Training at Tullamarine on the McCracken Oval in mild, breezy conditions.
Ashby was in the modified group today but it was good to see Hams and Browne back today and Hams had a pretty good session.
Knackers helped with the report today and I can quote him on Joe Daniher: “I was impressed with Daniher’s groundwork which resulted in three goals.” I agree with this. Joe’s first goal was greeted with applause because a miss would have meant press ups again. In one of his goals in general play he picked up the ball and gave Kav the “don’t argue” before kicking truly and a minute later followed this collecting the ball and wheeling on to his left foot for a lovely long goal. Apart from some bad kicking last Friday his preseason form has been impressive.
I am pleased that for the first time I can say something exciting about LaVerde today who showed some excellent potential opposed to Hooker. LaVerde marked well on the lead and immediately wheeled and played on to drill a lovely pass to Hams in the goal square. A minute later he out marked Hooker on the lead and gaoled from about forty metres despite the cross breeze. Watch this space.
Heppel was again prominent and if he can bring his kicking to the level of the rest of his play he could be anything. While on the subject of kicking Goddard was sloppy early with three poor kicks in a row but improved as the day went on including a lovely cross pass in the forward line to Howlett. This was a bit typical of the practice match which was scrappy early but improved later when the wind dropped a little.
As stated before Hird has them doing more running and the practice match was broken up by a series of 500’s where Stanton starred. The players who trained today handled this session well and look very fit. Kurt Aylett was running endless laps bouncing the ball which put me in mind of Sheedy who told Dempsey not just to bounce with his preferred hand but to alternate. Kurt was not only doing this but also bringing the ball behind his back like a basketballer.
Alessio took the three ruck men on the Clarke Oval and worked on ball ups emphasising body use in side by side situations, holding your ground then bumping or pushing off your opponent to get the tap. Tommy was in sparkling form and Giles kicked a couple of goals in the practice match. Edwards was again a mixture of good and bad and on one occasion kicked high to Daniher who was surrounded by three opponents when the ball should have been crossed. Like Kav he is showing great determination this year but needs to work on his ball use and decision making.
A small crowd today but lovely in the mild conditions where Knackers and I were joined on the Burgess wing by a Willie Wagtail. I’m sure you would have enjoyed it if you had been here.
That must have been some play by Goddard to kick the ball into the forwardline to himself, Jackie! :p
How was Cooney?
And did Buckets train?
Oops - lovely pass to Howlett.
Cooney was ok.
Buckets didn’t train. I didn’t list the modified group again today it has stayed the same apart from the three players I mentioned at the start.
Great to hear a bit of a change in your birdspotting jackie, including a report on the willie wagtail, normally you just seem focused on looking at ■■■■.
I also ventured out to training this morning. My summary is nothing in comparison to JM’s but will share my thoughts on training.
After warming up with a few light running drills and exercises followed a quick soccer match, the boys divided themselves into different parts of the oval to do what I remember in my young footy days as similar to “circle work”. Once they got full warmed up there was a lot of different match simulations going on around the ground and you can tell that they’ve ramped up training for matches since coming back after break. I believe two players collided up the other end of the ground which I missed, maybe JM saw it, but few coaches and staff ran out but seemed to be no major injuries out of it.
They broke up the different match simulation practices with most of the players running laps. Stanton way out in front as always lead his group of players with the majority of the players getting through the rigorous amounts of running incorporated into this morning’s session. Poor Giles brought up the tail - but hey he’s a ruckman I guess. Melksham & Howlett didn’t partake in the laps but instead did boxing sets including push ups and sit ups. Modified group as mentioned were Myers, Jerrett, Ashby, Carlisle, Dempsey, Kommer & Aylett
I concur with JM and say that Laverde looks to be an extremely promising player. He doesn’t look out of place with the boys and beat some of his more experienced teammates. Don’t want to jump the gun but expecting big things from him and wouldn’t surprise me to see him get a fair few games under his belt this year.
Zerrett just keeps on keeping on being quick and creative around the ground. Nice passages of play and even snagged a goal if what I saw was a goal from my end of the ground. Colyer as well continues to leap high for those simple marks and creates options across the ground. Proud of the player he has become and very keen to see him continue his good form into the 2015 season. I’ll give Kav some credit too considering I have my reservations about him but I thought he was fantastic from what I saw today. Few players I thought had a bit of an off morning includes Goddard & Hurley. Lots of errors stood out in my mind from this morning’s session but don’t think it’s anything to be worried about.
Few players came over at the end to sign autographs, jumpers etc. for fans including Jobe, Hepp, Melky & Benny. I spoke to Benny for a few minutes and he said this was easily the toughest training session of the pre-season to date. They finished up around 10:30 after starting at just before 8:30 and then they had to go in to do weights session at 11:00am. I don’t know how they do it after the triathlon Saturday, big session Monday and today’s massive session. They do have 4 days off now which Benny mentioned so I guess everyone put their 100% in today.
Really great morning out at training and have to say I’m pretty keen for the NAB Challenge to roll around and Season 2015.
Thanks for the reports guys.
Have read that he’s spent some time in the rehab group but how is Fanta coming along?
The new kids have got us all excited but it’ll be interesting to see much development we can get some our 2nd-4th year guys. The pressure for spots should be the best we’ve had in a long time IMO but there is definitely room for the classy goal sneak we’ve been lacking for so long.
Hard to compare the sides but at Hawthorn it was adding the B.Hill, Bruest, Gunston, Isaac Smith’s, players with a legit point of difference that forced their way into the side (Gut runners, speed, goal sense) with an already strong core, along with the depth that has made that team such a strong football side. Feel like we’re starting to build that with the shape of our list.
Thanks for the reports guys.
Have read that he's spent some time in the rehab group but how is Fanta coming along?
The new kids have got us all excited but it'll be interesting to see much development we can get some our 2nd-4th year guys. The pressure for spots should be the best we've had in a long time IMO but there is definitely room for the classy goal sneak we've been lacking for so long.
Hard to compare the sides but at Hawthorn it was adding the B.Hill, Bruest, Gunston, Isaac Smith's, players with a legit point of difference that forced their way into the side (Gut runners, speed, goal sense) with an already strong core, along with the depth that has made that team such a strong football side. Feel like we're starting to build that with the shape of our list.
Fantasia went ok today. Kicked a lot of goals in SANFL(?) but last year didn’t replicate this in the VFL and was not a sharpshooter which surprised me a bit . However he moves well, is courageous and quick enough so he might blossom this year.
I agree on Cooney Jackie, if he is fit he will play against Sydney . He looks so good in training in match sims, he is still fast, he will find space, has very good evasive skills, other players will respect him and use him a lot and he should do very well. As to fitness level and ability to recover every week and get back up at his obvious high level of skill, we just dont know yet. I expect a year similar to the one BJ had in 2013. 16 or so high quality games is probably better than 22 slightly above average games. Same goes for Chappie. But you know these guys, they just want to be on the park .
