Like
Bloody happy clappers. Youâre the reason we will never win another flag.
8 Likes
GUMBLE-TIME
2 Likes
@PipetoNul Love to hear more about what was actually said.
Sounds like youâve had a great morning.
1 Like
Nic Martin update please. Is he our best player yet?
2 Likes
Good! We have a lot of catching up to do there.
1 Like
Like masturbating with a cheese grater. Slightly amusing, but mostly painful
1 Like
Andrew Dice Clay would be proud.
2 Likes
22 Likes
Dodged that ruckman quite well.
2 Likes
I headed down to training this morning but will leave it to the expert training writers to do the report but here are a few observations.
As Cjohns said the drills are very much based on fundamentals. They have been stripped right back. These are drills I would have done at u15 or Colts level. In between the main drills they would do goal kicking drills as a break. Simple ones like the coach rolling the ball to either side and the player snapping a goal. Or take a shot from each pocket and once youâve made it you can get a drink. These were very relaxed and to be honest we werenât great at them. From the 40 meter line on the 45 not one player in the group I watched kicked the goal and a few barely made the distance
When I arrived there was the 1-4 year players on the smaller oval and the 4+ year players on the big oval. Both we doing the same drill which was pretty much keepings off and forcing the defenders to work hard for the turnover. There would be 8 players from one team around the square with players running inside the square working hard to receive the ball.
Tsatas was outstanding in the young group as was Hayes who intercepted the ball may times.
When the groups merged on the main oval there were a couple of different drills based around ball movement. Martin and Durham excelled here. They really run hard and seemed to be everywhere.
Individual notes.
- There were a lot of coaches.
- Jake still looks laboured but did Jakey things. The coaches really praised his work ethic when he chased. He didnât enjoy the extra laps at the end which he did with Cox and Langford.
- Stewart ran laps on the second oval.
- Parish did a few little things on the second oval with McBride. Then ran so many 200s I lost count. He looks set to train in the main group.
- Great to see both Davey boys out there. Alwyn Jnr looks to have something special about him and I wouldnât be surprised if he debuted this year.
- Walla looks better again. He was the only one who consistently good around goals.
- Redman was very vocal as always. Next captain?
- Munkara, Reid and Jones did not train.
- Rhett Montgomerie has something about him. Played forward and took a nice grab for a goal.
- Vossy really struggled to kick today. Even running straight into goal from 20 out he sprayed them. Not sure if this is normal.
The players ended the session with some sprints around the boundary line. I was standing on the fence as they ran by. In the last sprint Sheil and McGrath were leading with Perko right on their heels. Perko screaming out âLast set heroâsâ. Good to see the young fella with some voice and giving it to the old boys.
Was great fun. Highly recommend attending.
120 Likes
I will preface things by saying how super nice he was. He asked about us and what we do. My son told him that he had been invited to train with the Western Jets 16 year olds and he asked about their training and then spent time pointing out to him some of the finer points of what the forwards and backs doing. Really nice
If I were a betting man I would bet that if you were to hear him on the radio in the next day or two his commentary would be along the lines of âSam Weiderman: Key Forward or tallest small player in the league?â. To be honest he was a bit scathing. Pointed out that Weiderman failed to physically engage his opponent or was being out bodied (got pushed aside by BZT without much effort). At the same time pointed out how much work 2MP and Stringer put into bodying and contacting opponents prior to the ball being kicked to them. Said that was why Rance was such a good backman because you couldnât get rid of him.
On Tippa the commentary was that although he still looks about 5 kegs overweight he looked much better than last year. Pointed out that his kicks ALWAYS hit a target. Also pointed out that he (Tippa) was able able to pick up kicks in the zoning exercises without much effort just by reading the play and knowing to move into spaces.
King was also pretty scathing of what appeared to be a zoning exercise on the main oval. Didnât see what it achieved and felt the skill level was poor. Too many missed kicks and dropped marks.
I do have to say itâs almost like he reads this board because he bought into some of the same arguments you see on Blitz.
On Stringer he said that he looks a bit underdone but then again, he always does. Felt Stringer cops some undue criticism. Once again pointed out the work he did prior to the ball being kicked into his space. My own observation was about Stringers running style. He runs with lots of little steps. I dont know if this is a function of the groin problems he has experienced. He was doing laps with Langford, Laverde and Baldwin toward the end. Running distance with all this little steps is so inefficient, its no wonder he tires quickly.
He (King) also mentioned how well he feels we have done in supplementary and mid season drafts and didnât understand why Doddoro copped the flack he does. I mentioned that I had heard him say this on the Lunchtime Catchup Podcast (looking out for your there CJohns ;P).
King was a big wrap for Red Dog and said he was hard up not to have won the B&F. Pointed how Red Dog won a kick in front of the goals at the Cafe end and then next minute he spoiling a kick on F50 arc of the other end.
He wondered what the club would do with the captaincy. Wondered of Hepps was too nice and that we really needed a âfollow meâ type. Felt Zerret was too quiet. To prove his point he pointed Zerret standing at the goals. Zerret had one or bits of encouragement but that was about it. Reckoned Red Dog was a good leader and even flung out Drapers name.
Felt that Truck wasnât really good enough as coach to take us much further that that success was about grinding out the season. Yeah, 2021 had a heap of highlight reel moments but we couldnât really grind out the season. He questioned Collingwood along the same lines.
I was impressed by the big Irish dude that took the tackling exercise. Said over and over again that he wanted to hear the boding strike when they made contact.
Could help notice a big group standing in the shade of the treeâs up the hill close to the road. Was that the Blitz cohort?
130 Likes
Darcy still recovering from his Bucks day by the sounds of it
1 Like
Wouldnât think so. He covered a fair bit of ground today.
W. Bin borderline flying (which is quite an achievement given his body shape/lack of aerodynamics).
Could be the BBM (Big Bin Midfielder) that weâve been crying out for.
5 Likes
The Hardingham vibes get stronger every time I hear about Montgomerie.
3 Likes
Were the SSP blokes there today?
1 Like
Could be. My worry is he ends up like Cutler.
I donât know enough about him to know if he likes the contest or not.
Does Merrett actually want to be captain?
If heâs such student of the game he must know what elements heâs lacking (voice/engagement with players outside his own game) and whether he would be able to perform these to the level a captain needs to.
Great minds think alike. When I saw his highlights reel that was the name that came to mind.
1 Like