Past Josh Drummond (2004-2012)

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Den Diaries

Den Diaries: Josh Drummond
12:40 PM Wed 11 June, 2008

The MCG is the home of football and I was more than happy when we got to play Collingwood there last year.

That was my first and only game at the hallowed ground, although I’m hoping to double my tally there this Saturday when we play the Western Bulldogs.

It was something I definitely wanted to do in my career and it was a fair time coming.
I had been in the AFL for a few years and even through the State under-age system I never had the chance to play on the ‘G’.

The closest I got was the 1996 grand final when I experienced the biggest game of the year for the first time as a kid.

That was a great experience and I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like out in the middle when the ground is full.

There were about 50,000 there last year for the Collingwood game and you sensed the ground was still only half full.

I have good memories of the place because we had such a good win, even if I did hurt myself a bit.

The changerooms, warm-up area and other facilities are probably the best of the ‘away’ grounds in the league.

Telstra Dome and some of the other grounds are fairly similar, but there seems a bit more room to move with every aspect of the ‘G’.

We have now won four games in a row and go into the match against the Bulldogs with a 7-4 record.

Despite our recent successes, the atmosphere around the club has stayed pretty much the same – and I’m sure that’s just the way the coaches like it.

Obviously when you are winning everyone is a little bit happier, especially the coaches, but no-one is getting carried away.

In saying that, everyone is very confident because both the seniors and reserves are playing a lot of good footy at the moment.

A lot of the guys with Suncoast have put their hands up should a change be required due to injury or form. Everyone just seems to be in a really good place.

I’m relatively confident of playing.

I did all the running and everything last Friday and thought about playing against Freo, but in the end we decided to give the hamstring another week.

It was a 50-50 call, but given my history, I thought it better to play it safe and miss one game rather than risk losing three or four weeks.

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Sounds like he'll play.
 
Link

Brown, who will play his 150th game, said Drummond's inclusion in particular was critical. The loping left-footer sets up the majority of Brisbane's counter attack and his precision foot skills were a key reason the side had been able to overcome loose-man tactics most opposition defences employed against the Lions.
"He is very important, he uses the ball the best in the whole team and he has a bit of height so he can affect a contest," Brown said.
"If you look at our win-loss ratio the last couple of years there would be a fair difference between when Drummo's playing and when he's not, that is a fair indicator of how important he is to the side.
"He probably doesn't get the kudos from down south, but he is very valued within our side and important to us playing our best football."

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Not only has his kicking dropped off over the past few games, but he seems to have picked up some tackling tips from Tim Notting- ie, he don't, unless it's the traditional arm wave.

He is in the side for his normally beautiful kick, including at the returns- instead, we see the barely 15m chip- why?????
 
Tassie4ever said:
Not only has his kicking dropped off over the past few games, but he seems to have picked up some tackling tips from Tim Notting- ie, he don't, unless it's the traditional arm wave.

He is in the side for his normally beautiful kick, including at the returns- instead, we see the barely 15m chip- why?????
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nothing to kick to?
 
I've also noticed his kicking hasn't been up to scratch. He also used to be our number one kick in from behinds but lately he hasn’t been taking them. He's either carrying some lasting effects of an injury or maybe its a new strategy of having him receive a kick in from a behind and using his precision kicking to get the ball moving into the midfield, but it doesn’t seem to be working, so I reckon he's still carrying some kind of niggle from his last injury.
 
nothing to kick to?
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Accept this point, but in my mind it's something of a chicken and egg thing- if the kick is probably going to be long, then players will make position.

I have also noticed a tendency for one or two players [I could name the consistent offenders, although there aren't many, to be fair] to "hide" behind an opposition player around the 50m mark and a little beyond- ie please don't kick it to me. Wanting a kick should be the number one priority, IMO.
 
Important backman Josh Drummond didn't take any further part after three-quarter time and Matthews revealed a torn quadriceps muscle had likely ended his season even if the Lions make the finals.
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I'm starting to wonder if it is all worth it with Josh.
 
Cousin Jed said:
I'm starting to wonder if it is all worth it with Josh.
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He is too good of a player when fit to give up with IMO. As long as his pay packet and team planning doesn't bet on him being available for 20+ games a year, his skills mean he has a role to play.
 

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Coast's Drummond keen to return for Lions
12:00a.m. 14th August 2008
By Peter Gardiner

Brisbane Lions heartbreak kid Josh Drummond is clinging to the hope of playing again this season.
But it is a desperate desire as precarious as the muscles in his troublesome thigh.
On the club’s official injury list the talented 25-year-old Sunshine Coast player is out for four to six weeks with one AFL site bluntly writing Drummond off for the season.
But the defender with the deadly accurate long kicking game hopes to be right in three weeks, and is looking to the struggling ninth-placed Lions to fire in the remaining three rounds so he can come back in the finals.
That Drummond is not awash with bitterness and self pity, after a wretched few years where physical frailty has negated a large part of his skills, is a testament to how mentally tough he is.
In 2006 at the end of the season he underwent a shoulder reconstruction, after it went on him early in the season. He has battled hamstring and thigh problems ever since. But even so, the thigh going late in the third quarter in the embarrassing drubbing by Hawthorn, was a rude shock.
“It went above the injury earlier this year as I started to sprint. The thigh had been really good and I hadn’t been troubled by it at all.
“I’ve been working on my upper strength and in the off-season I will have to work on my leg strength and hopefully get things right.”
But he rates the Lions a chance of defying the growing band of critics to land a finals spot and then he hopes the luck goes his way and they stay alive for him to make a contribution.
“We are out of the eight now looking in, and we will have to win our last three games to get there, but two of them are at home.”
“The boys just have to have a crack. There were some close games where they went down by a point or a few points – had we won those nobody would be writing what they are now.”

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2007 Review
Quigley's 2008 Review

2008 End of Season Review

Josh Drummond is the Bruce Reid of the Brisbane Lions and at 25 years of age he has clocked up a grand total of 45 games. This year he played 13 games, missing 5 weeks at the start of the year with a quad injury and the last 3 rounds with another quad injury.

Like last year, Drummo continued to play that quarterback role with the occasional foray up the ground. But his form was not as good, averaging only 17.5 disposals a game (down from 21.3 last year), and being less reliable with his delivery when he did get it. His kicking in was still excellent, but around the ground he was making some uncharacteristic errors. In fact, unusually for him he had a couple of really bad days where his kicking was terrible.

Despite this Drummo is still an important player in the Brisbane lineup, if for nothing else the kick ins. The ease at which he picks out options and spots them up is not appreciated until he is missing and the new guy finds himself under constant pressure.

The key for Drummo is once again avoiding injury. It doesn’t look like anyone has any answers at the moment, but if that can get fixed his best form will probably follow.

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Drummond full-speed ahead
By Simon White
11:15 AM Thu 20 November, 2008

TWELVE months after downsizing his summer workload to avoid injury, Brisbane Lions defender Josh Drummond is taking on a full pre-season in a bid to finally put together an uninterrupted campaign.

Elevated from the Lions' rookie list early in 2005, Drummond has become one of the side's most important players – chiefly through his attacking instincts from half-back and his ability to pinpoint teammates with a raking left foot.

But he has also been struck by a cruel run of injuries, particularly hamstring troubles, which have seen him play only 45 of a possible 80 games since debuting against Adelaide in round 8, 2005.

Last season Drummond adopted a lighter pre-season to avoid further hamstring woes, but he now believes that plan backfired, after he was for nine games with a pair of quad injuries.

"I backed off a bit in the pre-season last year and looking back it didn't work out the way we'd hoped," Drummond told lions.com.au.

"I did a lot of work on my core strength to avoid having problems with my hamstrings and they were fine. But the quad injuries sort of came out of nowhere.

"I pulled up a bit scratchy from the round one game (against West Coast in Perth) and I think I probably went into the game against Collingwood six days later a bit fatigued.

"I'm pretty sure that would have played a part in my quad going the first time and then when it happened again later in the season, I reckon there might have been a bit of weakness still there.

"This pre-season I'm going to do as much as I possibly can because otherwise when you get to round one it's just too much of a step up in intensity. If my body shows any signs of breaking down I'll back off, but I want to do all the work and then hopefully get through the 22 rounds."

Rated by many judges as one of the best kicks in the competition, Drummond is revelling in new coach Michael Voss' decision to introduce skills-related work a little earlier in the pre-season than had previously been the case.

Drummond says the Lions have the raw skills to compete with the competition's best, but they need to be honed to stand up under the pressure of the season proper.

"One of the first things Vossy said to us was that we had finished pretty much bottom of the pile in terms of our disposal efficiency in the last four years," Drummond said.

"The way the game is played now, other teams just kill you on the turnover so you need to have good skills with the ball in hand.

"I think we've got the ability to do that, but we just needed to get a good start on it. Whereas previously we'd probably focused more of getting miles in our legs, this year we've got the footies out on the track a lot more, a lot earlier.

"The boys are pretty happy with that – everyone loves having a kick."

According to Drummond, Voss has not yet placed any expectation on the playing group concerning a finishing position for 2009.

But reading between the lines, he's certain the triple-premiership skipper envisions another productive era for the Lions in the not-too-distant future.

"He (Voss) has only really mentioned the areas we need to improve in so far," Drummond said.

"But, having captained three premierships sides, you know that he's not just here for something to do – he want this group to be part of the next Lions premiership.

"The sides that finished one and two last year, Hawthorn and Geelong, were pretty much the best in tackling and skills. And that's definitely where we are aiming to be."


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Josh Drummond is hoping for an uninterrupted 2009 season
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Grimreepah said:
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Drummo is so important to the side, I hope he gets his body right. Good to read that Vossie is addressing our skills deficiency.

I also read somewhere that Voss is also sending players to Kennedy's gym for some boxing practice . . . . . ya gotta love that.

The stuff I'm reading about the Lions pre-season training sounds really promising :thumbsu:
 
Drummo

On a personal note, I have been working really hard on the track this pre-season in the hope to remain injury-free next year.

After suffering some frustrating injury setbacks in the early stages of last season, I am currently trialling some new training techniques which I am confident will keep me on the field for all of next year.

I have taken part in pretty much all of the group sessions to date and the body is feeling as good as it ever has.

The entire team will take a couple weeks off over the Christmas period before returning early in the New Year to get stuck back into training.

I’ll be heading up the Sunshine Coast to spend time with family and friends but will be mindful of keeping myself in good nick for when training re-commences. That means not getting too carried away with all the Christmas get-togethers that I’m sure will be awaiting me when I get back home.

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Who's burning?
Rebounding defender Josh Drummond has also put an injury-plagued run behind him and is setting personal bests in most training indicators early in the pre-season.

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A fully fit Drummond has All Australian written all over him, he wouldn't know what it was like to feel really fit the poor bugger has had such a terrible run with injury. Drummond burning the pre season is something to get excited about.
 
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