West Coast defender Brad Sheppard believes at least a three-week training block back at the club would help the Eagles to prepare for round two of this extraordinary AFL season.
It has been a month since West Coast defeated Melbourne at Optus Stadium knowing their season-opening clash would also be the last for some time.
While the players have been staying on top of their training programs in isolation away from Mineral Resources Park, they will get the opportunity to train together again before the season resumption.
“I reckon three weeks is the minimum time you probably need to get back into the regime, get back into your training,” Sheppard told TAB Radio.
“Still keeping fit at the moment but to play a full game of AFL footy you definitely need that three-week training block.
“At the moment we’re only training with partners and AFL is such a demanding game on your body that you need to get real game loads in your legs.
“Speaking to a few of the boys definitely the motivation levels waver throughout the longer this (shutdown) goes on but at the same time you’ve got to look at what is happening in the world at the moment and be grateful.
“We’re still getting a bit of pay, we’re healthy, we’re able to train with a partner – there’s a lot of worse people in the world than what we are at the moment.
“People are losing jobs, so when you look at that aspect it puts everything into perspective.
“But the unknown (season return date) is getting to a few blokes, so hopefully in a couple weeks’ time we’ll know what’s going on.”
Players and football department staff have been keeping in touch using video conferencing tools, and Sheppard’s backline coach Jaymie Graham is still checking in while he is working at Iron Valley mine site in the Pilbara region thanks to club partner Mineral Resources.
Fellow assistant coach Nathan van Berlo and fitness guru Anthony Jones are also at mine sites around the state offering their experience in leadership, motivation and health and wellbeing.
“We’ve had a couple of Zoom sessions with the boys in high-vis. They keep reiterating to us as players ‘you boys have it pretty good’,” Sheppard said.
“Still in constant contact and everyone is sharing their ideas about what they think about the training program, what they think about the remainder of the year and what the motivation levels are like and you try to get some footy-specific stuff in there to try to educate your mind.”
Many Eagles will have to converge on club headquarters from various locations once the all clear is given to return to training, including midfielder Jack Redden who returned to South Australia with his family before state borders were closed.
Redden told Channel 10 he would “100 per cent be straight on a plane” once the call comes from the club and couldn't wait to get back into footy.
“We want to finish the season and contend at the end of the year,” Redden said.
“If you can stay strong and prepare really well and have success in a year like this it’s a great character-testing thing for the group and it would be very rewarding as a group.”
