Hawthorn Football Clubs Secret to Success

‘Having completed my 3^rd Ironman, I want to know if Hawthorn trains as hard as I do’. That answer won me a chance to attend a training session with the Hawthorn Football Club.  Seriously, I’m not really comparing myself to full time professional athletes, but the answer achieved the desired result.

So, a couple of weeks back, I ventured off to the old Waverley  Park, now a housing development with a football ground in the middle.  The day was run by BUPA Insurance, so was best I kept my Medibank membership quite for the day.

We had to come dressed for activity, so naturally everyone was sizing each other up.  I could probably split the group up into the overly eager football fan, evident by the football jumper, scarf, cap and club theme song mobile phone ringtone.

There was the typical corporate marketeer, decked out in the latest 2XU gear, fresh out of the box runners, iPhone pouch strapped to their arm and the fitbit recording their 6000^th  step for the day.

And finally, the ironman, not really that interested in football, dressed more for a run in the park than kicking a football and more interested in a Q & A session within the club physio rather than learning the finer points of the game.

The afternoon started with a presentation by Jason Burt (Football Administration and Player Welfare Services Manager).  The one thing missing from his title was – ex PE Teacher.  I knew I liked the guy, the fact that Hawthorn had a further 7 PE Teachers on staff goes someway to explaining how flexible a phys ed degree can be.  Who would have thought I would end up in financial services after completing my PE degree.

Jason was an engaging speaker, so much so that if I was looking to join a football club, then I would have signed up on the spot.  What truly impressed me was the focus the club placed on instilling their strong culture on not only the players but also their families.  Hawthorn is known as the family club afterall.  Probably the other point that stood out was how little football players undertook during the week, with a couple of hours per day average, the rest spent at the physio, pilates/yoga and non football development/study.

With the talk down and disclaimers signed, we headed down to the field.  Meeting us were Paul Puopolo (defender), Teia Miles (mid fielder) and Bradley Hill (midfielder).   Sorry guys, I had no idea who you were but based on some of the loyal participants, you were obviously players.

Well, the training was a little under whelming I must admit, although this didn’t stop some of the participants putting in some extra effort, I’m sure they thought the selectors were in the stands.  After some drills, some competitions and goal kicking practice, it was off to the gym for some boxing.

Oh, how did I go, lets just say that my hand balls were a bit soft, my short pass was low and penetrating and my drop kick was more a mungral punt.  Yep, some things just don’t change.  Special call out to my old Phys Ed teacher Mr. K who did have the best stab pass I have seen.

 

Now with my shoulder SLAP tear continuing plague any overhead activity, boxing wasn’t going to be an activity I was prepared to do, so I opted to hold the punching bag for another participant.   Clearly she  had done a  few bootcamps or she just had an issue with me personally as she got in a few solid hits, left, right, upper hook.

From boxing we headed across to the exercise bikes.  It didn’t take me long to spot the better quality watt bike up the back that had all the good stuff to get an Ironman excited.  The players then ran us through some spinning drills which were a bit of fun and certainly left a few reaching for the drink bottles and towels. This concluded our afternoon.

What did I learn.  Well, Hawthorn definitely had a strong culture, citing alcohol as the biggest threat to their brand. Clearly this remains a challenge given their captain was caught drink driving recently.

I was under whelmed by the clubs gym facilities but then again, maybe you don’t need the latest and greatest gym gear to be a winning team.   I was surprised to hear they had 8 PE teachers on staff, but this makes sense given players are drafted directly from school where they would have had a PE in a mentor type role.

And finally, Hawthorn announced during the year that they planned to move to Dingley village to a new purpose built facility.  I just hope they have considered the ominous smells wafting from the rubbish tip buried deep at the site.

So how hard do Hawthorn train, I can’t say I am any closer to answering that question, but clearly they are doing something right with back to back premierships in 2013,2014 and a good chance for 2015.