A hot and bloody windy day today. More like blowing a gale actually at Gosch's paddock
. Despite needing to do a detour with all the turmoil due to the tragic tunnel accident
I got there on time.
A few absentees today. No Browny which may get a few tongues wagging again. No Simmo, Knobel, Kingsley, Hall, Tuck, Schulz, JON, Harts, Thursty, Cass or Connors. I hope Sarge isn't injured again after Wednesday
.
Meyer wasn't allowed to be involved in any contact drills today so he's carrying something as well
. He did one of the rebounding drills and then some marking and kicking with the fitness coordinator. During which all the fitness coordinators notes were blown out of his clipboard folder and across Gosch's paddock. Thankfully every sheet of paper was found and retrieved.
Jack Riewoldt left half way through the scratch match but I didn't notice anything wrong and he was running back to Punt Rd.
The session began with the handballing under pressure drill they've done before whereby the squad would plit into two facing each other and in groups of about 4, each group had to handball their way to the other side avoiding tacklers wearing padded tops. This way followed by the usual run, mark and pass drill around the centre square. Skill level was fairly decent given the conditions.
The final drill before the scratch match was a full ground rebound into attack and goal drill. The squad was split into 2 two teams of whites vs yellows. Rawlings would start the drill from one goalsquare to a player just inside defensive 50. Then that team has to work their way towards goal. One down the other end the teams would swap attacking and defensive roles then they would rest while the other two teams did the same thing if that makes sense. I kept count of turnovers today as the drill was stopped whenever there was turnover. Plough and the coaching staff must be reading OER
. The drill was done about 20 times or so and there were 9 turnovers
although maybe we can forgive them today with the gale blowing. Richo had 2 (dropped mark and a hail mary kick), Patto (holding the ball), Petts (dropped mark. He then pumped the ball at goal in disgust lol), Meyer (a bit stiff as I thought the defender gave away a free taking away the arms). Paddy, Jacko and Howat passes were intercepted. Moore's pass looked good but then the breeze came up and took ball way over a teammates head for a point.
One other time Howat ran into an open goal and not one player from the other team chased him. So Plough went crook as the drill was about working hard both ways. He made them defend again straight way. Edwards got told off around the start of the drill by David King for not leading hard enough. Good on Shane for lifting his workrate for the rest of the drill.
The session finished with a roughly 10min 4 quarter scratch match b/w whites and yellows. Yellows started well early in the first quarter but after that the whites were the more dominant team mainly due to having tall options up forward.
BestTambo (B.O.G.) - It was only a fairly open scratch match but Blingers brought his A-game today. He was everywhere and his workrate was first class. One minute he'd be in a contests on one wing and then as his team swtiched the play to the other side you'd see him in space on the opposite wing receiving the footy. He also took mark of the year when running back he leaped straight up on Howat(?)'s shoulders. Just couldn't quite hold on. The most pleasing part of that was that he landed like a cat back on his feet and won the footy on the ground in the next contest
. Another Blingers highlight was him seeing Richo falling off the back of the defence as he was running off half-back. Let rip with a 70m torp with the breeze right over the defensive line and down Richo's throat who kicked a goal.
Richo - hammy what hammy. A few times when he had to stetch for the mark you crossed your fingers but the big fella got through fine. Kicked 3 goals and was ever present with his workrate.
Polo - Another good solid display by Marco working hard with and without the footy working up and down the ground. Only blight was he should have kicked the set shot he missed.
Howat - Was prominant especially in the first half. Probably on par with Blingers as best on ground in the first half. Got plenty of the footy.
Foley and Lids - solid games again. Nice awareness from Lids when he was surrounded yet was able to dodge and weave to stay clear for long enough to then pass back to a open teammate. Lids played forward in the first half then in the guts for the rest of the game. Foley got a fair bit of it as well.
Moore - Didn't get much of the footy but kept Petts quiet.
Hyde - did fairly well. Looked like he was playing at CHF for the yellows. Better in the first half.
Graham and Patto - Fairly even and good contest in the ruck from what I saw.
Polak - Solid. Played CHF in the first half and presented well. Had a chance to kick 2 goals but missed both 40m set shots. He moved around a bit in the second half.
Both
Edwards and Collins did some nice cameos playing on each other.
ScoresWhites: 2.2 3.4 5.5 6.7-43
Yellows: 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.2-20
ScorersWhites:
Goals: Richo 3, Polo, Paddy, McGuane (assist from Paddy)
Behinds: Polak 2, Paddy, Lids, Krak, Polo, rushed.
Yellows:
Goals: Jackson, Edwards, Howat
Behinds: Hyde, Gas
OOTF: Riewoldt (quick snap off balance)
Match-upsYellows forwards: Riewoldt Jackson Hyde (CHF)
Whites backmen: Hughes White/King King/McGuane
Yellows mids: Graham Edwards Tivs Foley Howat Clingan
Whites mids: Pattison Collins White Polo/Krak Sugar Tambo
In the 2nd half the centre bounce line ups were (with plenty of rotations):
Yellows: Graham, Howat, Foley, Tivs
Whites: Patto, Lids, Tambo, Sugar
Yellows backmen: Gas Joel Raines Moore Newy
White forwards: Richo Polak/Hughes Lids Petts Paddy
Sorry no photos today as I didn't have my camera with me.
