Navy offer support for Warriors pre-season

Lieutenant Commander Mark Harvey, Fleet Sports Officer and a former strength and conditioning coach with the Warriors, received a call from Warriors’ manager Dan Floyd asking if it was possible to put something together to complement what they were already planning during their week-long camp.

LTCDR Harvey, along with Physical Training Instructors Chief Petty Officer Marc Thomas, Petty Officer Kauri Harema and Petty Officer Jack Church, planned a three to four-hour session that would hopefully invoke a ‘shock of capture’ type response, immediately upon being woken in the early hours.

Coaches and management would then observe and assess how individuals or collectively as a group responded to the sudden change in environment and schedule. What would their response be to a more regimented schedule with different voices after days/weeks and months of familiar routines, comforts and voices?

“The next challenge was to then try and make players think that we (Navy) would be training them indefinitely,” says LTCDR Harvey.

“We didn’t mention how long we were there for or what they would be doing next. We just wanted them to focus on the most important task, which was the next task. While we knew we only had them for three to four hours, we wanted them to think they had us for three to four days.

The last and most important caveat was that we were not allowed to injure any players in the process of delivering the session.

“It actually didn’t feel too different to waking up our trainees,” says CPOPTI Thomas. “I’ve done it enough times. You just flick the switch, it doesn’t matter who it is.”

The Warriors took a while to register what was happening, he says. “But they were fine. We were wearing Navy T-shirts and General Work Dress trousers. They knew we were military.”

CPOPTI Thomas drilled them for the first 20 minutes, before the trio combined to deliver basic bodyweight movement exercises. The playing group were then required to complete various activities while working in small teams. While each activity was predominantly physical in nature, there was also a cognitive requirement to complete respective tasks.

The session finished with the team in the pool, says POPTI Harema. “Well, it wouldn’t be a Navy exercise if they didn’t go in the water.”

He said it was really exciting to work with the team. “We’re all big sports fans. I’m sure they probably thought it was a fire alarm at first, but when they saw the Navy shirts, they figured out what they were in for.

“I think they were already in the mindset that there was going to be some tough pre-season stuff. Management were in the background the whole time, but we were the face of it.”

The New Zealand Defence Force partnered with the Warriors last year for the 2024 Anzac Day match with the Gold Coast Titans in Auckland, which included a Royal New Zealand Navy guard of honour for ceremonial duties.

This year the Defence Force is partnering the Warriors again for the Anzac Day fixture in Christchurch, when they take on Newcastle.