Note: Just a reminder please do not cut and paste or copy these reports elsewhere. We do NOT give permission to do so. Please provide a link to this post/thread and people can easily read it here.Training today was again at a warm Vic Park. They trained for a couple of hours. Every Tiger was present except for JON and of course Meyer who was having his operation on his hip. I don't know why JON was absent. Initially in the rehab group were Cotchin, Polak and Schulz. I didn't see it but I was told Cotch was also doing some roving work to the ruckmen
. Later on Polly and Sarge left and Cotch was joined by McGuane, Connors, Collard, Rance, King and Gourdis. Rance said he's ankle is fine and he's playing tomorrow for Coburg. Luke is also playing for Coburg tomorrow. Not sure about any others. Cass came off towards the end of training and went down the race with a trainer. I'm hoping he's okay.
As for the drills from what I saw - they began with the standard circle work of marking and kicking to one another. They then did more specific 1-on-1 stuff. The first of these drills was to start with a 10 vs 10 situation deep in the backline and then the attacking team (in black) had to run off hard into space and link up to work the ball forward. The defending side was continually told to apply pressure and were given a wrap when a turnover was caused. Not too many today thankfully. Once they got the ball to just inside the square at CHF the attacking player with the footy would pass it long to one of the assistant coaches and then the defending side (in orange singlets) became the attackers and vice versa and they worked the ball the other way. The various match-ups were rotated so hard to say who beat who but Foley and Blingers stood out.
The next drill was similar except it was 5 vs 5 so obviously there was more space and longer runs and more bounces. Terry would yell out if the attackers weren't running into space enough. It meant the player with ball had to run and bounce or stop and prop for too long. A couple of times there were 100m run and bounces from the backline to the forward line (Foley, Tivs and Blingers) due to everyone else being manned up which is unrealistic and won't happen in a real game. As for the drill itself David King and Rawlings would pump the ball towards a pack at the Yarra Falls end goals. Richo took some top contested marks and it looked like Blingers took one too reaching up and snagging a grab. If the ball spilled then the 5 attackers would move the ball forward towards the Sherrin stand goals where they had to pinpoint a forward. Riewoldt, Whitey and Tucky had shots but missed
. Jacko did a brilliant 50m pass to Whitey on the lead btw
. Gave even Lids no chance to spoil. Foley kicked a couple on the run as did Tivs. Tivs was very good today btw. Ran and worked hard to his credit. If only Tivs had a right foot and didn't have to cut back on his left all the time. I guess we can say that about a few of our left-footers.
And that was about it. They warmed down and then headed off.
Any questions just fire away.
