I think training began at 10 am but I got there half an hour later. A long session too that went for about 3 hours. I left just before 1pm and they were just beginning their warm-down.
As mentioned in the injury thread, the rehab group consisted of Cogs, Thursfield, Hartigan and Simmons. Newy was present also but I only saw him leave. Alot of the squad were wearing different numbers than normal so I'll need to check the photos when I get home and blow them up but I didn't notice Knobel, JON, Hyde or Petersen at training. The new draftees trained separately from the main group and mainly worked on their fitness around the boundary and then did a couple of handball games towards the end.
There were a few non-Richmond guys. Of those that I knew were Kingsley, Limbach, Jake King from Coburg and Zac Hier. There were about 3 others but I didn't know who was who or which was which.
Training today mainly focussed on running hard into space from a kick or winning the ball from a ball-up in the centre and then working the ball inside 50 to the forwards. The squad was split in two (Blacks and Whites) and mini plays were done over and over again in either half or full ground drills. The match-ups were rotated throughout the session but some I noticed were:
F: (Black) 25. Schulz 23. Jacko
B: (White) 5. Gas 22. Raines
HF: (Black) 13. Richo 22. Meyer 32. Krak
HB: (White) 12. Polak 23. Polo 35. White
HB: (Black) 34. Hughes
HF: (White) 44. Graham 37. Browny
B: (Black) 40. Moore 38. McGuane
F: (White) 19. Limbach 10. Kingsley
In the middle Foley (W41) was initially matched up against Tambling (B33), Lids (W3) vs Jake King (B18) and it looked like Petts (I think he was B11) up against Sugar (W19). Razor and Patto did the ruckwork. Later on Blingers moved forward with White on him and Tuck played FF against Rainesy. Howat moved onto Foley.
Some individual observations:
Foley - It's only December but Axel was on fire today. Running all over the place up and down the ground and wither winning the footy himself or running past teammates to receive the handball then bursting forward. Looks like he has bulked up more in the upper body too.
Lids - Tank. Nothing special today but solid and clean.
Polo, Paddy and Rainesy appear to have added size to their upper body as well.
Polak - Played back and was very good defensively. Was up against Richo and regularly was able to force a contest and get a fist to the ball to spoil. Rawlings was regularly praising "Polly" for his efforts. I would say pleasantly surprised although if he is to play CHB he would need to add perhaps more offense/rebound to his game.
Jacko - played at FF on Rainesy and did well timing his leads and marked cleanly. FF seems his best possie but he'll have limited chances to play there in an actual game.
Tivs - shame X is in Italy as he didn't make a mistake today lol. Did a ripper of a flat hard pass to the leading forward at the other end of the ground. Casserly showed his skill too with a similar effort.
White - was prominent when in the middle.
Meyer - Danny got a fair bit of the pill which was good to see. Solid.
Hughes - Played mainly at CHB which was interesting. He was mainly up the other end of the ground so I didn't get a good look at him today. Same goes for Razor, Patto, Graham and Tuck.
Kingsley - so-so. I wouldn't say based on today you would say draft him in the PSD.
The session finished with the main squad doing 200m runs (not sprints) from goal to goal in groups of three. The RFC trainer seemed happy with the times. 31-34 secs seemed to be the average time. Foley and Howat seemed to do it easy and cleared ahead of their respective group. Browny looked "knackered" lol.
I've taken photos so I'll post them when I get home tonight. Hopefully they turn out as most were of moving players. I took one of the four newbies (Edwards, Connors, Collins and Riewoldt) also.
I've forgotten a fair bit so fire away with any questions.
