Training in hot conditions at Tullamarine.
A feature of today’s session was the presence of a number of top up players. I can’t name them all but they included Tippa, Hardingham, Heppel minor, Marigliani, Polkinghorne and several others. Unsurprisingly none of these particularly stood out although Tippa was clean with the ball and tackled strongly.
Absent: Edwards, Long at the all stars game.
Modified Myers, Watson, Carlisle, Cooney, Browne, Hurley, Pears, Hocking, Winderlich, Hurley, Aylett, LaVerde and Kommer.
There appears to be a glimmer of light for Carlisle who did quite a bit of running and some kicking and contested work. Fingers crossed. Pears did more this week too.
Mainly running we’re Myers, Watson, Cooney, Browne, Winderlich, Hurley and Aylett.
Today’s session which lasted for more than two hours was the hardest I have witnessed so far in this preseason. The session was largely a practice match on the McCracken Oval with the breaks in the match being taken up with other drills such as tackling so the physical activity was virtually non stop. Perhaps the lack of NAB Cup games means they have to go really hard now.
The intensity of the match practice resulted in two injuries. It’s my policy
not to detail injuries except in general terms. In the first incident Hams was kicking and his leg came across Langford’s and Hams left the ground in some discomfort with a lower leg injury. In the second Tippa laid a hard tackle on Zaka whose knee went into the turf and he left too although it looked less serious to me. At the half time break the coach told the players to “look after each other” which I took to be a reference to the injuries.
Overall the players handled the long intense session very well and among the players to stand out today were Chapman who was spending more time in the midfield, Melksham whose strong body was in everything and Gwilt whose pace and excellent disposal were used to good effect. Langford dropped a few marks but also took some good ones and at times delivered the ball with beautifully weighted kicks.
On the negative side I thought the handball lacked a bit of snap and precision and there were a number of slow looping handballs that put the recipients under pressure. I’ve been a wrap for Steinberg on this forum so for the sake of balanced commentary I thought this was an area where he could improve.
I watched Ambrose closely today and was impressed with his effort. Carlisle was giving him advice from the sidelines telling him to “push off” Dempsey to make his lead. At the same time I think his leading is being made more difficult at times by midfielders running into his leading space attempting to be the marking target. It would be better if they gave him a bit more space and followed the ball in.
The amount of talk varied and at times it was good and at other times it was lacking resulting in players being caught with the ball. Chappy showed his experience in this area when Howlett marked and Chappy yelled “roll if you want” indicating that the option was there for Howlett to run around the mark and play on.
I can’t fault the players commitment today - a gruelling session in hot conditions where they gave their all.