Introducing Rob Nicholson - Port Melbourne Football Club (AFL Reserves) S&C Coach

Last week we covered the AFL and gained an insight into the training requirements to make it at the elite level. Today we take a step back to the VFL and have a chat with Port Melbourne Football Club strength and conditioning coach Rob Nicholson who's been down at the Borough's for a number of years now and he's been kind enough to lend us his time.

First off is VFL full or semi professional for all players? What level of commitment do these guys need to put in where some teams have a mix of AFL and VFL listed players?

Port Melbourne is a stand alone club (semi-professional) along with Coburg, Frankston, North Ballarat and Williamstown in the VFL. The remaining clubs are either AFL based or aligned with an AFL club (Casey, Northern Blues, Sandringham, Werribee). The aligned clubs are primarily consist of semi-professional and AFL listed Players).

The players at Port Melbourne are required to attend training 3 nights per week from mid-November until the end of September. The latter depends upon whether the team makes finals. During the season the players are also requested to attend matches even if they are not selected.

Players are also expected to undertake fitness and weight training sessions in their own time.

As a young bloke moving from TAC to VFL, what do you find are the common strengths and weaknesses of these players?

Overall the TAC players tend to have a satisfactory level of aerobic fitness and some awareness of the tactics associated with football performance. Local level players tend to have lower levels of aerobic fitness.

The major ‘limitations’ include:

- Awareness of the time demands of elite football.

- Highly variable decision-making and skill performance capacity.

- Poor strength for senior football.

- Poor power/agility capacity.

- Poor training preparation/recovery planning.

- Poor awareness of the requirements of senior level football

Further Reading - this entire blog and training manual!

As a mature aged player with aspirations of moving from VFL to AFL, where do you find these players need to improve on to move from very good to elite player status?

Specifically the major areas of concern are skills, skills under pressure and decision-making.

Your question is difficult to answer because the improvement is based on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

With players on the radar from AFL draft scouts, do you work with these scouts on things they'd like to see the player do or improve upon?

I have had few players directly indicate that they were on the radar of an AFL club. However, one player who was in that situation was given an individualised program based on the Draft Camp Testing Battery and that worked on his strength and weaknesses in respect to fitness and football skills.

When the situation arises, then in consultation with the player and the coach a plan is developed to optimise both the fitness and football skills of the players. The player is then supervised by me to achieve those goals.

Can you tell us about any player monitoring that you have in place at VFL level?

At Port Melbourne we use the Polar Team HR Monitoring System to obtain data about players physiological performance at training and during games. The data obtained is used to provide the following information:

 - Daily, weekly and match day workload.

 - Daily, weekly and match day training intensity

 - Individual application to components of training.

 - Recovery from training and games.

 - The workload associated with specific training drills.

This information is used to:

 - Monitor player workloads and thus set training intensity (daily/weekly)

 - Compare training and game intensity

 - Determine the loads associated with specific drills and thus organise more effective training sessions

 - Limit the amount of wasted time during training

 - Organise the team and player recovery program

Further Reading - are you on my mailing list and/or Facebook page? If so then you might have seen my call out for players to monitor using a very simple system I've made up which I need to test out. As player monitoring is HUGE in AFL and VFL (and in the TAC as you'll see next week) then I strongly suggest letting me know you want to be part of it!

Are VFL players required to reach the same standards of testing as AFL players?

Standards have also been developed for:

- Fitness –Beep Test

- Strength (upper and lower body, core)

The tests used for fitness are influenced by the training age, injury status, and position of each player.

Players flexibility, body mass and adductor strength are measured weekly. Variations from individual standards are used to monitor training loads, training session involvement, training formats and rehabilitation/strength training programs.

Given that most of the clubs in the VFL are AFL listed clubs then I would assume that players would be assessed by comparison with AFL standards.

At Port Melbourne standards are set for players by training age and position. I cannot provide you with precise information about those standards. However, I can inform you that the standards compare favourably with those of AFL clubs and that some players would definitely be in the highest category of aerobic fitness recorded by AFL players.

KEY POINT

The focus is on individual development even within the time constraints placed on VFL non-aligned clubs and the demands of operating within a team environment.

From the Aussie Rules Training community I'd like to thank Rob for his time in doing this interview. Like the AFL, the VFL is also quite guarded in regards to elite training training information and this will definitely help out a lot of readers who want to take their footy to another level.

Rob can be contacted via email through the Port Melbourne Football Club at pmfc@bigpond.net.au.