Lions players help foot bill for training camp in Arizona

PLAYER power has prompted the Lions to send 18 players to Arizona for a high-altitude off-season training camp later this year.

Brett-Burton

PLAYER power has prompted the Lions to send 18 players to Arizona for a high-altitude off-season training camp later this year.

The cash-strapped Lions had scrapped plans to hold a training camp in the US after the club's leadership group spent two weeks in Flagstaff, Arizona, last year.

But Brisbane players approached management and offered to foot half the bill with the club and sponsors to make up the shortfall. The group of skeleton staff and players with five years experience or more will depart Australia on November 7 and spend 16 days in the rarefied air of Arizona.

"We had it completely off our agenda. We weren't going to do it because we are not exactly flush with funds," Lions physical performance manager Brett Burton said.

"It blew me away that the players came to us. They said, 'we want to go, how do we make this happen?'

"A lot of clubs split up the costs like that with corporates assisting. It is a model that's used across the AFL. We also had budgeted for a pre-season camp in Australia so we'll reallocate the funds to this Arizona trip."

Gold Coast players are also paying part of the costs for a trip to Arizona in the pre-season.

Burton said the initiative of the playing group to dig into their own pockets spoke volumes for the benefits of high-altitude training.

"They put their hands up because they are really committed to wanting to improve and continue their physical development," he said.

"They saw how the leadership group came back last year and were sold on it because it provides a different stimulus both physically and mentally and you get a similar, if not better, conditioning benefit than you get at sea level.

"In three weeks here, you may do 12 running sessions. Over there in the same time, you do eight running sessions and some hiking and bike riding which takes the load off your joints.

"The one to four-year guys also get the opportunity to take ownership of their program back at home.

"They get to drive it and that will take their leadership skills to another level."

Last year, Brisbane sent captain Jonathan Brown, Simon Black, Daniel Merrett, Jed Adcock and Tom Rockliff to Arizona. Black, in particular, raved about the benefits of the two-week training camp.