CTV in Arizona > Sean Rusling day two interview

Sean Rusling is back in full training and enjoying being in familiar surroundings in Arizona.

The talented young forward has shown immense character to rebound from yet another season devastated by injury after he required a second shoulder reconstruction following a round one incident, and thrived on day three of the club’s high altitude training camp in Flagstaff.

Rusling and his Collingwood teammates utilised Northern Arizona University’s stunning Skydome facility, the home stadium of the college’s football team, and with an enormous wooden dome above them, the team was put through a gruelling skills, running and weights session on Wednesday.

There were certainly no complaints from Rusling, who, having been on both the Magpies’ previous trips to Flagstaff for pre-season camps in 2005 and ’06, is relishing being able to fully participate in all aspects of the pre-season campaign.

“Everything’s really good”, Rusling told CTV after the tough workout.

“I’m running my best times in the time trials, so the body feels really good. With the shoulder, I don’t have any complaints.

“I’m doing full training and full weights and it (the shoulder) is holding up really well. Obviously the test will come once we start playing games. Fingers crossed, I feel pretty good so far, so we’ll just see how it goes.”

After spending Monday night in Phoenix, the Magpies arrived in Flagstaff on Tuesday and while they had a solid session upon arrival, Wednesday’s program was a huge step up.

“It’s been a pretty big day, today,” Rusling said in explaining Wednesday’s training.

“We started out with a few runs and some pretty basic ball skills, and got into some full ground stuff, and the boys trained really well.

“The intensity was very good, the coach had to pull us back a few times because he thought we were going too hard, and then we finished it off with a usual (head of conditioning) David Buttifant running session. It was quite intense.”

Rusling emphasised that as a team Collingwood is in good shape, but pointed out the efforts of a couple of his teammates who have stood out so far in the United States, including a recently elevated rookie.

“Together everyone’s looking pretty good. Scott Pendlebury’s running really well, as usual. Brent Macaffer has obviously looked after himself over the off-season, he’s looking very fit and is running the best he has, so I’m pretty excited to see how he comes on in the next few months."