Richard Tambling has emerged as the ‘King of the Ring’ in Adelaide’s pre-season boxing bouts.
A full-size boxing ring has been installed in the player conditioning area at West Lakes as part of the Crows’ extra emphasis on strength training this summer.
Former captain of the British Army Boxing team and amateur boxer Sid Leavold has been employed by the Club to - in most cases - introduce the players to the sport and also help improve their skills.
Regardless of experience, each player started with basic techniques before progressing to sparring.
Leavold identified experienced boxer Taylor Walker, competitive types Rory Sloane and Aidan Riley and also big men Daniel Talia and James Craig as the early standouts, but said Tambling took the title as the best boxer at the Club.
“It’s not just about being big and strong. Richard has a good boxer’s mind,” Leavold told afc.com.au.
“When he’s tired instead of throwing 10 punches and landing only one, Richard will throw two punches and land one.
“He’s got natural skill and can find punches where other blokes can’t.
“It takes quite a bit of skill and technique to get a punch correct.
“It’s not just about throwing punches all over the place, which admittedly is probably what most of the guys did in the first couple of weeks.
“Now, they’re starting to learn how to set punches up more efficiently.”
AFL rules won’t permit the players to test out their newfound boxing skills on the football field, but Leavold said he was confident the lessons learned in the ring could still transfer to game day.
“It’s controlled aggression,” he said.
“I don’t want blokes coming into the ring and beating the living daylights out of each other.
“It’s about jumping in the ring, going through a few combinations and getting out again … it teaches them discipline.
“You might get hurt a bit [boxing], but just like on the footy field you don’t back down from a challenge.
“When the players think they’ve got nothing left, I usually give them one more round to show them they’ve got more inside to keep on going and, hopefully, that can translate to game day.
“It also gives the younger guys a bit of confidence mixing with the senior blokes in the ring.”
The boxing training is varied, but always incorporates a strong cardiovascular component.
One particular drill, the ‘King of the Ring’, requires a player to go a round against 10 different opponents before the next person takes over.
At times the players are also asked to take turns attacking and defending as demonstrated in the video clips featuring Rory Sloane and Jared Petrenko, and also Ian Callinan and Luke Thompson.
At only 172cm tall, Callinan lacks the reach of some of his bigger teammates, but certainly wins points for determination.
“I’ll fight to the death, but I haven’t got the best technique,” Callinan said.
“I’m a lot smaller than most of the other guys, so it’s hard for me to land any punches.
“The boys just jab me away and I’ve got to keep going back.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it though.”
Lean-bodied rookie Sam Martyn also professes to struggling with the gloves, but said the players had enjoyed the changes to training under new coach Brenton Sanderson.
“’Sando’ has been awesome,” Martyn said.
“He’s brought heaps of new ideas and new drills, and the change-up has everyone excited for the upcoming year.
“I’m pretty skinny still, so I’m not the best boxer or wrestler but it’s all new and different and I’m sure I’ll get better.”
