Port Adelaide wingman Jared Polec is finally free of injury woes and loving season 2018

Jared Polec is thriving under an unusual training program to manage the effects of a foot fracture that threatened to end his career back in 2015.

Jared Polec celebrates a goal against Sydney. Picture: Brett Hemmings/Getty Images

PORT Adelaide wingman Jared Polec is pain free and confident in his body after tweaking his day-on, day-off training program to perfection and hitting form early in the season.

Polec missed much of the pre-season to hamstring injury but is confident there is no lingering weakness in the area and played a fine game as the Power upstaged the Swans in Sydney at the weekend.

He’s thriving under an unusual training program: Polec never trains two days in the row to manage the effects of a foot fracture that threatened to end his career back in 2015.

But he is back to his game-breaking best after a horror run with injuries over the years and his run and delivery is pivotal to the side.

He suffered a bad hamstring tear over summer but it did not indicate a predisposition to more soft tissue injuries; it came about because of force from another player rather than just running.

“As you get older you learn a lot more about your body,” Polec said. “And the staff at the club do as well.

“They’ve got me monitored from a week to week point of view on how much loading I can do through my foot.

“Pretty much for the rest of my career I won’t be able to do back-to-back sessions, just purely from a loading point of view.

“But we’ve got that well managed and as long as I’m doing my strength and all of that they’re happy with it.”

Polec had been riven with injuries since he first joined Brisbane as the No. 5 draft pick back in 2010.

But as much as they kept him on the sidelines, they also helped him develop mentally.

“Right from day one of being drafted I was struck by injuries which I never really had before,” Polec recalled. “A couple of clean-outs of the knee, ankle, tore my adductor tendon then broke my foot over here.

“It’s been pretty unlucky.

“But I think early on at Brisbane, with my knee, it helped make me stronger.

“They told me to work through the pain and I think that really helped me, going through games when you’re always in pain.

“If you have that backing, knowing that you can get through, you can take something good out of it.

“But I’m pain free now, touch wood, and it’s a good feeling getting through each week without injury and soreness and feel 100 per cent.”

Polec’s return to fitness and form comes as he singled out maturity as a key ingredient to the Power’s improved ability to create momentum swings.

Polec said the addition of senior players from other clubs and another year in the system for the rest of the group was crucial in the turnaround against Sydney and the way Port stifled Fremantle’s counter-attacks in Round 1.

It had been a matter of noticing trends within games earlier and the team leaders having the tools to quickly change the way they play.

“I think it shows maturity in the side and trust from the coaches also,” Polec said. “That the players will have their back and turn things around.

“We were losing contested ball, ground ball — pretty much losing every stat on the ground.

“To be able to turn that around and turn it into our favour ... it was definitely the leaders and the coaches.”