I headed down to training this morning to watch the final session before the game on Thursday night. They trained for just under 2 hours. It was a closed session so I can't go too much into specific details but they trained well.
In rehab:
Cotch - when we arrived he having a kick with the others in the warm-up before spending most of the session on the far side of the ground to us doing plenty of running. 100m and 200m.
Connors - still is waiting for his broken finger/hand to heal so he's limited to running as well to keep his fitness up until the finger comes good.
Thommo and Petts - joined in the handball and kicking drills but then ran laps while the game based drills were on.
Vickery also did the handball and kicking but that was about it.
Patto - was around the place early on but I didn't notice him after that.
Sugar - he looked to have done most of the training from what we saw. Not too sure how far away he is though.
Cogs - trained for most of the session then did laps. He's fine. Hopefully he plays for Coburg this weekend.
We appear to have no one "out" for a lengthy period (not that we want that). Virtually everyone in rehab is in the recovery phase of the rehab. Probably Cotch is the longest away from playing and that's round 3-4. Let's hope we have some good fortune as far no serious injuries.
As for training itself after the usual handball and kicking drills the game based drills they focussed on were run and carry and linking up from the backline to the forwards. I have to say apart from literally a couple of mistakes the skills were on today both by hand and especially by foot. Hopefully they take that training form into the game.
McRae then spent some time taking them through tackling drills. Not only one-on-one "watch the hips" but also working together to stop the opposition receiver if the first opponent gets a handball off or the ball spills and it's play on.
After that they split into two teams and had a mini scratch match. Poor Collo had the match-up on Richo lol. Lids, Tuck and Jordie were the standouts for mine. They worked on a number of specific things. Nothing out of the ordinary really but not for public consumption. At least not until after Thursday.
Throughout the whole session the coaches emphasized that this was the last preseason training session and there is only 2 days to go so keep the intensity up high which they did.
They then finished off with some goalkicking on the run. Geez I hope we keep straight this week
. Jack brought out the party tricks where he flicked the ball on the outside of the right foot through for a goal.
Towards the end of training Post, Silvester, Cogs, JON and Gilligan were doing laps. Speaking of party tricks, at the end of his last lap Alroy finished off with somersaults and flips which were impressive. He then kicked a goal and did a backwards somersault. He had the shirt off too. He should be in the NFL
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After main training had finished the squad of 25 split from the rest and Terry had a long chat with them in a huddle. Cambo then took the midfielders and rucks Simmo and Browne for some more centrebounce work.
And that was it. Now for the real stuff
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