Training in hot conditions at Tullamarine.
Nice to catch up with Knackers and Benny Boy today and they might give their thoughts later. Nice as it was to meet these two it was fantastic to catch up with Ken Fraser in the Sheedy Cafe still looking trim and maintaining his interest in the club. I can remember the famous number 23 when I was a boy marking and kicking the ball before he hit the ground. Noel Allison the former club treasurer was with him. He did a great job in the Sheedy era before we had a $10,000,000 debt. How times change.
Once again the training was very physical today and Francis was forced to leave the smaller oval not to reappear. He has done extra training over the break and was hard at it on the track last Friday so perhaps he needs to rest his body a bit over the Christmas break. Joe remains on the sidelines with Bellchambers, McKernan and Draper but fortunately Luenberger is moving very well and Stewart continues to press his claims as the second ruck/third tall forward.
A lot of interest centres on the new draftees but the reality is they have done little either good or bad to make them stan out although one keen observer was impressed that McGrath could execute a complicated handball drill while looking around. I didn’t see this myself but I have no reason to disbelieve him.
Some players are mainly doing running to build their stamina, among them Green who joined in the main match practice today. Laverde was running repeat 200’s in 35 seconds while Joe ran and ran and ran as did Parish.
It’s not that easy to measure the level of improvement this preseason compared to last but perhaps an interesting measure is that although Walla stands out he is less of a lone hand in this regard than he was in the previous preseason. Benny Boy and I were both impressed with how Hooker is smashing them with his physicality at chf. Fantasia and Howlett were prominent as Howlett pushed for a spot in the first game and it should be noted that Bird’s preseason is a step up from last year.
Benny Boy was also impressed with Laverde’s close in handball although he still has work to do with his kicking missing three set shots in succession from about twenty metres out in the forward pocket. He also points to Begley’s ability to kick with both feet.
Training is very physical now. Hurley laid a monster tackle on Hooker then for good measure gave a prone Howlett at hard push in the back to let him know he is there.
There is debate about Walla back or forward. Today playing on the forward line he took two intercept marks within five minutes as a forward and speared accurate passes. Perhaps,his highlight was when he was trapped on the white line between the point post and the goal post. From this impossible angle he dribbled the ball through for a goal while being heavily tackled. Forward line for mine. If you are looking for run and precise disposal from the backline McKenna continues to impress - his passes rarely go astray or too high.
Much of the time was taken with moving the ball the length of the ground from the backline. Results were variable. Sometimes a near perfect chain of passes at other times the opposite. There is quite a lot of hesitant decision making in the last line which results in slow ball movement or ineffective play switches. This is a major area to work on in my opinion.
How are they going? They had a long, physical session and are looking very good - with the return of the suspended players the improvement from last year is discernible. The mood around the club is great and there is plenty to look forward to.
