The highs and lows of AFL hub life and why the Cats had the best deal in town

Band nights, endless birthdays and card games galore, plus the popular acai bowl shuffle. That’s AFL Gold Coast hub life right there, as playing groups reveal how they kept spirits up during four months away from home.

Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe (centre), premiership player Jack Darling and young ruckman Callum Jamieson hit the waves with surfing legend Mick Fanning (right).

Oscar Brownless is the Roman Sandals’ lead singer.

Supporting the young midfielder is Geelong assistant coach Nigel Lappin.

Cats head physiotherapist Hamish Macauley and strength and conditioning coach John Leydon strum the guitars in this eclectic band.

They aren’t expecting Gillon McLachlan to book them in to rock the Gabba Grand Final, but the Roman Sandals have delivered a couple of priceless performances in Geelong’s Gold Coast hub.

“I really respect Brownless‘ courage,” Cats wingman Sam Menegola said.

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“Maybe not his talent but definitely his courage.

“The Roman Sandals have only had a couple of performances, but they’ve been very entertaining.”

The Cats have made a concerted effort to keep spirits high.

“Because you’re spending every waking moment together we’ve spoken all along about trying to have a lot of fun,” football boss Simon Lloyd told the Herald Sun.

A smiling Fanning (right) knows he might have an edge on his AFL mates.

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“There’s almost a birthday every day, so every birthday is celebrated.

“We’ve had movie nights, we’ve had everything from Mexican night to Greek night Italian night.

“Living in the same space for such a long period of time, you do need to be quite creative.”

Across town at KDV Sport, which is the Richmond hub that contains mostly single players living in student accommodation, who rave about the head chef’s recipes, Tom Lynch rips out Monopoly Deal.

Fremantle champion Fyfe rides a wave while in south-east Queensland.

The Tigers sit around the lobby playing card game after card game. Youngster Luke English is the king.

“He’s (English) killing it — he’s even got his own Monopoly Deal shirt,” Tiger Kamdyn McIntosh said.

“I don’t know how he does it, but he gets the deal-breakers all the time and steals your complete sets of properties and gets a lot of cash behind him.

Cats coach Chris Scott had the shades handy for the Queensland sun.

Oscar Brownless made his name as the Roman Sandals’ front man.

“Other than that, the boys are going to the beach, going for a walk or going to get acai bowls.

“That seems to be the thing to do in Gold Coast — go get an acai bowl.”

Recently, the Tigers went to the next level.

They click-and-collected a bundle of Pvc pipes and bird netting from Bunnings Warehouse, and constructed soccer goals.

St Kilda found themselves further up the south-east Queensland coast in Noosa.

“They’re 7.5m by 2.2m height, so we’ve made full-sized goals,” McIntosh, a skilled tradie who crafts concrete coffee tables, said.

“There’s a few holes in the bird’s net now from blokes just hoofing the ball in.

“Jase Castagna’s pretty tricky — him and Oleg Markov are the standouts.

“We’re 13 weeks in (to hub life) and starting to miss our families back home, so you’ve just got to do these things to keep the boys going.”

These are big operations.

St Kilda assistant Brendon Lade said his club chewed through 30kg of chicken in Noosa every lunchtime.

Broadly speaking, hub land hasn’t all been happy families.

Life in the bubble can be challenging, particularly when the losses mount up.

Imagine spending every waking second stewing on results because there isn’t really an escape?

“It’s been a really tough campaign,” Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said after his club’s elimination final loss.

“We’ve seen the teams that we’ve hubbed with fall away. The Kangas early, and then Essendon, and then Carlton.

“We’re in the same quarters as these guys (Mercure and then Royal Pines).

“I couldn’t be any prouder or commend our players anymore for the way they persevered.”

How would you go living with your best mates for four months?

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Geelong players Nathan Krueger, Nakia Cockatoo, Brandan Parfitt and Quenton Narkle at Main Beach on the Gold Coast. Picture: Michael Klein

West Coast appeared shrouded in negativity in its first taste of life on the east coast.

Most AFL clubs have rolled through luxurious resorts, such as the Pines, Sanctuary Cove’s Intercontinental or the Sunshine Coast sweet spots.

But the Cats have done it slightly differently.

They have taken over Southport Sharks, a wealthy second-tier club that wants to enter the revamped VFL next year.

They have stayed glued to Southport’s Mantra, which — in English cricket style — literally connects to the Sharks’ spacious ground.

“I could walk out of my room as I sit now and, within two minutes, I’m on the oval,” Lloyd said.

“We were initially, in working with the AFL, allocated to be based at Southport Sharks Mantra.

“As soon as we got here it took us less than a day to realise this is where we wanted to stay.

“Our ability to basically have this as our base and our high-performance centre, and the fact we have a great oval here and great access and flexibility to the oval (works well).

“We’re limiting the time we’re having to travel on buses and move around to try and find facilities.”

Other clubs drive to training grounds, such as Metricon Stadium’s outer ovals and, while they are short trips, the Cats simply wander downstairs.

No longer are they preparing to play AFL finals on spacious grounds by training on the skinny GMHBA Stadium.

“The Southport Sharks oval is 164m in length and 140m in width,” Lloyd said before last week’s qualifying final.

The Southport Sharks Oval has been given the thumbs up as a superb training base.

“It’s very similar lengthwise to Adelaide Oval, that’s 167m (where the Cats played last week).

“It’s a bit wider than Adelaide Oval, but it’s obviously a lot wider than GMHBA.

“To be able to train here regularly and get used to grounds we’re playing on week-in, week-out is great.”

Plus, Southport — unlike the other hubs — is a footy club.

So Sharks chief executive Dean Bowtell and his staff intricately understand the Cats’ priorities.

The Cats started with about 75 people in their hub, and now they are close to 170.

“We’ve got a lot of younger families at the Royal Pines, and mainly it is the players and the staff that have stayed at Southport Sharks,” Lloyd said.

“We’ve got a handful of players that have got accommodation at the Pines, but they’ve also got accommodation at Southport Sharks where they come and stay whenever they want to, particularly pre-game or post-game.

Patrick Dangerfield has benefited from being based at Southport’s Mantra.

Mark Blicavs and his teammates have had easy access to the footy ground.

“They’ve got the best of both worlds, really.

“We’ve found it can be really relaxed when it needs to be, so we’ve got areas around the Mantra where you can really switch off.

“But it also can be intense when it needs to be when it comes to training and meetings. We’ve got great security around here as well.

“But the great thing about the place is we have it to ourselves.”

Even though Lloyd didn’t agree, the perceived drawback, at least from the outside, has been their hotel rooms.

The Pines is a luxurious resort complete with covered tennis courts and a flush golf course.

Carlton’s Jack Newnes rated the Pines his favourite hub, and the Blues moved house about seven times.

Geelong’s Mantra is not quite as deluxe.

Reportedly, some beds are lined with sheets rather than dooners, and some rooms don’t contain balconies.

Do the Cats mind?

“The feel is you’re here for business,” Lloyd said.

“You can relax when need be, but the facilities are good.

“We’re very happy with what we’ve got — cannot complain.”

As Menegola said: “It’s fine, we just need a roof over our heads at the moment”.

“Not having to get on a bus to go to training doesn’t sound like much, but these little things stack up over however long we’ve been away now.

“Being able to get on and use an oval and a gym based on a schedule that actually suits our program has been really beneficial.

Western Bulldogs and Richmond players leave behind Melbourne behind in July.

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“You might stay in a nicer hotel, but then you’ve got to travel more. For us it’s great because the training facilities are downstairs.”

Menegola can duck downstairs for training and then return to give partner Emma a “chop out: with their baby Otis.

“It might be that you’re not losing an hour of your day going to and from training,” he said.

“This set up has worked really well and we’re happy with it.”

Cats players have also queued up for the nearby rehabilitation facilities, provided by the AFL.

“You’ve got everything from flotation tanks to wet eucalyptus bars to cryotherapy and all sorts of things,” Lloyd said.

“They go for regeneration and recovery, and there’s been a huge uptake from players who regularly attend Rigs, which is the nearby place.”

Originally published as The highs and lows of AFL hub life and why the Cats had the best deal in town