Cameron Bruce Interviewed on 3AW 19.11.05

[Demonland 73,262]

by Alpha 33

I've finally managed to put together the transcript of the Cameron Bruce interview on 3AW from last Saturday and the delay was well worth it because the interview gives an interesting insight into Melbourne's pe season training on a group level and has become even more relevant in view of the story about Lance Whitnall coming back after the break 8kg overweight. I somehow think after hearing what Cameron Bruce had to say that Big Red might have eaten less Big Macs, french fries and souvlakis over the past month or so:

Dwayne Russell: Welcome to the programme Cam. How are you?

Cameron Bruce: G’day guys. Good, how are you going?

DR: Yeah good. Did you have a day off today or is already noses to the grindstone?

CB: No we’re getting flogged. We had a session this morning. It’s been six days this week and we get a rest tomorrow.

DR: Is it getting tougher each year?

CB: Well, this year’s definitely been the toughest start to a pre season that we’ve had. That I’ve had...

Rohan Connolly: Well, hang on; we’ve got to finish the cliché here.Are you the fittest you’ve ever been?

CB: No I said I’m feeling fit (laughs) but this is definitely the toughest pre season that we’ve started anyway.

RC: And why do you think?

CB: I’m not sure. I think they were pretty happy with the way we came back as a group. Our fitness levels – they put on a bit of a demand on us to come back with pretty good skin fold levels so we didn’t waste the first couple of weeks getting some of the guys back into some form of fitness to train well. So they've just basically come out all guns blazing and yeah, we’re getting flogged.

Tony Shaw: Now Cam. Normally in pre season sides have a specific philosophy that they want to base their pre seaon on that goes into the next year when you’re going to play. Can you give us an inkling about which direction it’s taken with Melbourne?

CB: Well, last year it was unfinished business that we were trying to rectify and I’m sure it’s just the same this year. We wanted to get into the finals and make an impact into the finals and we weren’t able to do that again. So it’s all about continuing to improve. We have got a list that has improved and can only get better with the average age of the group being pretty low.

DR: Are you doing more competitive work than last year or not?

CB: Personally or as a group?

DR: As a group.

CB: Definitely. The way the guys came back after the off season, I think they said our average skin folds is down by 10 or 12 mill on the previous year which is a fair result. I’m one who’s keeping the average a little bit high. It’s the one thing you don’t want to be above average but we are.

RC: Cam, you guys would be a bit dirty on yourselves given the way you started last season. I mean for the first month of the season you guys were clearly the best team in the competition so you’ve shown you can match it with any team in the comp. Would you blokes look at yourselves as a group and concede that you haven’t been hard enough either physically or mentally?

CB: I’m not too sure about the physical side of things but definitely the mentally we have to be a lot tougher. It wasn’t just last year but also the year before as well. We finished last year really poorly. That’s something we’re going to work on. When you look at the stats it’s evident that the reason we had that poor run is that we weren’t getting our hands on the ball.

RC: My next question was going to be how do you improve your mental hardness? How do you go about doing it?

CB: Well I suppose it comes with experience and maturity as a group and maturing as individual players. We’ve also obviously got to get fitter and tougher to be able to play out a full season. It’s all well and good being on top of the ladder 15 rounds in but it’s not going to win you finals, which obviously showed with our group. We’ve got to keep continuing to get physically tougher and fitter to be able to play out a full season and finals.

DR: Cameron, thank you for joining us, thanks again.