Feb 1st Training Session:
Got to Punt Road at 1:15, and there were a group of players doing kick to kick. The group consisted of Martin, Cotchin, Deledio, Riewoldt, King, Mega Maric, Wright, Darrou, Turner, Connors, Vickery, Miller, Houli, Nahas, Foley and Newman.
Nothing particularly noteworthy here. Connors was using his right foot almost exclusively. He got better as the session went on. Houli really is a gun kick. Maric isn't bad either.
Then they went to a drill that spanned the centre square, with a group on either side. Players would run at each other to link up and eventually move the ball forward. Once a player reached the 'group' at the end of their turn, a coach would roll a ball at their feet, which they had to quickly handball back. If there was a major screw-up, the players all had to drop and do 20 pushups. This only happened once, but it should have happened maybe one or two more times.
Griffiths, Moore, and Astbury were doing a handballing drill, with Griff jogging laps afterwards.
Heslin was doing co-ordination drills with a coach, and then ran a few very fast laps.
The whole squad then came in close, with coaches kicking fast grubbers along the ground for players to pick up and handball back. Connors was bad at this. Darrou was good.
Then there was a mini scratch match (7 on 7) with teams being decided via a schoolyard pick. Newman and Deledio were captains.
Team Newman = Mega Maric, King, Darrou, Houli, Cotchin, Foley
Team Deledio = Riewoldt, Miller, turner, Wright, Martin, Nahas
I think they were only allowed to kick in this drill, and so there were situations where players had to try and outmanuever the defensive player. Houli nailed a good tackle on Dusty because of this. The team scored a point when the ball was kicked to a coach waiting in the goal square. While this was going on, Connors and Vickery did 5 laps. Connors started to pull ahead after 3 laps, with Vickery really struggling in his 4th and 5th.
Mega Maric can take a mark above his head, so he's already a huge improvement on Gus.
Turner's kicking was off and on. If he messed up, it was typically because he was undecided about which target to kick to. He was very hard on himself whenever he messed up. He should improve once he understands the game plan a bit better.
I'm not sure whether or not it was a directive to not have much contact, but Darrou played very loose and lazy on Miller. He may have just been exhausted, which showed later on (more on that later).
Throughout the match, the rookies tended to get caught trying to take on the more experienced players. I'm guessing this was due to the greater core strength possessed by the older players. It was good to see the rookies taking the initiative, though.
In the end, I think Newman's team won 5-4.
After this, Tuck, White, Post, Conca, Rance, Edwards, Graham, Webberley, Helbig, Ellis, and O'Hanlon came out and watched the next drill. Connors was running laps on his own.
The 1st group did a handball drill in a game area of about 50m x 20m. Teams had to manuever the ball from one side of the area to the other, and handball it through a mini set of goal posts. Teams were the same as the mini-scratch match, but Houli swapped with Newman (I'll call it Team Cotch from now on). The defensive team had 1 person sitting out on a rotation. Team Cotch was better at the start, but Team Deledio was better at the end. Rance was giving funny commentary as it went on. The 2nd group then started to warm up.
The balls went away at this point. Nahas and King were doing repeat sprints and lateral movements in the middle of the ground, followed by wrestling each other.
The remaining players were split into 3 groups. Each group did 2 minutes of fast jogging, followed by 2 minutes of slow jogging. There was 7 rounds of this.
Group 1 was Deledio, Conca, Foley, Cotchin, Ellis, Houli, Edwards, and White. Ellis lead the group, followed by Edwards. Cotchin started to trail the group on the last 2 rounds.
Group 2 was Rance, Webberley, Post, Mini Maric, Helbig, Martin, and Tuck. Rance lead the group, followed by Helbig. Rance was giving constantly encouragment and leadership throughout the run. Tuck and Webberley trailed the group. For the last couple of rounds, Nahas tagged onto the group and lead fairly easily. Helbig seems more like a man than a boy this year.
Group 3 was Mega Maric, Turner, Wright, Darrou, Vickery, Miller, Newman, O'Hanlon, Graham, and Riewoldt. Mega Maric lead the group to begin with. Turner, Vickery, Wright, and Darrou struggled as the rounds went on, with Piva slowing down a lot towards the end. Graham surprised me by leading in the last 3 rounds. King tagged along in the last couple of rounds and ran alongside Piva, giving encouragement.
One of the players got given a "carbo shot". I assume it was for extra energy, as the player was really struggling towards the end.
Cotch finished up by doing a couple of laps on his own at the end.
Any questions?
