Was lucky enough to go out to the HPC today to watch training in great conditions and also met JackieM who hopefully will provide greater detail and insight.
The boys were on the track for a bit more than 2 hours with only a small group not participating.
(JakeC, Paddy & Courtney spent a bit of time together in group work, BJ watched from the sidelines a bit and it looked like JakeM did some gym work, Oranzio wasnt there after an op on his nose to help his breathing,)
After warmups and short sharp touch work, they moved into 4 groups, spreading across the mcg working on keeping off with handball and then kicking routines.
The main part of the training (the last 40 mins) was maximising the use of the two grounds, four teams were facing each other rotating through different focuses. This looks to be an incredible luxury to have two concurrent sessions training on a full ground. On the ground i was watching (mcg) it was 15 v 13 with a clear focus on the 15 team to keep possession using the full width and length of the ground to create space. (Again - another incredible luxury for them to be training on.)
The final part of the session was split into two sessions on the mcg, the group in front of me were working on transitions with teams moving quickly between attack and defending.
I was really just sitting back just enjoying being there, sprawled out on the grass just off from the boundary, so didnt take too much in - so sorry - not a complete account by any means, but some other insights.
Been a bit spoken about already about bombers extra voice at training - this isnt that much of a surprise for me, he is the snr coach now, but i was taken by the 'direct, forthright and non compromising expectations' In an early drill where they were keeping off kicking (in groups of 7? against 3?) he stopped the session after a little while and went off at them - saying he saw 4 consecutive kicks go to people standing still - is that what we will do in a game? Move!.. At another point he stopped play and i thought he was going to go off at some poor disposal from a tackled position but instead let loose and criticised a team for letting it be a 2 on 2 - some one get there and make it 3 on 2!!. There was also good praise for good communication which Goody also focused on a bit in some drills in front of me.
The communication from players was actually the bigger surprise/improvement for me - there was lots of examples of players on the sidelines criticising, encouraging, reminding others what to do, and not just from leaders. Lots of talking out on the ground from the players about what they should be doing and what they shouldnt. Jobe gave Kyle a bit of a serve for just giving the ball back to him - when he should have looked further. Hepp is very vocal on and off the ground encouraging others.
Tackling was hard at times, with Belly giving Zach a forceful welcome right in front of us.
Belly and Joe did a bit of a marking drill oneonone by themselves on the other side of the ground at some point.
Towards the end of the training session a few more boys were eased off - i guess for management issues - no one was injured. Licha, Zach, Aylett? heading in early and Chappy did a few laps.
Not saying he was good or anything - but Johnny R, fitted into training fine - kicking, marking, touch were all ok - not bad i reckon for non footy rookie.
MervK mentioned that we will like Orazio, he rates him very highly (they thought he should have been a top 20 pick).
Dustins dad was down there at some point and an umpire from 81 who gave him 4 consecutive 15metre freekicks, they had a bit of a chat and a laugh about it - Kenny laughed and said he was so annoyed he would have kicked the footy out of the mcg - but he was captain - so didnt.