The Brisbane Lions have been combining their regular training sessions this pre-season, with occasional visits to the Enoggera Army Barracks.

The Enoggera Barracks, which is located in the north-west of Brisbane, has granted permission for the Lions players to utilise their facilities when appropriate.

The facility also hosted a gruelling three-day camp for the Club’s younger players late last year.

Prior to Friday’s session at Enoggera, the Lions presented a set of guernseys to Brigadier Greg Bilton, Commander of the 7th Brigade, as a gesture of their gratitude.

Reigning Club Champion Joel Patfull told lions.com.au that the Club’s visits to Enoggera have opened the players’ eyes to different types of physical training.   

“We’ve been training out at the Army Barracks for 4-5 weeks now,” Patfull said.

“They’ve got a great facility out here, and have been good enough to let us use their gym and also run a few leadership workshops with Manny Lynch.”

“They’re incredibly organised. They’ve got strict rules and are very regimented, and I think our guys have learned a lot about the organisation and its structure."

“We’ve got a great relationship with the guys out here, and have learned plenty from them. A few of them have starting coming out to our training sessions as well, so hopefully we can start giving something back.”

Brigadier Greg Bilton said his Brigade were thrilled to have developed an association with a professional sporting organisation such as the Lions.

“We’re obviously Brisbane’s own brigade, and here we have Brisbane’s own AFL club – it’s important to us,” Brigadier Bilton said.

“We’re very proud of our relationship. We believe we can give back to the Lions in the realm of teaching young people leadership, and also their hard physical training that’s been incorporated at the Barracks.”

The Barracks have also benefited from being exposed to some of the best practices in terms of injury rehabilitation and recovery.  

“In a technical sense, we’ve been able to get access to understanding their rehabilitation processes and essentially learning how the Lions get back to the field as quickly as they do,” Brigadier Bilton said.

“We’ve been able to incorporate those techniques into our rehabilitation and recovery programs here.”

“We run a soldier recovery centre here at Enoggera Barracks – about 40 soldiers are in there with varying levels of injury. We work them through a very deliberate process.”

“The other intangible is the morale factor, and the fact we get to interact with excellent sportsmen, professional sports personnel.”

The players pose for a group shot during their recent session at Enoggera