Back from training at smokey aired Vic Park
. The session went for about 3 hours and everyone was present except for Gas who apparently has gastro.
The rehab group contained JON with a foam velcro brace around his right leg (shin splints), Hyde (groin), Cogs (knee), Thursfield (knee) and Schulz (hammy). Collins, Edwards and Petersen also trained with the rehab group doing handball and boxing drills and running laps. I was surprised to see Schulz do some running but he seemed fine so perhaps the hammy wasn't as bad as first thought. Hyde and always smiling Petersen just did jogging around the boundary. JON was the only rehab member to skip the running and left early.
Riewoldt and Connors did most of the training with the main group except for the pseudo practice match quarter where they trained with the rehab group as well. Jack wants to do all the main squad stuff but I think they are not trying to throw him in all at once.
Training began with the squad breaking into a few smaller groups. Tambo, Krak, Lids, Petts, Tucky, Jacko, Browny and Meyer did goalkicking practice which was mostly snapshots on the run and across the body. On the wing Richo, Graham and McGuane were doing kick to kick but without moving their planted foot. Basically off one step. They looked awkward to begin with but they soon got the hang of it. The rest did plain kick to kick in the centre of Vic Park.
The first drill was practising giving off quick short handballs in a tight space. The squad was split in two and groups of 3 vs 2 (blue singlets) would team their way from one group to the other and back again. Pretty well done with only two errant handballs I saw plus a handful of good wrap-up tackles by the guys in blue singlets. Clever nailed a couple of nice tackles in a row.
The second drill was end to end rebounding from one half-back line to the other and back again along the wings in a clockwise fashion around Vic Park. One team (blacks/whites) would attack with the blues defending then they would switch when going the other way. Rebounding out of defence along the wings forced the guys to practice running hard into space to receive the footy kicked out of defensive 50. They also worked on running hard to support in numbers so if a spilt from a marking contest, the supporting player swooped on the loose footy and kept the ball moving forward. Cleanly done by everyone with Tambo and White probably the stand outs for mine.
The third drill was an extension of the second. Starting from a midfield contest (either ball-up or thrown in) the blues would need to win the footy and kick long inside their 50 and then the blacks/whites would take a mark then rebound using the full width of the ground and try and kick to goal. After that the midfielders would have to sprint along the boundary back back to the wing. Lids, White, Krak and Polo (for his defensive efforts) received prasie from Terry. Plough did yell at them once - "What do you do when we have a big bloke chasing the footy?! - get around him". Mostly good although we sometimes lapsed into overcooking the passes. There were also a couple of times when the player with the footy, after taking a mark just outside attacking footy, would hold onto the ball just a tad too long so the pass to his leading teammate was marked in the pocket instead of within the "vee". Tivs was very good today as he has been in all training sessions I've seen so far but that was one thing Tivs erred on. Tivs, Blingers is too quick across the ground to hold up the pass that long
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The squad then took their half-time break and when they returned for a game simulation blacks/whites vs blues, Riewoldt and Connors joined the rehab/youngster group on the boundary for some boxing drills. The "game" only went for a quarter and it was mostly focussed on the blacks/whites attacking from what I saw but I could be wrong. Anyway the match-ups up forward where we were sitting were:
Krak - Polo Richo - Polak Meyer - Newy
Kingsley - Joel Hartigan - Raines.
Kingsley and Richo swapped CHF and FF positions halfway through as did Krak and Harts. Meyer and Newy played on a half-forward flank.
A couple of individual mentions who often get bad wraps:
Tivs: Running and carrying the ball forward more. A nice long goal from 50 which is something we haven't seen since much of 2001.
Krak: Worked hard today. He seemed to be making more of an effort to run hard to create an option for his teammate with the ball.
Tucky: More like his 2005 self.
Harts: Played forward pocket and felt right at home. Even n converging packs he kept his eye on the ball and took a couple of strong grabs under pressure. He was on Rainsey who copped a spray from Plough on one occasion for not gut running hard enough to get back on Harts. Plough brought up Riccuito from last year.
Now up to all four to perform well in the real stuff and not just at training.
In the 5th drill the squad was split up into about 5 smaller groups each doing a different task and then rotating. Each segment comprised on 1-on-1 wresting, keepings off, holding up hand-held weights for 5 minutes with outstretched arms, 1-on-1 receiving a handball then dishing off under pressure of a opponent and finally plain stretching. And that was it.
I took some photos so I'll post them up when I get home tonight.
