Cornelius is hosting newcomers Marco Paparone and Michael Close at his Queensland home until a more permanent residence is arranged for the pair.
“I’m lucky enough to have Michael and Marco living with me,” Cornelius told lions.com.au.
“It’s obviously a whole new experience for them, but they’re settling in well. We’ve already shared a few stories around the dinner table.”
“It’s only temporary though, just until they move into their own set-up around Christmas time.”
Cornelius’ new guests arrived not long after the strong-marking forward returned from the Club’s high altitude training camp in Arizona - an experience he believes will directly benefit the rest of his pre-season.
“When you’re running at top speed you don’t really notice the change in altitude - it’s when you start trying to recover that you feel it. Even just walking around, you can get a bit puffed and gasp for air,” Cornelius said.
“The 5-7 year guys were back for a download session (last week), so we were able to adapt back to the heat.”
“(After the Arizona training) you find that once you’ve run around, it’s easier to recover. You seem to recover from being puffed a lot quicker - particularly when you do the repeat speed.”
“I think (the training) is designed to help build your base more during pre-season while your body is used to recovering quicker.”
The sweltering conditions in Brisbane couldn’t be further from those experienced by the senior players in Arizona last month - but Cornelius sees the extreme change in temperature as an advantage for his team.
“The coldest we trained in Arizona was -3 degrees, and now we’re doing it 30+ degree heat,” he said.
“(On Tuesday) it was 27 degrees when I check at 6:30am. We trained a bit earlier than we usually do to combat the heat.”
“But I think it could help give us that competitive edge. I think a few teams have installed heat chambers for this reason and Melbourne are training in Darwin - so we should embrace it.”
