Player Perspective – Richard Hadley

THE WAFL website will be publishing columns from players throughout the 2013 season taking a look at what it takes to be a successful WAFL player and also build a life outside the game. This week it’s Brisbane Lions premiership player and East Fremantle vice-captain Richard Hadley.

In the 10 years that I was in the AFL it changed a lot. In my first couple of years it was very much a morning and afternoon thing where you would go for three or four hours in the morning, and then come back for another three or four hours in the afternoon. But that soon changed and then there was a focus on core stability, pilates, physio, yoga, stretching and the addition of development coaches so they want to spend time teaching the game and going through video as well.

In the early 2000s, it was morning and afternoons before it quickly went from being all day at the club. You would have one day off a week and at Carlton that was on Thursday but the majority of the other days it was in there at 7 or 7.30am and you would have a few little breaks here and there, but you would basically be going on average until 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon. On the Friday before a game it would be a bit of a lighter day from about 7 to midday before you get home to prepare for the game.

On top of that I tried to study part-time and was always trying to do one unit a semester. You would try to schedule that in on the day off but sometimes that’s impossible so you might occasionally be going to uni late in the afternoon, night after being at the club all day.