Sydney younsters Brandon Jack (left) and Jed Lamb. Picture: Chris Pavlich Source: The Daily Telegraph
TWO years of injury setbacks and a nearly 500km off-season cycling odyssey in Myanmar have helped Sydney's Jed Lamb prepare for his AFL debut on Sunday.
Lamb was the Swans' first selection in the 2010 draft, which also netted premiership players Luke Parker and Alex Johnson.
The 20-year-old has had to a wait a little longer for his first AFL game, which will come against Brisbane at the SCG, but it's had nothing to do with the club's reputation for making players earn their stripes.
"It has been frustrating," Lamb said today.
"In the first year, I missed a lot because of injured hamstrings then, last year, I had shin splints. Towards the back end, I started to build some consistency, but it was a bit late."
It wasn't until the Swans started pre-season training last November that Lamb made coach John Longmire really sit up and take notice.
"That's one of the question marks you have, for young players in particular. When they go away, that's their time really to improve and to make up some ground on senior players," Longmire said.
"The challenge is (to do it) when nobody is watching, to do it by themselves.
"When he came back for his first day of pre-season, Jed was in great condition and he'd obviously worked quite hard.
"Once he'd increased his fitness in the off-season, we then got to work on his other areas of the game that he needed to improve on."
Lamb spent his holidays with reserves coach Jared Crouch on a cycling tour around Myanmar that blends young elite athletes with everyday people.
Physically, it was a great workout, but the real upside came in the form of personal development.
"That really put a perspective on footy and life in general. It really helped me with footy, during pre-season when things got tough - not to complain," Lamb said.
"Because over there, it just makes us realise we whinge about the stupidest things."
Longmire suggested the Lions were a more-potent threat than their 2-3 record implied.
"They play a bit of a similar style to Geelong. They've got some really good runners in the team and actually had more scoring shots than we have," Longmire said.
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