Back from training this morning. I got there around 10am and it went until about 11.30am or thereabouts. Chaffey, Browny and Thursfield were separate from the main group. Browny was on the massage table getting a massage on his right leg then he sat on the boundary with ice around his right ankle. No concern as he later on got up and joined in.
Training today was mainly focussed on kick-ins.
For the first drill, the squad was split into whites versus blacks for a full ground rebound from the kick-in. A huddle at CHB was formed and the players would break in different directions to receive. The side with the ball had to work their way up the field. It was all 1-on-1 stuff and It seemed that part of the drill was to mark then kick to the next lead further up the field as one or two marks were dropped but the mark was still paid. There was also no breaking the lines with teammates running past for the handball. I noticed Newman did a number of the kick-ins. Overall pretty well done by the boys.
The second drill was again a kick-in drill but this time the squad was split into two groups one at each end of the ground and the task restricted to about half the ground each. Within each of these groups the players were split into three teams - whites, blacks and reds (singlets). While two of the teams battled it out the third team rested. I can't remember the teams off the to of my head. I'll wait till I get blow up the photos tonight but from memory (I could have one or two wrong):
Blacks: Richo, Krakouer, P.Bowden, J.Bowden
Whites: Hall, Schulz (#44 I think today), Sugar
Reds: Moore, Jackson, Polo, Oakley-Nicholls
The object of this drill was one team would clear from the kick-in, once again breaking and receiving from a huddle at CHB. They then needed to kick it to an assistant coach who was standing on what would be a HFF. The group at the Station end had to kick it to "Chocco" Royal with Wallace's booming voice telling them to "kick it to Chocco".
Once Chocco got it the other team would become the attacking side and they needed to work the ball back and have a shot on goal. This drill was also designed to get the boys in sync with the new kick-in rule that once a score is signalled by the umpire you bring the ball back in straight away without needing to wait for the flags to be waved. I noticed Bowden and Sugar were doing the kick-ins IIRC.
Alot of 1-on-1 stuff and pretty full-on physically which was good to see as well as entertaining. "Paddo" Bowden got wrapped up in a ripper of a tackle by Razor from memory. Paddo also copped alot of teasing from his brother and Richo when he was shooting for goal lol. Sarge copped a knock to side of his thigh when Richo ran through him. He then sat on the boundary and hobbled off the ground at the end of training but he I think it was just a knock and he should be alright.
The teams finished fairly even at the end of the drill. The Reds got behind early on and Wallace was yelling out "the Reds are in a bit of trouble" but they fought back well by the end. Overall the drill was fairly well executed. Oakley-Nicholls did some nice things and showed off his pace.
Wallace then brought the boys in together for the next task. Browny joined the boys at this stage while the ruckmen (Simmonds, Razor, Knobel, Graham) did some tapwork jumping into a bag at the side. The rest of the squad was then split into whites and blacks.
The whites were asked to do ball-wrestling whereby they would pair up and one player had to get the ball off the other while staying on their feet. Good for a laugh. Jackson copped a ribbing from the coaches for spending "more time on the ground than the grass" lol. Meanwhile the blacks got in threes and played 2:1 keepings off. After about 5-10 minutes the whites and blacks swapped over.
That was then it. A few boys stayed on the ground at the Yarra Falls end to do push-ups and alike. Tuck, Kellaway, Rodan, Raines, Roach, Limbach, Pattison and Stafford worked on their goalkicking. Lids tried a couple shots right on the boundary line at the Station end and kicked one off the side of his boot up onto the roof of Sherrin Stand
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Anyway photos to come. I think there's one that Moi may enjoy of Rainesy lol.
