Training today was quite a long session for a midseason one. About an hour and a half from 11am to 12.30pm.
Everyone was in attendance. Saw Thursty on crutches in the race with his leg brace on. The rehab group consisted of Moore, Casserly, Browny and Schulz with Rainesy, Tuck and Roachy in and out of the main group.
Moore, Casserly and Roachy (when he was with them) did runs along the boundary then did some kick to kick. Roachy joined the main group in the training drills but stayed out of the scratch match. His face looks much better and swelling is virtually gone.
Browny was doing straight line running (100-200m) at the start of training then joined Schulz in some goalkicking practice then some kick to kick. Sarge did some jostling with a trainer in the kick to kick so his shoulder appears to be coming along nicely.
Raines and Tuck didn't joined the main group until the scratch match.
Knobel and Hall didn't participate in the final drill of the session after the scratch match. Foley stood on the boundary as well.
Sugar only played half (one 10 min quarter) the scratch match they had today before heading inside the rooms. He did all the drills before that and was moving fine.
As for the actual training - it was mainly focussed around game-base stuff. The first drill of the day was close-in tight handball practice bumping off bodies etc. The coaching staff seemed very pleased with the way it was done and the boys gave themselves a round of applause.
Next came the kicking drills. Firstly a standard mark, run and kick 40m one followed by a transitional drill with a player in the middle receiving a 20m pass who then passed 20m to the next guy and back again. All fairly well done.
Tezza then brought the boys in and they separated into Yellows and Blacks for the scratch match which consisted of two 10 min halves. The standard was pretty much in line with what we've seen during the games. Lots of run and carry plus good clearances out of defence and through the midfield. The first half was a normal scratch match while in the second half there was more focus on ball-up and throw-in set-ups. After a goal the ball would be brought back to that teams half-forward line for a ball-up.
Richo was doing as he pleased although McGuane who was his match-up ran forward a few times. Jacko and Hughes presented well and took a couple of good marks on the lead. Our runners - Hartigan, Hyde, Lids, Tivs and Cogs were prominent. I know I'm biased but Meyer is our best passer at the club. If only he got more of the footy he would destroy any opposition.
Scores:
Blacks 1.1 2.3 Hughes 1.0, Lids 1.0, Richo 0.1, Hyde 0.1, Paddy 0.1
Yellows 0.0 0.2 Jacko 0.1 ..
Teams:
Blacks: Yellows:
1. Newman 2. Gaspar
3. Lids 6. Chaffey
4. Raines 13. Knobel
5. Simmonds 18. Rodan
10. Staff 19. Limbach
11. Joel 22. Meyer
12. Richo 23. Jackson
14. Polo 26. Patto
15. Pettifer 27. Krak
16. Paddy 29. JON
17. Johnson 30. Blingers
20. Hall 35. White
21. Tuck 38. McGuane
24. Cogs 39. Kellaway
31. Hyde 41. Foley
32. Tivs 42. Humm
33. Hartigan 43. Howat
34. Hughes 44. Graham
46. David King
A few match-ups:
Knobel v Simmo
Gas v Hughes
McGuane v Richo
Meyer v Cogs
Graham v Staff
Chaffey v Hyde
Blingers v Tuck
White v Pettifer
JON v Paddy
After the scratch match the squad completed the session with a full rebound from defence drill which was quite impressively done by the end of it. There was a main focus on the rebounding kick outside defensive 50 being long and over a pack to someone waiting in space forward side of the centree circle then running and passing to a forward. If a forward deep on the lead couldn't be found they would pass to a teammate just on the 50 who then spotted up a leading forward. Up forward we had Richo, Hughes, Pettifer and Paddy with Lids pushing forward from the middle.
The session finished with a warmdown while Joel, Lids, Krak, Pettifer, Rodan and others did some goalkicking.
My camera battery needed recharging so sorry no photos from today
.