Eagles sweat it out
West Coast have sent their players off to Christmas with a monster training day, featuring sessions at three venues yesterday.
The Eagles started the day at McGillivray Oval, then shifted to Kings Park for a running session before swimming, lifting weights and further training at their Patersons Stadium base.
The skills and match simulation session at McGillivray Oval alone stretched for more than two hours.
Players under notice included troubled youngster Murray Newman, who trained away from the main group for most of the session two days after a District Court jury found him guilty of a nightclub assault that could result in a jail term when he is sentenced in March.
Nic Naitanui also trained away from the main group, but moved at top pace in running drills and is expected to rejoin full training next month.
And upgraded rookie Jeremy McGovern also cut an impressive figure on the track. McGovern is understood to have reduced his skin-fold readings by more than 30 points after returning to training overweight and out of shape at the start of the pre-season.
The Eagles also received good news off the field this week, with the Town of Victoria Park formally endorsing the club's bid to relocate to Lathlain Park and establish a new elite training and administration facility.
The council voted unanimously to begin drawing up and formalising lease agreements on the facility after taking community feedback on the project.
West Coast hope to relocate to Lathlain Park by 2017 in a new $50 million facility which will be established jointly by the club, Perth Football Club and the Town of Victoria Park.
Chief executive Trevor Nisbett said the centre would include a new supporters' facility and two training grounds, one with the dimensions of the new Burswood Stadium and the other the same size as the MCG.
"Lathlain Park is, of course, the home of the Perth Football Club, and it is important to us that the Demons continue at Lathlain, which has been their home since 1959," Nisbett said.
"As part of the Eagles' commitment to the Lathlain project, the Eagles will support a planned upgrade of the Perth Football Club facility, matched by similar support for the development of community facilities for the year-round use by residents."
