Just got back from a warm day at training. Only about a third the squad trained fully today. Mostly the senior players - Lids, Polak, Browny, Joel, Richo, Polo, Petts, JON, Tambo, Tivs, White, Thursty, Foley and Kingy. Rance was the only newbie who did the main training.
Hyde jogged a fair few laps (coming back from a knee injury)
McMahon did 100m straight semi-sprints and did a few laps.
Sugar, Newy and Cass did a few 200m runs together.
Howat, Collins and Gus were also doing some running on their own. Gus is looking superfit and bigger in the upper body.
Simmo did some ruck practice (non-contact) which was good to see along with Patto and Gus.
I saw Rainsey in the race for a sec. I was told Rainsey and a few others were out there when training started but they had gone inside.
No sign of any of the PSD/rookie trainees today. So I still haven't seen Gourdis.
As for drills, they were doing some agility work again when I rocked up. The players were paired up with a rope or elastic cord tied between them. With cones about 1m apart they would move sideways back and forth facing each then turn and run/sprint 100m. Not sure how hard the others were running but sheesh Rance is quick going by today's training and not just for his size either. He's quick to accelerate to high speed. He was teamed up with poor old Joel first and dragged him along
then comfortably kept ahead of Whitey who is no snail.
After that Thursty, Polo, Kingy and Richo went for some kick to kick while Newy joined the main squad for tackling practice with the NRL guys. First up was some 1-on-1 wrestling on the ground. Um Richo showed some of his "bedroom" moves when he was on top of Rance
. Welcome to the AFL Alex
. Next up was some 1-on-1 basic tackling. They finished with each player having to lay on the ground and then jump up and tackle someone trying to run past them. Polak copped it in the nether region when he tackled Rance and had to have some time out. Rance found out that Foley and a few others have some tricks in their bag to avoid being tackled. He got a bit ticked off with himself but the others walked over and gave him a encouraging rub on the head and tap on the back.
Training overall has been in good spirits and as someone I sit with mentioned to me Plough isn't training them into the ground after what happened last year with all the injuries we copped with that NAB 15 idea.
I only took a couple of photos today which I'll post later tonight. Any questions just fire away.
