RUGBY
LEAGUE
By
Graham Davis
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NRL
players from the Canterbury- Bankstown Bulldogs make light
work of these logs during a training session at HMAS Penguin.
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Navy
physical training instructors and clearance divers pose
for the team photo with NRL players from the Bulldogs.
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Photos:
POPH Bill McBride
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Some
of the fittest men in the Royal Australian Navy put some of the
fittest in rugby league – the Bulldogs – to the test on Balmoral
Beach recently.
For four hours, Naval PT instructors and clearance divers put
the 28 Bulldogs through a series of gruelling exercises in preparation
for the 2004 National Rugby League season.
They were watched closely by their coach Steve Folkes and their
fitness conditioner Scott Campbell.
The drill, organised by the Royal Australian Navy Rugby League
and led by president LCDR Sion Griffiths saw the first grade players
go through a series of warmup military style exercises on the
sand.
The players had to run and suddenly change direction putting their
limbs under stress. They then did some shallow water running followed
by duck diving and finning (swimming with flippers).
Next came log carrying where five teams of three players had to
lift three-metre logs and carry them for 50 metres. To strengthen
their shoulder muscles the players had to change shoulders during
the carry.
Other teams had to carry or roll tractor tyres along the sand.
Bouts of wrestling followed. The final segment saw the players
paddling Zodiac rubber craft across the bay.
The Navy provided physical training instructors from HMA Ships
Penguin and Waterhen and divers from Australian Clearance Diving
Team One for the session. For most of the Bulldogs the evolutions
were a first.
As one player told a PT instructor later: "It was good for four
hours but I would not like to do it as a career".
The Navy uses the sequence of drills to hone and qualify its personnel
for more demanding roles within Defence.
The Navy people involved in the drill were CPO Nick Davies, PO
Brad Walsh, LS Ray Bell (from Penguin), PO Anthony Wilson and
LS Mathew Hilyard (from Waterhen) and LS Grant Killen, LS Chris
Wright and AB Ken Grinham from AUSCDTONE.
