Here's my report on training -
I took my son along to the last training session before the PSD and Rookie draft and tucked ourselves up along side the other 50 or so keen observers for the next couple of hours. The players were already on the ground and the construction machinery roaring next to the ground making it a busy scene before we even had a chance to settle. We had very little chance to see anything but what was directly in front of us as the rest of the ground was out of bounds.
Cotchin, Rance and Foley spent the first part of training handballing in a triangular formation before breaking off. Cotch undertook a lot of back stretching exercises but was involved in most of the training which was great to see. Cotch was also kicking goals from long range which was also encouraging.
Foley and Lids looked keen to be involved but looked resolved in allowing the young fellows time to train against each other without their influence.
Rance spent most of the training session timing himself as he repeated sprints along the boundary. He looks in excellent shape, both in size and athleticism, and gave the adoring girls on the side plenty to ogle at.
I did not see Cousins (still in WA), Nahas, Vickery or Tuck but Simmonds and Newman were in training. Foley, Lids and Bling were hardly sighted either but looked in full health.
Gus is a monster and is easily the biggest player on our list in height and size. Simmonds and Browne look undersized against him. He show pace, strength, good skills (can you believe it) and marking capability. Gus, along with Simmonds and Browne, seem to be training as forwards as well as rucks this year and, after seeing the squad in action today, our obvious lack of size in the forward line we need them too.
Postie, Thursfield, Morton and Polo are big units now. Edwards is still small and struggled through all the strength drills (which there is much more of now). Kingy turned it over by foot and hand but was one of the most vocal.
Thompson looked bigger and displayed excellent skills. He’s fast to the ball and elusive. I think he may have a good season ahead of him if today’s form is any indicator. Hislop did not stand out.
McMahon was another who surprised. While no powerhouse, he has gained in size and was excellent in the drills involving skills. He tackled hard and shepherded. I was genuinely impressed.
Martin is everything people say he is around the packs. He is easily as big and strong as our other midfielders and will have NO trouble starting in week one. One drill he was involved in where the midfielders had to break through two bags and gather the ball Titch struggled with yet Martin smashed through like it was nothing and easily gather the ball. They set him up as an outside mid/wingman during the larger game based drills but it won’t take long before he is in the centre despite his age. There is no fear he will be targeted or hurt more than any of our more mature players particularly with is attitude.
Another great sign was that Griffiths was out training (leading, marking etc) without any bandage or sign of discomfort. At the end the players did a drill where they were paired up, one on his knees while the other kicked the ball straight at them from 3m away. He worked with Hardwick, who didn’t hold back, kicking to either side of his body and decent pace. Hardwick then worked with Polak just as hard who held up extremely well too. At one stage Polak kicked a goal during a drill and the cheer from the group was uplifting.
I turned around at one stage to ask the bloke behind me if he knew the name of one of the players but it turned out that it was Robert Harvey and Lappin scouting for Carlton. They were there to see what drills and focus we were using more than individual players from what I overheard from them throughout the session.
Of the fellows hoping to gain a guernsey I only took note of two – Free and a very dark skinned aboriginal player. Free is small but very broad seemed clean by hand and foot but the aboriginal player was the stand out. He looked overweight to my untrained eye but was extremely skillful, possessed excellent decision making skills and had a wonderful long, congestion breaking, handball.
Drills
Practically all of today’s drills focused on defensive, pressured and physical footy. There was very little running in isolation and no unpressured skills sessions. The zone was used offensively and defensively for over half the training and drills were continuously stopped if players were not following instructions or the coaches saw a problem. I saw a couple of ‘newbies’ doing pushups for fumbling balls and was told last week others saw dozens of players having to do similar punishments.
As MT has mentioned before the ‘get drinks for others before yourself’ routine was well entrenched as was the coaches encouraging players to be more vocal.
Lepptich took the backline and ran them through one drill where bags were held 3 meters to either side of them in the goal square. The defender had to hip and shoulder in bag in succession until and ball spilled free and they then snatched it up to move to forward.
He also ran a drill with them revolved around body positioning, particularly the legs and arms to make it very difficult for a forward to get to the ball let alone mark it. A later tackling drill followed a similar vein buts was more about wrapping up a player so the ball would spill free.
A drill where two teams matched off, using handballs to try and thread through a very congested space, ran for over half the session with ‘teams’ revolving through it. The idea was to keep moving regardless of which side you were on and for defenders to anticipate so as to intercept.
At one stage during the same drill Gus kicked the ball to Mortons opponent and Hardwick stopped the drilled yelling out to Morton that he should have cut off the space for his opponent to run into so Gus had no one to kick to. He then brought everyone in to discuss this as a group.
Hardwick was heavily involved with everything as was his assistants though he gave his assistants ownership of their areas he watched everything like a hawk and made sure everything worked to plan. In another drill where the offensive team had to make their way through a zone Connors decided to buck the trend and take the defenders on by hand to great effect. Hardwick quickly pulled in the defenders and instructed them how to close this tactic down and the next time the drill was run the offensive team found the ploy much more difficult to execute.
Connors looks strong and alert which is great to witness.
Another midfield drill revolved around the coaches throwing a ball in front of an attacking player with a defender 5m behind. The attacking player had to gather the ball and find space to kick it back to one of the coaches on either wing. Great evasive skill developer.
I also noticed the rookie wannabes kicking soccer balls back and forth which they found difficult to control.
Yet another drill had the players in threes with one player carrying a bag, one throwing ball and the other trying to gather the ball at ground level while being buffed. The player with the bag was unrelenting and by the end all involved were completely stuffed. The coaches were also involved here and would not let the ball carrier give up regardless of how tired they were.
A forwardline drill involved the forwards attempting to find space to lead into by shepherding, dummy leading and generally working together while some offensive midfielders attempted to kick it into them while defensive midfielders guarded space. It was mainly a defensive exercise but highlighted to me how lacking we are in strong forwards. The only forwards that looked a decent chance were our three rucks – Gus, Browne and Simmonds, in that order, though Browne snuffed a easy shot for goal after taking a great leading mark in congestion.
McGuane was clearly the best defender for pace, strength and smarts though Thursfield is a big boy now too. Moore ran the boundary so I think he was given light training duties today for whatever reason.
At the end the Collins stayed out to work with Campbell on more buffering midfield drills. He still looks skinny but seemed stronger in this drill that he appeared to be.
Overall my lad didn’t want to go home and spent the majority of the session asking questions so I apologize if I missed any crucial components. Good fun and I aim to get to another one in the school holidays if time allows.
If you have any questions fire away.
Stripes
