3 minute read

Former national team coaches Ange Postecoglou and Lisa Alexander have warned NRL and AFL players face a mental challenge in camp-style environments.

Former national team coaches Ange Postecoglou and Lisa Alexander have warned NRL and AFL clubs about the challenges of keeping athletes focused and switched on in a camp-style environment.

Both codes are looking at resuming their seasons as soon as practical amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NRL has already announced May 28 as a proposed resumption date and clubs are preparing to enter training camps from May 4.

The AFL's resumption plan is less defined but there has been talk of creating a Hub in one location with players and staff from all clubs to enable matches to be played.

It means teams could find themselves in camps for potentially months, a situation World Cup-winning netball coach Alexander admits would be tough to manage.

"We thought it was around about 21 days is about as much as what people in netball can take of each other," Alexander told ABC's Offsiders program.

"They're very team-oriented and they're very social but you also need to have that break from that high-pressure situation as well.

"We usually often have a week lead-in to our competitions, it tends to give us enough time to do the things that we need to do. We've always been mindful of budgets as well."

Postecoglou, who coached the Socceroos at the 2014 World Cup and 2015 Asian Cup, said the idea of having close control over a playing group was an appealing one for coaching staff.

But he also warned there would have to be some way to ensure players don't get burnt out by the situation.

"There are limits to how much intrusion you want to have on the players and the staff," he said.

"Most of our camps didn't really run longer than 10-11 days, that was enough and it would've been difficult if you had to keep going on a day-to-day basis.

"For us at the moment any sort of connection with our players and our staff would be great and I'm sure that whoever's organising it, they'll make sure they think of all those things."