Herald Sun reporter Sam Landsberger takes on AFLW star Emma Kearney in brutal training session

Herald Sun footy reporter Sam Landsberger’s one-on-one training session with AFLW star Emma Kearney started with a YouTube search for ‘sandbag squats’, and it went downhill from there. WATCH THE VIDEO

Recently I was invited to complete a high-intensity training workout against AFLW midfield star Emma Kearney.

Sure, why not? Then, the circuit list lobbed. Sandbag squats, bear crawls, push ups, battle ropes, shuttle runs and medicine ball lunges.

It sounded as frightening as it did foreign, with almost all of those exercises requiring a YouTube search.

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Then, the forecast changed. It would be at 2pm in 33C with tropical humidity.

Then, on the way in, I thought I’d triple-check Emma’s AFLW CV.

A dual All-Australian, the reigning AFLW league best-and-fairest, a premiership star and now North Melbourne’s inaugural captain.

To cap it off, last year Kearney called stumps on her Melbourne Stars stint, so she was in peak condition after completing a full AFLW pre-season.

Yikes.

AFLW star Emma Kearney teaches Herald Sun reporter Sam Landsberger about sandbag squats.

Truth be told, the only circuit I’d previously raced was in Mario Kart.

But pitted against Kearney it emerged quickly there were no shortcuts accustomed with the Nintendo 64 classic.

I couldn’t mushroom-power along a nearby gravel road or ping red shells at Emma.

After a “dynamic warm-up”, which had organisers hoping paramedics were nearby, the circuit began.

The one-on-one contest begins.

Remember when Trent Cotchin kicked into the wind and Richmond trailed by seven goals at quarter-time of an elimination final?

That felt like the score seconds into the first circuit. Remember when Geelong kicked about 230 points against Melbourne in 2011?

That score felt like my heart-rate.

Kangaroos recruit Emma Kearney gives the ropes a workout.

Yet Kearney barely raised a sweat, as she powered through every exercise with perfect techniques.

Good luck to whichever Carlton midfielder coach Daniel Harford assigns to Kearney in Hobart on Sunday.

They might need it.

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Originally published as Herald Sun reporter Sam Landsberger takes on AFLW star Emma Kearney in brutal training session