Nine Days in the Top End

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

Darwin was shaken by an earthquake overnight - hopefully no sleep was lost.

"The magnitude 7.2 quake struck in the Banda Sea off Indonesia, but was felt more than 600km away in Darwin, at about 2.30am local time."

Viney went out for a midnight swim?

[cowboy_from_hell 2,390]

Darwin was shaken by an earthquake overnight - hopefully no sleep was lost.

"The magnitude 7.2 quake struck in the Banda Sea off Indonesia, but was felt more than 600km away in Darwin, at about 2.30am local time."

Either Jesse hogan was doing star jumps or scully dropped his wallet.

[Sideshow Bob 2,465]

Reported on the MFC website that both the new rookies - Stark and Clisby are flying up for the last 2 days in Darwin. They would have loved that phone call! Welcome to the club, first port of call a 35k trek through kakdu in stinking hot conditions. Nice initiation!

[monoccular 17,653]

Reported on the MFC website that both the new rookies - Stark and Clisby are flying up for the last 2 days in Darwin. They would have loved that phone call! Welcome to the club, first port of call a 35k trek through kakdu in stinking hot conditions. Nice initiation!

Not really wishing to dwell in the past, but FCS I am trying to envisage Cale or the Gys on the treck ;-(((

These guys will learn bloody quickly what is expected of them if they are to get on at the new MFC.

Unlike some of his recent predecessors, Neeld will not accept any excuses for laziness or lack of commitment.

[Demon Head 299]

Tomorrow's training at the army barracks is a closed session. Hopefully Burgo gives it some good coverage on the club site.

Dees feeling the NT heat

[Hells Gates 505]

Tomorrow's training at the army barracks is a closed session. Hopefully Burgo gives it some good coverage on the club site.

I'll be there. Will keep you updated.

[jnrmac 20,276]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-living-high-life-staying-at-home-20121211-2b7th.html

For those interested there is an interesting article on the Dogs training at Altitude at Victoria University. I have been on a tour of the facility and its very sophisticated and well equipped. Some of the earlier questions in this thread about the effects of altitude were answered for me. An ideal altitude (low oxygen and/or increased Nitrogen) is around 2500m. The lower oxygen increases the red blood cell count which in turn allows the blood to carry more oxygen and therefore have better endurance. The paradox is that if you have lower oxygen for too long your conditioning can suffer hence the Altitude Hotel experience where you can build red blood cells by living and sleeping in an Altitude room but train at normal level (Live high train low). The effects can be boosted every few months by repeating the exercise. Carrying higher oxygen allows the body to train at higher loads and build a bigger fitness base. That increased fitness base WILL carry a player well into the season and this is where the benefit largely stands.

The Vic Uni facility allows 16 players to sleep at a time in four rooms plus a living room with lots of DVDs , XBox's etc. They spend a few weeks living in there. As well they have other rooms where they can do cycling or running sessions. They looked like lab rats when I went through!

With heat training such as the Dees are doing its more about conditioning the body and working with a higher body core temperature. Any weight lost is largely fluid and can be replaced readily but the fitness gained conditions the body to work effectively when the core body temperature is increased. This could be in a game in Melbourne or clearly when we play Darwin or Perth.

The GPS trackers have become so sophisticated now that they can tell when a player is working effectively or if their performance has 'fallen off a cliff' - time to rotate to the bench or get subbed. The ability to monitor individual players pre-season gives a great benchmark for real game situations. It is really quite mind blowing how much information the sport science people have to deal with. They know loads, recovery times, ideal effort/rest times, time covered running/jogging/resting etc. Overall it was very impressive.

[Hells Gates 505]

Ok in about an hour Im heading to the Barracks to see what the boys are up to today.

Feel free to put forward any questions to me or players to focus on before I head off.

Cheers,

HG.

[Deeoldfart 8,120]

Just keep the good news rolling in and I'll be well satisfied HG, but a bit of a focus on the lesser known newbies (eg. Barry, Jones, Kent, Terlich, Pedersen, Gillies) would be fantastic. Thanks.

[rjay 25,307]

Would like to know what Jack Trengove's program is while the others are away and why he is not in Darwin doing his rehab. As a team captain I would have thought it important he be there unless there were specific problems with flight or the moon boot in those conditions.

Must be lonely in Melbourne for Jack with CS & CC for company.

[Bossdog 2,002]

Would like to know what Jack Trengove's program is while the others are away and why he is not in Darwin doing his rehab. As a team captain I would have thought it important he be there unless there were specific problems with flight or the moon boot in those conditions.

Must be lonely in Melbourne for Jack with CS & CC for company.

I think you will find that CS is up in Darwin....

[olisik 4,060]

I think you will find that CS is up in Darwin....

Just for 1 day

[PaulRB 6,432]

From Matt's Diary I'd suggest he was up for the NT Premiers Xmas party last night, which was attended by MFC coaches and (presumably) CS and our corp dev people.

All good.

[dees189227 12,453]

Here the 2 new boys in there polos having just arrived in darwin. According to Jonsey the team are now in kakadu. So they think they have to hike though the national park.

[daisycutter 29,893]

bit concerned about the return of the royal blue, and that red is getting a bit bright

I'll put it down to badly adjusted camera

[Biffen 12,949]

Just for 1 day.

I, I can remember.

Standing ,by the wall

and the guards -shot above our heads.

[Biffen 12,949]

bit concerned about the return of the royal blue, and that red is getting a bit bright

I'll put it down to badly adjusted camera

Are they cousins or something?

Fat bastards.

[djr 1,605]

I am a little surprised that we don't see Jack Grimes a little more front and centre. As our captain I would like to hear his thoughts of the Darwin experience…….in actual fact the whole pre-season. Unless i missed an interview, we have heard nothing from him. I would have thought that the presentation to the young lance-corporal would have been done by him seeing that he was there.

[Hannibal 5,814]

I am a little surprised that we don't see Jack Grimes a little more front and centre. As our captain I would like to hear his thoughts of the Darwin experience…….in actual fact the whole pre-season. Unless i missed an interview, we have heard nothing from him. I would have thought that the presentation to the young lance-corporal would have been done by him seeing that he was there.

The club can't do anything right...

[djr 1,605]

The club can't do anything right...

Wow! didn't see that coming. Chill out Ben. All I am asking here is that I would like to hear from our skipper. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

I am a little surprised that we don't see Jack Grimes a little more front and centre. As our captain I would like to hear his thoughts of the Darwin experience…….in actual fact the whole pre-season. Unless i missed an interview, we have heard nothing from him. I would have thought that the presentation to the young lance-corporal would have been done by him seeing that he was there.

appeared to me that the army blokes picked clark

[s-t-i-n-g-a 439]

Training report?

[rjay 25,307]

Training report?

Just occurred to me that if you are going to have a closed session where else would be better than an army barracks surrounded by the best security the country could supply.

Like to see opposition scouts get some info on this one.

[Jordie_tackles 354]

bit concerned about the return of the royal blue, and that red is getting a bit bright

I'll put it down to badly adjusted camera

I got my members pack today! (country) scraf is definitely a darker blue closer to Black! much darker if this helps?

[old dee 24,004]

I got my members pack today! (country) scraf is definitely a darker blue closer to Black! much darker if this helps?

Jt what colour red is it?

Not Maroon like the last two years I hope