Click here to view the image gallery from day 2Following a long, tough thirteen hours at it yesterday all capped by a lengthy lecture by their esteemed Commando leader last night, Gold Coast SUNS players might have been excused for thinking the foot would come off the pedal this morning.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
After hitting the sack at around nine-thirty, the boys would have been horrified when awoken just five hours later.
For what?
A 3am screening of Quentin Tarantino’s epic Inglorious Basterds.
At 5.00am reveille was called and by six the lads had been fed and watered and had completed a gentle trot towards Mooloolaba Surf Club for another surprise set of exercises.
What eventually awaited them caused quite a stir among the local early birds more attuned to seeing a calm blue ocean, a couple of surf skiers and a the odd sleepy morning jogger.
Instead they watched on mesmerised by 53 footballers being put through what can only be described as a cruel outdoor circuit class.
There was the log clean and jerk. There was that ridiculously large rope again, this time being threaded through the legs of the lifeguard’s tower. There were a couple of paddleboards charging this way and that. Forty four gallon drums being lugged up, over and around and dumbells being tossed. There were even sledge hammers being swung.
In short: more hellish grind.
By 6.30 am the lads were leg weary, grimacing with pain and with the morning heat building, glistening with a heavy sweat.
It was sweet relief even to non-participants when the final whistle blew.
After a quick jog back to the hotel and a short debrief, the lads – still in remarkably high spirits it should be said - assembled once more at the scene of yesterday’s carnage, Mooloolaba State School, and underwent a series of relatively placid teamwork and strategy exercises.
But if the brief history of this brutal camp has taught the boys anything, any form of calm usually precedes a rather ugly storm.
So if form is anything to go by this afternoon will be epic.
