S3E41 · Renee Saulitis: Our Newest Coach

Hello and welcome back to the Virtus Performance Podcast. We have a change of host today. It's not Mitch, Lucky or Tyler or Georgia or Renee I should say now but it's Jazz and we have a very special guest with our new coach, no longer me, we have Renee Salidas. Did I pronounce that? Yes you did, yes. Very good. How are you? I'm good thanks, how are you? I'm very well thank you. I'm watching Harvey destroy a football at the moment but he's quiet thank goodness so not too bad. Let's keep it that way. I'm not sure whose footy that is but I don't think they want it anymore so that's all right.

How are you feeling being the latest addition to the Virtus crew? Yeah I think I've been nicknamed rookie or something did I hear you say that earlier? It's a thing I was called rook for actually it was probably Georgia when George started but it's a thing you get called rook until somebody else knew ups on board so I'll cop it then. You're gonna have to cop it. Now I'm feeling really excited I feel like I've grown over the 12 weeks that I was doing my placement here from the beginning so yeah just excited to be involved and get out to the schools and work with the kids.

I think giving them a program and a structured program is something that I probably didn't have to order towards the later end of my schooling as well so that'll be cool. All right we will start with just for context, a context what are you going to be doing here at Virtus? You mentioned the schools what is that going to look like and what's your role going to look like? Yeah so performance coach and program facilitator is the quote unquote. Fancy. Yeah so heading out to schools with Tyler and Lachie so the first one I think

we have is peninsula grammar and the second one being bulk home grammar at the moment that we've lined up so heading out to those schools for an hour and a bit just sort of giving them a structured gym program and delivering that to them. Yeah so what are the goals of those programs in the sense I know you said you're going to do their gym program but what are the goals like what are the schools hoping to achieve out of having Virtus come into the system? Well I was speaking to Lachie yesterday and he sort

of said that he was going to ask the school about like what they wanted out of the program as well so if that's them wanting strength gains or they want to get faster or they just want to get exposed to different lifts then yeah we'll program accordingly. How old are the students that you're going to be working with? I think towards the later end of high school so yeah year 10 11 12. Yeah awesome no I think it's great the fact that now we have the opportunity to go into school systems and actually teach kids

and even from young younger ages into like later primary schools to year seven eight all the way I think if I again if I had that I would have absolutely loved it I think we just had a few which is normal like a few rusty oh barbells a couple of dumbbells and we really didn't get taught any of the strength side of things we just got taught uh like all around the the conditioning side of things which again is a really important aspect but if we had access to a gym and we're taught that it's

normal to lift from a younger age I can imagine that it'd be a different story with like injuries and confidence and exposure to sports and keeping them involved so it's really exciting that we're touching base with the school systems. I totally agree so when I so I grew up in Warrnambool and I went to a high school there and I was part of the sporting pathway program and we did have exposure to gym I mean we used that TRX rows and stuff or TRX like um those bands body weight yeah mostly body weight stuff although

we did get exposure to some dumbbells and some barbells later on but I found that really good but then I moved away to boarding school and I was kind of left to do my own thing and um try and yeah keep keep the consistency up and go to the gym as well while training for football. Well this podcast is about getting to know Renee so in a little nutshell first of all introduce yourself to the Verdis family and tell us who you are. Cool so I'm Renee I'm an A5W player for the Saints. Yeah leave with that one.

Which is how Renee knows both Mitch and I now she did the internship and here she is. Yeah so grew up in Warrnambool then went to boarding school in Ballarat um for like two and a half years really found that a great experience to um be at like a better school I guess you could say um have greater opportunities and be closer to football so I played in the NAB league there now it's called the Coats League for the Rebels so yeah did that and then I've just played football in my life so I grew up playing football since I was about five um started playing Auskick.

Mum wanted me to do dancing when I was like mum can I just do football? I love that. Yeah and I kind of did both for a bit and then gave up the dancing and continued the football and then played with the boys um and then got drafted in 2020 so yeah and then I'm studying exercise and sports science so I'm going to my last year but I'm doing it part-time just so I can balance a bit more football and work and come in here a lot more yeah. So you lived in Warrnambool did you so primary school in Warrnambool?

Yep. And then in high school was it still in Warrnambool but you went boarding? After yeah halfway through year 10. One of the questions um from the Burtis fam or from the um online post was what was it like to live in boarding school so I reckon we'll kind of I'm curious to know about this so. No it was good like so I kind of enjoy um living away from home sorry mum and dad um I didn't quite miss them too much. Renee I hope they don't listen to this they probably will. Maybe we'll see

um but no I really enjoyed it um just being around friends and having that routine of like you go you do your stuff after school for me that was like football or gym and stuff and then um then you'd have your structured routine of like sitting down and doing your homework and doing your study and stuff and having other people that were doing the same thing around you as well it definitely helped. Sorry we're having um did you say you're logging your dinner? Oh okay smart thank you. Um yeah so being around people that were

sort of like-minded and wanting to excel in school I guess that was um like quite handy and sort of created that environment for me as well um so I think I would have I would have yeah I reckon I did better off um going to that school my ATAR kind of thing. What did a day like I know you went into it what did a day in a life on boarding school kind of look like? Yeah so wake up go to the put years what time school year um it's hard to remember. Did you wake up super early or were you one of those people that rocked up rolled out of bed 15 minutes before your class?

No you had to be in the dining hall at a certain like yeah during a certain time I can't remember the exact times but you had to be in there in a certain time period and then you'd wear your school gear to there um have food in the dining hall so that kind of could be like your toasty cereal and sometimes hot breakfast. Fancy. Food wasn't always the best but we'll let it slide um then back to your room sort of get ready for school head into school um do your classes and back to the dining hall for recess back to the dining hall for lunch then back there as well for afternoon tea sort of just grab and go.

So that's where you had all of your meals you always went okay cool. And then you sort of head off to whatever you've got after school so maybe that was like school sport external sport going to the gym um there's a fair few times I rode my bike um to the gym so one of my friends won a free membership for a whole year so we kind of just used that. Was that allowed? Yeah that's my fitness like I just tapped the card in went in um. Oh sick how far was the gym from school? Probably about 5 k's on the bike.

Yeah that's pretty good. Yeah decent um around the lake um and then coming after that you go to dinner then you're in your like study time so there's like kind of two intervals of that then you get a break in between um which was called prep break um and yeah then you just kind of go to bed. Yeah what time was bedtime? Bedtime um although I think I feel like you're one of those students where you didn't you didn't misbehave you did exactly what you were told is that was that you said no okay that was definitely me that sometimes you've got to be a little bit naughty and break the rules.

What how did what were teachers like on school camps where you know where they're like knocking on your door if you're not going to sleep? No so they kind of do stay there for a little bit but then they leave once everyone's sort of settled and in bed um there is a head of house an assistant head of house that sort of their house is connected to the boarding house if that makes sense so there's like you go to the sort of main office room and then you can walk through like you don't walk through

but they walk through to their house there and there's a couple doors that goes into their house um and then you've got like your brother houses so like my house was called Woodbridge and our brother house was called Dart and then there was another one called Hayhoe and um I can't remember the other one was called okay but Wigan I think it was called yeah and then like yeah so you had your yeah your sort of sister brother houses and you would team up with them on sports days and things as well and then um

Sunday nights we actually had like I can't remember what the dinner was called but you kind of had your dinner in everyone sat in wore nice clothes and then you went into the chapel yeah okay and what did you did you get to go home on the weekends or did you stay where abouts was boarding school in Ballarat so yeah you do have the option to go home um sometimes there is weekends where you are forced out of the boarding house and you have to go somewhere it's like a long weekend or whatever yeah um

but I mostly stayed in because of football and it was just kind of easier for my parents as well not having to drive back and forth a couple of times true because I guess you couldn't drive anywhere yeah which is hence the bike to gym exactly and Harvey talk us through so you said you started playing football when you were five years old Ozkiec yeah and then where did you go from there yeah so played Ozkiec um at the Warrnambool football club then played my junior footy with the boys there under 12s and 14s were

you the only girl uh yes but then there was another one another girl that sort of one of my family friends that came along and started joining him which was nice um there was a girl I think as well that was like in the age group above me so sort of had someone to aspire to um and then from there there wasn't really like a women's competition in Warrnambool at that time so went to Ararat Storm just knew a few people um who I'd played footy with before there um that was in the Ballarat competition

and then once I moved to boarding school I actually played for a Ballarat team um sort of in between Nab League and representative sides and stuff so how old were you when you first started playing in a like a women's aflw league team um so the women's at the time they were it was kind of like seniors I think yeah we're under 18s and I was probably about 15 16 okay maybe 15 and was that the first year that they introduced having competitions for like in women women in general not just having the boys um

as in locally or just in general was that so I think the new I think the team was quite new yeah that I played for an Ararat um so I didn't really travel travel for the trainings I just traveled for the games and how many teams in the comp did you have to play against maybe six or eight that's pretty yeah it was pretty it was all right um I mean we won the premiership I think that year as well like our team was quite stacked yeah nice everyone sort of flocked to the one team

that's probably why I went there as well like just knew everyone was there anyone that you've uh continued to play with from that team or are currently still playing it with no but uh a couple got drafted so Georgia Clark went to Collingwood she's now at Essendon oh I think there was a couple others but oh one of them got she got picked Ella Wood got picked up to Richmond but retired after a year or something so yeah okay interesting and so then talk us through from that team you went and played for the nab

league yeah and then which nab league were you playing for uh so the greater western victorian rebels which was kind of like western victorian part of yeah okay the western victor were you with friendy then yeah yeah I thought you were friendly um was anyone else playing for that team that you know in general how do you now cross paths with um there's a couple girls in the afiw so Georgia Clark Lauren Bartler um Sophie van Hoovle just a few yeah okay and then from there you were drafted to saints yep so played nab league

uh played for team vic a couple of times played for vic country a couple of times um and then I was in the afow academy in my uh draft year my top age year starting I think friendly was bottom age at that time as well in the in the academy so I was only in there for one year and then um yeah got drafted but uh with the academy went up to Darwin for like a camp and it was so sweaty and you couldn't tell if it was rain or sweat yeah it was hectic and

we did a bit of gym and stuff there which was nice okay and talk us through the moment when you were drafted into saints what did it feel like what were the emotions excitement what was going through your brain yeah so 2020 was the year of covid so I was at boarding school and we had an a external like 2k time trial and I did it at home on an over and it wasn't good uh it wasn't fun um was this with ben is he at saints nah this was before because I wouldn't have known

ben then because I wasn't drafted I did it with my dad um that didn't run um he was there for moral support clapping and going go renee he wasn't really clapping moral support then yeah pretty much I should have done an ass track but we were told to do it on an oval but anyway um so yeah so no combine just because of covid so we didn't get to speak to any clubs in person they were all done over like on overline online yeah um so then draft night no one was allowed in like when

they usually go like marvel or whatever so no one was yeah in so I was in the mbmb with my parents um and we had like live stream set up onto the tv I think we were like phone or computer connected to the tv like watching it it was really weird just sitting there on the couch I can't remember if my brother was there or not I don't think he was um just sitting there nervously for the whole time like yeah I was nervous I was meant to go all meant to go but like teams

were telling me that you know I was going to go a bit higher than what I did so when a few teams started passing I think Collingwood and like Geelong maybe even passed on a pick and I was like oh god like am I gonna get picked up and fell through to the saints and yeah and here's this history and I cried and it was all good went back to the boarding house had a bit of a party um one of the my like one of the girls next to my room Maggie Cara she got

picked up to Melbourne that day as well yeah yeah yeah so it was really exciting oh wait as in your roommate well she was like next door yeah like in my house like just there was two of you yeah you were just celebrating yeah what that's sick went back to the boarding house everyone they were all sitting in the common room as well watching it and then when we got back it was just like so much fun and like a ballroom set up and everyone was happy and yeah oh it's so exciting I didn't know

the story about because I knew it was 2020 when it happened but I guess I didn't know the like issues with COVID and how it all happened and yeah I spent most of that year doing online school at home as well crazy so it was we so you weren't actually on uh on campus during that you had to go home I'd say most of the year yeah was at home on my just doing online school on my computer and I remember also like I didn't really have any like running or gym programs and I was

just doing like gym at home with like a pair of dumbbells and a couple bands and stuff and running like three times a week just making up the sessions myself kind of as well it's all right that's how we all start yeah it's literally how you start you just trial and error and go oh I like that or it's probably not smart because you've given yourself calf strain or love my love my fart legs actually did you yeah just do the heap of that yeah that literally is how I started to like I was playing

netball and then I just started writing my own running programs and started running like making my own like gym programs and pliers and just started to puzzle piece and try and make sense of the all the information that we're thrown into like when you're studying sports science and s and c so yeah I feel like that's where my passion grew as well like going to the gym to riding my bike to the gym and then I was always would start out with some like some sort of jumping and plyometric stuff and um love like trying

to jump really high on the box and stuff like that and then kind of just work my way through like yeah some sort of barbell movement whether that was a lower body or upper body and yeah puzzle piece did you learn from when you was it first when you started at saints where you got into strength and conditioning or was it even before then that you when was the first time you went hey I actually really like this and it's cool and I want to keep going um not entirely sure but I remember Mitch telling

me I was closet closet strong yeah that kind of had to come out um didn't know I was that strong and then yeah no I feel like I found a love for it when I was at school maybe um I mean took a bit of commitment and dedication to ride my bike there for 20-25 minutes and then go to the gym and then come back um all in the space of one afternoon very religious very not religious yeah what is the word I'm looking for dedicated dedicated driven driven yeah all of these I said the

wrong anyway continue yeah so yeah just sort of yeah I started to enjoy that um just going by myself and working out what what felt good I kind of had um some basic programs from the the rebels but um that was sort of all dumbbell based and I don't know it just kind of just grew and so why why the way I was asked this same question when I was on the podcast with mitch why did you decide to go down the path of exercise and sport science good question well I was in high school

at boarding school and I was like having a look at some of the degrees and stuff and I was like well I like sport I do like the gym I do like all that sort of stuff so I think that's yeah why I chose it so just like a factor of you really just found that you enjoyed it not necessarily a sporting side of things but more of the gym side of things uh no a bit of both I think like trying to like doing all the the extra stuff inside like the gym and the

conditioning to better your performance as well okay and I mean it definitely helps me learn about numbers don't you like watching your numbers go up a little bit yeah I know you do I'm doing your rehab where are my numbers where are my numbers guys send them through all right all right and your bench press yeah I was even today that's like the first time I've probably done a proper upper session and I'm like I don't think I really enjoy this anymore that's so much lower body for my knee that I'm like I think I

like doing lower body now we're gonna we're gonna get to your knee in a little bit but I wanted to kind of talk about other things but Renee is one of my in my broken crew she did her ACL not broken no no no no but we that's just how we put it into context Mitch Mitch deals with all the healthy girls that are non-broken and I deal with the broken girls and help them fix them help fix them to get them back to Mitch and but we will we'll come back to that in just

a little bit I want to keep going on the sports science so you are what year second year exercise in sports science third third year but doing it part-time yes so I did my first two years pretty much full-time except for last year I did three units in the t2 and then one in t3 just to sort of break it up for footy I found it was a little bit too much at the start so I was like oh just drop one um and now I'm enjoying doing just two yeah okay so two units at

the time when are you gonna when will you can finish your should graduate next year at the end of next year starting and are you keen to keep going with the coaching sense and the strength and conditioning or if there are other interests and and what are you no I don't think at this stage that I will study study anything further um not in like entirely sure what I'm interested in or which path I want to go down um to see where the road takes me and I guess I hope that football also goes full-time

as well yeah absolutely yeah that's the the key thing is you've got to balance the career as well with the football which again is your career so it's you're doing a dual career which again another one of the questions I had is how do you actually find doing that because it's such a physical task of making sure that and again you're very dedicated with your nutrition your recovery I see all your your snapchats and your instagrams at the recovery place and honestly the best kind of athlete to have because I don't even need to tell

you to do all that kind of stuff um but yeah how do you find the dual career and how do you find balancing that yeah so I think having so because we are part-time athletes as well usually training in the afternoons I find that having something to do during the day is quite helpful and studying and working towards something else as well because you never know when football is going to go like god forbid I could do another knee and be out or whatever else or could end up knock on wood um could yeah just

career could end or you never know so um just trying to have something to do during the day and I feel like that takes your mind off it as well especially when football's busy or you might not be winning you might not get be getting selected and whatnot so you've got something else to do um but yeah you kind of just it's it's helpful being sort of part time where we do have the opportunity to work and to do study and stuff during the day and then go to football um I feel like if I

sat around all day and then went to football probably wouldn't be if it was a full-time program though um the I guess that would be filled with more football in that sense as well have you thought about what a full-time career in football and sport could look like versus the dual career do you think that you would be all right I want to go all in as a like the athlete pathway or do you think that you'd go hey I actually really enjoy being a coach and I enjoy other aspects of what you get to

do in your life do you have you thought about that not really but I feel so with the AFLW I feel like they are heading to full-time but that full-time will look different to the men and the men are in like nine to five most days or half days um and with us they're trying to give us or still because they've seen that with the AFLW the the balance of the work life um stuff has been quite beneficial and they feel as though the men could look could look to introduce some of that as well

so um I've lost my train of thought that's right you were talking uh the difference like a full-time versus the part-time and you're enjoying your coaching and you were saying uh how the men's it'll look different in that sense which again they're different programs than they will um there's a lot of differences in the sense at the moment from coaching perspective with an even athlete um and you were talking through what it would be like if you did full-time I think yeah I think being a full-time athlete would be like pretty cool and very cool

um something you don't always get to do or not everyone has the opportunity to do so um I think that would be pretty cool and I mean you still have a little bit of time here and there to possibly study and stuff but realistically like I'll be done my degree before we're full-time probably anyway so yeah and so it was 2020 when you first started playing for Saints yep 2020 the first few years how were they what was the experience like um so like first game was quite cool as well um it was against Bulldogs

and it was under lights at night time adrenaline was pumping there's a few people there um a couple thousand I think crazy yeah and I remember just like kicking it doing a really nice kick that led to a goal and I was pretty happy with that go on yes um but it has its ups and downs like you're not always getting picked as well so I've played nine games missed last season because of my knee um so I think I played three games in the first season so we only have like 10 rounds for those

listening um and then in the next one I played six so a little bit more than the first season but I still feel as though that I haven't played my best footy yet um I feel like that's coming and hopefully that's come around the corner and I can play my best footy soon so yeah and tell everyone what position do you play so positions position yeah fair few of them now um the first season I was mainly a small forward and the second one uh got thrown on the wing a little bit as well a

small forward and then last season before I did my knee I was training in the back line to hopefully play off the back line yeah what would what's your do you have one that you prefer and you enjoy you feel like you're more suited towards um it's hard to tell with the back line yet because I haven't really played there I've played quarter and a half I wouldn't want to come against you in a tackle heaven forbid when we start to get to contact training I'm gonna be squished you get tj to sit there I'll

need to have boots and then no no watch light one time I did it with tea and I'm like my whole arm was like bruised um yeah I was scared about tackling before that you were talking through losing your train of thought again um your back line what what's your preference it's hard to tell I mean small forward's quite hard like you don't get much of the football and when you do you've got to make an impact kind of thing yeah um it's hard to tell you with the back line haven't played there so not

sure but I really did enjoy the wing I feel like there's a lot of freedom out there I mean it is a tough position and you've got to be in the right spot so you've got to you've got to run behind the football you've got to run ahead of football you've got to be in the right spot the stoppages and stuff so yeah we'll just I know time will tell time will tell yeah play a few different positions and maybe play backline this season see here we go yeah okay I love it um all right

let's talk your let's go to your knee now let's talk me through so I know you just said before um you did injure your knee tell everyone what happened um we'll go from there cool so pracke game first pracke game against Carlton one and a half quarters in um I smelled the football then I was kind of like running and this girl came and bumped me on my right side and it was my left leg so I think my knee kind of was like in a valgus position underneath me um she hit me and it

just went pop uh 30 seconds of quite quite painful yeah I was sort of rolling around grabbing the other knee because I didn't want to move the other one oh really yeah it was kind of like I wasn't I wasn't there at the game um I just heard um through other people that you was like that it was okay but we had a little scare that's kind of what the context yeah and so I was like laying on the ground and then um doctor and physio came up and I remember like to seeing even like

tests on the sidelines like oh no like sure no can't be like everyone thinking ACL um pain went uh got up had a little bit of pain on the outside but I think that was from the bone bruising um went to the bench and doctor did the uh good old latchman's tests um tugged on it no movement still strong stability was fine uh did some run throughs and some change direction on the sideline all good you're crazy went back on the field for two minutes had a kick just didn't feel right I was like I'm

just gonna call it it just doesn't feel right it's not worth it um yeah see how it pulls up whatnot so iced it put a bandage on and went home and ached that night and then had some urethra and went to sleep and then trained for two weeks um so training for two weeks sort of was a bit modified I would sort of hang out with jazz at the start get told to kind of push and try and get back into training I remember Ben being like oh like just get back get her back in

there or like so I just wanted the best for you yeah and I get like I guess like you weren't showing any other symptoms so we just didn't see no swelling and again that's not my call or my scope but because there was no symptoms there was no real pain it was just it just felt yeah I just felt I wasn't 100% confident on it or I would take off and I'd feel it kind of it was that first push in that first step I remember doing the acceleration like jazz this feels weird and I'm

like okay yeah it just kind of felt like not that nothing was there I don't know it was a really there wasn't yeah true it was I don't know it was just a real weird sensation I remember yeah just taking off for like I remember Mitch was kicking a couple footballs at me as well and I was leading but I just was a little bit hesitant then joining us and drills built my confidence back up was running around but then I remember got tackled by Stevie and I was like not that she hit my knee

or anything but I was like oh my god my knee yeah and I was like real protective over it and it was really weird and then I remember during those two weeks as well I felt quite a bit off um you weren't yourself yeah I was quite anxious and I was like I'm not gonna have caffeine I'm just I just feel like it's gonna make me feel worse felt a bit odd and yeah it was really really weird and then lost my train of thought you got it you keep going you were doing well talking

about your knee you you felt something wasn't right and yeah we could kind of tell but again no symptoms at all apart from the hesitancy there was literally no swelling and no pain oh yeah I remember I had to do some running because I wasn't so coach asked me you're right to go for pranking game number two and I was like this doesn't feel right and I don't think I can like he's like you're gonna play your best and I was like probably not so let's just sit it out sat that out had to do

some running and then I remember hitting my top speed as well um weird but yeah hit my top speed no ACL and then did some training direction at training before our jumper presentation night and remember I did some change direction change direction it was like a tea drill yeah and I went to change and I just broke down in tears I don't know why my body was just like must have been telling me something was wrong Ben was like are you right cried again and then lots of tears yeah I think I cried like three

times and then I remember also during those two weeks my so I had new orthotics just maybe a month before that my arches in my feet started playing up my lower back started hurting so everything was sort of compensating I was like this isn't right um so then we went to the doc she was like right let's just get a scan make sure you know it's just your bone bruising we thought it was a fat pad irritation um then I remember waking up to a text that said your ACL looks a bit thick and I

was like that's interesting so like Lisa had said yeah your ACL looks a bit thick thick I'll wait for the radiologist to sort of call and give the news and then um I picked up the phone to her and I was like hey how are you and she's like uh like didn't respond to the how are you um was like yeah you've done your ACL and it just yeah I was in shock yeah and then I was like well now I know why I was feeling so weird and off and would break down and didn't

know why I was crying but I was crying and I didn't know why and your body was telling you something's up yeah something was wrong and I remember still doing gym and stuff normally but I just couldn't like properly get it into full extension at the time yeah which is again which is why the lack of swelling and the lack of symptoms was so getting those scanners it was very shock for for me let alone I don't can imagine how you felt in that moment and Lisa like the doctor she just felt so bad that

she didn't diagnose it and I was like it's not your fault no one no one even knew like you can't be like you couldn't be sure and like everyone would have dealt with that situation in different contexts but you had no other symptoms and it wasn't even like it's it was quite quite bizarre but um we can only say like we can make guesses on why it didn't happen or I mean you're very dedicated in the gym perspective and physically strong and you're looking after taking care of your body and then the rest is the

lack of swelling and the lack of pain and symptoms yeah I remember just even like at training we'd strapped it up and felt kind of confident and I jumped up for marks and like I actually remember changing direction and kind of like like running around someone as well and taking a kick and I was like like and then sometimes I'd feel like shit what is going on yeah um like except from the confusion and the like kind of what just happened how else how were you feeling in that moment knowing that this was going to

be a long-term injury at least looking at like in your 9 to 12 months before you're going to get into any like your training what was kind of going I guess I didn't know the full extent until I got into it um I think that initially I was quite nervous for surgery so that was my first surgery ever yeah and I feel like that's quite an invasive or big surgery to have um to go to start with um not that I hope I get any more not gone would but um yeah I think like initially

I was quite shocked when Lisa told me and then I remember my housemate Zoe was home and she heard me on the phone as well and I was like I just like kind of like called her out from a room and I was like Zoe and I just like broke down and I was like oh I've done my ACL um yeah and then I remember that later that day I also had a sixth principle so that was my first internship like a seminar but it was like a practical at the oval and I just went

there as well and I was like I kind of just need to take my mind off my mind off it for a little bit um yeah I was I was probably just in a lot of shock for a few weeks until I had this a week until I had the surgery yeah I reckon it was a week yeah it was about a week that I saw you um I just gave you a big hug and then you huh we're gonna spend a lot of time together yeah yeah I remember when the news broke to the

girls as well sitting in the change rooms and um our head of uh head of AFLW like broke the news but she came and I was just sitting there and I was just waiting for her to like kind of gather the troops and get everyone in um and then I was sitting there and she yeah told everyone and everyone was just like so shocked and I was like yeah like I don't even believe it like I didn't believe it it's hard to believe it with what you were physically doing and I mean we went to

the surgeon we were contemplating as well like do I play with no ACL because I was able to train with no ACL um but we thought like long term it's best to get it operated on and so that I don't do anything else to my knee like a meniscus or something as well yeah the risks like you're so young yeah um from that standpoint you would want to just get it done and then get get the show back on the road exactly long term approach than a short term I mean I would have been having

surgery after the season or something and then having two modified seasons so I thought let's scrap one season and go to the next kind of thing exactly right yeah um and then yeah so talk us through the your rehab experience at them like as a whole what did you what have you learned from it um I said yesterday on the podcast I reckon I've I didn't realize that you could lose so much muscle mass and strength and how long that takes to build back um my muscle mass is still not the same and I'm I

I'm coming up to I think I'm eight months today um yeah it just like that just took so long and now I fully understand what have you watched this have you watched an online surgery of an ACL construction uh I've seen footage of my own ACL being oh there you go that's even cooler seeing the drilling and the yeah those things I use in there but now I can watch it and I'm kind of fine about it which is kind of cool I'd love to kind of like sit in the room and watch one from

pretty cool from the corner don't know how I would go with like seeing the inside of someone's knee but anyway yeah I would love to see that um but no I think I fully understand now what other people are going through I mean mine has probably been a little smoother than maybe normal um but I mean it's different yeah every knee is different I know yeah although like we kind of started changing direction a little bit later just because my right leg is so much stronger you got a big I'm so strong yeah yeah I'm

so strong and like for context so I've we've I'm doing Aunty's knee and her name by the way Aunty is yes so if you hear Aunty around the gym and why is your this is one of the questions later tell the people why your nickname is Aunty I don't know who named like someone at the Saints gave me Aunty you know no I don't know just for being strong just for being strong what was your pre what a couple of your pre um injury actually and during rehab pbs on some of your strength lifts lifts

um I know you've got these written down I actually don't I'm trying to think um trap bar would be I think it was 167 and a half jesus two uh bench press I know sorry 77 and a half for one um let's see how the major lift like yeah that's probably we hadn't done much squatting um no I remember only doing like box squats for maybe like 120 just for a casual 120 maybe let's do a box still yeah still sneak very strong um I even remember this on it was it would have been on

my podcast ages ago and Mitch asked one of my questions was like I listen who's the strongest athlete I was like oh Renee and it was just how we did we just recently did two rm trap bar dads and you hit that I was like jesus yeah very that's what I mean closet strong I didn't really know I was that strong until and how many chin how many pull-ups what's your pull-up pb uh I think overhand is maybe 13 just a casual 13 probably not now but yeah oh it's probably very close still very impressive

but um that's why aunty's nickname is aunty I just I go between aunty aun's Renee nay people like why is it aunty aun's like what yeah what are you trying to say um but there you go everyone so if you hear it start calling your aunty that's her nickname as well as rook cool cool love it um we've gone off track we were talking you were talking about my rehab and the difference between my limbs how did we get off track so because we're talking about how strong I was beforehand and that's why it's taken

me so long to thank you yes um so Renee and we have four context in the rehab space we very much go an outcome-based approach rather than a time-based approach and what we mean in that sense is using our outcome measures to dictate what you're capable of doing which um again these conversations that we have Renee's just having a sip next time you know you can pull the mic away yep I didn't want to make any more noise than I had to it's fine but from an outcome-based perspective one of the tests we look at

is a 90 degree quad um or knee extension hey hubs we've got another podcast member um a 90 degree quad test to isolate the quads as best as we can and because um Renee and her right side um is very strong so I think it was sitting at around 75 80 verse it was like 40 or 45 on the on the left side although both of them sit above average in that sense of where female populations are maybe around that 30 to 40 kilograms at roughly I think it was like five months time um and

sometimes people even lower everyone's very different but because the limb symmetry and the limb symmetry index or LSI was so different and varied that was something we needed to consider because we don't want it to be compensating and having compensatory movements and not having that ability to absorb low like dissipate load and control and eccentrically and all those to like the factors that that would have played so we had to change volumes and we had to kind of change paths and kind of pivot in that sense which is where everyone is so varied and different

and went through as we had an extended period of pre-season went through an extended period of strength to help get help bring them closer and I mean I'm still doing more sets on my left than I am on my right as well so it's just taking some time and yeah um we're getting there we'll test again soon but I think the last time we were sitting around that 75 percent so 70 75 um but yeah that's in that sense of why from the outcome based perspective Aun's was held back in the sense of yes moving

well but we had that extra time to work with and play with so really pushing your strength um as well as some other complications with your shins and some problem solving and some we got an appointment this week for your podiatry to see if that has anything and an injection or a couple of them on Thursday onto your shins yeah so we've had a and you can kind of talk through the kind of hiccups and uh things that you had to overcome and it can be anything it doesn't have to be physical you can talk

around some of the mental aspects of it what are the hiccups and the pivot like what did you have to overcome during the rehab pro like process I think well early days I was we were still yeah we're still playing so um I was around a lot of people then which was good and having everyone there all the time um now it's sort of I'm on my own a little bit more whether that's me doing change direction by myself or in the gym by myself um if I've got other things to do that they so

I can't align my hours with like what the saints girls are doing at the moment um from either being here or doing uni and stuff like that um but I think yeah um that's okay talking about yes yes um but then also my shins have been giving me grief probably for a good five years or so um had them back in the nab league and that was kind of like shin splints and then went to calf tightness um and then yeah now it's kind of just like the muscle sheaves that's connected to the the shin

so had them scanned a couple of months ago and the right one has a bit of a reaction in it compared to the left um we're going to inject both of them and hopefully hopefully this fixes it um I mean we've tried a lot of other things orthotics and volume volume modifications and step count step count yeah it's not looking good recently that's I think you've because it's been such a factor the actual rehab in the sense around your if we consider your knee as you're flying in that sense the quad deficit yes but you've

done so well and we've controlled all the controllables that we can but it's now there's always again the importance of treating you as a like a human and an athlete rather than just your knee because there's so many other factors that we need to consider um but again yeah the next one is to get an outsourced podiatrist and get an assessment and see if that's contributing to some of the loading that's happening through yeah medial tib and anything in that sense so I'm excited to go and learn even from and see where this is at

which has been really fun as well for because you're exercise sports science we've been able to kind of have those conversations around um and been able to teach and kind of and I feel like I also have an understanding where I can say hey this doesn't look like look right in my program or can we try this or should we do this or like yeah what about this and whatnot exactly and it's always the conversations and it's like yeah sometimes okay having the freedom what do you want in your upper session or what are the

extra things you want in your program and and then I love the fact of all your questions why are we doing this jazz why are we doing that because then I get to keep practicing and in that sense of being like uh like why we're actually doing it be like oh actually that is exactly why we're doing it and then how do I say it out loud so it's been a fun process and again like the key thing I know rehab is sucks and it's crap but you get to meet some pretty cool people and

build some cool relationships in it so um and now you're here you're a coach yes I remember you're asking I remember telling you at the start yeah that I was going to be um asking you why why why a lot um because I also wanted to learn I felt like it was a good opportunity to use um the rehab as a learning curve and learn about ACLs as well now I feel like I'm quite interested in them as well um yeah but then I've had more time to do other things although it's been up and

down like issues issues with the shins but I felt like my knees going smoothly and I'm growing confidence in it so that's good um sometimes you can be a bit lonely but that's yeah how did you how did you deal with some of the because it's it's completely normal in that sense especially with it not being a full-time program typically you you'd have a rehab coach in that sense and we've had to do most of it like online how have you kind of overcome some of that sense of being is separated from the group in

that sense how have you overcome some of that um probably asking you questions a lot of the time or like hey Jazz can you can you um clarify what this means or Snapchat's great Snapchat and Instagram I sending me all my videos and everything I'll just get 10 videos and then I just end up on a FaceTime with Renee in the middle of the gym it's great it's probably happened like once come on more like five or ten no sometimes I'm at the start of my change direction I'm like hang on um or like I

forgot the speed thing like is it a flyer is it a is it a full effort across this meterage or whatever but um yeah I feel like just just tried to Harvey stop eating the mat I'll get in trouble reach out to you and clarify things and um make sure I'm doing the right thing I mean I'm quite like dedicated and um driven and stuff so I find like like turning up to my sessions and stuff is not that hard I mean I've had a few sessions where they've been a bit of a slog and

things aren't feeling good or like um yeah just feeling a bit down but um get through those and the other ones feel better and then yeah and I feel like also um having our new high performance manager come in she's invested a lot of time into us as well so I feel like um even yesterday I saw her there um before I had to go on the ultra gene whatnot and she looked at my change direction just from inside and said it looked good so um yeah it's lucky I feel like I have the exercise

sports science background so I can make rational decisions when I need to if someone is not there sort of thing yeah the autonomy and like I always will try and create well you got to have that's the as the reality is it's a part-time program so we've got to create the autonomy around the rehab in the sense of you're not always going to have a coach which is why the education and the learning is so important but again it's not it's not easy um especially having to watch everyone to in this I know you're in

a little bit but especially when it's just the running and you're just doing hand like um hand balls and it's again I've never had a serious major injury where it stopped me so um just that level of would be extremely tough which you've done a really good job and hopefully we're well we're now out of the we're out of the trenches yeah I feel like we're on the we're in the good part starting to like do change direction and actually move and feel good so I love it yeah awesome um and what's what is the

sorry we've been just we've got we've got a harvey that's still eating the terror he's not a terror he's chewing the mat that's he is chewing the mat it's not normal thing not a normal thing to do um all right so now it is how many weeks until the season well if the afl and the afl pa decide on the cba we'd know but we don't actually know roughly when is it starting season or pre-season pre-season roughly maybe five to six weeks I think yeah um and then um the season likely to be in august

don't know exactly but we'll see hopefully they get their stuff together and they can organize it how are you feeling for it all excited you're excited um it should be good I mean it'll be interesting to see where I'm at in terms of like how much training and stuff I can do that's probably a question for you it is a question for me uh we gotta do your testing again so first of all let's we've so renee is getting her shins injected as well as we're gonna have the tired tree podiatrist assessment to see if

we need to change up some of the footwear change up how some of our running biomechanics in that sense and kind of look into the nitty gritties around what is happening actually at the foot and the calf and how that's affecting running loads and volumes so the definitely the key thing is working together in an integrated holistic approach um to help kind of yes the injections potentially is going to be a bit of a in that sense a a a band-aid for that sense of helping with some of the initial symptoms and deloading from there

and then it'll be a a a a build up and test slow build up a slow build up yeah so we're going to go with symptoms and and I'll sit down with aims the wonderful physio at saints um and come up with a bit of a plan around that I feel like that'll put me back a little bit but we all have hiccups yeah hiccups are okay in that sense we're like this is the last thing we want is to have further stress easier in like we need to understand why in this in that sense

and again from my perspective we don't always know why we need to ask we need to ask for help and we'd love to know why same i'm very curious to kind of understand and learn and see what has happened because again it's a more of a complex case in that sense where we need other people to help and then it's the decision making so at the moment we don't have all the answers but we will get the answers for you and then kind of go from there but there will be a period of deload and

then reload for you more so from the um dynamic uh thinking your pliers and your running volume and then building up but we'll have that chat I know luckily we've got we've had a longer off season than usual exactly so we've just played to the the benefit like the benefits of having a longer time and go from there but how do you think I'll be at for pre-season I can't I can't answer that arms I think you're on the right track based yeah exactly hey you know the drill that's the sense I can't give you

specific uh dates and times but all I can say is you're doing every single thing possible and we're gonna understand what's happening the deload period in the build up and you're on track like instead like you change your direction whether you're moving well confidently in some of those controlled um skills kicking where we need to be yep and the footy will just once our outcomes are hit our footy will just keep on without going into the nerd zone don't want to bore everyone exactly apologize um but yeah you're sitting nicely with just the key thing

at the moment is one your quads getting those symmetry back together as well as your understanding what's happening at the um the lower shank with your foot as well so that's kind of the key things for you but keep your head up high you've done a fantastic job so I'm very I'm very proud in the sense of all the work that you've done um thanks for being my rehab coach oh you're so welcome look at us here I know um I it has been 51 minutes that's gone extremely quick we've done well we have done

well I thought I was how are you feeling what's the heart rate no I feel like my heart rate's fine because um I love how you know the drill yeah I'm at 83 I was just saying to Renee before as this is the first podcast I have hosted and I was saying to Georgia who's just hidden there in the in the corner doing some work um oh it's just gone up now that we've started talking about it it's at oh no it's 72 I'm at 76 I'm doing better than you hang on it's going down

hey we're getting competitive again 78 um all right so a couple of questions we've answered a few of them um I'm ready for this I this actually this question actually is from me and then Georgia have you got your question ready you're gonna text it to me you gotta text me a question all right read yours out um I want to know what your protein pool recipe is I saw them on your story the other day and I was like they look good oh my phone's over there um I think oh those are the peanut

butter ones right yeah so like peanut butter fan it's actually kind of hard to make so you you do it in the Nutribullet but when you're blending it like when I was blending it the Nutribullet stopped because it's so like thick but I think there's I can send it to you but to reel it off to the vertice fam as well so I think there's a tablespoon or two of peanut butter yeah I'll be going towards it too yeah when I do my cooking though it's kind of like yeah that'll do that'll do yeah that

looks right that tastes well um and then I think it's like half a cup of oats no maybe a full cup and maybe half a cup of milk some choc chips you put in there after some protein powder so I did like two scoops I think I'm missing something I don't know did you put dates in or anything no I have done another version which had the dates um I like dates peanut butter protein powder yeah um I feel like it's quite hard to blend in the blend in like the in the Nutribullet though it's

a little bit difficult but I did I did really like them okay all right I'll get the recipe um and then George has just sent through send it through thank you because I want to make them once I have time I can send you both of them yep thank you and then we can if anyone else wants it let me know and it might be here all right Georgia has a question for you what AFL player would you model your game on oh um that's tough because like I don't know what position I like invest

in so then I'm not sure I fell right for w either um I don't know maybe like a little nifty small forward or someone that's got a bit of speed name them I don't know name them I don't know if I can give you I'm trying to think but wouldn't say I'm that agile as a cozy picket but um someone who's a little bit sneaky and has a bit of speed and yeah some good ball skills come back to you on a name no that's bad by me isn't it yeah um one of the other

questions is do you miss living with nacho and norm and your mum I knew Kate would have asked that um a little bit oh that way you paused on that okay let's see if she listens hello Kate if you're listening and nacho yeah shout out to them I lived with them for two two and a bit maybe two years yeah so when I initially moved to Melbourne uh moved in with Kate um and nacho and norm and that was really good and then we were nacho and norm Kate's two sausage dogs very cute I always

call nacho tacos okay always every time literally every time you must have been named that yeah no they were great to live with and um Kate really taught me a lot and a bit of a mother figure so yeah it was nice and who are you because you where do you live at the moment you're in a close to the club yes so I'm in like a share house arrangement I guess you could say um we've been I would call them my friends now um three others in my house so we're like five minutes from

the football club in Bentley um yeah loving it very nice all get along so it's really nice they all do different things um Zoe is actually a strength and conditioning coach um Tara Lee does before and after school care and Lorraine's a bit of a chemist scientist type thing she does fancy stuff yeah fancy smart things cool she sends us like pictures in the group she's got all this gear on and like these masks and stuff it's pretty cool I love hearing about other people's jobs yeah jobs I'm like that's so cool yeah she literally

works in like a lab circle yeah so smart um and then we had do you miss playing it south oh someone asked that from home yeah they did um to show you who it was what I can show you yeah um oh I like I I definitely loved my time there um I was there for maybe a couple years so this is when um there was like kind of like a women's comp in Warrnambool and south came with the team south came out with a team before Warrnambool did so Warrnambool was like my home club

I went to south for a couple years and then Warrnambool was asking me like come back and I was like kind of like my time here at south um no everyone was great I loved all the girls and we all got along really well and yeah it was good yeah nice I got one more question yeah for you and then we'll wrap it up but favorite hobbies things to do good question um I was actually kind of thinking about this last night because I was like this could be a question I didn't tell no I

did what Mitch did to me in the sense of I didn't show Renee any of the questions I asked for him but you didn't give me no because I knew that you would want them and I knew you would ask so I didn't deliberately didn't it's just me trying to be like organized I know but I didn't want you to prepare and I didn't want you to be organized for this because I just wanted you to speak your mind what do I do outside of uni and football and exercising so apart from like I do

enjoy exercising as well um you're lifting yeah I mean I did enjoy walking when I could do the steps but not anymore not yet you get there maybe eventually you just gotta you're gonna save time save steps and volume for the other things at the moment yeah exactly priorities um other than that um recently started to try and keep working on some content for my coaching account instagram give yourself coach solidas um solidas is how you say it by the way I also your nickname soladas yeah I'll cop that one cheese and biscuits and cheese

everything every ham and cheese everything everything um other hobbies I mean I don't know apart from work and unions football watching football going to the football sport sport um recently well for a while now I've kind of read a book or a few pages before I fall asleep it's not really a hobby I don't love it but I I still do it fair I was gonna say reading is definitely one of my hobbies yeah what book uh what's it called you can't have been reading that video I think it's called oh god I think she's

gonna have to get back to everyone yeah no it's one that beach recommended actually I'm about leadership I can't remember the title but it's about leadership yeah I think she might oh maybe she's still downstairs um so it's been interesting like before that I was reading one about sleep so I kind of was intrigued by sleep and enjoy looking at sleep and my sleep numbers as well keeping track you they're just like numbers yeah you just the numbers you look at you actually I found even recently like for uni as well we had to like

do some data on excel and stuff and I'm like they're like typing away and putting in equations and my assignment for me my daughter assignment you're looking over the corner like this looks intense I was like you want to do it yeah um but apart from that I don't know just watching football I mean at the moment if I had any actual spare time and stuff I'd probably just be watching some Netflix or relaxing or cooking is probably another hobby baby yeah I was gonna say cooking ask is cooking one because I see all your

recipes but I need a steal I need to do something more than I didn't know I was like that able to cook I guess because I went to boarding school I didn't have to defend for myself too much with the cooking but since moving out I've learned to cook a few things and nothing extravagant but it's still nice now yeah adult things don't like being an adult too it's the money and I bought a lettuce the other day for four dollars I would have left it there I didn't know I didn't look at how much

it was gonna cost that's like me when I get to the canner and they're like one time I got like a iced coffee and a donut and it was probably like 16, 18 dollars and I was like tap well you can't say no you get to that stage you're like uh you can't be one of that you can't be that person that you like oh I don't want the donut I don't want any of it anymore I'm just gonna walk out but I yeah that's when you walk into the store you've got to I don't

know you kind of have to buy something I mean yeah not in like a clothes store but maybe in a bakery or something if you walk in it's kind of like yeah don't be that person yeah no no I get you but 16 dollars no no for like a nice like filled doughnuts like Nutella and stuff though no fair it's probably worth it yeah you just like that 16 dollars yeah Jesus it's too much money for a donut and an iced coffee but the iced coffees do start usually at like seven to six or seven

dollars but yeah you I've seen your shopping list and your numbers on how everything costs remember you showed me when I was complaining one day I don't have numbers I just I do track what I spend in an app and then I also have a shopping list yeah I have a shopping list is very handy I have a shopping list yeah I know I've seen yours yeah but you've told me you've also budgeted money too I do have that in common I'm just making fun of you because it's your podcast I can also bounce it

back at you I know you can we need to work on your banter I know I we just tried to help my banter's not good um obviously my banter's not great but I remember you need we need to work oh no don't bring anything up will you no I won't bring anything up I can't even remember anything all I know is there's been several times too bad I'm learning off your poor banter skills on what I shouldn't do I'm just like such a literal person if someone tells me like I don't know this guy's orange

I'll be like what do you mean you hate my shoes yeah I don't know I'm just real literal and I take my analytical and take everything quite seriously so if someone says something I'll be like are you serious and like they're joking I'm like oh yeah I know you'll get you're spending time around the people here I spend was really bad oh gave it to me all the time I didn't know how to give it back yeah I know that was quite funny I just sat there watching because it used to do it to me

well I mean probably still would and still did but I found the best person to pick on and that was me it was you shouldn't have come to half the time I wish I know sorry that's okay um do you have anything else to say anything else you want to add any other questions for me no more questions from me anything else you want to say to the vertice fam what are you most excited about starting inverters um staying here yeah fair yeah staying here um seeing everyone come back in and I get to stay

here as well so I get to see everyone more often um which would be really good um I will maybe eventually take on some floor shifts so look out for that um but yeah I'm just excited to go out to the schools and work with Tyler and Lockie and stuff and then just come in here and do you reckon you'll pick up some country slang from Tyler what sort of country slang is he just wait Tyler Tyler throws a couple of things just just randomly says it you'll pick it up all right I'll look out

for it you won't miss it believe me he's sitting in the corner right now um you won't miss it that's for sure I'll look out for it anything else dad not really all right let me do it my time I'm glad let me make sure I press the right button that one have a good day bye