What about a trip down memory lane and a @nackers training report from 9th January, 2017.
Finally something else to talk about with training today at Tullamarine in pleasant conditions with a slight breeze. The session lasted for around 2 hours. None of the first year players trained today, also missing were Jackson Merrett and Yestin Eades. Brendan Goddard was on the oval but didn’t participate and Daniher (RIP) and Bellchambers were still only running on the second oval. Long and Fantasia left the track early. I’m not sure what the problem was with Long, but Fantasia looked like it was more of a precaution from a niggle.
The mood seemed a bit downbeat to start with as could be imagined, but seemed to pick up as the session went on.
The first hour of the session was spent with players in 4 groups of 8 and rotating to a different drill after about 10 minutes. One group had 2 players evading the couch and working to set up a shot at goal from the pocket. I was particularly disappointed at the number of easy shots missed in this drill from players of all groups.
Another group was working on clearances with 4 to each side. The third group was working on contested marking with one on ones with the coach kicking from about 30 – 40 metres. I didn’t see a lot of this as it was on the far side, but I did notice a time where Francis completed outmanoeuvred Hooker on 3 separate occasions for 3 marks which isn’t an easy feat. The last group involved one on ones with an attacking player trying to get past a tackler in a confined area.
Later in the hour all four drills were purely kicking. The first group had a player kicking at a 45 degree angle from the flank aiming to pass to a player sprinting towards goals from the 50. This was generally done very well. The second group had players collecting ground balls and having shots at goal from the pocket. A third group involved a kick from the goal square to the boundary, then a centering kick followed by a pass to a player on a lead trying to outmark a defender. The last group had a player given the ball off balance who had to drill a kick off one step to a coach 20 metres away who was stationary and wouldn’t move, which is more difficult than it sounds. All
groups were average when first starting but improved as time went on.
The players were then put into 2 groups of 8 versus 8 in with the whole group in the forward 50, the aim being to kick to an attacking player within the 50 to create a mark as many times in a row as possible. Each group would alternate between attacking and defending. This drill was done particularly well, and there were regularly 10-15 perfect passes without the defenders able to spoil.
Later on everyone was split into 3 groups. The midfielders were put into old versus young. They alternated having possession of the ball, trying to work clear and have a shot at goal.
Another group was made up of the forwards consisting of Hooker, Stewart, Lav, Green and Tippa having contested one on one marks from 40 metre kicks from the 50. Hooker as you would imagine did this the best, although Laverde did quite well against both him and Stewart and smashed Green. Stewart did win some contests but not enough to give me a lot on confidence. I was particularly interested in Green versus Tippa considering Tippa’s one on one problems last year and I thought he did very well, at least broke even on most occasions and won quite a few. I have no doubt it’s something they have targeted over the pre season.
Overall I thought the session improved as it went on after some sloppy kicking early. As a lot of the session consisted of kicking the usual candidates stood out in Tippa (who also kicked regularly off the left), McKenna, and Zerrett. I was also very impressed with Laverde both kicking and marking, he looks fantastic and is one of my tips for a big year. Luey was also surprisingly effective in the kicking drills, and Green looked very good in shots on goal with one comment of ‘never misses’ from one of the players.
I also spent a bit of time watching Tippa closely, particularly at the end of drills and he seems to be completing them with ease while in the past he always looked very fatigued, I would say he has significantly improved his fitness base.