This piece is proudly presented by the GIANTS' coaching partner, Facilities First.

Tell us a bit about how you’ve been spending your days in lockdown.

It’s get up, make the beds, have some breakfast and stretch. Me and my wife have been doing some stretching exercises we get from our pilates teacher, Petra, who works at the footy club and has her own business in Balmain. So, Caz and I do that to loosen up the old limbs, then it’s down to the park to have a little footy session with my two boys for about half an hour. My daughter likes to fish, so I’ve gone down with her a few times to do that or if not, she’ll go down with the neighbour and drop a line in. Caz and I have just planted a new hedge out the front, so we do some work on that and that usually gets us to lunchtime which is ham and cheese wraps, then ham and cheese wraps the next day and ham and cheese wraps the day after that. We’re probably getting a bit sick of ham and cheese wraps. There’s usually a bike ride in there as well, some basketball out the front with the kids, and some Zoom hook ups and chats with players and staff. Jumble the order around, and that’s normally how the days go.

The season is so busy, and constant. How difficult has it been to be away from your regular routine?

It’s been a challenge, absolutely. I have to make sure I occupy myself. That’s where I get a lot out of making the bed, cleaning the house, cleaning the bathroom, finding a routine and constantly finding things to do. I have to go for the bike ride, I like to do some boxing out in the backyard with my wife, who is ruthless. I think if you’re not looking for things to do, that’s when you become lazy and become bored. And if there’s nothing to do, that’s where I think you could fall into worrying too much and thinking too much about footy.

How much time do you think about the footy?

A bit. I think I’ve done it in a productive way. We’ve played one game of 100 minutes and so you do start to think, when we come back for the remaining 16 games, is there anything more we can do, anything better we can do? What do teams do when the games are 20 minutes shorter? What trends could there be in the first four or five games back? Do you try some players in different positions? Do we rotate more players through? So how does that look, if we really test the depth of our list? I think about things like that a fair bit, but until there’s some hard and fast rules then you can fall into that trap of speculating about things that might not happen and go around the bend. That’s where I think it’s important to be busy with other things. If you’re busy, then you can actually have some really productive thinking and really productive workflow.

What sort of contact have you been able to have with the players?

We have small group hook-ups on Tuesdays. We do that in groups of four, just to make sure everything is chugging along OK. The whole group meets on Fridays and we do some projects here and there, like analysing other sports and other sporting teams. We have some general discussion about how they’re all tracking with their training program and the challenges that come with that, finding the motivation to train, and train with intensity. And we have some fun, some banter. Last week I spent about half an hour with the 1-3 year players going through some footy stuff. And then on top of that I like to ring them and talk with them on the phone one-on-one about how they’re going and the situation they have found themselves in. Some are on top of it, some are dealing with their finances or things to do with their families. Some are paying mortgages and some are renting for the first time. Some have kids, some don't. Everyone’s different but everyone’s been challenged. So, you end up playing a bit of a dual role but that’s not just me, that’s all our part-time staff at the moment: Jason McCartney, Stephen Doyle, Dylan Addison, Brett Hand, Nick Poulos and our physios. We’re basically looking at all the different ways that we can keep that connection between the players and the whole group going.

Is important to have the individual contact, as well as getting the guys together in a group?

Definitely. You try to hit all angles. Some will talk more if it’s one-on-one, some will talk more in smaller groups. In the big groups we can have more of a footy discussion, and a bit more fun and banter. There’s been some real excitement for the players to see each other on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, because they’re used to being together. They’re used to the locker room banter, training and recovery and taking the piss out of each other over lunch before going in to do their weights. Trying to recreate that as best we can is gold, because we’re dealing with such an unusual set of circumstances. So, we look at all different ways of communicating. The big thing is, we know that there will be challenges and we want to see things before they come, if that makes sense. We don’t want to miss anything.

How hard is it to really know how everyone’s going when you can’t sit them down in your office and get a good look at them?

We pride ourselves on having really open relationships at our club. There will be players who will be really stoic and say, ‘she’ll be fine mate.’ And others need a bit more. So, we’re constantly saying, if you’re not all right then it’s OK to let us know. But the reality is that a lot of the players are doing really, really well and coping with it, like people everywhere are. There’s been some boredom kick in, absolutely. There’s some frustration and some stress. But when we talk through those things, we’ve found we can work through that really well.

This seems a time where there really is only so much control they can have over what’s going on around them.

It is. Some are blessed with home gyms and others have had to think outside the square. Everyone has the opportunity to get out into a park, it’s the gym and the genuine gym equipment that’s harder to find. That’s the most challenging part of it, but they’ve had to improvise like our staff have had to improvise and it’s been OK. We’ve been able to work things out and tailor things so that all of the players have been able to get some good work in. The thing is, if we had to play a game tomorrow then only Matty Flynn and Tim Taranto would be unavailable. Out of 45 players we’d have 43 to pick from and we haven’t had that for four or five years. Our players are working hard, they know they have to do the right thing and they want to do the right thing.

We have a pretty mature group nowadays. Have you found you’ve been able to trust the guys to get their training done?

Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question of trust, the trust is there. We have some really good leaders, not just our leadership group but some maturity with Mumford, Davis, Ward, Shaw, Jacobs. They’re players who have seen a lot of things. They would never have seen anything like this before because it’s such an unusual situation, but they know they need to check in with the guys and they’ve been good. The biggest challenge for the players is that there will be some boredom at times, and when boredom comes around there can be a lack of motivation. And if lack of motivation hits they might not do this session or that session. So that’s where we want to understand all the challenges that people are going through. But in saying that, we’ve had some great stories coming back of players lapping it up, being positive, finding a way and getting the work done. We’ve all had to think on our feet, and it’s been a great opportunity to think a bit differently and to grow as individuals and a group in trying circumstances.

How much time would you like with them before games kick off again?

Around that four-week mark, give or take a week. It depends how long we’re out. But every team will be in the same boat. Every club is going to come back fit, so what we have to make sure of is that we don’t bring them back together to train and all of a sudden get seven or eight soft tissue injuries in that four weeks. That’s going to be challenging and we have to get that right. There will be pressure on us to get that right.

How are the coaches going, have you been keeping in close touch with them?

We’ve been having regular catch-ups, whether it’s one-on-one or the entire coaching staff getting together. We catch up once a week for a beer online and talk about what’s been going on and what new things they’ve been doing. There’s nothing to review, so having that side of things taken away has meant we’ve been able to talk about other things, different things. And that’s with all the footy staff, it’s not just the coaches who were stood down, lots of people were stood down and some will be doing it harder than others. It’s a great place to be, a footy club, a great working environment. We know the challenges and stresses of win and loss, but the environment is great, you get to do something you love to do and that’s not there at the moment, so we have to look after each other when things are tough. We don’t want anyone falling through the cracks and so having a good, robust connection is really important for us.

This is time you wouldn’t normally be getting to spend with your family. Has that been something you’ve enjoyed?

There’s been so many positives. As frustrating as it is, there really are a lot of positives to take out of this as long as we all stay healthy. I see that as having the chance to develop yourself, understanding that the world can serve up some stuff and you have to be able to deal with it. It’s a big test of resilience. This is more time with my kids than I’ve had in a long time and I want to enjoy that. We’ve been cooking new things. Planting a hedge, bike riding every day. Things you only do a bit of in your holiday period, now you’re doing a lot. It brings things back into perspective and obviously at times you’re frustrated because you’re not doing a lot of the things you love doing. People have lost work and that’s incredibly tough, but there’s also been some great wins. Work can be all consuming and before you know it another year is done.

This situation feels like such a big test of resilience. Has it brought new things out of people that you've seen?

I think it just confirms what you already knew. Some people are taking on really strong, proactive leadership. Others like to play their role and jump in behind. There’s no right or wrong in a situation like this. Our senior players have been really good at driving the message and so have our coaches, even though their challenge is that they’re not working. They remain positive for our players as well, despite that. I think it was Ben Crowe (mindset coach) who said that out of every disaster comes some of your best growth. Some great decisions can be made in difficult times. I think our club and our group will make some outstanding decisions and people will forge ahead because they’ve looked at this and thought, OK, where’s the opportunity?