Lloyd’s log – Tuesday

Tuesday July 2:

Two days before the big match against Tasmania, and we had a busy day in preparation.

Starting off with breakfast at the hotel at 7am, we headed down to AFL House for some head shots and education sessions.

We did a session on drugs in sport, and the AFL’s policies surrounding that, and also on respecting women.

Then it was down to the last training session before Thursday’s match, catching the bus to Visy Park.

We had a good training session, we tried to focus on our training skills and bringing the intensity up during the session.

I feel we didn’t train too well heading into the Queensland game, but I think we trained really well today.

The pool was the next stop for us, with a recovery session at the Richmond Leisure centre.

It was just a short fifteen minute pool session, focusing on activation exercises and stretching.

Finally we had some down time, heading back to the hotel for some lunch and ‘off legs’ time.

A lot of the boys went and did some shopping, I went and got a haircut.

I had to head back in to the rooms not long after though, requiring a rub down from the team physiotherapist.

We were eager to get to dinner at Tran Tran restaurant, as a group of ex-rams players who are now playing AFL were invited. Some of the players included Jarrod Witts (Collingwood), Isaac Smith (Hawthorn) and Matt Suckling (Hawthorn).

Just to sit down and relax with them, having a general conversation with them, you realise they are just normal blokes who are getting to live their dream playing in the AFL.

It was good for all the boys to meet them, and see that it could be them next year or the year after.

The night wrapped up around 8.30, with a quick team meeting before bed – a nightly event for us to reflect on the day and address any issues that we needed focus on.