Originally Posted by
bloodspirit
I've been watching the Melbourne FC series 'To Hell and Back', and I just watched episode 3. It's a terrific series. I've been enjoying Inside Sydney but To Hell and Back is next level, full of really illuminating stuff, this latest episode in particular. A couple of points about it:
* over the off season Melbourne recruited Darren Burgess the famous fitness guy who has returned from working in the EPL with Arsenal as their high performance coach. In episode 2, he tells the playing group he is going to work them hard over the over season and then he makes them a promise: he says if they complete the program he has designed for them, he will guarantee them that they will be fitter than their opponent come round 1. Psychological geeing them up, or something to be taken seriously from someone who knows what he's talking about? I don't know. Anyway, in this latest episode you see the playing group worked convincingly hard in particularly hard day of training. Looks harder than anything I've seen the Swans doing (the 24 hours training at Holworth army base was the closest we've come I reckon). But of course they don't know what we're doing and we're only seeing snippets and highlights.
* the other thing that has struck me over the series so far relates to the leadership and senior football staff at Melbourne FC. There seems to be a scary heaviness hanging over them which is really unappealing. I guess it's not surprising after their horror season last year and also their history of terribleness this century but I don't think it's a good sign. The players seem like a good enough bunch of blokes but the forces binding them together seem too heavy for it to bode well for me. I get a really different vibe out of Richmond, where there seems to be (relatively) a lot of more light, laughter and, dare I say it, love. Obviously it's a lot easier to be smiling and feeling happy when you've been the form team of the past three years. That's something I like about the Swans too, even though we finished 15th last year, I get the impression morale in our group is good and not because we haven't taken our low finish last year seriously.
Has anyone else watched? Care to share your impressions?
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