'Tough as nails': Wagga physio Matt Turnbull talks about his six years working with AFL club North Melbourne

If there's one thing Matt Turnbull has taken out of six years working within an AFL club, it's witnessing the work ethic and sheer toughness it takes to make it to the top.

Turnbull and his family have moved back to Wagga after he stepped down as North Melbourne's Head of Performance last month.

The role carried great responsibility but offered the privilege of a front row seat to acts that defied belief.

"The difference with an elite environment like that is you see players with the types of injuries that would usually take weeks and weeks to recover, not miss a game," Turnbull says.

"There's something about these guys that, I don't know, something inherent that gives them that ability to push through.

"Guys like Jack Ziebell... brilliant captain, good human being. But tough as nails. He's played with fractures, he's played with all sorts of things."

North Melbourne champion Ben Cunnington is another. Off the field he's "Just a quiet, easygoing farmer. He is so low maintenance and a very good human being".

But he has the innate character and fortitude to not just make it, but make it back onto the playing arena after overcoming a back injury.

"I think that's underrated," Turnbull says of the commitment and tenacity of AFL footballers generally.

"That, and work ethic. These guys, I think, while they're lucky to be in the positions they are, they are also extremely hard workers.

"What you don't always see is just how much effort they put in to everything they do. That really surprised me. I expected these guys would be really spoilt but no, they come to work."

The physiotherapist has worked in elite sport for the best part of the last decade, including almost six seasons at the Kangaroos where he was a rehab physio, then head physio and, finally, asked to run their high performance program last year.

That meant overseeing the medical staff and strength and conditioning staff and working with the new head coach, David Noble, to try to create a program to get the best out of players.

"Your role as a performance manager is to align with the philosophies and game plan of the coach and get the team there, as fit as you can get them without getting injured, which is a bit of a task," he says.

Turnbull likens it to balancing a see-saw, with performance strategies on one side and health strategies on the other.

"Health is the absence of injury and illness. Performance is anything from coachability to player talent, fitness, that sort of thing," he explains.

"What you see in teams is if you're too performance-focussed, your health suffers,and if you haven't got the best players available, you don't perform. That's what's happening with us (North Melbourne).

"If you're too health-focussed, you don't get fit enough and you don't perform anyway. And you get injured at the same time.

"Performance health is about trying to achieve that balance."

North Melbourne have struggled this year, with just the one win. Turnbull said that aspect was tough but he'd still been enjoying the job personally.

While perserverance and attitude make the footballer, atmosphere and energy makes a club.

"The best thing is just the banter, the camaraderie It's a very relaxed environment in high performance sport," he says.

"It goes from very relaxed to very high pressured to very relaxed. But your typical days at the club are great. It's a great environment and you're surrounded by elite athletes."

That, and helping players reach their peak or achieve a goal make it a satisfying role.

"Absolutely. From a performance point of view, seeing the result of a consistent pre-season for players turn into a really good performance is great," he says.

"And from a return-to-play, injury point of view, it's rewarding."

Ziebell, again, is an example for Turnbull. He played just eight games due to injury last year and required plenty of management.

"The planning I had to put in place for him, and a goal of getting a good consistent pre-season under that model, has resulted. He's performing better than he's performed in years, so that's really rewarding," he says.

"And seeing players develop, particularly our young guys, like Cam Zurhaar, Luke Davies-Uniacke, playing VFL and develop into players they're developing into.

"And some of our young draft players. You're able to see snippets of brilliance that in a few years time, you'll be able to see turn into something great and I've been able to see that over six years at the club, and be a part of it, which is really rewarding."

However, a decision to put family first - wife Caroline and their children John, 8, Will, 4, and Liliana, 2, - has brought him back to Body Dynamics Health, the practice he started in Wagga in 2009.

"It's a bit bittersweet because I'd built my way up at the club. But for a young family it's not very well- suited. It's quite full-on," he says.

"The problem with sport is you get obsessed with it. You love it so much you get obsessed with it. You start to realise that your family is missing out if you haven't quite got that balance. It hit home quite hard.

"From a career point of view, it was a great position to be at. The club and I had really good plans about where we were going to take it, in a rebuild phase.

"But I couldn't be happier from a family point of view. We just needed to do it."

Turnbull, who has also worked with St Kilda, Super Rugby club the Brumbies, Hockey Australia rep teams and the Australian Institute of Sport, will continue to help North Melbourne in a consulting role.

But he's looking forward to the change, including working for those for whom sport is not a paid way of life.

"What I prefer about local sport is that sometimes (elite sport) gets too professional. And guys doing it just for the love of it, is what you miss about local footy. I'm really looking forward to getting back into that side of things."

That said, the best advice applies at all levels:

"I'd say be preventative. Plant the seed. Try to get ahead of it in time. Some injuries are unavoidable. But in local football, you get a lot of preventable injuries occurring. So it's about getting on the front foot and preventing them before they happen," he advises.

"I'm really keen to try and get involved as much as I can and bring back what I've learnt at professional sport back to community sport."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: