Got back from training today. Approximately a two hour session. It was a VERY windy day.
The whole squad was present except for Riewoldt, Dan Rioli and Martyn. The first two are fine (still in Tassie and the NT) but we're not sure what is going on with Martyn. He's probably injured but we don't know what the injury is.
Graham was there but he didn't do any of the training. He just watched.
The new guys except for Sonsie joined in most of the uncontested footy & running drills. Sonsie has had leg injuries over the past 18 months so he is being eased into it away from the main group.
Dusty did mostly laps and some kick-to-kicks. Nothing wrong. He's fit and looking ripped but he can't do any contested work until January.
Lambert also trained again along the outer boundary away from the main group.
Good to see Soldo back. We were worried when he was initially a no show but he turned up about 2/3s of the way through and did some running and leg work (hopping, 'slaloms' around cones, etc) on his own with one of the trainers.
The schedule today was roughly:
- Warm-up .....
- Shuttles (50m back and forth = 100m done 5 times)
- Kicking game ........ (45' kicks inside and out to deal with the stand rule)
- Prestia hands ........ (handballing while being tackled)
- Contested tackling/Groundball work
- More shuttles (125m back and forth and then back again = 375m done 5 times
- Another kicking game ...... (inside 50/rebound 50 work)
The shuttles have gained a fair bit of attention with the focus on Stack. In the first 100m shuttle, Syd blitzed it leading all the way. So clearly he was trying to make a point. However, the first shuttle is mostly anaerobic, so by the 4th and 5th shuttle (which are more aerobic) Stacky was trailing last again by a fair way. To be fair he was better (by his standards) in the later longer shuttle runs. He was still last but he at least kept within 20m of the group. It's not as though he is isn't trying. He just doesn't have the endurance base for these shuttles.
The one who surprised in the first shuttle run was Gibcus. Won it easily in his group despite being 196cm tall. The usuals were also up the front - Broad, Short, Ralphsmith, etc. Bolton was also finishing top 5 in the most of the shuttles.
Our best runner was Kmac. It's why he gets a game on the wing cause he can run all day.
Nank won all the shuttles out of our big blokes. He's just an amazing workhorse.
Maurice jnr was better today. Finished in the middle of the group rather than near the rear.
Onto the gamebased training:
Still sloppy. Fair enough it was very windy but too many kicks missed their mark IMV given they were open targets. Miller had two kicks in a row across the ground which went off the side of his boot. Biggie also muffed a few of his kicks today. Actually Samson Ryan would be up there for best kick today. We were watching him closely and he nailed at least 4-5 passes in a row. Impressive for a tall bloke.
ps. It's hard to get a real good guide on everybody has we aren't yet doing game simulation stuff.
Finally, after the session finished RCD once again stayed out and worked with Morris. Bursts to the edge of the square before passing 40m to Morris on the lead. Riley nailed every kick. Like I said we haven't done game simulation stuff so it doesn't count but watching RCD since he's returned to preseason training has me excited to see what he can do in 2022. I hope I don't mozz him
.
Any questions, just fire away ...
