For the first time in history lol I got to training on time. The boys did a few stretching exercises and runs before they started at around 11.30am. Training finished at about 1.15pm.
Only Casserley and Knobel were absent. The rest of the boys were there with Oakley-Nicholls and Thursfield separate from the main group doing a few runs and close handball drills before heading off about halfway through the session. Hyde had a leg bandage on his upper right leg but completed all the drills while Cogs was in long black tights and towards the end didn't look like he was moving 100% freely. He also participated as instructor in one of the drills (training for future captain?). Joel spent time on the boundary too to write stuff on a whiteboard but he looked fine. Chaffey did all the drills for the first time and there was a ring-in (#45) who also joined in training but I didn't know who it was.
Training today focussed alot on rebounding as a team and linking up through handball receives (player after a mark playing on immediately dishing out a handball to a teammate sprinting past).
The first drill though was a standard mark and kick one. Four groups, one at each corner of the scentre square and passing to one another. Cleanly done as it should of been.
They squad then split into two, one at each end of the ground, to work on crumbing near goal. At the station (Sherrin Stand) end of the ground Cogs was instructing the boys and would kick a ball high to a 1-on-1 contest about 20-25m out from goal and one player would tap the ball down towards another 1-on-1 pairing where the attacker would need to read the ball, collect then run and snap at goal. Pretty well done with Tucky the standout. The media guys behind were chatting away about Browny while this was going on and just as one asked if the others reckoned Browny would be ready for round 1, Browny grabs the ball off the contest spins around on his left and snags a sausage roll. The reply to the question was then "Geez he's f****** good!" lol.
The next drill was a full ground rebounding/handball receiving task. Spread out in a diamond, the ball would be moved around the ground anti-clockwise in groups of three against one opponent in a red singlet. The incoming kick would go to a yellow leading in front of the red and from there he would switch play with a pass towards two free teammates with one marking then handballing to other running past. Once again despite an occasional missed target it was done fairly cleanly. I was watching Krakouer pretty closely in this drill thinking back to the Krak thread and I couldn't fault his running or deliverly. Rodan was also very active in these full ground drills. Hyde and Chaffey were moving freely.
This task was followed by one where a whole swarm of players through the midfield would spread out and call for the ball. Once the ball was marked on a lead, the marker has to dish a handball off to a teammate running past who would then pass forward. Very vocal drill which was good to hear and the boys looked on song with their passes. Saw Tambo, Browny and Sugarr pinpoint passes respectively through an eye of a needle to the teammate they were aiming for.
The final drill was goalkicking on the run. Three groups, one on each flank and at CHF. One guy would collect the ball then dish off a handball to a teammate sprinting towards goal and firing. Overall not bad but IMO our goalkicking still could be better especially when you consider the new kick in rule could mean kicing points could cost you goals against. Wheadon yelled out to all of them to make sure their planted foot is pointing directly towards the centre of the goals so they aren't kicking across or outside their body
. Jacko was getting praise from the boys.
And that was that. A few of the boys remained behind to do some set-shot goalkicking while others like Jacko and Tambo worked on leading out from goal. I noticed Hughes was doing the Lloyd thing of chucking up a bit of grass before having his shot on goal. It went straight through the centre so I don't care if a Tiger does it lol. Lids had a couple of pings from the boundary again.Pettifer kicked one that hit the roof of the stand (which resulted in the usual expletive whenever he misses
) but luckily the spin of the ball bounced it back into the ground.
Photos to come.
