they’ll be right… twice a day
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Certainly makes it easy to sort. It’s one of the perennial problems in software if the date is mixed in with literals.
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STOP THE PRESSES - BREAKING NEWS
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Just waiting for someone to create a thread for us with a ‘where’s the report’ 
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Deckham delivers !
( Well. I am sure he will. )
Just sayin s’all
I reckon Stringer might be growing a pretty sweet haircut for round 1 under that bucket hat.
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Roger Ramjet is a patriotic and highly moral — if not very bright — hero, who is typically out to save the world, with help from his Proton Energy Pills (“PEP”), which give him “the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds”.
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Training Notes – 23 Jan 2019
Session began overcast, with a stiff breeze. I was pondering going to grab a jacket from the car. Until I noted @karmabomber in shorts and short sleeves and thought bugger me if I’m gonna be bested by this old ■■■■■■■. It warmed up quite quickly in any case.
The usual casual individual warm-ups were carried out, with everyone doing their own thing. Some in earnest, some wandering around aimlessly pretending, and others looking like extremely butch ballerinas. Mozzie happily buzzing around everyone as usual. Fletch and Hirdy playing kick-to-kick hehe. Then everyone back inside for serious warm-ups and a pre-training meet.
I noted that a grid has been painted on the grounds – 6mx4m, around 8m out from goals. They call this area ‘the cage’, and it is called out as a positional location when in match sim.
Intimate hidden meeting over, the boys streamed out to lots of cat calls, yells, whoops and encouragement, half in white singlets for drills. Myers, looking extremely fit and robust, headed straight for Oval2, and ran laps in good spirits. He continued this and various other activities in the modified program throughout the morning. The rest of the modified group consisted of Brown, Oirish, Hooker, Redman, Hurls, Joey & Bags. Fletch and Dlarke cameoed in there also. Hurls and Hooksey were both running at medium pace without any apparent strain.
On the main oval, it was all about match sim vignettes. As a trainer called out – it was “all about clearances” today. Not a very intense or aggressive session, but rather quite technical and defined. Most of it consisted of two groups rotating through clearance drills. These were from a throw-in or ball up around the 50m mark on the wing, and as soon as one finished players ran full pelt to the opposite side and started again. After a number of clearances, the groups rested and swapped with the other group, who were doing more in-close clearance work on the other side of the oval.
Some match-ups in this sim were Francis vs Stringer, McNiece vs Fanta, Dea vs Laverde, Harts Vs Stewart and Long on Mozzie.
Francis stood out in many areas. He is so hard on himself and drives himself intensely, hating losing a single challenge. Along with Laverde, he spent quite a lot of time doing clearance work today. Hartley did well also, with some lovely field kicking. Once again, Pidge got an ovation as he shimmied around Shiel, broke away and snapped a goal – easy as pie. Joey took some very nice and accurate 45m shots at goal before coming over to yell instructions from the sideline – at one time, to Franga to ‘work harder to stop and block’. Ham figured prominently in the sim. I concur that he looks a little special, this lad.
Nice to see that the players who stand out most this preseason are the younger ones. That is huge. About McGrath. Players tend to begin their professional life emulating the seniors and striving to fill a need in the team – become ‘best 22’ so to speak. Some stay in this penumbra their entire career and establish themselves as important role-players. Others break out from it and become linchpins – essential cogs in the machine. McGrath looks like he is turning that corner already. Others look up to him. He takes the game on. He is trusting his body and his skills. This kid is going to be something special – I’ve always said it, since before we recruited him. I have no doubt. Oh – and his kicking is coming along nicely.
Shiel was and is all-class. He reminds me a lot of the way Smith began with us last year – cruising in 2nd gear in training, lifting to 3rd in preseason games – then blowing people away. Well, Shiel looks exactly like this. Stand by for an impressive debut season with us, I reckon. Did not sight Smith or Saad.
Stringer showed lovely field kicking today. Such a competitive player he is. And in a way, I get the feeling that he is so competitive (demonstrated by just how much of a sore loser he is) that he can sometimes hold back instead of risking losing. I feel more confident about him after this morning though, and I’ll wind this report up with a funny little anecdote -
There’s a new trainer around, who was collecting balls behind the goals. Stringer kicks one and then because he doesn’t know the trainer’s name, jogs in to retrieve the ball… so he shuffles up, holds out his hand and goes “hi, I’m Jake”…
I may have some footage to include when I get through it.
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Worth waiting for. Thanks.
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Great stuff Deckham
Great report Deckam!
Thanks heaps.
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If you can double fist, you should be going for the mark… Come on Frangaaaaaa!!! Switch on!
I’m so excited about McGrath’s career in the red and black.
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Who said Training reports are too serious. Thanks Deckham.
But this is seriously good news.
Hurls and Hooksey were both running at medium pace without any apparent strain.
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He just sounds as professional and as driven as the best around.
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Comes from a very professional family and it shows.
We are truly blessed, thank you 