Just got back from watching training this morning at Victoria Park. It was scheduled to start at 10am but I didn't get there till 11am. Finished at around 1pm although they were still out on the ground doing stretches while Paddy Bowden, Limbach and Browny were doing goalkicking practice.
Training today focussed on skills and running. All the squad was there with only Chaffey separate doing 200m runs around the boundary. When I rocked up the squad together were doing sprints in line from the goalsquare at the Yarra Falls end to the edge of the square.
The first skills drill was lining up across the wing and then in groups of 5 (3 yellow shirts, 2 red singlets) they would run and dish off handballs between themselves to the other side of the square where one of the coaches was standing. The 2 reds would stand behind the coach while the 3 yellows were on the other side. The coach would then dish of a handball and the 3 yellows had to run back and carry and handball off to a yellow teammate and then onto the third yellow without the reds stopping them. Standard was ok for January although a few handballs went astray.
The second drill was a lead and short pass session where the squad was split into four on each the four corners of the square. A player would lead to the centre circle while someone from another group short passed to them then themselves pass to a guy leading from another group and so on if that makes sense. You had this going indefinitely. Once again ok but it could of been better.
The third drill was rebounding from defence and counter attacking. The squad was split into forwards (plus markers), midfielders and defenders with the midfielders split into 2 aligning themselves with either Knobel or Simmonds. Cogs, Johnson, Tambling, Krakouer, Foley, White were the ones I remember in the midfield. Up in the forward group was Browny, Lids, Pattison, Stafford with Tuck and Thursfield as a couple of the markers. I'll have to check to thge photos when I get home to remember properly who was where.
The drill would begin in the center with a ruck tap down to a red singleted player (Newman was one of them) who would bomb the ball towards the defenders. Once a defender marked the ball the rebounding would start with a immediate kick or handball and the yellows would have to worked the ball up the field avoiding the red markers and then spot up a leading forward who would shoot on goal. In moving the ball forward we would switch the kicks from one side of the centre square edge (wing) to the other.Getting the ball to about 50m out was mostly well done but the final kick IMO could of been better. A few missed targets.
Terry then brought them in to the centre for a chat and then the test was repeated but without markers on the forwards. They just had to lead and keep presenting. It appeared as part of the plan to have 3-4 guys leading up to the 50m with someone delaying there lead to fall behind into the space. Tambling, Limbach, Browny, Stafford, Simmonds and Paddy Bowden were the forwards. This was done better the longer it went.
Alot of the 1-2 year players were then allowed to go (Casserley, Pattison, Oakley Nicholls) but the rest stayed out for the next drill.
The squad was then brought in and split into two. One group walked up to the Yarra Falls end to do running exercises while the group at the other end where I was sitting were doing leading drills. 5 small cones of different colours were placed in the shape of a 5 like on a dice about 5m apart from one another.
Orange Yellow
Blue
White Green
The trainer would then yell out a colour and the player would have sprint and change direction then after about 5-6 cones the trainer would shout out "lead" and the player would sprint out towards a pass from Kingy and another coach/trainer. There were two of these 5-star cones set-ups side by side. Richo, Browny, Moore, Gas, Kellaway, Rodan, Jackson, Schulz, Graham, Thursfield and Simmonds were doing this drill. Well done overall although Browny is colur-blind
and Richo was giving him heaps about it
.
This was then repeated with the players in pairs with one applying physical pressure on the other. Kingy's passes could of been better lol but overall again well done.
The drill was then repeated again with one applying pressure to the other but this time the trainer would also shout out randomly "drop to the floor" and "wrestle". The wrestling varied from Kellaway and Thursty looking like they were doing more a gentle waltz to Simmonds and Graham getting more into the spirit. Overall the dodging and wweaving was well done but occasionally the leads from the two sets would both run to the centre and get in each others way. Richo copped a footy smack back into his face around his left eye and then slammed his cap down on the ground in disgust. He was holding his face for a minute but then joined in the exercise again.
That took us to about 1pm.
In terms of specific players - Tambling has bulked up quite abit from last year. Oakley-Nicholls now looks like Tambling from last year. Pettifer has beefed up in the upper body and arms. Angus Graham is tall as but very lanky. Browny will be physically capable of playing in round 1 but he's IMO still a bit away from his pre-injury self. That's not unexpected though.
I'll probably remember other things when the pics refresh my memory. I'll put them up on the forum when I get a chance over the weekend. I was sitting near the goals at the station end so excuse the distance shots and ones of players from the side and the back.
Cheers
,
MT.
