Gold Coast SUNS General Manager Football Operations, Marcus Ashcroft, says the club’s inaugural AFL preseason camp at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast has been a gruelling but successful venture.

The camp, a military-style operation overseen by a former SAS Commando, has brought the entire GC SUNS playing list together for the very first time.

So far the players have battled their way through a range of arduous physical drills mostly undertaken in thick shin-deep mud. Tasks have included rope lugging, pole climbing, and just about every kind of lifting exercise ever cooked up. Add to that a compromised diet (sardines and raw eggs for breakfast, anyone?), sleep deprivation and innumerable quantities of eight count push ups, and the wash up is a hugely tough few days that’ll force the GC SUNS players to well and truly earn their Christmas break.

Speaking on location from Mooloolaba State School boggy sporting field, Ashcroft said the camp would serve a multitude of purposes.

“These exercises are critical for all clubs, but particularly for us as a new club especially with our young and new list. We’ve got 53 new guys we need to bring together. We want to make sure they are tested physically and emotionally. It’s all well and good to train them, but come game day they need to rely on each other, so this is a good way of getting them to know and understand each other better.”

“We also want to identify leaders. Guys who really take leadership on. With so many young guys in our group we don’t know who the leaders are going to be. And these kinds of exercises, undertaken as they are in adverse conditions when the players are light on for rest, eating unusual things and performing drills that are well out of their comfort zone, they’re definitely not feeling your best. So for us to see who stands up in those conditions will be invaluable when we finally take the field next year.”

Does Ashcroft, a former Lion with a 300-plus games under his belt, miss this part of football?

“No, in a word! When you’re playing the game I don’t think you miss it either. But you appreciate it in hindsight when look back on your career and take stock of the lessons you learned. You can definitely get to the end of your three or four days at a camp saying ‘I tested myself and stood alongside my teammates and came out the other side better for it’.”