I stopped in there yesterday on the way back to Sydney and there were also a couple of drills being conducted. The one that I noticed the most was a centre bounce drill, noticeable due to the protagonists: Draper, McGrath, Parish and Clarke. One of the three smalls would lob the ball up for Draper to tap the ball down to the other two who were contesting against each other. Whichever player received the tap then did a quick one or two step kick to a point about 40m out directly in front. While this was happening Raz was having set shots off the boundary. Unfortunately I couldnāt hang around for any more as I needed to get back up here at a reasonable time.
He wasnāt running or anything overly physical, but he was in good spirits from what I could hear and he certainly didnāt look proppy or anything like that.
McGrath is ready to go, such a weak kick though canāt kick it over 40.
Redman is a gun, very confident in his ability. Good frame and will be the ideal Goddard replacement.
Ridley is one of our best kicks.
Smith trains at a higher intensity. Itās easy to see why heās having a great season. Will be in the leadership group next year. If he was 6ā2 heād be the best player in the league.
Myers and Parish really pushed their case for selection.
I think Parish is doing a block of fitness so may stay in the 2ās and come back as a pure mid/wing.
Langford looks like heāll be playing the main link role. Weāll try to get the ball to him at all times. As others have posted/suggested heāll play the Heppell role. Opposition wonāt pay him the respect so he should get off the chain until he dominates. He is still a bit slow with his decisions but once he commits he executes well. I donāt know if heās intimidated by Myers or he doesnāt want to hurt him but he has to up his ferociousness, heāll learn more from training that way rather than leaving it for games. Plus everyone would be ecstatic if he puts Myers out of his misery.
Zerk will be a star. Mynott will also be valuable, heās got something.
Stewart and Mckernan looked good. Mckernan would take Fremantle to finals, would make Richmond unbeatable and would really benefit Hawthorn and Sydney. Canāt see how he gets a gig with both Daniher and Stewart fit.
Didnāt see much of the backs but I feel for Hartley, great kick, great hands and punch.
Heppell didnāt partake but was doing a lot of running inside.
The downside was our kicking and slow ball movement. We have really upped or defence which has made it hard to move it but we could be blocking more to create space for others. Kicking overall is atrocious, really lazy hooks. Trying to kick low bullets with the wide rounded action(head not even close to over the ball) instead of straight head over the ball toe pointing down (Ablett style). Really bad low percentage action, really questioning the skills coach to allow that.
He was very vocal for someone that hasnāt played ones, was jokingly giving it to McGrath. Wouldnāt surprise me if he had been told heās playing this week or if he was the leader of 1-3 year players. Is very encouraging in the 2ās.