A GROWING trend away from expensive high-altitude camps could be open the door for the Far North to become the off-season training destination of choice for AFL clubs.
The Gold Coast Suns, who have spent their last three pre-seasons in Arizona, have become the latest side to cast doubt on the future of the once-popular training method among AFL clubs.
Yesterday, the Suns players voted to continue their offshore pre-season but the players will contribute a percentage of the costs.
St Kilda and North Melbourne have also axed or heavily scaled down their camps in a response to the AFL’s new “luxury tax”, which is aimed to restrict the spending of football departments and even the competition.
As experts continue to debate whether the benefits of altitude training are worth the significant outlay, former Port Adelaide fitness coach David Arnfield is fielding an increasing number of calls from teams keen on coming to Cairns in the peak of summer instead.
The popularity of heat training is on the rise and Arnfield, who owns Queensland Elite Sports Training, believes it is a viable alternative.
“It’s just too expensive for some of them to do (altitude training),” he said.
“More evidence is coming out that’s leaning towards heat training being just as good – and you can do it for a third of the price and in a way that you don’t disrupt your training schedule. We’re certainly pushing all of those things – the facilities, the infrastructure, the accommodation.”
Richmond came to Cairns in 2012 on a pre-season camp and “loved it”, Arnfield said, while Port Adelaide went to Dubai late last year to reap the benefits of training in sweltering conditions.
Collingwood was considered the pioneer of altitude training in the AFL under their then-coach Mick Malthouse.
When his former assistants Guy McKenna (Gold Coast), Scott Watters (St Kilda) and Brad Scott (North Melbourne) went on to become senior coaches, the method became widespread.
The Magpies opted to stay at home this year, with current coach Nathan Buckley claiming a more “consistent” training block using their new facilities in Melbourne would be of more benefit.
Arnfield agrees that remaining in Australia is a sensible decision, given the great toll of travel and jet lag and the subsequent loss of training opportunities for players.
But add in the Far Northern heat, and the local facilities which he believes are as good as an AFL club will find, and he believes Cairns becomes a no-brainer as a location for AFL pre-season training.
“All of that stuff is in our favour, we’ve just got to get the word out,” he said.
“I did 15 pre-seasons at Port Adelaide and when I came up here I thought, why didn’t we ever come up here for a camp?
“When we brought Richmond up, they wanted a combination of skills training but also some team-building stuff, so we did a Great Race from Gordonvale all the way to Cape Tribulation.
“It just depends on the goals the team has, whether it be conditioning or leadership or what they want to get out of it, and that usually depends on the age of the list they have.
“We don’t tell a team what to do – they tell us what they want to get out of it, and then we organise it for them.
“We’re not going to capture every club, of course, but you just need one or two and word starts getting around.
“You’ve just got to go down there, knock on doors and sell.”
Last Modified on 17/09/2014 20:55