Last training session of the season at Tullamarine in cool, sunny conditions.
This is a joint report with Karma Bomber whose photos will appear later.
Let’s go back to the start of the season and reflect a little:
On the 8/2/16 I wrote “The comment I hear most frequently is ‘We’ll win more games than people think.’ Exactly what this means I’m not sure.”
Time for everyone to fess up - how many games did you think we’d win?
I also wrote “Of course the elephant in the room is how many games did we want to win?..Pick one would stick it up the AFL which is tempting.”
It seems to me that Jumbo has come to the party and justified his presence and I am hugging myself with glee at the thought of the upcoming draft and the whinging wrist draggers ringing SEN.
We had an interesting chat with a respected club official this morning ranging over many issues. One question he posed was if McKenna and Walla were in the next draft what round picks would they attract. We thought third round McKenna and Second round for Walla and you might like to give your views.
However the point being made in the case of McKenna was he started as a rookie pick, he has progressed to third round value and if his improvement continues he may go all the way to first round value.
The most interesting discussion revolved around Jake Long who was given a big wrap with the interesting comment that he thinks 25% how can I get the ball and 75% how can I help someone else get it.
Some of the nuances of Jake’s play were pointed out to me as we watched him train. Jake was running with the ball out of the backline and indicated with a precise movement of the hand holding the ball where he wanted the hand pass recipient to run to receive. Shortly after he used his hands again, not his body just his hands, to do a dummy selling fake to avoid a tackle while running with the ball.
I was urged to look at running patterns through the centre of the ground and it was pointed out that Long runs diagonal to the face of the pack which opens up his ability to be a target for a pass. In contrast McKenna, in line with the Irish game, runs in straight lines up the ground thus being a more difficult target to hit. Talking to someone with this level of insight makes us realise how much more we have to learn about the game.
In the case of Will Hams he tends to go into packs too face on making it more difficult to protect himself and avoid going to ground. To take the next step he needs to improve in this area to avoid injury and to be more effective.
The year has given a lot of opportunity for player development and Karma and I advance the following proposition: the two main priorities for next season are Joe Daniher’s goal kicking (unsurprising) and Aaron Francis’s fitness. A hard preseason on the track is vital and a redistribution of some of his weight from his legs to his upper body. In some ways this is a little analogous to Jobe’s situation in his early football years before he did a huge preseason and spectacularly changed both his body shape and fitness.
How did they train? A bit like the last weeks of the school year, lots of fun and not a heavy session apart from Zahka who took a heavy knock playing handball soccer.
One game to go - a great effort by the players and staff this year. Lots of faces will be missing in 2017 - probably 16 to 18 but lots to look forward to.