Training Wednesday 11/01/2017

Football Discussion Dustin Fletcher Hangar
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2 hour plus training session in pleasant conditions at Tulla.

Absent: Eades, Fantasia, Green. (Not sure why the first 2 missed but have a feeling Green’s foot isn’t 100% yet as I attended training on Monday and he seemed to wince when participating in the one on one marking drill at the end of training)

Modified Group: Belly, Joe and Smack, Long and Zaka. (based on Joe’s ability to complete all running drills and when kicking was only using his right leg, I would say he has a quad injury. Only my opinion though).

Zaka slightly rolled his ankle on Monday, just completed running drills on 2nd oval today, wouldn’t suspect its a bad one and he will rejoin training very soon (again my opinion)

Long was just running laps - unsure what injury he has as he didnt train Monday either.

Morgan, Goddard, Mutch and Francis went to the 2nd oval for specific drills or running excises throughout the session. Fanta doing extra running to improve his endurance.

I won’t go into too much detail regarding the drills but what I did notice was a big emphasis on quick ball movement and getting the ball quick into the fwd 50. A few times, drills were stopped because players went laterally instead of direct and forward. There were drills set up for specific craft work with the group divided between fwds, backs, mids and ruck. Skills were ok without being outstanding which body contact and tackling slowly getting introduced.

The first year players were back from their AFL induction camp today and started the session before moving inside to manage their work load. At one stage Clarke was taken aside to work on his kicking, which I feel he has already improved on since what we saw in his draft videos. His short kicks were spot on, maybe the longer distance ones are what he needs to continue to work on. Begley is a great size and spent time with the fwds (could play in 2017). McGrath trained with the backs, hard to report on too many specifics as 1st yrs were in and out of the drills.

Some notes on some players:

Stewart: impressed me with his work rate and marking. At times matched up against Hurls and did very well.

Laverde: Spent time between fwd and mid, looks very potent and ready to explode, could easily play FF has great speed off the mark.

McNiece: does not look out of place and has a lovely left foot, would be top 3-4 kicks on our list.

Watson: really took control during the stoppages with great hands and vision (he is a class above with vision and execution, hopefully see him back to his best!)

Happy to answer any questions on specific players

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Justin Crow on twitter saying he’s presenting about load monitoring at a conference soon. Does seem to reflect how the players are being managed.

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Laverde just looks like playing similar vein to Deledio off the HFF which effectively ends up as an outside midfielder a lot of the time anyway.

Very quick straight line speed, excellent at leading, great leap & contested mark, good kick for goal.

Deledio - 188cm, 89kg
LAV - 190cm, 82kg

I expect LAV will just continue to increase his muscle mass as the years go by to close that gap. Probably has already given the EFC site won’t be up to date.

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I reckon he could absolutely excel at it, but lav himself doesn’t seem to be too keen on the idea.

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He sees himself as a midfielder. I personally see him as a HFF

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Is Laverde big enough and strong enough to play that leading FF in the Gunston mould?

From the glimpses we have seen over the past 2 years, he can lead and he can kick a set shot.

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Maybe everyone else should get their appendix out. Seemed to work wonders for lav.

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First time poster!

I was watching the forwards group mainly.

Impressed with Stewart, works hard and has a good understanding of forward craft.

Laverde is moving like a gazelle. Hopefully a break out year for him.

Young Dylan Clarke’s kicking needs some work, but there’s plenty of time for that.

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I went today as well.

The most promising thing I thought was there were no copies of The Age in the cafe.

Excellent summaries by all already. Begley is a beast for his age. Jobe looked a step above in the clearance drills.

First time at training in years so it was hard to compare to other sessions.

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■■■■■■ hell. Was there anybody there that wasn’t on blitz?

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Echo the thoughts of most above.

Laverde and Langford impressed me especially Lav he looked imposing and hungry really enjoyed watching them.

But by far the best thing about today was seeing Jobe train he was phenomenal our skipper is back and he’s ready to go.

Don’t be concerned about how he will come back I expect him to elevate his game from 2012 he is the real deal and will be our best again in 2017.

Lid off!!!

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On the other hand no kicking on his left means his goal kicking practice is on hold.

Well, good thing he doesn’t need to practice his goal kicking…

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I read somewhere that Doc Reid had finished up as Club Doctor at the end of 2016. But I think he is still there and TBH, absolutely nothing has been said by the club about him retiring . I would expect that he would be given a very big send off by the club after all these years.

Is Doc Reid still visible at training?


He may be there in some capacity but he has stepped down as head chief doctor from my understanding. I did hear he was looking at going to the Epworth to work

He already does. Has for a few years now.


Yeah sorry I ment back to there full time though
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I read somewhere that Doc Reid had finished up as Club Doctor at the end of 2016. But I think he is still there and TBH, absolutely nothing has been said by the club about him retiring . I would expect that he would be given a very big send off by the club after all these years.

Is Doc Reid still visible at training?


He may be there in some capacity but he has stepped down as head chief doctor from my understanding. I did hear he was looking at going to the Epworth to work

He already does. Has for a few years now.

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Thanks to all the reporters for what's turned out to be a great training thread.

Can I ask one of them to comment on the mood today, especially if you’ve been to sessions before Christmas. Jackie M was always talking about how upbeat everyone was, how loud the talking was and how high the enthusiasm levels were. Then on Monday his report began by noting that the mood was rather downbeat, following the James Hird events. although he also said that it improved as the day went on.

So how was it today? Back to pre-Christmas levels, or a bit down?

Sorry, I didn’t see any pre Xmas so I can’ t compare.
They all seemed pretty upbeat today as far as I could tell.
Plenty of talk and a lot of post activity feedback to each other about what was needed.
Joey and TBC were having a ball in a competitive skills drill before the main session began, laughing and carrying on when one beat the other.

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I read somewhere that Doc Reid had finished up as Club Doctor at the end of 2016. But I think he is still there and TBH, absolutely nothing has been said by the club about him retiring . I would expect that he would be given a very big send off by the club after all these years.

Is Doc Reid still visible at training?


He may be there in some capacity but he has stepped down as head chief doctor from my understanding. I did hear he was looking at going to the Epworth to work
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C7 just reported that Joey is still recovering from hip surgery.

It’s a knee complaint. Not hip.

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Thanks to all the reporters for what’s turned out to be a great training thread.

Can I ask one of them to comment on the mood today, especially if you’ve been to sessions before Christmas. Jackie M was always talking about how upbeat everyone was, how loud the talking was and how high the enthusiasm levels were. Then on Monday his report began by noting that the mood was rather downbeat, following the James Hird events. although he also said that it improved as the day went on.

So how was it today? Back to pre-Christmas levels, or a bit down?

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A few further thoughts about individuals and what I saw today (NB there were quite a few who just didn't get a chance to do much today, save for participate in the skills based drills) -

…
Ridley - in the early match/clearance drill, he lead and marked, then moved it on with an accurate kick a couple of times. Kicked a goal from an uncontested mark. Look neat skills and could get away on the lead. He is all arms and legs and just about 1cm shorter than Hooker, so a nice size once he fills out. Moved well.
…


Wow. I knew he was meant to have the potential to reach KP height, but is he really that tall already? If so he grew fast since the measurement taken for the draft info was recorded.

I actually haven’t looked up the heights shown in the player records for each. What I went on was that they were both at one point standing side by side on the sidelines right in front of me yesterday, and I thought they were close to the same height until I noticed Ridley’s shoulders were about 1cm lower than Hooker’s. And for mine, it doesn’t matter how long your neck is.

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Is Laverde big enough and strong enough to play that leading FF in the Gunston mould?
You summoned me?

“As a midfielder, Laverde does a very convincing impression of a leading leaping forward.”