We now have an opponent for the grand final following Subiaco’s win over the Sharks on Sunday. But more importantly, I was up at 8am to watch the San Fransisco 49ers take on the Chicago Bears in the NFL. This was a disaster for me as Colin Kaepernick, the quarter-back in my Fantasy team, threw four second half picks and gave me no chance to beat a former employee of the West Coast Eagles. He’s a bit of a battler, so I was disappointed not to get the win. This was not a great start to Grand Final week... However, we digress.
Mondays are always an afternoon start, so I headed in for a conditioning session with Brant [Colledge] and Blayne [Wilson] at around 2pm. Our training loads are generally very low towards this time of year, so it's important to keep up our fitness and we are looking for anything to give us an edge come Sunday.
Every Monday we are screened by the physio and doctors and this week was no different, even though we didn't play on the weekend. Screening involves ankle mobility, hamstring length, groin strength and a range of shoulder tests. The boys then did recovery and headed off to Leederville Oval for training. It was a short sharp skills session which most players participated in. A few of the boys headed off to the Sandover Medal following training. I decided not to go this year given that I was no chance of winning, and as predicted finished the count on zero votes.
TuesdayA 9.30am start for touch, injury prevention followed by weights today. There's still plenty of motivation in the gym, mainly I think the boys want to look good on the tele on Sunday arvo, but there's a few of us who just want to get better. We have the afternoon off so I'm able to catch up with a few mates for lunch, then just took it easy for the rest of the day.
Wednesday
Couldn't sleep last night after the announcement of the All-Australian side. I can't remember a bigger stuff up since Monkey Brennan missed out in 1990. Contrary to popular belief of the selection committee, ‘Easy’ has played on the best forward for the last four years and did this year again, but well done to the players selected all the same. After I grabbed my morning coffee to help me get through the day, I went to the club for a massage and physio treatment. This is my usual Wednesday routine and heading into the big game there's no need to change this. I then went home to catch up on some sleep I missed from the previous night. Poor Eric.
We got to train on Patersons Stadium this evening which was a great experience for everyone heading into the game on Sunday. It's a very different ground to the WAFL grounds, not just with the stands surrounding the whole oval, but the dimensions of the oval as well are quite unique. This was our main session of the week and all the boys got a lot out of training at the ground where we will be playing Sunday at 2.15pm for a premiership!
Thursday
We started the day with what would be our last weights session as a group. It was a strange feeling knowing that we wouldn't be in here all together
again for a couple of months. Following weights and some physio treatment ,I met the unluckiest bloke in All-Australian history for lunch at Ingredient Tree. Easy was in good spirits. The ‘Moose’ [Brant Colledge] and the ‘Workhorse’ [Fraser McInnes] joined us as well. Like normal, Moose provided very little substance to the conversation, but luckily we were prepared for this.The afternoon was mainly focused around getting ready for training. It was our second last session of the year and it was great to see a number of fans down supporting the boys. Dinner was put on for us which is always great. Cooking is not one of my strengths, so any meal which results in me not doing a lot is fantastic. Former Eagle and Royal premiership player Ryan Turnbull spoke to the playing group over dinner about his experiences and I felt it left the group in a really good head space heading into the weekend’s game.
Friday
Today is a day off, so really just taking it easy and getting my mind away from footy for a while. I’m heading in to the club at 11.30am for a massage and then I might grab a coffee and head home. I’m having a few of the boys over for dinner, so I might whip up the signature dish: Tuna Mornay. No need to thank me boys. A pretty easy-going day; now is probably the time you just wish it was game day, we all can’t wait.
From tomorrow my mind will again be firmly on the job. We’ve got our captain’s run tomorrow morning, then it’ll be on to Sunday at Patersons Stadium.
See you there,
Brenno
