me and said on the Monday. On
Speaker 1: the Monday, So Monday afternoon when the boys they basically
Speaker 1: grabbed me, pulled me back to the.
Speaker 2: Father and said well you're not going. You're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: And so they offered me a shipload more money, and
Speaker 1: I got caught up a bit in that as a
Speaker 1: young bloker wasn't getting paid much all as well. In
Speaker 1: the end I went to Hawthorne for a lot less
Speaker 1: than Hawthorne did not change anything off.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I really say he goes berserk. Jason dunstill
Speaker 2: rings me.
Speaker 1: He was the CEO who had been dealing with he
Speaker 1: rings me on the Tuesday night after the Grand Final.
Speaker 2: And he says, he you've changed my mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he says, I hear all these people say
Speaker 1: good things about you. I think you're the biggest in
Speaker 1: the world. You tell me you're a person of integrity.
Speaker 2: Well I think yeah, yeah, He.
Speaker 1: Goes, I'll make my mind up tomorrow. I'll be at
Speaker 1: your place seven o'clock in the morning. All right, So
Speaker 1: this is Tuesday night. Next morning, seven o'clock. Bang on
Speaker 1: the door. Dunster walks through. Clark I walks through. Damian Hardware,
Speaker 1: walks through the door, right straight through the door. Didn't
Speaker 1: look at me, did nothing. Dunstill gets the phone, gets
Speaker 1: Choco's number up, chucks it at me, and he says,
Speaker 1: we're happy to be here for five minutes, so.
Speaker 2: We'll stay here all day. We don't care. You're going
Speaker 2: to ring him. You made a deal with me, You
Speaker 2: made a deal with us.
Speaker 1: You said you were coming if you're a man of integrity,
Speaker 1: ring Choco and you were telling them that you're coming
Speaker 1: right now, that's incredible.
Speaker 2: What take long? Take a long?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well they went to the draft. I was booked
Speaker 2: for the draft camp for two clubs.
Speaker 1: And so then there's a story that you know, basically
Speaker 1: run into each other. Choco runs into some Dunstall and
Speaker 1: Clark go in this little mini stairwells.
Speaker 3: That physically runs into almost I had a bit.
Speaker 1: Of a confrontation. So yeah, so that's so then I
Speaker 1: got worn. I was very happy to be in the end.
Speaker 1: I would have been happy to stay at Port Adelaide.
Speaker 2: I loved that. I love the players, I love the club,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: And then we and then we started a Hawthorne and
Speaker 1: the whole football department is new, like I don't think
Speaker 1: that's ever happened in the game. It certainly might happen again.
Speaker 1: Every single person in the food department.
Speaker 5: So it's a blank canvas, which is exciting.
Speaker 6: And you might walk into a club that has had
Speaker 6: turmoil for you know, I mean unbelievable.
Speaker 2: So Parker said, I'll go and get my people. You
Speaker 2: and go. You go and get your people. You get
Speaker 2: the medical guys, you get the physio.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, the great relationship with Andrew Lambert
Speaker 1: who's still there today, which is amazing.
Speaker 4: David mcraths a biomechanist, different perspectives at.
Speaker 1: That stage, so you know, we had Peter McCue the doctor,
Speaker 1: and we had Michael mcdeesey, you know, in that relationship,
Speaker 1: you know, Michael mcdecy Andrew Lambert the physio, me.
Speaker 2: And my was unbelievably, unbelievably.
Speaker 1: Unbelievably strong for those players. And then that connection with
Speaker 1: Clarko and the footing manager. You know, over the years,
Speaker 1: Mark Evans stepped in, who's gone on to do great.
Speaker 5: Mcdish's the AFL Chief medical officer.
Speaker 2: Just good, but it was it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a robust environment, but respectful but robust and
Speaker 1: everyone and everyone was happy with someone jumping into their area.
Speaker 1: So the physio'd be happy saying, hanging, mate, you're pushing
Speaker 1: these guys too hard. It's good point I am. I'd
Speaker 1: go to him and say, you know that guy's not
Speaker 1: moving that well, he's left tips really stiff.
Speaker 2: I think you got do some work on it. And great,
Speaker 2: you know, banging and the doctor would be coming it.
Speaker 1: So the players knew that we were type, but they
Speaker 1: knew they were also.
Speaker 2: Really robust behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: But they knew that we had their best interests, you know,
Speaker 1: the valuable lesson Rob Snow and the foody manager and
Speaker 1: what When I went there, he said to me, don't
Speaker 1: get cut up into the bullshit, don't get care of
Speaker 1: from politics. You just need to spend time the players.
Speaker 1: Just work on the players bodies and the players' minds.
Speaker 2: That's all I want you to do. Nothing else. Don't
Speaker 2: talk to a board member. Yeah, you don't need to
Speaker 2: do about supporter. Don't do anything. No, just do that.
Speaker 2: And it was brilliant advice.
Speaker 3: And that's pretty much what you followed through your footy career.
Speaker 1: As I mean, that becomes harder as you go because absolutely,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a no one at the starts and
Speaker 1: no one cares. And then as you go through people
Speaker 1: start asking more of you. You start getting drawn in
Speaker 1: different areas. It's just naturally sort of, you know what happens.
Speaker 1: So you want, you want to try different things, and
Speaker 1: you know so that you just naturally get drawn into
Speaker 1: other areas.
Speaker 4: So how much of what you would say you did
Speaker 4: is about the physical stuff and how much that.
Speaker 5: Is the mind?
Speaker 1: I can't distinguish between the two because they're so into intertwined, you.
Speaker 2: Know, they're start intertwined.
Speaker 1: And and then it's the on field you know as well,
Speaker 1: the physical men I'm very involved.
Speaker 2: So you know, at Hawthorne, i'd have an assistant coach every.
Speaker 1: Year that would work with me on the program and
Speaker 1: the on field program, so Clark I was overseeing it all.
Speaker 1: So you know, every I had, you know, I had
Speaker 1: had Bevo and then on camera and you know and
Speaker 1: Simo and then every year I had one of them
Speaker 1: and we were basically playing the program together. And so
Speaker 1: that's conditioning, that skills, that's you know, and then they'd
Speaker 1: come in and they put their tactical layer on top
Speaker 1: of it. But I mean, and I don't know, I
Speaker 1: actually don't really know how other clubs do it because
Speaker 1: I haven't had a lot to do with the other
Speaker 1: performance guys and how they do whatever is. But you know,
Speaker 1: the way that we did in the way I did it,
Speaker 1: and and Trucko completely backed me in and while she
Speaker 1: but I was very very connected and around the ball
Speaker 1: program as well as very intertwined.
Speaker 2: How much and you'd.
Speaker 1: Set the parameters, you'd set the you set the parameters
Speaker 1: around how long, how often, how long the drill is
Speaker 1: going to go for?
Speaker 2: You know, what are we trying to get out of it?
Speaker 1: And then they come in and coach that drill, so
Speaker 1: there is it's hard to know in the end, so
Speaker 1: much crossover, that's hard to know who's driving what in
Speaker 1: terms of the program. But and I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I think and I think that even the role hob
Speaker 1: from his role is not well understood.
Speaker 5: So Luke Hodge got up on stage at the Hall
Speaker 5: of Fame, I.
Speaker 7: Think crawf when spoke to Andrew Russell and said, you're
Speaker 7: going to push this kid out of out of football
Speaker 7: and Jack said, I will have to wait and see
Speaker 7: because I'm not going easy on him.
Speaker 5: So I think that's the care.
Speaker 7: And the guy that we had at the football club.
Speaker 7: You had senior blokes who would he would go and
Speaker 7: try and step in when they needed to. But I
Speaker 7: think what what Andrew Us and Clark I really saw
Speaker 7: was they knew how to read me. They knew what
Speaker 7: buttons to push and how I respond.
Speaker 5: Tell us about the Luke Codge experience.
Speaker 1: Luke Hodge was never lazy. Every time he trained, he
Speaker 1: trained hard. He just wasn't in good enough shape to
Speaker 1: replicate it over and over and over again because the
Speaker 1: way that he was living off the field. So he
Speaker 1: was always ruthless and always trained hard. So that never lazy,
Speaker 1: but he didn't support it by sleeping well by.
Speaker 3: You know, he did a lot of time, yeah, getting
Speaker 3: back home.
Speaker 1: So I went harder at Little than I've ever gone
Speaker 1: at any anyone.
Speaker 2: And there are some players that I've never gone hard at.
Speaker 2: So again this is the art.
Speaker 1: There's some players that all I've done is love them
Speaker 1: up and supported them because I know they couldn't deal
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 2: So to get the.
Speaker 1: Best out of them is that in the spectrum, to
Speaker 1: get out of the best, I just made a decision.
Speaker 1: We could see what he was, and you can see
Speaker 1: that he was a tough human. You could see was
Speaker 1: I think this guy The best way to get it
Speaker 1: out of him is to go hard at him, and
Speaker 1: not just go hard at him, but go harded him
Speaker 1: publicly as within our walls. So and also from my point,
Speaker 1: it's just like if this guy goes harder at the
Speaker 1: captain and one of the best players ship, we're.
Speaker 2: Robust because there's no different rules for this guy.
Speaker 1: And that's so important because when you're talking to one player,
Speaker 1: you're not talking to one.
Speaker 2: Player, you're talking to forty five players.
Speaker 1: And every single time you open your mouth, whether that
Speaker 1: be in a group situation or there'd be one be one.
Speaker 2: You have to expect that that conversation is going to
Speaker 2: go somewhere.
Speaker 5: It's a shitty rule. You know. You go hard at
Speaker 5: your players and it trickles down all the way.
Speaker 1: How so yeah, so we went so, you know, like
Speaker 1: do you come in every summer and you go, all right, mate,
Speaker 1: these are my list.
Speaker 2: Of ten weddings and social functions.
Speaker 1: And I said, when you got time to be the
Speaker 1: captain of the foota club, mate, you know, like, here's
Speaker 1: what do you mean? So, well, you're the captain of
Speaker 1: the footay club. You know, I don't worry about me, mate,
Speaker 1: I'll be right, they respect me. I said, well they
Speaker 1: might now, yeah, but you know you've got to prepare
Speaker 1: or to do. So we'd have this negotiation every time.
Speaker 1: We have this negotiation all the way through. So it
Speaker 1: was a negotiation and he loved it, and he knew
Speaker 1: that that was part of it, and I knew it
Speaker 1: was part of it. So he'd start there and we'd
Speaker 1: end up somewhere. I'd start there and we'd end up
Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle. But it ended up being really enjoyable.
Speaker 5: And then they're all.
Speaker 1: Different as well. You know, like Sam Mitchell comes in
Speaker 1: and say, mister, it just sucks me dry. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just like I'm going to get what I can
Speaker 1: get out of this bloke. And then after the first
Speaker 1: four five he's like, I've got everything I need him
Speaker 1: and do it myself now. And so then we sort
Speaker 1: of became friends, you know, like we' Kevin friends and
Speaker 1: he goes, I don't need that anymore. But he was
Speaker 1: just like in my office every single days, just every
Speaker 1: day was the same to lunatic knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge
Speaker 1: and knowledge thirstirs How can I get better?
Speaker 2: How can this bloke help me? Hodgi, like Hodgie is
Speaker 2: still walking them office at the end. So what's the
Speaker 2: plan today? How what's the intensity? How hard do you
Speaker 2: think it should train?
Speaker 1: You know, you think of this guy, he's been doing
Speaker 1: it for a long time, but he just wanted to
Speaker 1: have the conversation around which drills do I go hard in?
Speaker 1: Because a lot of players in season especially we'll do
Speaker 1: the you know, creepers like this.
Speaker 2: It's like, all right, well, what are we going after today?
Speaker 1: This is where I'm at physically, this is where I'm
Speaker 1: at psychologically. I think I need more work today or
Speaker 1: I might go yes or no based on the data
Speaker 1: and knowing them.
Speaker 2: So Hodgi, you always wanted to have that conversation.
Speaker 1: But I do remember a couple of times I thought
Speaker 1: I've reckoned, I've gone.
Speaker 3: I think Crawf did say once come and had a
Speaker 3: chat to you.
Speaker 1: He walked in my office said Jack, mate, what are
Speaker 1: you doing now now? Which is interesting because what Crawf
Speaker 1: was saying is a little bit about Hodgy, but it's
Speaker 1: a bit about him. He didn't respond to that, And
Speaker 1: so me and Crawf are very different. I didn't do
Speaker 1: anywhere near I didn't. I mean he didn't need to.
Speaker 1: He's professional, he's switched on, his meticulous, he's all these things.
Speaker 1: It's just like say, he's like, well, why would you
Speaker 1: do that to someone? Because that doesn't work for me.
Speaker 1: So I had to say, mate, that works. You're different,
Speaker 1: so don't put you.
Speaker 2: All leans on it.
Speaker 5: So what was the pandrop moment for Luke coach.
Speaker 2: The twenty the twenty first the.
Speaker 1: Spider Ever at twenty first.
Speaker 2: Where he yeah, that was the moment. That was the
Speaker 2: moment and.
Speaker 5: He explained that a bit more to us about that.
Speaker 1: Well, well he got you know, he got drawn into
Speaker 1: a you know, do a drinking session the night before.
Speaker 1: He then ends up being late, you know, the next
Speaker 1: day for training. Van is trying to get him Richie
Speaker 1: Vandenburg couldn't get onto him, comes in late. One thing
Speaker 1: about Hawthorne is our standards were ridiculously high. As in
Speaker 1: the basics, turn up on time, respecting each other, respect it.
Speaker 2: Like it was really simple stuff but really effective.
Speaker 1: So if you're a big name player and you didn't
Speaker 1: turn up or you turn up late, it was a
Speaker 1: big and everyone knew why. So I was just like, well,
Speaker 1: what are you going to do about it? So what
Speaker 1: are you going to do? You know, I mean, what
Speaker 1: are you going to do about it? As a group
Speaker 1: of people, so it was pretty robust, you know, I
Speaker 1: was pretty strong. It was very strong, and it was
Speaker 1: all about it's all about how good could this guy be?
Speaker 2: That good enough? You know, just being good is not
Speaker 2: It was just like, we feel we've got someone.
Speaker 1: Who can be great in our midst and so our
Speaker 1: responsibility is to help that person to be great, and
Speaker 1: so someone get them there. Some of them get them
Speaker 1: there themselves. They don't need anyone, so just let them go.
Speaker 1: Whereas Hodgy for a period of time needed others before
Speaker 1: he then drove it himself because he got there.
Speaker 6: Stuart ju you're getting back playing footy when he probably
Speaker 6: was well and truly well done. Wasn't he was over
Speaker 6: and was gone twelve kilos a fraction more, wasn't he?
Speaker 2: We played at one hundred ninety nine on Grand Final day.
Speaker 1: So so the getting him back to the club was
Speaker 1: a great and Clarko was a driver without doubt.
Speaker 4: Chris Pelchin, the list boss, was not keen. It's fair
Speaker 4: to say no, and why would you be.
Speaker 1: You know, a guy says I'm done, I finished. Most
Speaker 1: of the time they've done their finished. So it was
Speaker 1: the September, the August.
Speaker 2: Of the year before he drafted. I walked down to
Speaker 2: the cafe.
Speaker 1: Clarko sitting in the cafe with someone I didn't recognize them,
Speaker 1: and he walks past and he used to you know,
Speaker 1: he called me Scotty and I called him Scotty.
Speaker 2: I don't even know why.
Speaker 1: And clark I goes, Scotty, it's Scotty, it's Scotty Jew
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, bullshit, it is not that is
Speaker 1: not Stewie Jude.
Speaker 2: What the hell, what's going on?
Speaker 3: Mate?
Speaker 1: You know, like I don't even recognize you. He you know,
Speaker 1: he wasn't in great physical shape. And Clark I said,
Speaker 1: he's going to play football.
Speaker 2: I said, oh, you're fucking kidding.
Speaker 1: Just seriously, there is no way that you were playing
Speaker 1: football next year.
Speaker 5: How long have you been out of the game. A
Speaker 5: couple of years?
Speaker 1: I think it was a couple of years. And so
Speaker 1: I said, okay, literally, I'm sitting there, I said, Clark,
Speaker 1: I look like I've got so much going on that
Speaker 1: if he can get down to this way, do not
Speaker 1: run a step. All right, he's got to walk, he's
Speaker 1: got a bike ride, and he cannot run. Do not
Speaker 1: run until he gets to this point. And at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm now in. So I goes a good deal. So
Speaker 1: clark I goes to work with him. Clarko is the
Speaker 1: one that goes for walks with him, goes for bike
Speaker 1: rides with him. It's not send him off with the
Speaker 1: rehab coach. It's not and him off. And that's the thing,
Speaker 1: and that's the thing that Clarko did, and that we did.
Speaker 1: Everything that the players did, we did we did with him.
Speaker 1: You know, we did it when we go down the
Speaker 1: beach and we jump in the water and those famous
Speaker 1: sessions where we jump in the water and all that.
Speaker 2: Sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: We get in there with them and all investing with them,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the time, to be honest, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a great story went down after the Best and
Speaker 1: Fairest in twenty ten. I me and Clark, I jumped
Speaker 1: in first, and it's like we're in first at four
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Clark tops off at Barnica Oval. You know, that's
Speaker 4: what I'm going to do.
Speaker 5: Boys.
Speaker 1: One of his gifts was just like, I'm in this
Speaker 1: as much as you know, as much as you're in this.
Speaker 5: So how much way did he have to drop to
Speaker 5: actually start running.
Speaker 2: Twenty Yeah?
Speaker 5: Really?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 1: And so then I got involved and he did it,
Speaker 1: and he really committed, and he committed hard and he
Speaker 1: had a real crack and so then then we got
Speaker 1: him from that down to he was still above he's
Speaker 1: playing way to Portado. But it was pretty decent, you know,
Speaker 1: it was. It was pretty good. And his best day
Speaker 1: was gread.
Speaker 6: Final And that's part of folklore, now, isn't it. Dewey
Speaker 6: and Cyril and what they are able to do. It's
Speaker 6: quite remarkable. Did Bud Buddy have an issue through that
Speaker 6: final series as well, did he ever?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so eight.
Speaker 1: Thursday, so we used to do a goal kicking session
Speaker 1: for Thursday mornings before we then go out and train
Speaker 1: on Thursday. So Thursday, Thursday lunchtime is the main session
Speaker 1: where everyone comes to watch. But on that day Hawthorne
Speaker 1: hadn't been for a long time, so ten thousand people
Speaker 1: rock up at seven o'clock in the morning. Bud goes
Speaker 1: out for his normal kicking session. I never went down
Speaker 1: for that session, but I look out and I see
Speaker 1: everyone cheering and he's kicking goal.
Speaker 2: From sixty on the run. Alright, he's putting on the show.
Speaker 3: Come down, Bud and the entertain.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, well, he's entertaining, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: He can come in and sits in the team meeting
Speaker 1: before we go and train straight after it. And I
Speaker 1: catch his eye because I used to stand on the
Speaker 1: side of the room and he's at the in the
Speaker 1: back row, center of the back row, like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm the man, although he didn't want to be the man,
Speaker 1: but he's still sat in the seat that said you
Speaker 1: want to be the man.
Speaker 2: And he looks at me and I'm thinking, I know
Speaker 2: that look from Bud.
Speaker 1: He's no good, as in something's happened and physically he's
Speaker 1: no good. So he walks up to me and says
Speaker 1: to me straight after the meeting, I think of tom
Speaker 1: My hamstring. This is This is eleven o'clock on Thursday
Speaker 1: morning before Grand Final day.
Speaker 2: So we went out to.
Speaker 1: Train and I said, and I said that it's it's
Speaker 1: the only time I've ever lied in match committee or
Speaker 1: to a coach and said what I didn't believe in
Speaker 1: all right, because I thought he'd injured himself all the
Speaker 1: tests he went in the physio room every test.
Speaker 2: Said that he's done his hamstring all right. So we said,
Speaker 2: all right, during training, Crody's going to be on the
Speaker 2: side of training.
Speaker 1: So you're just going to stand there and do touch
Speaker 1: with Crody and don't train, don't around at all, all right.
Speaker 2: And then we'll send you for an m RS. So training,
Speaker 2: no one because he'd been kicking.
Speaker 1: Goal from everything in the morning, no one picked up
Speaker 1: and he didn't train or they must have thought that
Speaker 1: was just the plan. So no one kneowre think and
Speaker 1: so and we said, well that's a plan for Crody.
Speaker 1: He didn't train last week.
Speaker 2: So no one really made a big deal about so
Speaker 2: no one knew anything. He goes to get the mr right.
Speaker 1: I go to match committ at one o'clock and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: buzz a bit, tiny's hammy. He's going to be okay.
Speaker 1: You know, we're just going to do a surveillance scan.
Speaker 1: He's going to be all right.
Speaker 2: And he went to get the scan and I just
Speaker 2: had the worst two hours of my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the big dogs out, you know, the big dogs out,
Speaker 1: and it's going to come back on to me because I.
Speaker 2: Didn't because I allowed him to do it, do it
Speaker 2: and I wasn't down there.
Speaker 1: And anyway, so I'm on the I'm on the freeway
Speaker 1: driving home. I remember exactly where I was, and the
Speaker 1: doctor rings me and Peter mccuee and Peter's Peter's like
Speaker 1: I said, Pete just tot to the chase. I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: this is going to be the worst ten seconds of
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: He goes, there's nothing there, There's nothing there to see.
Speaker 4: So ninety nine that lost the prelim there obviously drives Essendon.
Speaker 4: The loss of a Grand final drives you know, Hawthorne
Speaker 4: to Great Heights fatter, say.
Speaker 2: Ah, without well there was the prelium and the Grand Final.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and probably especially because two and twelve and the
Speaker 1: boys talked about this all the time, is the best
Speaker 1: way Hawthorne played. You know, that was the best in
Speaker 1: that whole period period outside of Grand Final Day fourteen
Speaker 1: fifteen pretty special days. Outside of those two days, which
Speaker 1: are the best two days of the year that that
Speaker 1: team performed two that was the best year. Like just
Speaker 1: a dominant, dominant team for a lot of the year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, look, we had a couple of themes that
Speaker 1: ran out. We had Navy Seal theme during that year.
Speaker 5: You know that.
Speaker 1: Probably you know, the players got a little bit si
Speaker 1: by the end of it.
Speaker 2: We've been going hard, we've been playing hard. We didn't
Speaker 2: rest many players. You know, we learned.
Speaker 1: We learned a lot in fifteen twenty fifteen, the last
Speaker 1: eight games of the year, we lost two games.
Speaker 2: Two of the players played on Grand Final Day.
Speaker 1: We had two games lost to injury for eight weeks
Speaker 1: and we rested six players, so we had eight games
Speaker 1: and Sam Mitchell was sick once, so we had nine
Speaker 1: games lost from that twenty two in the last eight weeks.
Speaker 2: And as I.
Speaker 1: Said, only two of them were enforced that we got
Speaker 1: to manage the rest of them.
Speaker 2: So we were always for top four, never never to
Speaker 2: be on top.
Speaker 1: We would rather have managed the group and get them
Speaker 1: there in health and finished fourth and then win it
Speaker 1: from there. Then worried there was no ego associate finishing
Speaker 1: on top, preferred not to you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: just what We've got to manage this and a lot
Speaker 1: of those years were really challenging, and that we weren't
Speaker 1: in the upper restelong until the end.
Speaker 5: But you peaked at the right time, peak with availabilities.
Speaker 1: With availability and there and so we got to know
Speaker 1: those players particularly well, you know, like and that many
Speaker 1: the Michael with d C Andrew Lambert, Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: myself and you know other you know Blue Boy.
Speaker 2: You know. It's great merriment and there's a heap and
Speaker 2: heap of those guys have.
Speaker 1: Gone on the workman gone on to run another AFL programs,
Speaker 1: which has given me a lot of joy as well.
Speaker 2: You know, the guys. Peter Burge has done an amazing job.
Speaker 1: He was Richmond their premierships and there aw Thorn worked
Speaker 1: he has worked under me in the early days. We
Speaker 1: got to know them particularly well. And the coach and
Speaker 1: coaches basically let us do our thing like they let
Speaker 1: us do our things. They're not training, they're not training.
Speaker 2: There's no he's not training. And you never felt like
Speaker 2: she's been questioned what's going on. I was just like, no,
Speaker 2: they know what to do, they'll do it.
Speaker 1: They'll get the job done for us, you know like that,
Speaker 1: and and that sounds easy, but that's hard, really hard.
Speaker 2: That's that's very and what I'm finding and seeing across
Speaker 2: the AFO weather very rare to get that.
Speaker 4: So Cyril does his hamshing what rapidly to that inn
Speaker 4: at Fortune. I remember being there at the VFL box
Speaker 4: Hill Final where you basically screwed over box Hill because
Speaker 4: he gets dragged off whether James Sisley played well. I've
Speaker 4: got a vision of him playing well in that game.
Speaker 4: But we think to ourselves, he can't play in a
Speaker 4: grand final. How did he play a grand final?
Speaker 2: We think the same thing.
Speaker 1: You know, Look, that was the biggest risk that I've
Speaker 1: ever been involved in Round seven. He does his hammy
Speaker 1: that year, then he comes back at round thirteen, then
Speaker 1: he redoes.
Speaker 3: It around down at Tassy Gold Coast.
Speaker 2: So he does it he hurts his hamsing he's running
Speaker 2: nine and a half meters a second.
Speaker 1: The right is how fast he's running. And this was
Speaker 1: the first one and he did that within twenty five meters,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: So he comes back. He re injures it in round sixteen.
Speaker 1: Six weeks later, he reinjured it in training, all right,
Speaker 1: and so we're.
Speaker 2: Thinking he's done for the year.
Speaker 1: Over that's round twenty two, all right, he injures his
Speaker 1: heavy small We go to clark We say, Cyril's redone it,
Speaker 1: he's out for the year. He says, well, why is
Speaker 1: he out for the year? He is, you know, you
Speaker 1: can't come back from that, and he's the damage in
Speaker 1: his hamstring was horrendous, like it was five grade ten
Speaker 1: in injury.
Speaker 2: You're thinking, there's no way this guy's coming back.
Speaker 5: All right, it's ten week injury.
Speaker 1: So he said, I'll give it a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: rehab him, see how you go. So he got a
Speaker 1: few weeks and then and then Clarko says to him,
Speaker 1: says to us, I really want Cyril to play.
Speaker 2: I want to give it a go. What are the risks?
Speaker 2: What are you got to do? And we say no,
Speaker 2: you're mad you know and no. So then we said,
Speaker 2: all right, well, what are the conditions in which we
Speaker 2: might get away with it?
Speaker 1: And we say he so, we know that ten in
Speaker 1: injuries can handle probably once they repaired enough, probably handled
Speaker 1: about eighty percent of top speed. So we're saying, if
Speaker 1: he can play at eighty percent top speed, he's a chance.
Speaker 1: Now I've never ever said that to anyone, but he's
Speaker 1: a chance.
Speaker 2: I'd rather see her all at eighty than anyone else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely capable.
Speaker 1: So what we did is we trained him. So we
Speaker 1: trained him to run at eighty percent. So he went
Speaker 1: so so he ripped his hands to me. We know
Speaker 1: he can go nine and a half meters a second, right,
Speaker 1: we prepare him to run between seven and a half
Speaker 1: and eight a second, all right, and we tell him
Speaker 1: you canno run.
Speaker 2: Fast in that. So we do run throughs.
Speaker 3: He gets to feel it.
Speaker 1: We did imagery around it, so he'd lie down and
Speaker 1: he would visualize himself running eighty percent, going for a ball, tackle, wrestle,
Speaker 1: don't chase.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of mine in it.
Speaker 1: And his biggest session he did before he played the
Speaker 1: Boxel Grand Final was three point eight k's and he
Speaker 1: didn't run above seventy seven percent of his maxim before
Speaker 1: he plays that game, all right, So he plays sixty
Speaker 1: two minutes halftime, Clark I says to me, get him off.
Speaker 1: He's playing next week. I said, you can't play next week.
Speaker 1: I said, he's at fifty percent, sixty percent. He's got
Speaker 1: to at least get to seventy five hours. So I said, Cyril,
Speaker 1: I need you go seventy five percent. Yes, okay, And
Speaker 1: Cyril's unbelievable, like not me plays good, execute this.
Speaker 2: That's tough to make self control. So he goes out there,
Speaker 2: he gets to that as soon as he does it,
Speaker 2: get him off. So sixty two minutes he runs seven
Speaker 2: point eight meters a second as his top speed. So
Speaker 2: then we say to Clark, all right, well he jesus,
Speaker 2: this guy's underdone.
Speaker 1: Not one session over three point aks and we're asking
Speaker 1: him to run twelve k's all right, and so that's
Speaker 1: that's that's one session in twelve weeks that he's done
Speaker 1: three point a case. So in many ways it's the
Speaker 1: dumbest deciason, dumbest thing we've ever done. But we had
Speaker 1: parameters and we stuck to it, and we said Cyril,
Speaker 1: you're not to sprint.
Speaker 2: So anyway, he goes out there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember first play the day, ball
Speaker 1: goes in the air, try to take a screamer, and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, and I must admit, I thought he's gone,
Speaker 1: he's done, because we didn't talk about the year. We
Speaker 1: talked about being in there, about being in the year,
Speaker 1: about in the bubble. He was running and then in there,
Speaker 1: so I thought, I actually thought we got away for it,
Speaker 1: and then I forgot about it and didn't think about
Speaker 1: it until late in the game. Because he ran seven
Speaker 1: point a second in the Grand Final. Wow, seventy's what
Speaker 1: he ran in it. That was his top speed in
Speaker 1: the Grand Final, and yet no one would have ever noticed.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: And then says ten minutes in the last quarter because
Speaker 1: we're winning, Well, I said, can we get him off
Speaker 1: hereously we don't want to do Y's answering. Then I
Speaker 1: go to Clark a week later and I said, we
Speaker 1: did his and it looked horrible and couldn't believe it,
Speaker 1: and Basic said, you're not going to see him till
Speaker 1: February because we need to. So you're not going to
Speaker 1: see him A skills until February. We need it and he's like,
Speaker 1: that's five months away.
Speaker 2: It's just like, that's what's going to take. We need
Speaker 2: to recondition him from the start.
Speaker 5: That's what we did.
Speaker 2: So we took him out and then he had his
Speaker 2: one of his best years.
Speaker 6: Going to say, he ends up with a normalifth medal
Speaker 6: at the end of that year, doesn't he and.
Speaker 2: The trust to take him out conditioning well put him
Speaker 2: into your program.
Speaker 5: Clarko has been to helen back with the racism saga.
Speaker 5: I don't if you want to say anything.
Speaker 4: About it, but I'm when you were there, you saw
Speaker 4: the way he related to people. You saw that he
Speaker 4: was tough but potentially fair. What's your observation.
Speaker 1: If anything, he only wanted the best for people. He
Speaker 1: wanted to help people. He wanted to help all those
Speaker 1: boys create lives for themselves, you know, make money, you know,
Speaker 1: create legacies, all those things. And he was the same
Speaker 1: with everyone. He was the same with everyone. They had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with anything to do with that.
Speaker 2: It was he was. He was like that with Luke Codge,
Speaker 2: he was like that with jar Rd he was like
Speaker 2: that with me. He was like that with Cyril. I
Speaker 2: mean the way that Cyril was treated at the football
Speaker 2: I've never seen anyone else treated as well as Cyril.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anyone else treated with as much respect
Speaker 1: as Cyril and his family. Ever, the week before Cyril leaves,
Speaker 1: he tells me it's the happiest he's ever been at
Speaker 1: the football club because he's doing it. He's done his knee,
Speaker 1: he's coming back. Spent a lot of time with him,
Speaker 1: he said, it's great. I can't wait to play Sean
Speaker 1: berg On.
Speaker 2: I think I had three or four.
Speaker 1: Played, so yeah, I mean, wow, she didn't act get
Speaker 1: out of control, you know, but just on all those
Speaker 1: people around. I mean Jason Burt, Jason Burt was the
Speaker 1: best PDM. You could not imagine a better person or
Speaker 1: a better PDM in the game. And he did for
Speaker 1: so many people and living at his house and he
Speaker 1: was brilliant at his role. You talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: footy clubs and need great people. You can't have a weakness.
Speaker 1: You can't have a weakness in your footy department. You
Speaker 1: don't need to be brilliant in anything you do, but
Speaker 1: you can't have a weakness. And that part of the
Speaker 1: footy club was being so well run Jason. You know,
Speaker 1: Faigue's Vegas is fantastic for Clarko.
Speaker 2: He was really good for the players.
Speaker 1: You know, he was a really good you know, that
Speaker 1: balance worked really really well. And then you had me
Speaker 1: and fig sort of working together and if we didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, if we were thinking this and we go
Speaker 1: together and get Dodgy involved, and so the you know,
Speaker 1: the dynamics just worked really really well. You can't perform
Speaker 1: at the level that that group performed at without having
Speaker 1: a level of harmony, respect.
Speaker 2: And sometimes there were tough conversations.
Speaker 1: That's what high performance is and some people, some people
Speaker 1: don't like it. Some people some people feel very uncomfortable
Speaker 1: in that space.
Speaker 2: But that's the space to be great, want to be great.
Speaker 2: That's the space you gotta be in.
Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to part one of this two part
Speaker 6: episode with Andrew Russell.
Speaker 3: Make sure you tune into episode two, where.
Speaker 6: We delve deeper into Russell's time at the Blues. This
Speaker 6: podcast is a production of Code Sports. To find out more,
Speaker 6: go to codesports dot com dot au or download the
Speaker 6: code Sports app at your app store.