Saints in Potchefstroom 2004
South African Saints?
St Kilda may return to South Africa annually and will consider making Potchefstroom, the university town where the club is currently based for a 21-day pre-season camp, its training home away from home . . . Now, with the entire playing list and coaching staff two weeks into a three-week stay in South Africa, coach Grant Thomas, the initiator of the trailblazing overseas training camps, is already eager for the club to return to Potchefstroom.
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 30Nov04
Thomas urges South African push - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 01Dec04
Saint feathers ruffled, as planned
. . . "Most of the feedback is based around work ethic and there's definitely players who work harder than others. Some guys need to just improve in that area and I think as senior players we're always trying to get guys to improve their work ethic and some of them are just extremely naturally gifted people who can get by not working as hard. But we always believe that if they improve their work ethic then they're just going to get better." Thompson rates the current St Kilda list as the most tight-knit group he can recall in his eight-year career, said that any angst caused by the discussions quickly dissipated. "Everyone knows it's to help each player improve and as soon as the meeting is over whatever is said is taken on board. And then you might see the guys who have had a go at each other playing volleyball or whatever two minutes later. One of the keys about giving the feedback is also receiving it in the right manner and taking it on board."
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 29Nov04
Saints camp tests spirits - Sportal - 29Nov04
Saints eye rhino for rookie list
. . . The Saints, after five days of intensive training, took the 2 1/2-hour drive from Potchefstroom to Sun City for two days' rest. Some needed a mental release after enduring a harrowing appraisal from their peers. Every player on the list had to rate each teammate in order from one to 35; not just for on-field performance, but also for off-field leadership. Each player was handed the final results. Everyone on the list found out exactly how each player rates the list.
The Article - Mark Stevens - HeraldSun - 27Nov04
Club by Club Summary - HeraldSun - 29Nov04
Thompson reaps South African rewards
St Kilda is just nine days in to its trailblazing three-week training camp in South Africa, but experienced Saint Andrew Thompson is already appreciating the benefits . . . "You won't recognise me when I get home! I'm running like an athlete instead of like a plodder!" The Saints have been under the instruction of their new strength and conditioning coach Adam Larcom, formerly at Fremantle and Hawthorn, while training at the university town of Potchefstroom, at 1500 metres altitude. And British Olympic decathlete gold medallist Daley Thompson, has also been closely involved with the players' daily sprinting regime. "I've really connected well with Adam who has worked specifically with me and Daley who has done a bit of extra work with me."
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 26Nov04
Wizard Cup: AFL to double-up - Sportal - 26Nov04
Wizard Cup Times and TV Cover - This site
PM 'happy' to meet Long - ABC Sport - 26Nov04
Magpie flies to Africa
. . . McGough had become expendable less than three years after being feted for winning an Anzac Medal for the Pies as a 17-year-old VCE student. The knockers who labelled McGough as a slow, wet-weather specialist with sloppy foot skills would have felt immediately vindicated. But St Kilda coach Grant Thomas was never one of those lining up to take pot shots at the kid from Mulwala. He has always rated McGough's ballwinning ability. Thomas's theory is simple: you don't show you can win the footy 35 times at AFL level and not possess any ability. He thought the constant talk of the midfielder's deficiencies was harsh . . . McGough has been pigeon-holed much more than most, and it has clearly worn thin. "I've got deficiencies like any footballer, but sometimes they get played on a little bit too much," McGough said. "They're things I can work on."
The Article - HeraldSun -FoxSport - 24Nov04
Winged Magpie flies to Africa - Mark Stevens - HeraldSun - 24Nov04
Postcard 4
. . . Training services took full advantage of the cooler weather and put us through one of the harder sessions. Several of the older more seasoned players were allowed to don the running spikes for added speed. The sight of big Fraser sprinting down the track is an awesome spectacle.
Postcard No4 - Lenny Hayes - saints.com.au - 03Dec04
Postcard 3
On Monday, 22nd November we had another running session with Daley Thompson at the Athletics track in Potch. The facilities here are great. The session was good, not as hard as the one he gave us the day before but still quite tough. After the running, the leadership group held a meeting with all the players to discuss a few issues from 2004 and going forward for 2005. Following this was another weights session at Virgin Active Gym. This session concentrated more on upper body. This morning the bike guys came to the villas to fix all the ones that had fallen apart. There were nearly 20 bikes out of action, so it was good to have them back! In the afternoon we headed to Sedgars Park (home of cricket in the North-West province) where we had our skills session. The Ground is in awesome condition and it was a privilege to be able to train there. Instead of corporate boxes at the ground they have little cabins which surround the oval. This was where we went on Sunday to watch the cricket.
Postcard No2 - Lenny Hayes - saints.com.au - 28Nov04
Postcard 2
. . . The World Champion decathalete Daley Thompson arrived at the Villas for breakfast, he was here at Potch for a few days to help out with training. We had a full 1½ hour weights session at Virgin Active Gym. After this we headed on our bikes to the university pool for a rehab session. They had a 3 metre diving board, so Bakes and Milney of course did their stuff, Bakes a bomb, Milney a pike dive! It was pretty hot by this time, so the pool was a perfect way to cool down. For lunch we headed back to the villas followed by another training services session. By mid afternoon a small thunderstorm came through Potch, which made it a little cooler but still pretty sticky. Skills again at 4.00pm at the PUK (hockey fields) and then we had a free night where we all headed to the university part of Potch for dinner, where all the cafes and restaurants are . . .
Postcard No2 - Lenny Hayes - saints.com.au - 22Nov04
Postcard 1
. . . For our first morning in Potch we all met at 7.00am for a run at the Potch Athletics track, which is called PUK. Already at 7.00am you could feel that it was going to be an extremely warm day, and ended up reaching 38C. From the run we headed back to the villas for an impressive breakfast with lots of fruit, cereals, yoghurts and poached eggs with toast. Not a bad feast for our first morning in Potch. After that we had a meeting with training services who ran us through our program for the trip and then all the players gave them feedback on what we felt would also be effective . . .
Postcard No1 - Lenny Hayes - saints.com.au - 19Nov04
Saintly helpers
Daley Thompson one day. Kelly Holmes the next. St Kilda has turned to the British track and field stars to add spice to their South African adventure. Thompson, gold medallist in the decathlon in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, arrived at the Saints camp in Potchefstroom on Friday and went to work overseeing the club's fitness program. Holmes, gold medallist in the 800m and 1500m at the Athens Games, will address the squad today. "Kelly and Daley can rub gold medals together," St Kilda coach Grant Thomas said. Holmes regularly uses high-altitude Potchefstroom as a training base, while Thompson has become a close friend of Thomas. "To be honest, it's an honour for the lads to invite me down," Thompson said. "I've been seeing them for the last couple of years, three or four times a year. It's really great for me because I get fresh inspiration all the time".
The Article - Mark Stevens - HeraldSun - 21Nov04
Saints on safari
St Kilda's safari squad may have been feeling like zombies after a 14-hour flight to Johannesburg, but it didn't take long for a rude awakening. The entire list, coaching staff and president Rod Butterss, crammed into a bus at the airport and headed directly for the grim sights of Soweto. They cruised up the main street of the shanty town, stopping for a short time to pose for photos with some soccer-loving locals at a dusty playground.
The Article - Mark Stevens - HeraldSun - 18Nov04
Saints: Japan and South Africa!
(Thomas:) . . . "The basic philosophy behind these tours is that you give the players a broader base of experience. Quite often league footballers can play their careers almost in a bubble - we want to give them some world experience they otherwise might not get" Thomas says. "On the training track we can develop players physically, but this is also about developing their maturity and giving them an edge mentally. Ultimately, it benefits the players and the club." As part of their plans, the Saints will use world-class facilities in the university town of Potchefstroom, near Johannesburg, where specialised high-altitude training is run for athletes from around the world, the town being located more than 1,500 meters above sea level. Players will also tour locations such as Soweto, where Thomas says the players will be confronted by the sorts of challenges faced in day-to-day life by poorer South Africans. "The players have had their own challenges over the past few years, but this is a way of seeing the massive challenges faced by the South African people over the past few decades and how they're overcoming them" . . . "We've already got a relationship with the Japanese league, the boys from the Japanese team wear the Saints colours and came along to training sessions and pre-game session with the Saints last year, but there's a possibility for us to foster a second nation. So in future there may be a relationship between the Saints and both Japan and South Africa"
The Article - Aaron Richard - worldfootynews.com - 20Oct04
GT: SA trip an invaluable experience - Cameron Palmer - FootyGos - 26Oct04
Saints set for South African expedition - Punchlines/Scot Palmer - HeraldSun - 24Oct04
Football's African adventure
As St Kilda conducts its 10-day training camp in South Africa, starting today, it will discover that one small province in the backblocks of that rugby- and cricket-mad country is fast becoming the world's most unlikely AFL hot spot. A submission by AFL South Africa predicts that within a year, there will be 3000 people in 50 teams playing the game in North West Province, on the border with Botswana. If the projection is realised, the province will have the biggest Australian football-playing population outside Australia and Papua New Guinea. "We need to consider the opportunity that presents itself now and not miss the opportunity by sitting on our hands. We want to embrace what the South African people have been able to demonstrate," said David Matthews, the AFL's game development manager. "The support doesn't always have to be financial. The sort of promotion that St Kilda are undertaking at the moment, we'll top that up with coach education, coaching seminars and promotional clinics over the next couple of years."
The Article - Dan Oakes - TheAge - 17Nov04
Saints challenge tradition again
. . . With a president who poses for photographs in the lotus position, and a coach who famously cancelled a training session in favour of an afternoon at the movies, the label of football revolutionaries has rested comfortably at Moorabbin. If coach Grant Thomas and his football department have their way, the traditional end-of-season footy trip may also be consigned to history, as the Saints prepare for a development and preparation tour of South Africa next month . . . "The players will be training three times a day, doing gym sessions, a running session and a skills session every day for the whole three weeks, so it's pretty full-on and they will be very very fatigued during it," Thomas said. "We will have to manage them properly during it, but we think it will be a tremendous experience for them" . . . The tour will take the players through the Soweto slums and give them other cultural experiences along the way. "That will give the players a good indication of how some other people have to live in the world . . . they will get some learnings out of seeing a place like South Africa and how it has come through some of its challenges in the last 30 years or so," he said.
The Article - Peter Ker - TheAge - 17Oct04
Saints to go on jungle safari
. . . Potchefstroom is 1500m above sea level and, with its world-class training venue, is the base of top athletes such as Olympic 800m and 1500m gold medallist Kelly Holmes and Mozambique's wonder woman Maria Mutola, the Sydney Olympics 800m gold medallist. Australia's cricket team used the camp as its headquarters during its successful World Cup campaign early last year. Facilities include synthetic and grass athletics tracks, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, gymnasiums, rugby and soccer ovals and access to world-class coaches and dietitians. "Our training services people will be occupied the whole time discussing elite athletic performances," Thomas said. "We'll do the 2004 debrief and 2005 preview there. These trips have worked really well for us and, while you've got the guys as a captive audience, you get a lot more work done in these first few weeks than you normally would. It creates a lot of excitement and they gain a lot of experience in worldliness out of it. We get off the plane in Johannesburg and get piled on to a bus and the first thing we're doing is taking the players through Soweto on a tour just to open their eyes."
The Article - Bruce Matthews - HeraldSun - 30Sept04
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