Thursday the Cats packed their bags and followed the sunshine to Coffs Harbour to begin their pre-season training camp.
Geelong’s Football Operations Coordinator, Troy Selwood, says the club believes a change in scenery can only have a positive impact on a young team going forward. Over the past two years the Cats have stayed within Victoria during preseason camp and this year they wanted something new.
“We decided that Coffs would be a nice change for the boys. You want to make sure that they’re not too bored with their training environment and their surroundings,” Selwood explained.
The Novotel Pacific Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour has hosted a number of professional sporting codes from all over Australia and beyond.
With so many attractive reviews the Cats were intrigued to check it out.
“There have been some fantastic results that have come from other teams heading up here, including AFL, NRL and the Wallabies,” Selwood said.
“We haven’t sacrificed anything with the conditions of the training facilities and the heat will really help us as well, so we’re excited to be up here.”
The Cats aim to be in tip-top shape before their Christmas break so they’re ready to bounce straight back in to pre-season training without a hitch.
“The boys will be working really hard - it’s going to be a little bit lighter tomorrow to get them use to it all and then we’ll work them really hard for seven days prior to the Christmas break,” Selwood said.
“They’ll be a lot of football sessions and we’re lucky that we have a fantastic gym here at Novotel Pacific Bay Resort.”
“They’ll also go on a number of bike rides, trail runs, mountain biking we might even try and chuck in some iron man competitions as well.
“They’re really going to get them out of their comfort zone do some stuff that they probably wouldn’t usually do in and around Geelong and change it right up and hopefully they’ll go into the Christmas break feeling really fit and also spending a great amount of time together.
“So a lot of team bonding - which will really help going forward.”
