“Every training session you go to could be your last. The club can sack you at anytime during the season so you have to make sure you are always playing and training hard. There is no such thing as loyalty – if you are not playing well you are out,” Zeno said.
Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy was impressed with the duo and felt despite the football codes being different there are a lot of parallels between the two sports. “We have had a number of guest speakers this summer. These two really related to young players and the coaching staff and they know the things that make professional sport so tough – the expectations and things like that. You can always learn from people such as these,"" Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy said.
""One came from a great family who had a gridiron history and the other a Nigerian and a 400m runner who had to fight his way to the top. In some ways he did what Jim Stynes did. A lot of people think changing sports is very difficult but we have got a few here at the club at the moment – players like Aaron Henneman (rowing), Adam Ramanauskas (basketball) and David Hille (volleyball).""
The Essendon players were intrigued to hear about the NFL experiences including training habits, player’s lifestyles, game tactics and of course pay packets. Zeno spoke in depth about the team focus when playing for the Green Bay Packers and how the players lived and breathed their football. “We would often be in meetings for over three hours a day. We would watch and analyse training videos and match vision. It was full-on and a fantastic environment to be part of. Walking into here today you get that feeling back of being a player and nothing beats that. No matter what you do in your life you never experience another environment like it,” Zeno said.
The pair hung around and watched the Bombers go through their paces at training. Paul Barnard and Dustin Fletcher gave them a goal kicking lesson. They had no trouble kicking the oval ball the distance, but the accuracy was another matter.
