“Darren Crocker and Peter Mulkearns were very impressed with the side’s progress in the lead up to the holidays and the players have presented themselves very well today. They all look to be in good shape and our list is pretty healthy,” Scott told kangaroos.com.au.
North’s head coach attended his first session for several weeks after a 20-day study tour of the United States.
“Going away and looking at other elite sporting organisations gets your mind ticking over and I’ve had a lot of time to really contemplate and digest the last 3 months and look at where we want to go in the future.”
Scott spent time in Utah at the American Winter Olympic Ski Complex and also visited the Buffalo Sabres ice hockey organisation and the NFL’s New England Patriots.
He says there were startling comparisons between North’s new facilities and those at the ski complex.
“They’ve (America) just built a $50 million version of what we’ve just built. So it’s fascinating to see that the buildings were constructed at around the same time and the innovations are very similar. Their recovery centre is very similar; their gym is very, very similar - albeit more focussed on leg strength and power for skiing.”
The doors were also thrown open for Scott at the headquarters of the Buffalo Sabres where he enjoyed several intense days.
“The Utah Olympic Complex was unbelievable with the amount of access they gave me but the Buffalo Sabres were amazing in the way they allowed me into their organisation. I spent time with their analysts who use the same computer software that we do to analyse our game.
“I also watched a game there and sat in the coach’s box. Now I’ve got to do a really big brain-dump and get all the information out and on paper so it can be something tangible and useful to us.”
Scott says the information sharing wasn’t just a one way street.
“They were very interested in what we do and how we do it. I took my laptop over with some vision to show them what we’ve been working on over here.
“I’ve said for a long time regarding all the places that I’ve been to overseas in the past that they may do it bigger than we do, but they don’t do it better. They have much bigger budgets but as far as our sports science, we’re (Australia) up there with the best in the world.”
The final part of the trip included a few days with the Patriots, but gaining access there proved a much harder task.
“Probably the most impressive part about spending time with the Patriots was just how secretive they were. They shut down their operation so that no-one gets in. They go to extremes to protect their intellectual property. But having said that, they were very welcoming to me but getting access to the inner sanctum is near impossible.”
The clock is now ticking for Scott and his young side with just seven weeks remaining until the first NAB Cup match against Geelong.
“Whatever you bring back, you’ve got to be able to apply it. You have to come back with three or four things that you think, yep, these are going to be really valuable to us and then apply them. I’m very happy with what I have brought back.”
