Demons players bond at AFL training camp in the Top End
MELBOURNE recruit Shannon Byrnes can't wait to visit Kakadu with his new teammates, even though he knows it won't be a walk in the park.
While several AFL clubs have sent their players to altitude training in Colorado and Utah, where temperatures at this time of the year are regularly below zero, the Demons have gone for the tropics of the Northern Territory.
Byrnes, a dual premiership player with Geelong, said he had never experienced anything like the energy-sapping heat and humidity the players had encountered in their first couple of days in the Top End.
"We might've underestimated how much the heat can actually take out of you," he said.
"From my experience in training, I haven't really felt like that before where you train for 15 minutes … but then the sun literally zaps the energy out of you and then you have to grind the whole session out."
Despite the weather, Byrnes said the training camp, which will wrap up with a hike through Kakadu National Park at the end of this week, had been a great opportunity to get to know his new teammates.
