To be capable of playing AFL football, players need to set elite standards, including optimal nutrition for peak performance. 

So to further induct the club’s first-year players into the ever demanding AFL environment, Gold Coast SUNS dietician Benita Lalor and player welfare coordinator Sam Coen put the rookie campaigners through a sports nutritional seminar.

It didn’t take long for the boys to turn up the heat in the kitchen, as they were taken through dual recipes to make a Thai beef noodle salad, and recovery protein balls. 

Sean Lemmens impressed with his culinary skills, while Jarred Ellis was out to repeat his high school glory days as a hospitality genius  

Although all newcomers are embedded with host families for the first year on the Gold Coast, Lalor told goldcoastfc.com.au it was important for the players to understand the benefits of preparing and implementing performance nutrition plans.

“The current players are living with host families, so they might not necessarily have to cook and prepare all their meals themselves but this is the first stepping stone in their education on their transition to living by themselves,” Lalor said.

“Because there will come a time where the players need to implement their performance nutrition plans, and be able to prepare and choose the right options that will underpin all their training and recovery.”

Just one of the GC SUNS many welfare programs, Coen said the club was committed to developing each listed player off the football field, whether it be in the kitchen or on the roads through the club’s driver safety courses.

“We feel as a club we really do go above and beyond our player welfare program.

“It is really important we drive home the key messages at home that they need. Cooking being one of them and another being defensive driving. 

“We want to make sure we protect them from being put in nasty situations, and our life skills program is a way of doing that.”

Lalor hinted the competitive on-field match-ups could find themselves going head to head in the kitchen.

“Hopefully we are going to have a bit of a master chef or my kitchen rules competition this year, that will be against our second-year players, the same players that set off the fire alarm system last year.

“That would be fantastic.”