I rocked up at about 3:20 and the players were already out there and in a huddle with Craigy. I was struck by how many players were participating in the drills as there seemed to be only 2 or 3 players away from the main group. Will Gun, err Young, ran a few laps and I don’t think he participated in the session. I was impressed by Johncock prior to the Christmas break but unfortunately the news isn’t so good now. He appears to have put on a fair bit of weight and it’s got to be disappointing for the coaching staff and the players. Maybe I’m overreacting and maybe he was in this physical shape 2-3 weeks ago but he just seems heavier than he was on previous viewing. I've got photographic evidence that I'll post in a sec.
I was impressed with a few players…
Dangerfield looked really good, extremely quick and strong in the air. Doesn’t seem to be hampered by injury at all which is a good sign. His full speed is something to be seen and he now slows down when he’s about to kick by taking small steps and balancing himself, it’s good to see. Kite looks impressive, as does Armstrong. Walker was good again and even speared a few passes on his left. The players were in a huddle and one player would take a shot on goal as they all watched. It was Walks’ turn and Craigy went right up to him and had a few words in his ear as Taylor was lining up. He had a few shots and seemed to drill most.
I have been talking up the smoothness of Tommy Lee but admittedly he didn’t look quite as smooth across the ground today. Not sure why that was but he does appear to have bulked up already and perhaps he’s coming to grips with the extra weight? Maybe he just was a bit fatigued from the 3k run earlier in the day and he was a bit low on energy.
McKernan always leaves me scratching my head a bit because he’ll be real impressive one minute and not so the next. One area for improvement is his kicking over short distances as you’ll often see him try to kick a short 20 metre pass to a teammate but it’ll end up missing them by a fair distance. I’m not a big fan of his ball drop it must be said. His marking is certainly very impressive though and he extends his hands quite a bit and has such a strong grip on the ball. It’ll be hard for defenders to spoil the ball with his reach and sticky fingers.
You can’t help but me impressed with Mackay and Petrenko. Mackay has bulked up significantly and he’s always in the thick of the drills. I’m growing more of a fan each time I see him. Petrenko is a tank and I see him playing in Round 1 this year. He is free of any shoulder strapping and looks really smooth and strong. Can't believe he's a second round rookie selection!
Myke Cook has quality written all over him and I suspect he’ll play a few games this year. He moves like Jericho but thankfully with more intensity. I’ve said it a few times before but he has really stacked on the weight and he’ll certainly be playing a lot of league footy for South Adelaide this season, hopefully from the outset. He does have good foot skills and he is strong in the air. He might have received the least amount of fanfare of anyone on our list but he’s definitely one to be excited about.
Again I was impressed with Ricky Henderson. His foot skills are quite good and he’s a tremendous athlete. Donnelly has a long, long way to go and his kicking is pretty poor, failing to hit targets over 20 metres. It’s to be expected but where will he play this season? I’m not even sure he’s good enough to play in the reserves but now there’s only an U/18 and he’s too old for that…
Chris Schmidt looked 10x better than he did before Christmas. In hindsight he was always going to feel a little out of place in the session before the break because he was only just drafted a few days beforehand and he probably only met the players on that day. He looked really good today, moved well and looked far more active. They did this drill where the goal was to kick a goal at goal post height. A player with possession was running towards goal and met by Craig who was applying defensive pressure, and their job was to dish off a handball to a streaming player who would kick a goal, at goal post height. On one occasion Schmidt made a really nice move, looked to be dishing one way but spun around and fooled Craig and fired off a handball. He got a few compliments as a result.
Brodie Martin is still tiny and is easily the smallest guy out there. For a mature aged rookie and one who has been on the list for over 12 months now, he should be more physically advanced. I don’t see him making much of an impact and ever getting upgraded unless he starts to bulk up and look more AFL ready.
Sellar stayed back pretty late and was working on his overhead marking while Moss, pretty sure it was him, defended. Mackay was delivering the passes while the two would battle it out and it looked like a pretty even battle but Jimmy did take a few strong grabs as you would expect over a small opponent. Moss had a good session though and a few times got compiments from the playing group for making good decisions in one particular drill.
McKernan, Davis, Gallman and Schmidt stayed back a little while as they attempted to kick goals from right on the boundary line. There was a pretty difficult breeze at the time too which made it exceptionally hard to kick a goal. Schmidt stuck with the drop punt for most of the time and was the closest almost every time. Gallman continued to spray it all over the place and he let his disappointment be known. McKernan was okay, some very close and quite a few OOF. Craigy had a lot of words for him, mainly on his ball drop and after he had a long chat Shaun booted one OOF. Schmidt ended up kicking one, I think Gallman got one too, Davis came close a few times and McKernan came pretty close at the end too.
I think that’s about it. There were a lot of players I didn’t pick up today but I probably wasn’t looking as hard as I usually do. It wasn’t a very long session at all and they didn't do anything overly challenging. They pretty much just took it easy this afternoon.
I was impressed with a few players…
Dangerfield looked really good, extremely quick and strong in the air. Doesn’t seem to be hampered by injury at all which is a good sign. His full speed is something to be seen and he now slows down when he’s about to kick by taking small steps and balancing himself, it’s good to see. Kite looks impressive, as does Armstrong. Walker was good again and even speared a few passes on his left. The players were in a huddle and one player would take a shot on goal as they all watched. It was Walks’ turn and Craigy went right up to him and had a few words in his ear as Taylor was lining up. He had a few shots and seemed to drill most.
I have been talking up the smoothness of Tommy Lee but admittedly he didn’t look quite as smooth across the ground today. Not sure why that was but he does appear to have bulked up already and perhaps he’s coming to grips with the extra weight? Maybe he just was a bit fatigued from the 3k run earlier in the day and he was a bit low on energy.
McKernan always leaves me scratching my head a bit because he’ll be real impressive one minute and not so the next. One area for improvement is his kicking over short distances as you’ll often see him try to kick a short 20 metre pass to a teammate but it’ll end up missing them by a fair distance. I’m not a big fan of his ball drop it must be said. His marking is certainly very impressive though and he extends his hands quite a bit and has such a strong grip on the ball. It’ll be hard for defenders to spoil the ball with his reach and sticky fingers.
You can’t help but me impressed with Mackay and Petrenko. Mackay has bulked up significantly and he’s always in the thick of the drills. I’m growing more of a fan each time I see him. Petrenko is a tank and I see him playing in Round 1 this year. He is free of any shoulder strapping and looks really smooth and strong. Can't believe he's a second round rookie selection!
Myke Cook has quality written all over him and I suspect he’ll play a few games this year. He moves like Jericho but thankfully with more intensity. I’ve said it a few times before but he has really stacked on the weight and he’ll certainly be playing a lot of league footy for South Adelaide this season, hopefully from the outset. He does have good foot skills and he is strong in the air. He might have received the least amount of fanfare of anyone on our list but he’s definitely one to be excited about.
Again I was impressed with Ricky Henderson. His foot skills are quite good and he’s a tremendous athlete. Donnelly has a long, long way to go and his kicking is pretty poor, failing to hit targets over 20 metres. It’s to be expected but where will he play this season? I’m not even sure he’s good enough to play in the reserves but now there’s only an U/18 and he’s too old for that…
Chris Schmidt looked 10x better than he did before Christmas. In hindsight he was always going to feel a little out of place in the session before the break because he was only just drafted a few days beforehand and he probably only met the players on that day. He looked really good today, moved well and looked far more active. They did this drill where the goal was to kick a goal at goal post height. A player with possession was running towards goal and met by Craig who was applying defensive pressure, and their job was to dish off a handball to a streaming player who would kick a goal, at goal post height. On one occasion Schmidt made a really nice move, looked to be dishing one way but spun around and fooled Craig and fired off a handball. He got a few compliments as a result.
Brodie Martin is still tiny and is easily the smallest guy out there. For a mature aged rookie and one who has been on the list for over 12 months now, he should be more physically advanced. I don’t see him making much of an impact and ever getting upgraded unless he starts to bulk up and look more AFL ready.
Sellar stayed back pretty late and was working on his overhead marking while Moss, pretty sure it was him, defended. Mackay was delivering the passes while the two would battle it out and it looked like a pretty even battle but Jimmy did take a few strong grabs as you would expect over a small opponent. Moss had a good session though and a few times got compiments from the playing group for making good decisions in one particular drill.
McKernan, Davis, Gallman and Schmidt stayed back a little while as they attempted to kick goals from right on the boundary line. There was a pretty difficult breeze at the time too which made it exceptionally hard to kick a goal. Schmidt stuck with the drop punt for most of the time and was the closest almost every time. Gallman continued to spray it all over the place and he let his disappointment be known. McKernan was okay, some very close and quite a few OOF. Craigy had a lot of words for him, mainly on his ball drop and after he had a long chat Shaun booted one OOF. Schmidt ended up kicking one, I think Gallman got one too, Davis came close a few times and McKernan came pretty close at the end too.
I think that’s about it. There were a lot of players I didn’t pick up today but I probably wasn’t looking as hard as I usually do. It wasn’t a very long session at all and they didn't do anything overly challenging. They pretty much just took it easy this afternoon.
. Could you get the photos up.
