report from MOTiger on BF.
Training 14/2
First out were Moore and Griffiths just doing slow laps then Astbury joined them after about 3-4 laps, by this time most of the squad was out on the ground warming up and kicking the ball back a forth. one of the assistance had a specky bag on and all the taller players were practicing taking grabs over him. JR was clear best but i still still don't think he is 100% yet moved well just looks like he is taking it easy. TV, Miller, Post and McGuane where prob next best didn't drop any just didn't look as clean as JR. Derrickx and Elton dropped a few but not the worst of the bunch. Ivan is loads better mark than Brown and Graham, he actually got off the ground. Brown was a little better than Graham and when he drops them he gets a little frustrated. Wright and Darrou looked ok. From this drill i can tell why Grimes punches the ball a lot, he could keep balance when in the air so he kept falling off the bag.
First drill was kick to kick but every 2-3 min they would change the approach like roll the ball pick it up and kick off a few steps, every player on one side would have the ball facing one of the goals the whistle would blow they would run back like they have taken a mark the whistle will blow again they have to turn to their partner and kick it like they are switching play. Over all the skills were good not many missed kicks.
second drill was a contested ball drill where there was 4 teams of 10 with one team defending one team attacking (both with 8 on the pitch) on two different pitches about 10 meters wide and 30 long the closest pitch the attacking team had to move the ball up the ground by hand and when they moved the ball to a certain point they had to kick the ball to a leading forward, the defending team had to cause a turn over. the other pitch was on the far side of PRO so i didn't get a good look at what was going on but it looked like the attacking team had to move the ball up the pitch by hand and handball the ball through the goals, not 100% sure. after each team had about 4 min attacking and 4 min defending they swapped pitches. Outside the usual good performers (Cotchin, Martin, Foley, Lids, JR ect.) Conca attacked and defended really well as did batchelor. Morris Defended like a beast, hates getting beaten. Arnot was really aggressive left his spot in the "zone" a lot to lay a tackle or intercept a pass on the other side of the pitch leaving a massive hole for someone to run into. if the move worked out for him it looked good but if it didn't the attacking team moved the ball over that side and move it with ease. Dea is a lot like Morris.
Third drill was a lot like the the second but on a larger scale the attacking team had to move the ball up to the opposite end of the centre square. The boundary line went straight up the ground from the intersection of the 50 and the boundary line so it was shaped like a rectangle with a semi circle on the end. They were split up into 3 groups of 13(pretty sure one was 14) with 12 on the pitch at one time. The group that wasn’t taking part in the drill were so tackling practice. (By this time i was getting really restless and not taking note, sorry)
Finally they split up into forwards, midfielders and defenders. Training with defenders were Dea, Morris, Rance, Verrier, Post, Grimes, McGuane, Houli, Wright and Darrou again they did a “zone” drill, half defend other half attack, again Morris impressed. Midfielders were Cotchin, Martin, Foley, Conca, Arnot, Newman, Batchelor, Jackson, Grigg and Deledio with Maric and Graham rucking. The ball was bounced and one ruck would go up and tap it to advantage of the midfielders (in teams of 3) who ever one the clearance would kick it to a coach then the team that lost set up a zone in a marked out box and had to stop the team that won the clearance from getting the ball back. Graham kept forgetting to get into the zone or attack Lade was getting very frustrated. Forwards just kicked for goal.
Maric, Graham, Wright and Brown stayed out to do some contested marking (at first brown was doing tap work but after about 3 min of that moved over to do the marking). Maric was asking for the kicker to kick it to his opponents’ side. Wright looked buggered after the session but stayed out and got beaten in pretty much every contest, Maric was getting into his ear to stay out.
Other notes:
Lids trained in the main group and Brown was doing ruck training a lot during some of the drills.
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?s=670d18c37607ffcfa86d618b14a378c9&t=887224&page=30Edited to add appropriate link to BF source
