Captain Jonathan Brown, Simon Black, Daniel Merrett, Jed Adcock and Tom Rockliff will now spend the next two weeks of their pre-season at Arizona’s elite training facility in Flagstaff.
“After 23hrs in transit we are finally in camp… & it’s snowing! Out to dinner to watch Jets vs Patriots then bedtime- fun starts tomorrow,” Merrett tweeted earlier today.
The quintet will be joined by a couple of Football Staff members who will conduct a series of high altitude, fitness, leadership and skills sessions at more than 2,000m above sea level.
It will no doubt prove quite a shock for the players, who were welcome by snowy temperatures of -4?C, which is a far cry from the sunny 32?C weather they enjoyed last week on the Sunshine Coast.
Adcock believes that training under such difficult conditions will prove worthwhile for the selected players’ preparations.
“It’s good for the older guys especially to go to Arizona as a bit of a change up,” Adcock said.
“Pre-seasons are really long, so if we can do less work on our feet, but get the same results, it will be really good coming into the start of the season.”
Despite being his first trip to Arizona, Adcock is prepared for what he expects will confront him and his team-mates.
“I know it’s hard and I know it’s cold,” he said.
“We’ve got an altitude chamber at the Club which we can use, so we’ve kind of experienced similar types of training conditions.”
“But it will no doubt be a lot harder actually being over there.”
Lions fans keep updated on the players’ progress over in Arizona by following the Club’s official Twitter page (@brisbanelions).
