Is Jones on the LTI list yet.
Ok here we go.
Training in mild conditions, got a little warmer later in the session. Not very windy which must be rare!
Firstly, I don’t know how the regular watchers do such detailed reports. As it was my first training session for this summer, I was spending time figuring out a lot of the new players, let alone analysing drills and who was standing out.
Originally I said Parish was back in full training. This isn’t quite the case, but I would guess he did 70-75%, the rest he was in modified, running laps etc. A lot of the ground match scenario stuff he didn’t do. Similarly with Langford, who jumped between a bit, but majority with main group
Modified group was Jones, Stewart, J Davey, Munkarra. Tex seemed to be between both a bit as well. Did not see Reid. Jones did heaps of running, way more than Stewart. Hoping Jones is close to a return.
I got there just after 9:30. Most were on Marvel Oval.
Then they moved to main oval at 9:50. Had a drill were transitioning from back 50-forward 50 with 3-4 kicks with no pressure as a warm-up. Happy to say ball rarely hit the ground!
Stringer then joined Langford, Parish and Jones for some marking and body positioning drills. Parish was of course undersized, but Stringer dominated everyone in that, reading the ball through the air. Langford barely won one and was spoiled by Parish.
For the majority of the session they had black or red jumpers on for the drills. Black seemed to be very similar to the intra club on Friday. Those that were there can point out some changes. Black were: Stringer Shiel Hep Merrett Walla Wright Ridley Redman Guelfi Zerk Hind Settlefield Parish Laverde Weideman Draper Langford Martin Cox Durham. Apologies if I missed any. Rest were red. I think Settlefield was red on Friday. McGrath was red, not sure if there’s anything to
read into it, but was interesting.
Mass manned up on Walla in a few of the drills, whoever won the battle there, generally used the ball damagingly.
Stringer out pointer Kelly in a number of the full ground drills. Good to see 2MP out there too. He seemed fine.
I don’t like picking on a kid, but there was a situation where the ball was kicked slightly over Lord’s head and he didn’t go. Resulted in a turnover and black team took it the length.
Whenever a scenario play ended with either a mark or free to forward, the player would have to take the set shot. Hep yelling “do your routine”. I liked this, seeing that goal kicking was taken seriously.
There were a few goal kicking drills mixed in throughout the session, not just a kick around at the end. A couple really impressed me. Lewis Hayes did not miss. Not that I think he will be taking many shots in games, but his skills looked very nice. And Tex nailed a few gems, he’s got some tricks.
There was another one with snaps and ground balls and kicking on the run. We need more goals from our mids and was happy to see they were doing some stuff with this. Langford snaps better on his left than right for some reason! But there was a higher % of the session dedicated to goal kicking than what I remember or have seen others report.
Assistant coaches were doing all the drills. Scott was there overseeing and chatting to whoever was close to him in the middle. Was so good to see Hurley there doing a few things with defenders. A lot of drills got stopped by Carra or Gia if they weren’t happy. Can’t really hear what they are saying though.
As far as the intensity goes, I thought it was pretty good. Not a lot of physical stuff, but a good solid workout. They probably build up to another match sim on Friday I would guess.
Didn’t see any injuries which is always a plus.
As I said before, Parish and Walla signed autographs and posed for photos. Kids love Walla. Best thing about it is they instigated it, it wasn’t kids/parents asking, they both walked over and said g’day and had a chat. So good to see.
That’s about it, happy to take any questions, but my lack of knowledge might be there in my answers.
Cheers
Edit: will also mention, that I thought Hep looked good. He to me, looks a lock for round 1. If he isn’t, that means someone would have stepped up to take his spot, which is a good thing.
Lol
This is great news, I used to hate watching players mark the ball 20m out at training and then sort of dribble it goalwards like it was a done deal.
Exactly why I mentioned it, it made me happy!
Jakey looks to be in great shape and its great to hear he is dominating in drills. Fingers crossed.
How did Wright and Weed look in the same fwd line?
Thanks @Wrighty05 , great report.
Would love to know how you felt Massimo went against Walla. Could he defend?
I think you would need to see it for longer periods in match sim than the drills we saw today. Everything was stop start when you had coaches stopping plays etc.
But I wouldn’t say Walla dominated or anything
stupid blitzers not having me in the best 22… having a go at my kicking…I bet I kick better than they post, that’s for sure…
?
To be honest, didn’t notice a lot of Weid today.
That doesn’t mean he was poor, just that I didn’t notice him
I absolutely loved the way the Cinderella story of Tippa unfolded.
I can’t help wondering if Munkara will be the next star, because with a body like that he could be an absolute star in the Stringer/Dusty/Petracca/DeGoey class of players.
Thats not an expectation, but if you think he “could be anything” thats what he could be.
I’ll add that in one of the drills, a different coach was in the back pocket, wing and forward flank.
The coach on the wing would yell out for example “red free kick” and one of the other coaches would kick to a red player. They would then have to move the ball quickly and force the black team to get their defensive positions sorted quickly to break up the transition.
I can not confirm whether Horace Hogan is less racist than his uncle above.
Terry Bollea? Makes no sense.
