Training today was at Gosch's Paddock from 2pm to about 4.30pm. Slighty windy at times but mostly a (very) warm sunny day.
Absent today from training were Kingsley, Hall, Petersen and of course Cogs. As mentioned in the injury update thread Simmo, Patto and Knobel were in the rehab group. Collins joined them during the scratch match quarter. Everyone else including Thursty, Schulz, JON and Hyde trained for the whole 2.5 hour session.
The session began with the squad breaking up into three groups. The main action centred around group nearest to us on the wing under David King involving Newy, Jake King, Clingan, JON, Rainesy, McGuane, Thursty, Joel and a couple of others I've forgotten. David King would kick a high ball (poor Tas copped on in the jaw misjudging one) and then they would handball and pass to each other until David King blew a whistle. They then had to run and pass (avoiding the tackles of a trainer) and pass to the leading player from the group in the goalsquare. JON was the most exciting one to watch with his pace. Some excellent passes by JON, Joel and Rainesy.
For the next drill the whole squad lined up in two rows about 20m apart facing one another. They (in teams of white and black) then had to work from one side to another with handball in groups of 4 or 5 against the other team. Initially it was a bit scrappy and Rawlings pulled them up and told them to "lift your skill level boys". Which they did as the drill was done very cleanly and smartly from that point onwards. For the OER perverts society this is when the boys had their tops off. I can see Moi cancelling her diary and turning up to training this Friday lol.
Next up was a handball receive and footpassing drill. Eight groups in a square with two groups per corner. One player would mark the incoming pass then dish off a handball to a running teammate from the other group on the corner who would kick to the next corner. Mostly well done although a number of the incoming passes at one corner kept overshooting the receiver. Not sure if that was due to the wind but it was only happening at one corner. Our best foot passes - Lids, Meyer and Casserly - always stand out in these drills.
After that the squad has a one quarter pseudo scratch match betweens blacks and whites. The pseudo part comes from the game stopping and starting again from a ball-up for every turnover. Also there would be kick-ins even if a goal was kicked. I thought I was going blind at the start when Meyer kicked a goal and they then had a kick-in ..doh!
Scores:
Whites 4.2-26 G. Meyer 2, Moore, Joel. B. Tivs, rushed. Tambo's set shot didn't make the distane.
Blacks 3.2-20 G. Krak 2 (Both long bombs from the square), Cleve. B. Cleve, rushed. I thought Cleve kicked 2 but the trainer said touched.
Turnovers:
Whites 2 (one was by White)
Blacks 5 (one was a combo by Browny and JON).
Some Match-ups:
W B: Gas Rainesy
B F: Cleve Browny
W HB: Lids Polak Joel
B HF: Harts Richo Rawlings
W mids: Foley Sugar Howat Hyde Tuck
B mids: Edwards Casserly Clingan Pettifer Riewoldt
W HF: Moore Tambo
B HB: Schulz McGuane
W F: Meyer Jacko
B B: King Thursty
Best:
Sugar - collected heaps of possies and hit his targets
Meyer - probably the most influential Danny has been in a scratch match. Marked everything on the lead that came his way and was directly responsible for the 4 Whites goals - 2 of his own and two assists passing off.
Krak let go with some nice bombs from centre clearances.
The usual names - Howat, Joel, etc were solid.
For the last drill the squad split into two groups (even mix of blacks and whites) and each group as Blacks vs Whites would in turn have about 5 minutes to scores goals from a centre bounce. If there was a turnover, the game would start again at a centre bounce. It got pretty competitive towards the end with some of the Blacks in the group waiting their turn, in a huddle pointing out who should be marking whom when Tambo on the Whites side marked all by himself in the goalsquare. For the record the Whites won 4.0 to 1.1.
Teams:
Gr 1:
Whites: Gas Hyde Howat Foley Ploak Tivs Moore
Blacks: Browny McGuane Krak JON Jacko Hughes Cass Connors
Gr 2:
Whites: Newy Lids Rainesy Polak Joel Polo Sugar Tuck Meyer Tambo Hyde
Blacks: Riewoldt Edwards Richo Petts Schulz Harts Hughes White Clingan King
The session finished off with some goalkicking practice. Firstly receiving a handball on the run and firing away and then set shots. Fairly accurately done.
Photos to come later tonight.
