FEATURE ARTICLE: CELEBRATING OUR MEMBERS: Roland Jeffery

Late last year SEPNZ member Roland Jeffery clocked up 100 'A' Internationals as the Team Physiotherapist with the All Whites (New Zealand Football's Senior Men's team). We wanted to celebrate this achievement as those numbers do not include friendlies, age group games or games covering the Football Ferns (New Zealand Football's Senior Women's team). At the end of 2019, SEPNZ Exec member Justin Lopes caught up with Roland to have a chat about what has made him so successful in the role over the last 15 years.

The following is an abridged version of an interview Justin had with Roland shortly after he was awarded his 100.

RJ: I had never had Physio but, as a teenager when I was at school, it was something I looked into with the career officer. I looked through manuals and decided to become a Physio because it was dealing with sports, but also dealing with people, and helping people, so I felt that was where I wanted to go. I think I was pretty lucky to fall into the right profession for me!

RJ: Yip, went straight from school to AUT, and started just after my 18th birthday. I completed undergraduate study in 1994…we were the first fouryear degree to run. Then I worked in a hospital in Whakatane for 18 months before coming back up to Auckland to work in private practice in Point Chevalier. Then I went overseas for four years, came back and did my Post Graduate study after about seven years. JL: Had you been working in football at that stage or with other sports? RJ: When I was in private practice, I had been working with rugby league and rugby, but I had played football as a young boy and had a passion for it. I had coached football while I was playing rugby and had done a few games here and there for football. When I returned from England to Auckland in 2000, I was approached by my local football club (Glenfield Rovers) to provide services for their club and First Team, and that's when I fell into it.

RJ: I had started my clinic at that time, and I contracted to Glenfield Rovers, it all started at once…73 Chartwell in 2001 and moved to 22 Chartwell in 2004. I think you came on board in 2004/2005!

RJ: I had worked at Glenfield Rovers with their First Team and through the Chairman of the club (Glen Read), United Soccer 1 which is now Northern Football Federation (NFF). Keith Pritchett needed a

Physiotherapist for a game. I literally got rung up last minute, the afternoon of the game. It was a senior game, the NFF Team vs the All Whites…(The All Whites were preparing for the Nations Cup in 2002). I went up there and did a good job. Keith then used me for US1 as much as he could. We both support a club called Watford, he played for Watford, so there was a little link there. From there Keith recommended me to NZF when they had their Academies during the school holidays. I got involved from that level and worked my up from there.

RJ: I worked with the (NZF) Academies for about six months, went away with Ricky Herbert with the NZF MU17 Team for some World Cup Qualifiers…We didn't qualify, Australia was in the group then. I then got selected for a U22 team which went over to Japan with Paul Smalley and then an opportunity with the All Whites came up in 2003, so this is all in the same calendar year. That was a one-off away game against Iran. The Director and Coach Paul Smalley asked if I could come along with the Doctor as a one-off game and from there…

RJ: Went to the London 2012 Olympics, that’s the only Olympics I have been to

RJ: Hopefully, yes.

RJ: Yip 2010

RJ: 2007

RJ: Never been to any age group World Cups but have Qualified teams for the World Cups, but never been to age-group World Cup's myself.

RJ: Yip, World Masters Games and I went to Azerbaijan, Baku, worked at the European Games. That was a pretty big event. I looked after Beach Soccer and Beach Volleyball for three weeks. I have done other sports like badminton, softball and things but it has been 99% football since 2001, which is good because that's what I love.

RJ: I think football-wise the two highlights, were the South Africa 2010 World Cup and the London 2012 Olympics. Pretty special memories. That’s probably the football side of it. Perhaps the two best memories I've got is being on the stage for the Halberg Awards in 2011 winning the Sports Team of the Year. It's not often a Physio gets to go up on stage with a team. Usually, it is an athlete like a shotputter or kayaker that gets to do that, and we got to do that which is pretty impressive. The other time would be the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, just walking around that with all the other athletes and the actual show with all the British music was pretty special. Two memories that are football-related but not directly on the pitch.

RJ: The best game would be the Bahrain game at home, that was pretty awesome…surreal, a real night, a bit of tension and everyone who was there that night can remember it pretty well. A pretty special memory that one!

Mark Fulcher, Wade Irvine and Roland Jeffery at Azteca Stadium, Mexico (2013)

RJ: Well, I think the two things that spring to mind are my own pair of hands. A lot of my players, well most of my players are professional now, so they look after themselves a lot better than what they did 15 years ago. We have foam rollers, massage balls, Normatec, Game Ready's – all these things that when I started 15 years ago, we didn't have. So I

think the players are in a lot better shape and a lot of work I do is just maintenance work so my hands would be the most important thing. I think technology like Game Ready's and Normatec make my job a lot easier now for recovery, looking after injuries. When we were in Nashville a couple of years ago, me and Mark (Palmer) were sitting on our tables in a huge medical room. There were literally 20 players on Normatec’s Game Ready’s, foam rollers, massage balls and they were all looking after themselves, and we were doing nothing while music played in the background! I think every Physio has their own special kit or apparatus, but for me, I think if you do everything inside the square savagely well, then I don't think you need to think too much outside the square. Keep it nice and simple, and if you do that, then you can refine things as you get to know your players and team.

RJ: It's a really different environment from most teams because all our players are either based overseas, or there are half a dozen players based in Wellington when we pick our top 23 man squad. So we don't get together like the All Blacks, netball team or hockey team. We don't tend to have camps or train together, so my job is just networking, or email, phone calling players, particularly if they are having injury problems within their professional clubs. Linking in with the Doctors or Physio's of those teams and, to be fair, if someone does sustain an injury, they are in a professional club, so it is not for me to dictate what treatment they have. It is just to make sure they are comfortable with the treatment they are getting, and 99 times out of a hundred the club looks after them professionally. So we just get together as a group of players, the recent tour to Ireland we literally had two training sessions together… It is meeting the players, reintroducing yourself, assessing them, screening them, checking where they are at, providing maintenance or treatment during the week that we are there together. To be honest, it is more maintenance than treatment because if someone is injured, they won't be on tour. And they are then looking at liaising with the clubs after the tour with loading data, GPS data and any relevant bits.

Mark Palmer and Mark Fulcher All Whites Medical Team walking to training. Doha, Qatar (2014) The Medical structure in the All Whites has changed, depending on how the coach wants to work it. So for the last 4-5 years, I have been head of Medical Services and co-ordinated a Doctor, another Physio and a Sports Scientist, but sometimes their people do that so when Dr Mark Fulcher was involved he would do that, and that doesn't worry me. Coaches often want to be liaising with the Physio because they have a better knowledge of the musculoskeletal injuries and returning people to sport. That changes a little bit from coach to coach.

RJ: It does, and it is niggly. When you are coming into friendly games, 'injuries' occur, and you have to try and work through that with the player and the club. I think for big games, like crucial World Cup Qualifiers, Peru, Olympic Games, players will come, for other games, there is pressure from their clubs so it is a delicate balance to get that right and it is one of the more challenging parts of the job. It can be very frustrating at times as well, particularly when the players move around a lot and you develop a good relationship with the Physio or medical staff at a club. Then you find the player has moved somewhere else and you find you have to build that relationship up again. New Zealand is perceived as a very weak footballing nation, small and insignificant, so that doesn't help that relationship as well. When you are dealing with some big clubs as well, it is a really hard part of the job, and if the team doctor wants to take ownership of that side of the role, I am really happy for him to take it.

RJ: Sometimes it can be zero and sometimes it can be hours and hours and hours. I don’t think this job would compare to what the All Blacks do or Hockey or Netball, but before a tour, it can be really hectic. You can be on the phone for hours and hours each day, emails and things like that, but at the moment we have no games until March. I have dealt with an injury to a player, who got injured in the last tour this week but realistically I would only be doing phone calls or emails for the three to four weeks unless someone gets injured. And then it's just a touch base. To be honest, I have a hands-off approach if someone gets injured. For example, Ryan Thomas ruptured his cruciate, he was at PSV Eindhoven, a very professional environment, so we touched base to check he is OK, and to see if he needed anything from me, but I could just leave them to it.