Training today was at Monash. A fairly punishing session and it was pretty warm out there too
.
No sign of Cotch, Cuz or Gilligan when I got there. I don't remember Hislop being there either.
Of our new draftees I didn't see Nason. Griffiths watched with his arm in a sling (apparently it wasn't a full shoulder reco which is good news). Taylor was lying on a table having work done of his lower right ab/leg. He left soon after with Jordie. The other four had a fairly light session with their own routine set up for them separate from the main squad. They did 10 150m runs along the boundary. Dea was really feeling it during the last few, falling back behind Martin who had no probs. Astbury easily kept up with the smaller Webberley. Moves well for a 195cm kid. Martin is ready-made to play when you see him close up. Taylor looks taller than I expected although he's a beanpole and needs to fill out.
As for training they first worked on full ground rebounding from defence to attacking the goalsquare. Hardwick has said he wishes to initially have us playing fairly direct predictable footy and that's what it looks today with hard running, spreading and linking up getting the footy past the centre and then a long kick forward. Our iffy footskills from the usual suspects are still there (Hardwick's broom still has work to do next year) but overall it was fairly well done.
Next up the main squad split in two groups and the coaching staff set up two oval boundaries quarter the size of the main oval at each end. Then each group split into two teams - one attacking and one defending. The idea was for the attackers to work on maintaining possession via short passes to leading teammates or sharing the ball around by hand, and then reseting attacks to go again. Attacking players needed to run hard to find space in the smaller confines and work hard to run and support teammates to maintain possession. Defenders had to close down space and fill holes. I watched the group closer to me and the skill level was pretty good.
The squad then came together for some more full ground length rebounding drills. They then finished off with five successive approx. 1 km runs around the Monash ovals. Kadhlefelt and Jacko had a good duel. Jacko won the first two runs with Kadhlefelt just a shoulder length behind. By the time they got to the 4th and 5th run Kadhlefelt had a 20m gap on Jacko. I know it means nothing if he can't play but Justin is definitely living up to his reputation of being a running machine. The coaches once again joined in at the back. Just before the last one Hardwick turned to Postie, who was having a massage on the table as he didn't do any running, and told Postie he'll need the table to collapse on after the run
.
As for injuries - a couple of Tigers had niggles. Whitey rolled his ankle on Saturday and so had his ankle in ice after doing 80% of the session. Kingy trained but he also had some ankle niggle with his left ankle tapped up. Vickery has a niggle near the achilles (it's not the achilles though) which he felt yesterday. It wasn't a sore today so hopefully it's only minor. He can still train.
No photos sorry as it was a closed session. I was allowed to take pics for myself but I didn't bother as I wouldn't be allowed to post and share them.
