Andy Otten will write for afc.com.au from the Gold Coast pre-season trip.

Here’s his first email ...

Hi Crows fans,

We stepped off the plane late Sunday night to be greeted by unfamiliar humidity and heat. It was a pretty cruisy flight, with the boys still a bit flat after our disappointing NAB Cup loss the day before. But as always we are keen to turn it around as soon as possible and get things right for the start of the premiership season.

We made our way to the hotel room, and I’m sharing with Birdman, Porps and Aidan Riley. There was no fight to see who gets the double bed, with Birdman going straight for it and claiming his territory. Porps and I are in a room with two single beds, and Aidan is on the fold out.

Monday morning we went to Tippo’s old stomping ground, Southport Sharks FC, to do our recovery. We spent an hour in the gym doing some weights, before the boys headed out into the heat for a few strides to get the blood flowing again. They played a quick game of soccer then some footy skills after that. I was in the rehab group so we were sent to the local swimming pool to do some laps. Luke Thompson is a very good swimmer!

There was a game review meeting after training and then we had the rest of the afternoon off. A large group headed down to Cavill Avenue to grab some lunch and have a wander around the shopping area. It’s a very nice place up here to visit and the weather is amazing.

The idea of the trip is to still train hard, but also have some time off to spend together to get to know some of the new players and also have some fun. One of my jobs up here is to keep our supporters informed with some news from the camp. We have a main training session today, so I will let you all know how that goes in my next report.

Andy

Click here to see Andy Otten's player profile