Who is the best AFL preparer?
Former AFL high-performance guru Andrew Russell has been in and around the competition for over two decades, and has worked closely with some of the best players in the league.
Russell spent time at Essendon, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Carlton during his time at clubland, and is now assisting AFL players on an individual level.
On SEN, he ranks his top 10 preparers during his time as a high-performance coach in the AFL.
Stiff to miss
Lance 'Buddy' Franklin pre-season in 2008.
"The only player I've seen from a training perspective, you'd pay to watch him train; he was that good. In a team of champions, he stood out. His speed, endurance, skill, strength, his ball handling, finishing skills, every aspect of the game, completely stood out.
"He had over 200 shots on goal. A special year after a special preparation. It starts in October. He was in the top two or three in every single capacity you want to measure and one in most of them."
The criteria are:
"From the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed, what you do with your day. We're talking about life habits. Everything. The way that you live is the way that you play over time."
2Shaun Burgoyne
"His ability to get consistent, routine, diet- he knew exactly what loads his body could tolerate. He did 70-80 per cent of the pre-season for 10 years in a row. He did not do more. He did not do less. He knew exactly what he needed.
"Unbelievable self-belief. Unbelievable strong mentality. Unbelievable disciple. He loved his routine so much that when we trained off-site, his car wouldn't drive anywhere but Waverley. We got to the point where we'd go to MSAC, and he'd go to Waverley. That's a true story.
"He was told, by people, prior to coming to Hawthorn, he should retire (due to a problematic knee injury he sustained at Port Adelaide). And we got advice from our medical people: don't give him a contract longer than three years. Don't expect him to get longer than two years. We got 10 years.
"After the grand final in 2012, he had a syndesmosis injury, and he had surgery. And this shows the lengths he'd go to. He said to me, 'I want to come back in the same skinfolds, body composition that I left'. That was 46 millimetres of skinfold. 'Do not give me an out at all. I'm going to send a message to the group, that I can do no training and come back exactly the same, based on what I eat'. He lay on the couch for four weeks and after six weeks, we got to check in. He was 45.9. He didn't do one bit of exercise. He drank no alcohol. He had no sugar. Completed controlled what he ate. He said 'that's the discipline required for me to get back from this injury'."
