Western Force players tackle training with a difference
Pre-seasons for elite athletes usually consist of running, weights and lots of training, as they prepare for the long grind of the season ahead. But it looked a little different for the Western Force... with the Super Rugby players clearing firebreaks in Perth's bushfire prone areas eight hours a day.
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00:00 It's not glamorous work.
00:05 The Western Force players tackling weeds instead of each other during pre-season training.
00:10 So we're just pulling up this type of weed here, so basically just trying to remove a
00:15 lot of these, so kind of like a fire prevention strategy.
00:20 On top of hitting the weight room and the training track in November, the players spent
00:24 five days clearing vegetation along fire breaks in the hills east of Perth, a move coach Simon
00:31 Cron hopes will give the squad some perspective.
00:34 During the year we probably identified that some of our players hadn't had as much life
00:37 experience before becoming a pro athlete, so one of our jobs is we've got to think about
00:43 them post rugby and how successful they'll be when they leave us.
00:47 It's important work.
00:48 Borroloo was ravaged by bushfires in 2021, 86 homes were destroyed and more than 10,000
00:54 hectares burnt.
00:55 With the devastation of those fires, anything we can do to get out here and help the community
01:00 is awesome.
01:01 We spoke to a few kids at the primary school and they were really appreciative of the work
01:05 we're doing.
01:06 So what these guys are doing is pulling out these perennial grasses.
01:09 The community in an area at risk of bushfires appreciate the help.
01:13 The force players clearing 10 times more vegetation than local volunteers could in a week.
01:18 It's sort of exceeded expectations I suppose to have groups of guys like this come out
01:23 day in day out and it's not something they would normally do.
01:28 But yeah it's been fantastic.
01:30 Cron hopes the different start to pre-season generates positive energy, helping to keep
01:35 a community safe while learning some valuable lessons along the way.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]