Click here to view our Facebook photos of pre-season training at Sorrento
SOMETIMES a small yet symbolic act can have a profound effect on a group and that's exactly what Shaun Hampson says occurred on the Blues' arduous bike ride from Visy Park to Sorrento on Monday.
With the finish line of the 110km physically-exhausting, mentally-draining journey almost in sight, Hampson's seat pole snapped clean off.
The ruckman shrugged off his teammates, who urged him to finish the trek in the support vehicle, and prepared to ride the final seven kilometres standing up on the pedals.
Then the strangest thing happened.
"Michael Jamison said 'well if you're doing it, I'm doing it with you' then he took his seat off and we did the last seven k's out of the seat the whole way," Hampson explained.
"I really appreciated it because it would have been a lot harder on my own.
"It was considerably harder than sitting down the whole time. It was murder on the quads because you just can't rest. It really takes it out of you.
"Jammo's one of the best leaders we've got at the club for such a young guy. He commands a lot of respect from the boys with the way he goes about things. That was only a small example, but it certainly inspired me and the boys."
The group took about six-and-a-half hours to complete the trip which wasn't without other mishaps.
"We'd only just hit the Docklands and I went to take off too quick and ran right up the back of Davey Ellard," Hampson said.
"I fell over and the chain came off. I held a couple of cars up who weren't too happy with me, but it hurt my pride more than anything else."
Despite various other scratches and bruises, the team arrived intact with the message of the day clearly evident to all those who took part.
"The key lesson there is obviously mental toughness which has been a bit of a theme for the pre-season so far," Hampson said. "It was certainly character building.
"Most of us hadn't really ridden that far before and the distance really messes with your head.
"Your backside, your neck, your legs and your back all start to get sore, so it is tough physically but it is tougher mentally.
"I was pretty cooked when we got there. We all were. Everybody was just lying on the grass in front of the hotel basically kissing the ground we were that happy to have got there."
