Welcome: Frank Rodriguez

The Perth Football Club would like to welcome Frank Rodriguez who has been appointed Head of Strength and Conditioning for 2015.

Rodriguez played reserves football for South Fremantle between 1999 and 2004 and it was here that his association with Perth CEO Marty Atkins first began.

“Marty has certainly been in my ear trying to get me for a while now, so it is good to finally come on board and be a part of hopefully a successful team.”

About four to five years ago Rodriguez began training at The Mill Gym in North Fremantle.  The Mill is owned by current serving and ex SAS soldiers.  Whilst there he was approached by the trainers and encouraged to undertake some courses so that he could become a trainer himself.  Rodriquez did this and in 2011 he found himself helping out at the Claremont Football Club.  In 2012 he took on the role as Head of Strength and Conditioning at the Tigers which culminated in a premiership.

While at Claremont it became clear to Rodriguez that the Tigers had a really strong core group of leaders that were really hard trainers and embraced the whole aspect of strength and conditioning.  “This helps a lot obviously because if the senior guys are hard trainers it really drags everyone up to the next level.”

“Because the senior guys were so into it and they loved their training it made my job a lot easier because they always wanted more, they always pushed themselves more.”

“The young guys would see this coming in and they had to get up to their standard.”

Because of work commitments Rodriguez could not continue in his role at Claremont and two years later he is now back involved at a WAFL club and very much looking forward to the challenge.

While Rodriguez admits that the team is very young he said that so far there were no complaints to be made in regards to the player’s attitudes and willingness to learn.

“I have only done 4-5 sessions so far but one thing that is quite evident is that everyone is prepared to listen and prepared to learn.”

“However it is only the third week of preseason and there is a long way to go yet.  There are a lot of weights to be lifted and kilometres to be run.”

The fitness of the Perth team was questioned a lot throughout the 2014 season but as Rodriguez see’s it he is starting with a clean slate.

“In regards to what happened last year that is not what I am about.  Even if I was here, last year is forgotten.  It’s a new year and as far as I can see it’s quite a young and new side anyway.  I’m not taking too much consideration into last year, I’m trying to get them, the new squad as fit as I can.”

“Because if that happens then they can do ball work quicker, they can do more ball work and it has a snowball effect.  This should help out Earl and the assistant coaches.”

When asked if we could possibly see any training drills over the pre season that the SAS use in their fitness regime, here is what Rodriguez had to say.

“There will be a lot of gut running done.  We might even get a couple of the boys down from The Mill to help out with training every now and again.  I reckon that is something that will be a bit of an eye opener for them.”

Some of Rodriguez’s other sporting achievements include the 2011 Nannup 24 Hour Adventure Race, 2011 100km Kep Ultra Marathon and the 2011 Coastal Clash Series were he came first in the 12km run and first in the 2km sand dune sprint.  In 2012 he also completed the Queenstown Marathon.

The Perth Football Club would like to wish Frank all the best for the preseason and for 2015.