REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, May 8, 2010

HE experienced the same Gforces as a fighter pilot and ran the equivalent distance from Burleigh Heads to Surfers Paradise while clocking speeds in excess of 30km/h. Titans hooker Nathan Friend was long regarded as the hardest working player in the NRL.

But the Bulletin uncovered the science behind the statistics, with exclusive GPS data revealing the strain placed on the gutsy No. 9 every time he played.

Friend wore a GPS device under his jersey against the Penrith Panthers at Skilled Park and the results were astonishing.

During 80 minutes, Friend ran 10.65km with a top speed of 8.5m a second, while his heart rate peaked at 190bpm.

But the most amazing data came from the magnitude of the collisions. Friend experienced 74 impacts above a G-force of 8, which was higher than that felt by a Formula One driver (5G) or an astronaut (7G).

”In terms of what it would do to a regular person, most people wouldn’t get up,” said Titans conditioning coach and

Bond University assistant professor Chris McLellan.

“Basically these guys over the course of the season get conditioned for the collision. It is not something normal people are accustomed to.

“In terms of Friend being the hardest working man in the NRL, I really wouldn’t know because I don’t know what other players are doing.

“But he is covering the most ground for us and he certainly had the highest number of collisions. He is topping all of our categories in terms of sprints and heart rate, because let’s face it, he doesn’t stop.”