Burgers’ weekend in Mansfield a success
For the second year in a row, the Coburg Football Club ventured out into regional Victoria for its annual pre-season camp.
While it didn’t necessarily have the hype of Yarrawonga 2015 which included practice matches against Brendan Fevola’s Pigeons as well as a community engagement session with the locals or “Big Steffa’s Game Night,” the boys headed to the Victorian Alps Foothills town of Mansfield for a three day training camp. The aim of the camp was to have the playing group gain a much better understanding as to how a professional environment goes in the VFL, as well as team bonding and understanding the team’s expectations and game style ahead of the 2016 season.
Day One
The players and coaches arrived at Mansfield Sporting Complex at 9:30am with training starting at 10:30am. The training consisted of a usual session that would be completed on a weeknight which saw them partake in the usual fitness circuits as well as team structures and skills and drills in line groups as well as mixed groups. It was then followed by a recovery session at the pool along with lunch. Following the finish of the break, the players and coaches set up their sleeping arrangements and got into their allocated groups, and went through their camp objectives at the Mansfield Social Club. Following this was a review of the 2015 season in terms of the clubs statistics.
This was then followed by free time and team building activities where each player was assigned to a group, where they were to make a round object. Following these activities was dinner, consisting of a Barbeque cooked by the coaching staff. Once dinner was finished, Football Manager Ron Rooney did a presentation regarding leadership, and how important it was within the circles of a football club. Following Ron’s presentation were team objectives ahead of the 2016 season in line groups, as well as directly from Peter German.
Day Two
Following breakfast, the players, coaches and staff ventured up to Mt. Buller early on the Saturday Morning to undertake the hike. With the starting point being at the entrance at the bottom, all were required to reach the Mt.Buller Village, where they were required to take photos of several landmarks before being given permission to go back down. Once everyone was back down, it was followed by a return to Mansfield and then a recovery session at the Mansfield Pools.
Following the recovery session everyone ventured out into the town to have lunch. After lunch, players then split up into the three line groups; defenders (Richard Peoples & Paul Dunn), midfielders (Ricky Petterd & Adam Paterson) and forwards (Adam Campbell & James Belcher). This was followed by another team building activity where a tower was to be constructed. After the team dinner at the Mansfield Hotel, it was then followed by a line presentation by each line coach to the entire playing group as what the expectations of each line was for the 2016 season.
Day Three
The day began again with Breakfast. New High Performance Manager Derek McConn was responsible for the early training session with a fitness circuit which went for an hour and a half, before the players then went into the social rooms for a meeting on team rules for the 2016 season, as well as what “Coburg Football” is to be consisting of. After these two early morning sessions, there was clean up and departure, bringing to a close the clubs camp for 2016.
