Nathan Brown’s passport is filled with reminders of summer training camps.
The defender has visited South Africa, Dubai, New Zealand and the United States during his nine pre-seasons at Collingwood.
2016’s destination proved closer to home as Brown and his teammates on Monday travelled to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast for a week of training.
“I’ve been all over the world over my ten years… so to stay home in Australia is pretty handy,” Brown told Collingwood Media in Maroochydore.
Prior to arrival on the Sunshine Coast, the entire Collingwood list reacquainted at Melbourne Airport after time away from the club.
Brown believes returning to training via a pre-season camp has given the Magpies an added element of enthusiasm.
“This is the first time in my time where we’ve come straight back from the two-week Christmas break into a camp,” he said.
“We haven’t seen each other for two and a half weeks so we had a great catch-up at the airport and throughout the day.
“It’s a really good environment at the moment.”
While most players used the Christmas break to refresh and spend time out of the spotlight, Brown celebrated one of the biggest milestones of his young life.
The 26-year-old was joined by family, friends and teammates as he married his partner Liana on the 29th of December.
“We had a great day in Ballarat,” Brown said.
“Jarryd Blair was one of my groomsmen, so he spent a couple of weeks up there with me in Ballarat.
“A lot of the boys came up and it was a fantastic day.”
Despite having the recent nuptials fresh in his mind, there was no honeymoon period on day one of pre-season camp as the Magpies got back to work under the eye of High Performance Manager Bill Davoren.
After arriving at midday, the players took part in a skills and running session before heading indoors for weights and circuit training.
While the rigours of pre-season training may become repetitive for some players, Brown is determined to put his best foot forward every time he trains this summer.
“The main goal this preseason is to tick off every training session and stay on the park and stay fit,” he said.
“To play the whole season last year was great. I knew I had it in me.
“It’s just a matter of backing it up now and doing it for the rest of my career.”
There’s no snow-covered mountains or daunting desert sands awaiting Brown as he enters his tenth pre-season at Collingwood.
Just the warm Queensland sun and 45 other teammates eager to succeed.
