The results are in and there are some surprises. When you think Reds and king-of-the-gym, the names Genia and Diggers spring easily to mind, right – wrong. Ok, Higginbotham? nup, Daley? pppfftt, Morahan? he’s a big fella, wrong again. Link? maybe in his prime, but not now.
So who’s the one who can kick sand in everyone else’s faces at Ballymore, Ezra ‘Too-Buffed’ Taylor, that’s who!
Like all good competitions, this one went down the wire with the winner storming home to beat front runners Higgers and Blair Connor during the final session of the pre-season.
The players were tested over five different criteria, vertical leap, bench pull, one rep bench press, chin-ups, and body weight bench press with the cumulative results determining the winner. It was Taylor’s consistency across this quintet that saw him salute the judge as winner.
For the record Higgers finished second with Genia sneaking in for a podium as well.
Taylor tied for equal first in the vertical leap with Rod Davies, springing a Steve Hooker like 79 cms, not bad for someone who weighs 111 kg’s. The bench pull came down to a battle of the backrowers, with Higgers and Taylor both topping out at 135 kg’s.
Perhaps no surprise Diggers won the body weight bench press by pressing his body weight (95 kg – 94 kg muscle, 1 kg ink) a ball bursting 27 times. Second was Genia (85 kg) with 24 reps while Blair Connor (82 kg) got the bronze with 21 reps. Don’t mess with the Reds’ backs this year!
The rest of the results are fairly closely guarded however QAS Academy prop, Albert Anae pushed 175 kg for the one rep bench and young blade Aidan Toua (86 kg) topped the chin up count with 20.
Former Brumbies and now Reds fitness guru, Damian Marsh, was pretty happy with the pre-season and highlighted Taylor’s win by praising the overall strong-man talent in the squad.
“We’ve got some really strong boys with Higginbotham, Genia, Connor and Ioane so to win King of the Gym is pretty tough,” Marsh said.
“All the players showed a capacity for great improvement and some of the guys have come a long way. The key for us now is to make sure those gains are evident on the park otherwise it doesn’t mean much.”
A mentioned in dispatches must go to Adam Byrnes who came second in the 2 km run with a time of 7.48 mins, just eight seconds behind the winner, Ioane. This result is made all the more impressive when you consider the Byrnes is 201 cm (6’ 7”) and 116 kg.
This is a great result for Too-Buffed who had an injury disrupted season last year and didn’t get the opportunity to show his best. He is clearly back to full fitness and his form thus far in the trials suggest he may be about to reach his un-doubted potential.
