Upon his arrival at the Sports Super Centre in Runaway Bay, Brayshaw was told he’d be bunking up with the players with accommodation limited.
While he admits getting closer to some of the younger players was one objective of his for the trip, he says he didn’t expect to get that close.
“I’m actually sleeping in a dorm with Ed Lower, Levi Greenwood and Conor Meredith,” Brayshaw told kangaroos.com.au during a special barbecue hosted by the club’s Queensland Supporter’s Group.
“It’s been a long while since I’ve slept in a bunk, so that’s interesting, but they’re ripper blokes and that’s just great. It’s what we’re all about at North and the boot studder, the chairman, the supporters are all on the same level. I’ve had a ball. Ed snuck a little phone call in late at night, I don’t know who it was to as he was sort of muffling into his pillow.
“As the Chairman the last thing you want to do is just hang around the players but things like this are great…you get away from home and you’re actually able to mix in with them in an environment that’s totally different. You get to see other sides of blokes. Staying in a dorm for instance is something that I would never usually do with footballers as a rule, but this has been great.”
A two day stay has also allowed Brayshaw to get to know North’s recently drafted and rookie listed players a little better.
“The development of the youth is great to see because I hadn’t seen a lot of our young players like Ryan Bastinac and these sorts of guys actually out on the track. I’m really, really impressed with how they’re going about it. It blows you away how far they’ve come in such a short amount of time.
“The boys are really switched on, it’s really impressive.”
The development of the players was just one area Brayshaw was keen to observe; the new coaching set-up at the club the other.
“I’ve been really interested to watch Brad (Scott) with the assistants and development coaches as well as the playing group. It’s great and I’ve got enormous confidence that he’s been a great appointment.
“The staff look like they’ve really gelled and the players certainly have. We know where we are at, we’re amazingly young and we’ve got a lot of work to do but from what I’ve seen in the last 48 hours it’s all charging along.”
While there’s been much hype surrounding the Kangaroos’ pre-season, Brayshaw speaks with caution when asked about the side’s 2010 prospects.
“We’re under no illusions as to how young we are and how much we’ve got to learn and grow and develop. But if you develop quickly, as clubs have in the past, it can be fantastic.
“We are aware we’re playing footy for keeps in ten weeks time and we’ll just see where we are at then.”
