Victorian-born Fletcher moved to Queensland with his family in 1990 and started boxing with his brothers (and trained by his father) aged just 10 years.
He won regular Australian Titles as a junior before being offered a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra as part of the High Performance Boxing Program.
Fletcher has since gone on to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and two Commonwealth Games (2002 and 2006).
His crowning glory was winning the Gold Medal in the Middleweight Division at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and taking home back-to-back Gold Medals at the 2007 and 2008 Oceania Championships in Samoa.
Now amidst his own promising professional boxing career, Fletcher is spending time with the Lions to help provide some intense cardiovascular fitness workouts.
One player who seems to have already benefited from his expertise is young midfielder Callum Bartlett, who said that Fletcher’s workouts proved a valuable addition to the Club’s new pre-season training program.
“We’ve got Jarrod Fletcher with us now as a boxing coach, and he gives us a good workout,” Bartlett said.
“There’s always a stray one to the chin every now and then, but it’s all in good fun.”
Bartlett also commented on the noticeable improvements from the team’s fitness as whole compared to the same time last year.
“We’ve come back a lot fitter after Birdman (Physical Performance Manager Brett Burton) gave us a new off-season program. So the boys are a lot further ahead of where they were this time last year,” he said.
“We’re expecting big things next year.”
Stay tuned to lions.com.au over the festive season for further updates on Bartlett’s own progress towards a potential senior AFL debut in 2012.
