PORT Adelaide midfielder Kane Cornes might have lost the bet at Tuesday’s conditioning session, but he is still one of the most elite runners in the AFL according to fitness coach Cameron Falloon.
The dual All-Australian, sporting a sleek new haircut, made a wager with Falloon that he would run under 9m 20s in the first 3km time trial after the Christmas break.
And despite setting a time (9m 21s) that would have smashed the Adelaide club record by eight seconds, Cornes now owes Falloon one Subway roll and a Powerade.
“We had a little bit of a side bet, Kane and I, and it’s a shame because if he had have got two more seconds off his time I would have been shouting him lunch, but instead he’s shouting me lunch,” Falloon said after training on Tuesday.
“Without singling out Kane from the rest of the group, because they’ve all been impressive, he’s probably the most elite AFL runner I’ve seen.”
Cornes finished the trial well ahead of Tom Logan, Dom Cassisi, Matt Thomas, Jason Davenport and Josh Carr.
A small number of players, who failed to meet targets, were sent off on another run.
“I’ve only had a quick look at the times, but I’ve been impressed,” Falloon said.
“The guys had an intensive program that I monitored closely over the break and I was in contact with the fitness and coaching staff regularly.
“Kane was exceptional, but there are a lot of good runners and most of the guys hit the targets we set them, there weren’t too many who weren’t there.”
The beefed-up players appeared in good shape during the session with only three players, including former skipper Warren Tredrea, sitting out the 3km run.
Tredrea underwent shoulder surgery during the off-season, but Falloon said the premiership player was still on track to play in round one.
“Tredders has been doing full training, but he’s got a fairly good training background given that he’s been in the competition for well over 12 years,” he said.
“He’s got knee and shoulder problems, so at this stage we feel it’s more appropriate to do different types of running with him and manage him a bit differently.”
Steve Salopek (achilles) and Peter Burgoyne (shoulders/ankle) were the other two players to be eased through Tuesday’s session.
Captaincy candidate Shaun Burgoyne has been hampered by hamstring tendonitis over summer, but Falloon said the game-breaker had been doing work on his own.
“Shaun ran a really tough running session with me yesterday,” Falloon said.
“I wasn’t expecting great things from him today. In fact, I told him he wouldn’t run the 3km time trial, but I got down here and had a change of heart.
“Yesterday was a chance to get a little bit extra in and to get him right for January. Shaun is very keen to have a big season.”
Falloon has placed a greater emphasis on strength and power since arriving at Alberton and the immediate result has been weight gain across the board.
Falloon said Cornes, who has stacked on more than 6kg of muscle since the start of pre-season, was a perfect example of what his new program set out to achieve.
“You can be 77kg and run a 3km time trial in 9m 30s, but are you going to come up against Cameron Ling and be able beat him in the midfield? I don’t know because he’s 95kg and he runs a 9m 40s 3km trial,” he said.
“We’re just trying to get the guys a bit more durable so they can run out games and last the season. We’re really building a platform with a very young group that’s going to hold us in good stead for next pre-season and the pre-season after that as well.”
