Just six weeks ago the Roos were trekking through knee deep snow in Utah. Now, they are battling oppressive heat in Melbourne. That’s the harsh reality of professional football and most clubs around the league are coping with it – and there’s no mercy afforded.

North’s Nutrition and Conditioning coach Jona Segal says it’s been pleasing to see the players’ ability to adapt.

“It’s about 65 degrees centigrade different from coldest there (Utah) to hottest here (Melbourne). Thankfully it’s not over the course of 24-hours that you have that sort of extreme change,” Segal told NMFC.com.au.

“The players are doing really well. It obviously takes some getting used to when the first day, you come out and it’s high 30s, low 40s. We’ve had a fairly mild start to summer though so it’s probably only the last few days that it’s been really severe. It’s actually been a fairly nice graduation.”

Hydration and recovery are crucial and the conditioning team is making sure there is endless Gatorade, water and cold towels on hand to provide some relief.  

“The most important thing during training is making sure that during their breaks, they’re re-hydrating as effectively as possible and trying to bring their core temperate down.

“We’ve got some really deliberate things in place to make sure the guys are hydrating well, topping up their electrolytes, and carbohydrate stores.

“There’s some physiological advantages they have being so highly trained, that allows them to deal with heat better than the general population. It makes recovery even more important especially when sleep is compromised.”

It’s not only a physical battle.

“When it’s like this, there’s definitely that mental challenge. But there’s always upsides to training in adversity, the guys help each other along and drag each other through.”