Kochie gives us all a bit of a wake up call.

Paul Koch – that’s Mr Pow-ell – has just gonged the boys from the ‘Gon and told them they need to step up to the plate and lift their level of fitness. Mr Pow-ell can talk. Most mornings at 5.30am he walks the talk by riding his bicycle 30kms. His email is reproduced below without permission but does include each and every exclamation mark!

As the oldest and slowest and least skillful player in the team, I need all the help I can get. That’s why I am putting in the extra effort to get as fit as I can for the Champs!

So I say to all you young guys in the TEAM (that is everyone else from my perspective), it is time to stand up and be counted! Get to footy training! Get to Hanoi! And get your running boots on and GET FIT!!

Derrin and the coaching panel are putting a lot of effort in to this. It is time we made the effort to support them!

It WILL pay off big time in Bangkok! I personally don’t expect a lot of game time but I do expect the guys on the field to able to run out the Grand Final because they put the effort in.

As an old footy coach once said to me, “You make your own luck by hard work!”

Ed’s note: Mr Pow-ell’s email is a timely reminder that we will harvest at the Champs what we sow now. The more people overtly supporting the coaches in Hanoi and Saigon to get people to each training session and being prepared to do extra training in their own time, the better.