For city dwellers, the gateway to the Gippsland Lakes and 90 Mile Beach, Lakes Entrance is an idyllic holiday venue, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, 320 km east of Melbourne. It’s a long and sometimes monotonous drive along barren stretches of dead straight road, interspersed with the occasional country town. For many, just the thought of such a long drive is tiring, but for Josh Scott and his very supportive family, it’s all part of a weekly routine in the pursuit of an AFL football career.
Josh is in his final year with Gippsland Power Football Club after progressing through the junior ranks to the TAC Cup squad. 190cm Tall, athletic and with the freakish ability to launch into a pack and pull down a ‘speccy’, Josh has developed into a key forward for the Power. His strong marking ability is complimented with his accurate kicking for goal and already this season he has been keeping the scoreboard ticking over with bags of goals.
To the eye, Josh might not look like a typical footballer, but don’t let the pale skin, the red hair, the long lanky limbs or that smile fool you, Josh is as tough as they come, relentless with his attack on the ball and applying pressure in the forward line. His mental and physical toughness was shown recently in match where Josh severely dislocated his finger in a contest. As far as dislocations go, this one was up there on the gross scale (it broke through the skin), but with a bit of tape and a load of determination Josh was straight back out on to the field with and in the thick of things. That fierce competitiveness and loyalty to his team mates is balanced with a very easy going “she’ll be right mate” nature, making Josh a loveable larrikin around the club that’s always one for a laugh. Ask anyone at Power about ‘Scotty’ and the term ‘good bloke’ is used often. So when we asked Josh to give us an insight into what a typical week of footy involved for him, not surprisingly the response was “yeah, no worries”.
A typical week for Josh would involve around 1000 km of travel, that’s equates to around 13 hours spent in the car or on the team bus each week. To put that into context, it’s like driving from Melbourne to Sydney every week (876km), it’s a serious amount of travel. Josh finished his VCE at Nagle College in Bairnsdale and is now working part time and juggles his commitment to football with travel, work, family and his mates.
SUNDAY – Recovery
After a bruising encounter against the Sandringham Dragons the day before, Sunday is a much cherished opportunity for Josh to have a bit of a sleep in and a low key morning. Living so close to miles of beautiful coast line, Josh takes a walk through the ocean, the cold water helping the recovery of his legs. This type of session is important for Josh, even though he will do the team warm down after the game, sitting in the car for so long on the way home puts his recovery at a disadvantage compared to someone that has only had a short trip and can then stretch their legs out. The rest of his day is spent like a typical teenager, hanging out with mates.
MONDAY – Team Recovery
Josh starts his shift as a life guard at the Lakes Entrance pool at 9.00am and works through until 1.00pm. After work its back home for a couple of hours then it’s a half hour trip to Bairnsdale around 4.00pm to join his team mates for the East Gippsland satellite recovery training session.
With the Powers region encompassing the massive area that is East, South and West Gippsland, and the Latrobe Valley, it’s just not feasible to be able to conduct every training session together in one centralised group. This puts Gippsland Power at a disadvantage when compared to their metropolitan based opposition who train all together on a more regular basis. Things like recovery and fitness based work are conducted by Head coach Nick Stevens and his team of assistant coaches in the four regional centres. Nick Stevens will spend a lot of his time on the road, getting around to as many of these sessions as possible, but his assistants are all extremely knowledgeable and well drilled , many of them working with the boys in their region since they were first indentified around the age of 14.
Josh ‘s Monday recovery sessions consists of an hour of boxing, swimming and skills work. It’s a short and sharp session, but he still doesn’t get home till around 7pm.
TUESDAY - Local Footy Training
A day off work, Josh spends it building his strength with weights at the local gym. That afternoon he heads down to his local football club in Lakes Entrance. Josh spends about 30 minutes just having shots on goal from all different angles and distances. Josh watches his mates in the local team train, then heads home, doing core work before he goes to bed.
WEDNESDAY – Power Team Training
An early shift, Josh works from 8.00am to 12.00pm at the pool, leaving Lakes Entrance around 2.45 to travel to Bairnsdale to catch the team bus to Gippsland Power training. The bus makes its way to the Power home base of Morwell, stopping at various towns along the way to pick up more team mates.
The Gippsland Power facilities at the Morwell football ground are very advanced, on a par with AFL clubs, the Power ‘centre of excellence’ has a gym, indoor training space with indoor running tracks, locker rooms, trainers and doctors facilities, and meeting rooms with audiovisual equipment.
All of the Power players on the TAC Cup list attend the Wednesday session; training is a mixture of fitness, skills and team structures work. At the end of the on field sessions the coaches conduct meetings with the players and go through the specifics for the upcoming match on the weekend and team selection. Training concludes at 7pm. Josh and his team mates “terrorise Traralgon subway for dinner” on the way home. The bus doesn’t reach Bairnsdale until 10.00pm, Josh then drives himself home, getting there at 10.30pm, it’s a long and tiring day.
THURSDAY – Local Footy Training
Not surprisingly Josh sleeps in and has a low key day. Even though it’s low key, he is still active, going for a swim to maintain his fitness. Once again he heads down to local footy training in Lakes and works on his goal kicking. He watches training and has dinner at the club with his mates, then does core work and stretching at home before bed.
FRIDAY – Game Preparation
The excitement starts to build leading into game day. Josh works from 9.00 till 1.00 at the pool then he begins to prepare for the upcoming game. Like all players in the Power program, Josh focuses on his diet, having a specific pre game meal to provide the fuel needed for a demanding game of TAC Cup football. His preparation also includes sufficient fluid intake and stretching before he goes to bed. A good night’s sleep is crucial with the long day ahead.
SATURDAY – Game Day
Even though the game doesn’t start until 2pm that day, Josh’s alarm goes off at 6.45am, 7 hours prior to the first bounce. It’s a quick shower, breakfast and bag pack before Josh and his family are in the car and on the road at 7.30am. The game against the Western Jets is at Warrawee Park in the south eastern suburb of Oakleigh, Josh arrives around midday and since it’s a double header, watches a bit of the match being played before hand while he stretches out his legs and catches up with his team mates.
An hour and a half before the game the formal preparation begins with the players getting dressed and strapped up by the trainers. Forty minutes out the players are all called into a team meeting where Coach Stevens goes over the game plan, stressing the key points of wet weather football given the inclement conditions. The players then head out for a short sharp warm up out on the field, before coming back into the rooms to continue the warm up. The noise levels rise and the players really start to focus in; it’s out on to the ground and game on.
The Power does it tough in the wet conditions, kicking 21 behinds on the day, but they still came away with a 20 point win. It was another solid effort for Josh, doing all of the things asked of him by the coaching staff and working hard for his team mates, even with the injury to his finger. After the match the players run through a warm down and then after a quick debrief from the coach it’s a very welcomed warm shower. The drive home doesn’t seem so long after win, but after leaving home at 7.30am, Josh and his family don’t get back there until 10.00pm. After catching up with what’s happening with his mates, it’s time for bed, ready to start the cycle all over again.
If there was a super coach or dream team stat for commitment and motivation, Josh Scott would be racking up the points every week, you would lock Josh in as your captain for sure.
Last Modified on 03/09/2012 14:07