Cleve Hughes

[TigerBoss]

Cleve a clever worker
11:56:04 AM Thu 26 January, 2006
Matt Burgan
Sportal for afl.com.au

Everything Cleve Hughes had ever heard about undertaking an AFL pre-season is proving to be correct.

Grueling sessions, a tired body and backing it up the following day are all par for the course for the new Richmond recruit, but he is relishing the challenge as he lines up for his first AFL season.

"It's definitely been as hard as I thought it would be," Hughes, who was drafted by Richmond from Norwood with its second selection - No.24 overall - in last November's NAB AFL Draft, told afl.com.au,

"I knew some of the other players that I met up with last year that had just started their first season and they told me it was pretty hard, but your body gets the rewards from it at the end of it.

"It's definitely been pretty hard on the body, but I'm settling in pretty well now and I know what I've got to do."

The daily workload and having to cope with several sessions is something the tall forward is finding particularly taxing.

"You have one in the morning and then you've got to get your body up for another one in the middle (of the day) and then you've got to get your body up for another one in the afternoon," Hughes said.

"There is a lot of preparation for each session. Normally I get through the session but then the body is pretty buggered at the end of it and then you've got one the next day, so you have to take care of the body for the next one and it's all about getting it right for the next session - that's probably the hard thing."

Hughes, who gained All-Australian honours after shining with South Australia in last year's NAB AFL under 18 championships, said crossing the border to Victoria had been a relatively smooth transition.

"It hasn't been heaps tricky because I'm with a really good host family at the moment and they've got everything right for me. Now I've got a car and it's pretty easy to get around, so it hasn't been too hard," Hughes said.

"I'm probably missing the family a little bit at the moment, but they came over for a couple of days (recently), so that was good, but just having a good host family there has been good for me.

"I'm looking to meet a few more people around the place and that'll stop me from getting too bored and lonely."

Leading up to last year's draft, Hughes said he wasn't fully aware of Richmond's interest in him.

"I didn't really know. I had a little chat with them at the draft (camp), but apart from that I hadn't really heard from them," Hughes said.

"They didn't really think that I was on their radar, because they thought they wouldn't get me with their eighth pick and they thought I would fall between their eighth and 24th pick."

As for 2006, Hughes is looking to play solidly with the Coburg Tigers in the VFL, although he added that a berth in the upcoming NAB Cup was not out of the question.

"The coaches have basically said that it doesn't really matter about age or where you've been taken in the draft, whoever is playing the best footy will play (in the NAB Cup)," Hughes said.

"I guess they're going to play a few new young guys for that, but we've got a couple of little trials coming up to that and if I can play alright on some of the older guys, that'll probably give me a foot forward.

"The body is coming alright, but playing in my position, it'd be a little bit hard for me to play in the key position at the moment.

"They've been playing me on the half-forward flank a little bit and I've been going alright in the trials we've played and a little bit at full-forward, but nothing right in the key spots right now."

[Rik E Boy]

OUCH. I certainly don't envy the players at this time of year.

regards,

REB

[JK]

lol .. Wore me out just reading about it ... If he can add some bulk to his frame in a hurry should develop into a very nice player, really like what Wallace is doing down at Tigerland ...