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Follow Swallow: Day one
Follow Swallow: Day two
Follow Swallow: Day three

I woke up this morning knowing today was going to be a huge day - we had been warned. Brad told us the next three days were going to be the toughest of our pre-season and that made me nervous.

The day began and he wasn’t kidding. Breakfast was put off until we all completed a series of fitness assessments. It involved a bike test, flexibility test and a short swim. Marcus White kept trying to cut the line, he must have been hungry. Brady Rawlings looked like the tiredest man alive this morning. He told me that he was a chance to drown.

At breakfast I found out that Brady survived the swim and Warren Benjamin isn’t the only one that has Weetbix, yoghurt and milk all in the same bowl. Whitey (Marcus White) says it’s amazing. It’s made me curious and I might even give it a go tomorrow. I couldn’t help but notice Alan Obst with a massive pile of baked beans on about four bits of toast. I’m glad I’m not sleeping in his room.

My shoulders had recovered from the sunburn the other day and while I was lathering myself up with sunscreen ahead of training, Oscar (Josh Smith) told me about the new technique of putting zinc on them. It seemed to work well. It was an extremely long session on the track today and the heat made it really tough - my feet were burning up and my head was so hot. It was the longest session of pre-season so far.

In the foyer of the Southport Sharks Football Club there are two massive aquariums probably three by three metres and they have small sharks and other fish in them. Boomer (Brent Harvey) told me that fish will only grow in proportion to the size of the tank they’re in - meaning the bigger the tank, the bigger the fish will grow. I’m not sure about that, I’ll research it for tomorrow’s blog. If you know the answer, let me know via Twitter @andrewswallow.

Lunch was uneventful apart from the fact that I somehow chipped a tooth while eating. Corey Jones didn't disgrace himself this time. The locals were doing line dancing inside the venue which was interesting.

After lunch we headed to the Southport beach and I was looking forward to getting in the water and cooling down. As expected, the water was beautiful and refreshing. A Southport life saver named Russell took us for a running, swimming and ski surfing session. We raced around a buoy and at one stage Drew Petrie punched me in the face. Now I know how Alipate Carlile feels from Port Adelaide. It happened when he was going one way, and I was going the other. We kind of swam into each other and his hand just collected me during his stroke. He’s not as nice as everyone thinks. I think he did it because he’s worried about my swimming prowess. I had to stop to readjust my goggles after he knocked them off my face. I’m literally scarred for life and have two marks under my eye.

Majak had issues too in the ocean. He was petrified about going in because he has a fear of sharks. The other boys weren’t helping the situation by taunting him. As it turns out it wasn’t the sharks he should have been worried about. A jelly fish stung him on the leg and left a huge mark. You could see the outline of the stinger down his leg.
Levi Greenwood and Daniel Pratt headed out for a surf. Pratty rates himself pretty highly on the board but was easily beaten by Piggles (Levi). Boomer was on top of a wave, he thought he had it nailed and started celebrating by waving his pointer finger in the air, but then took a nose dive and face planted into the sand. The board went flying one way, and Boomer the other, and his credibility crashed down just as heavily as the wave.

That didn’t stop Boomer from making a fool of himself with Ed Lower. They borrowed two swivel boards, which are like skateboards but weird, off some young kids. They almost ended up on facedown on the pavement and the two kids, who were about six, just stood and laughed.

We came back to the Sports Super Centre and all had to jump in the ice baths. It was my second one for the day after one in the makeshift ice bath wheelie bin at Southport. The boys were playing cricket on the rugby field but as I was heading down to join in, Levi hit the ball on the roof and ruined the game. Conor Meredith would have been bowling because he is about as bad as bad as they come.

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