Thanks scorch - any updates on stringer and smith please?
Smith paced himself today but is the best of the three in terms of training to dateā¦
Stringer was ok, spent some time with Turk and one of the other fitness guys. Less prolificā¦ Worse hair ever on a day like this. He would have wanted to have sunscreen on his shaved sides and back of headā¦ Have my doubts with the quality of tattoo that he carries and he still looks to have an excessive rumpā¦
Leave his big glutes alone, they give him the power to accelerate from stoppages.
Heres our problem, how to turn a big bodied high power sprinting forward into a gut running midfield beast, and retain the attributes that make him āthe packageā
Its probably not possible. 40 Mid, / 60 forward is probably the best we are going to get.
His impact at the dogs in the midfield was when he came off the back of the square or just picked the odd stopagge to run through. He was never played as a true mid.
I still think this is the way to use him.
The luxury for him is that he doesnāt have to play key forward. Just let him play off a flank and exploit the miss matches which will invariably come his way and tell him when we want him to push up to a few stopagges.
Thanks
Clarke?
Ivan, agree, lets face it, he will not be a āmidfielderā per se but I expect him to contest every stoppage in the forward half of the ground, That way he can be a āforward stoppage specialistā and win clearances for us without having to be an endurance beast . All the āmidfielderā stuff can be done by players with ability to run 14km in a game and cover the ground between and into the arcs, Then maybe he can be brought in after goals off the back of the square, as you say, and that role just happens to be in our 2017 playbook, Tippa,and Fanta in particular did this, mainly because they can also play well in the back half, so he gets added into that mix.
Are you sure? I lived there for a number of years and my memory was that humidity in January was no worse than Melbourne (probably about 60-70%) as it just doesnāt get hot enough at that time of year.
Unsightedā¦ If itās any consolation I saw him at the beginning of pre season in a skills session with Ridleyā¦ Struggled to hit a stationary target 30m away. Will be delisted at years end
Thanks again Scorch for the report. Great effort in the heat.
Did you sight Irish at all around training?
No mention of him at all in the injury report.
Thanks KM! McKenna huge today, unless thereās another Irish Iām not aware of.
Yep, stupid me just saw it in your report.
I stopped reading after the gushing about Langford
I take it he has recovered well from the injury then.
I think this season he will step up again and then hopefully graduate to the wing. Heās a big talent.
Reminded me of Dangerfield at times todayā¦ Sorry to put it out there but he didā¦ Same body shape and oh so explosive! McKenna is more talented by foot though
Yep, he has a lot of development still to come.
Would be the best pure athlete we have had for some time and can play as well.
McKenna is actually the burst midfielder we need
Cruising was young zerrettā¦ Looked great. Appreciated that left foot today a little more than before. Picked up possession at will.
Seriously? LAV may be an awesome marble statue, but you want me to focus on that and not McGrath versus TIPPA in the midfield stoppage? Really?
McGrath versus Walla would be some battle!
The aflx training on the website looks silly, itās going to turn into an out the back goal fest. If teams try to drop the spare back to stop it the attacking team will just chip shots in post high from half way. The whole thing is entirely misconceived and a complete waste of valuable preseason game time.
Iād love to say Iām looking forward to seeing Fanta destroy sides playing it but Iād much rather he be primed for the real stuff