Met up with @aboods today after he used his journalist contact to find out where and when we were training. I am sure I saw Darcy and Marty go into the main Metricon stadium, so of course I followed them in. Was abruptly evicted by security; and in hindsight I was probably being a bit reckless. In my defence, I was socially isolating by about 100 metres as the stadium was deserted.
Luckily we were training on the outside ground nearest Royal Pines.
Before the report, just need to honour those intrepid training reporters who have come (and gone) before us. Some may remember that @Alan_Noonan_10 used to provide “”reports””, so I’ll pay homage by channelling my inner noondog
Hey this report will be brief. I’m not writing up drills or stuff like that and don’t ask me questions. Don’t ask me about Rama either.
But seriously he has a keen eye for talent and we appreciated his insights.
The rehab group included Hooker, Fanta, Stringer, Hepp, McBride and Johno. Mcbride didn’t look injured. In the previous training I attended McQuillan was in the rehab group but played soon after and I think it’s just lighter training for McBride. Ambrose and Hird were on bikes.
Also there was a modified group. Hurley didn’t train except for a session with the backs late in the session and he was mostly standing around in that. He ran laps with Cahill and looked fine. I would say he’s not injured at all and he rested from training as he expects to play the next 3 games. Admittedly the other key players who will need to play the next 3 did train.
Cahill didn’t train. Ran laps with Hurls. Lav in a moonboot. Hepp was running a lot and quite quickly. He’s looking very good. The other injuries – Hooker (who told us he’d be back in 2 weeks), Stringer, & Fanta did a lot less work than Hepp, but of course their injuries are different type or stage.
Coaching. Forget about job titles. Rutten runs training and today Caracella did most of the teaching of players, and most of it was about ball movement. Dan took the forwards when they separated into backs, forwards and mids and I assume Kelly worked with the backs. Worsfold doesn’t get involved in training other than watch on, collect footies etc. Clearly he is a mentor for Rutten and others when needed.
There was a midfield drill with Draper, Langford, Snelling, Parish, McGrath, Shiel, Merrett, Smith & Zaka.
At one stage we saw cutler and ham training with some of the mids who would play 2s, but don’t read anything into this as players train everywhere. Mutch trained well and you’d expect him, guelfs and/or clark to get a game sometime soon with the short turnarounds.
The forward group training together were McKernan, Tippa, Jones, Mozz, Townsend, Stewart, Joe & Conor.
The backs were Zerk, Saad, Ridley, Francis, Gleeson, Redman and Hurls was with them too.
Conor was great. He was loving training forward and snapping goals – he didn’t snag too many – but when he did he was in full voice. He’s fine this week and should be picked to play forward. His broken finger is not taped to the next finger now and his ball handling is back to normal.
Joe did full training and moved really well. With no more setbacks we’ll see him playing in 2-3 weeks. That might be half a scratch match to see how he pulls up, I wouldn’t know, but he’s looking good and the plan is obviously to get him right to play soon.
Given the expected ins and forecast for rain on Friday, you would expect Bellchambers to be replaced by McKernan, Mckenna to replace Cahill, and Langford probably for one of the wingers. Not sure if we’re too tall down back if it’s wet?
The full group got together and there was a cheer. We don’t know who or what for. Mozz trained well but we couldn’t see if they were cheering a debut, or just that the tea lady had finally nailed the pumpkin scone recipe made famous up here by FloJo Bjelke-Peterson
