Training 2015/16 preseason training (discussion)

[sherrif]

WoW !!! very impressive buddy keep up the hard work. A few questions:

- Should we see better marking and positioning and outplaying the defenders in one on one for Tabs?

- Whoose spot would Collins take?

Tabs touch is improving. Isolating him in the preseason games and seeing what happens would be a good idea IMO. Collins would find it hard to move past Alex Pearce if he is fully fit. He looks a player though. Will take Dawson's place in a year or two.

 

[sherrif]

Its OK ,Sherrif learnt all he knows from moi and E shed Plus he is a good bloke and friend.
I have nothing to add to Sherrif's excellent report.
Except Mora was bloody great again today.

Thanx comments much appreciated and reciprocal. For what it is worth mora trained with a group of key backs and forwards today in a drill. Possibly in a sign of things to come he was able to spoil (playing as a defender) and then run off his man easily. Looks good in practice. Perhaps him and Ibbotson might end up rotating on the third tall by the end of the season.

 

[gaskin]

I will add that Tabs took a couple of nice contested marks in a pack up against Hannath, Tanner and Hurly although his marking ability at training is not in question. Tanner did receive a nice bake from Ross regarding his positioning. It was along the lines of "the ball keeps going boundary side but your positioning yourself on the other side. Why?"

Subes produced a couple of lovely side steps on Pav which seemed to annoy the great man slightly.

To go along with what sherrif said, Mayne looked fantastic today and along with Hill gets my TTHD award for the day.

 

[PurpleReign]

Nag, nag, nag - all you ever do is nag PurpleReign - you are not the person you were when we got married!

I just wish you wouldn't flirt with the other training watchers in public. It's humiliating.

 

[jedi mind tricks]

I went down to training today in another long skill based session that focussed again on transition of the football and kicking skills. In an effort to provide some balance to the training reports thread I made an effort to look out for players who have been barely mentioned this preseason. I focussed on watching three of the new players Ueber, Nyhuis and Collins for an extended period.

Collins looked terrific in match sim and kicking activities. He was matched up on both Pav and Tabs at times and marked really well. He kicked the football brilliantly (much better than advertised) in numerous kicking drills to. Collins also spent time playing as a forward. 'Super impressive' would be the words I would use to describe him.

Both Ueber and Nyhuis were not out for all of the session but participated in multiple kicking drill activities. Nyhuis was partnered with the key defenders in marking drills. Im sticking by my comment he will play on both talls and smalls when he plays for Peel this year. Nyhuis possesses an excellent kicking technique as well. Low and flat is the trejectory of most of his kicks. Ueber moves bloody well. He showed outstanding speed to take a mark from a floating Barlow kick. His kicking technique is solid for a player of key position height. Of the three Collins would obviously be the most likely to play this year.

For what it is worth both Mayne and Barlow look significantly more mobile than a year ago. Mayne was actually outstanding today and kicked more goals than any of the other forwards by a country mile. His speed was very apparent, as was his safe hands on the lead. Barlow also seemed to be linking up play bloody well. His kicking was also excellent.

A much improved performer today was Tabs from what I saw. Collins kept up with him bloody well, but when matched up on Silvagni he showed terrific marking skills. He was definitely more one touch which is pleasing to see. Hannath again took some excellent marks and is continuing to show improvement in his movement.

Other notables for me were:
Suban looking bloody good after only recently returning to the main group. He had a couple of nice side steps around players.
Mzungu is heavily involved in play, but still struggles kicking around corners.
Blakey's kicking in the sessions this year has not been great. He seems to kick over the heads of players too often.
Spurr's kicking was again terrible with his play in match simulation.
De Boer kicks well short, but still can't make the distance from fourty metres out.
Ballas touch looks massively improved.
D.Pearce and C.Pearce are kicking the footy really well over distance. Both look super fit. D>pearce still makes mistakes kicking short.
Tucker is an excellent kick as said by others.
Dawson is doing a ton of kicking. His long kicking is actually pretty good.
Sandy ran a ton of laps. He looks primed for a good year.
Fav's touch is outstanding.
Langdon is going on some fantastic zig zagging runs in training. He butchered the ball a bit more than normal today.
Crozier is kicking the ball brilliantly. He had some excellent kicks to leading forwards. He is noticeably vocal and involved in sessions.

The reports are getting a bit repetitive but Hill and Walters continue to look awesome and Hurley, Mora and Hughes look massively improved. Smith continues to struggle.Sumich continues to look lazy coaching.

The injury report situation is interesting. The injured players now come out at the end of the session.
I was wrong about Alex Pearce when I said I thought he wasn't injured. He came out at the end of the session with a bandage on his shins and ran slow 100's. His body language though was excellent.
Apeness on the other hand looked uninterested, unmotivated and simply looked like he could not be bothered. Saying his body language was bad is like saying America might be in trouble if Trump gets elected as president. A huge, gigantic, massive understatement.
Bennell was spotted running in the gym. He again came out for a bit of a walk and kick.
Yarran was apparently out at the start of the session. I didnt see him.
Clarke is running more and more. He has definitely added size across the shoulders, but still has a bandage on the knee.
De Luca came out and kicked the footy. He seems to have improved his technique.
Unfortunately Balic still has a bandage on his injured wrist.
Fyfe was doing a combination of extended running and then completing push-ups. He spent time with Webber completing an activity where he braced for Webber pushing him.

Anyway, I hope this helps. The sessions appear highly, highly organised and focussed. The assistant coaches are running sessions brilliantly IMO. Anthony Rock gives a ton of feedback to the midfield players.

Lift your game mate what a piss poor effort from you

 

[Noobrifle]

I made it down for a good hour or so this afternoon although I was antisocial and kept to myself

Some stand out moments for me:

Neale dominating clearance drills

Clancee Pearce looked to play on from a mark but took too long to make a decision and got caught by Mzungu much to his embarassment.

Mayne moving, marking and kicking well. Ballantyne also looked slicker than last year.

Seeing Fyfe out on the track, albeit in the rehab group.

A certain rehabbing player missed a tight set shot and let out a massive F-bomb - before remembering there were kids nearby and apologised.

Strong communication and feedback internally from the players. If you mess up/make the wrong decision your teammates will call you out.

The last drill before the main squad wrapped up involved two small teams who had to leave or enter the forward 50. It was interesting watching the decision making of certain players and the feedback they received from coaches. Players were criticised when they missed better options - such as spare players, outnumbers, or the other pocket of the forward line.

Funnily enough the two kicks I saw Blakely make were low, flat and hit the target. But two is a rather small sample size and he did get a bake for taking too long in that latter drill.

For negatives, I often thought the leading and positioning of some players was a bit weak, but it was hard to tell if this was poor attacking or just great manning up. There were also a number of kicks from players under pressure that got intercepted far too easily.

 

[Grape Bear]

You training reporters are all awesome. I was hoping to go down on Saturday, but my husband has sabotaged my plans and booked a tradie for the morning. [emoji23]

 

[johnthegardener]

You training reporters are all awesome. I was hoping to go down on Saturday, but my husband has sabotaged my plans and booked a tradie for the morning. [emoji23]

Well if he feels that you need a "tradie" for a morning it's probably just as well to miss training. Otherwise two good things in one morning might be too much.

 

[sven_inc]

Can you tell us more about him from your box hill days? What kind of player, position, aggressiveness?

He's the kind of bloke that improves a football club. Leadership group at Box Hill as a 20-21 yesr old and excelled as a defender. Has the capacity to go forward as well.

Is someone a lot on our board would have loved at the Hawks and is highly rated by more astute judges than I.

 

[Grape Bear]

Well if he feels that you need a "tradie" for a morning it's probably just as well to miss training. Otherwise two good things in one morning might be too much.

I'm not sure I understand what that meant but I get the feeling I'm better off not knowing!

 

[Fred Ziffel]

So Sailor Boy you joining up with us. Welcome aboard. salim malik I think is our longest serving guy and he covers Dockers pre-season training and provides regular reports on Peel Games (and he lives in Mandurah). Don't worry about Couldhavebeen as he doesn't get down that often compared to some of us which you can see from postings. The good reporters are salim malik ,E Shed, sherrif ,Fred Ziffel (with his lively comments) and jedi mind tricks when he is not pumping up Weller's tyres ha ha ha but there are others who contribute when they can.

Currently with Pre-season on we (but not all) attend the Mon Wed Fri sessions although we think the Rehab group of about 5-6 (it was 13 players in that group prior to Xmas) is also training on the other days as well but not for extended periods. On the Mon Wed & Fri the Rehab boys are coming out as the main group are completing their session.

Training can start anywhere between 8.30 am - 9.00 am but currently is mostly starting about 8.50 am with the players being required to be at the club by 7:00 am (need to get ankles/shoulders strapped and I think some eat breakfast there as well).

On Saturday (Generally the old dues don't go to that I certainly dont but may on a rare occasion) they train at about the same time but in the early part of pre-season a fair bit of the session was based on running only but of late they may do some other football specific stuff that incorporates running.
couldhavebeen might have some more info on the content of Saturday sessions of late.

The training today was the best I have seen all PS and it has a heavy emphasis on ball movement and being precise by hand or foot. See Sherrif's brilliant report on Today's session and Yes salim malik I also observed that Mora was great

The Saturday morning sessions are Strength and Conditioning and are entirely focused on running, exercise and weights and agility.
Every one I have been to the players seem in excellent spirits. The boys really enjoy these.

 

[DannyTheDoorman]

I went down to training today in another long skill based session that focussed again on transition of the football and kicking skills. In an effort to provide some balance to the training reports thread I made an effort to look out for players who have been barely mentioned this preseason. I focussed on watching three of the new players Ueber, Nyhuis and Collins for an extended period.

Collins looked terrific in match sim and kicking activities. He was matched up on both Pav and Tabs at times and marked really well. He kicked the football brilliantly (much better than advertised) in numerous kicking drills to. Collins also spent time playing as a forward. 'Super impressive' would be the words I would use to describe him.

Both Ueber and Nyhuis were not out for all of the session but participated in multiple kicking drill activities. Nyhuis was partnered with the key defenders in marking drills. Im sticking by my comment he will play on both talls and smalls when he plays for Peel this year. Nyhuis possesses an excellent kicking technique as well. Low and flat is the trejectory of most of his kicks. Ueber moves bloody well. He showed outstanding speed to take a mark from a floating Barlow kick. His kicking technique is solid for a player of key position height. Of the three Collins would obviously be the most likely to play this year.

For what it is worth both Mayne and Barlow look significantly more mobile than a year ago. Mayne was actually outstanding today and kicked more goals than any of the other forwards by a country mile. His speed was very apparent, as was his safe hands on the lead. Barlow also seemed to be linking up play bloody well. His kicking was also excellent.

A much improved performer today was Tabs from what I saw. Collins kept up with him bloody well, but when matched up on Silvagni he showed terrific marking skills. He was definitely more one touch which is pleasing to see. Hannath again took some excellent marks and is continuing to show improvement in his movement.

Other notables for me were:
Suban looking bloody good after only recently returning to the main group. He had a couple of nice side steps around players.
Mzungu is heavily involved in play, but still struggles kicking around corners.
Blakey's kicking in the sessions this year has not been great. He seems to kick over the heads of players too often.
Spurr's kicking was again terrible with his play in match simulation.
De Boer kicks well short, but still can't make the distance from fourty metres out.
Ballas touch looks massively improved.
D.Pearce and C.Pearce are kicking the footy really well over distance. Both look super fit. D>pearce still makes mistakes kicking short.
Tucker is an excellent kick as said by others.
Dawson is doing a ton of kicking. His long kicking is actually pretty good.
Sandy ran a ton of laps. He looks primed for a good year.
Fav's touch is outstanding.
Langdon is going on some fantastic zig zagging runs in training. He butchered the ball a bit more than normal today.
Crozier is kicking the ball brilliantly. He had some excellent kicks to leading forwards. He is noticeably vocal and involved in sessions.
Neale dominating clearances. Missed a few targets today by foot.

The reports are getting a bit repetitive but Hill and Walters continue to look awesome and Hurley, Mora and Hughes look massively improved. Smith continues to struggle.Sumich continues to look lazy coaching.

The injury report situation is interesting. The injured players now come out at the end of the session.
I was wrong about Alex Pearce when I said I thought he wasn't injured. He came out at the end of the session with a bandage on his shins and jogged slow 100's. His body language though was excellent.
Apeness on the other hand looked uninterested, unmotivated and simply looked like he could not be bothered. Saying his body language was bad is like saying America might be in trouble if Trump gets elected as president. A huge, gigantic, massive understatement.
Bennell was spotted running in the gym. He again came out for a bit of a walk and kick.
Yarran was apparently out at the start of the session. I didnt see him.
Clarke is running more and more. He has definitely added size across the shoulders, but still has a bandage on the knee.
De Luca came out and kicked the footy. He seems to have improved his technique.
Unfortunately Balic still has a bandage on his injured wrist.
Fyfe was doing a combination of extended running and then completing push-ups. He spent time with Webber completing an activity where he braced for Webber pushing him.

Anyway, I hope this helps. The sessions appear highly, highly organised and focussed. The assistant coaches are running sessions brilliantly IMO. Anthony Rock gives a ton of feedback to the midfield players.

Great Report Mate Very Informative, accurate and Well Done

 

[Fred Ziffel]

An observation from today was David Hale's involvement: Hale gets heavily involved and is continually talking to the players. He also can be seen taking part in the drills in marking contests, blocking and holding onto players.
Really, he is very impressive.

Another thing was the crowd there today, in the hundreds with many children.
I think the players enjoyed the audience and turned on a particularly slick session.

 

[meima]

An observation from today was David Hale's involvement: Hale gets heavily involved and is continually talking to the players. He also can be seen taking part in the drills in marking contests, blocking and holding onto players.
Really, he is very impressive.

Another thing was the crowd there today, in the hundreds with many children.
I think the players enjoyed the audience and turned on a particularly slick session.

Good stuff , hope he can help Tab out.

 

[Pusswah]

Tabs touch is improving. Isolating him in the preseason games and seeing what happens would be a good idea IMO. Collins would find it hard to move past Alex Pearce if he is fully fit. He looks a player though. Will take Dawson's place in a year or two.

Could be sooner pending injury, suspension(s) or rogue instagrams

Mayne was actually outstanding today and kicked more goals than any of the other forwards by a country mile. His speed was very apparent, as was his safe hands on the lead.

Such a pricktease.

 

[meima]

Mayne problem always kicking goal in match day , will he do better than 2013 or just a one off.

 

[Dockernut]

I went down to training today in another long skill based session that focussed again on transition of the football and kicking skills. In an effort to provide some balance to the training reports thread I made an effort to look out for players who have been barely mentioned this preseason. I focussed on watching three of the new players Ueber, Nyhuis and Collins for an extended period.

Collins looked terrific in match sim and kicking activities. He was matched up on both Pav and Tabs at times and marked really well. He kicked the football brilliantly (much better than advertised) in numerous kicking drills to. Collins also spent time playing as a forward. 'Super impressive' would be the words I would use to describe him.

Both Ueber and Nyhuis were not out for all of the session but participated in multiple kicking drill activities. Nyhuis was partnered with the key defenders in marking drills. Im sticking by my comment he will play on both talls and smalls when he plays for Peel this year. Nyhuis possesses an excellent kicking technique as well. Low and flat is the trejectory of most of his kicks. Ueber moves bloody well. He showed outstanding speed to take a mark from a floating Barlow kick. His kicking technique is solid for a player of key position height. Of the three Collins would obviously be the most likely to play this year.

For what it is worth both Mayne and Barlow look significantly more mobile than a year ago. Mayne was actually outstanding today and kicked more goals than any of the other forwards by a country mile. His speed was very apparent, as was his safe hands on the lead. Barlow also seemed to be linking up play bloody well. His kicking was also excellent.

A much improved performer today was Tabs from what I saw. Collins kept up with him bloody well, but when matched up on Silvagni he showed terrific marking skills. He was definitely more one touch which is pleasing to see. Hannath again took some excellent marks and is continuing to show improvement in his movement.

Other notables for me were:
Suban looking bloody good after only recently returning to the main group. He had a couple of nice side steps around players.
Mzungu is heavily involved in play, but still struggles kicking around corners.
Blakey's kicking in the sessions this year has not been great. He seems to kick over the heads of players too often.
Spurr's kicking was again terrible with his play in match simulation.
De Boer kicks well short, but still can't make the distance from fourty metres out.
Ballas touch looks massively improved.
D.Pearce and C.Pearce are kicking the footy really well over distance. Both look super fit. D>pearce still makes mistakes kicking short.
Tucker is an excellent kick as said by others.
Dawson is doing a ton of kicking. His long kicking is actually pretty good.
Sandy ran a ton of laps. He looks primed for a good year.
Fav's touch is outstanding.
Langdon is going on some fantastic zig zagging runs in training. He butchered the ball a bit more than normal today.
Crozier is kicking the ball brilliantly. He had some excellent kicks to leading forwards. He is noticeably vocal and involved in sessions.
Neale dominating clearances. Missed a few targets today by foot.

The reports are getting a bit repetitive but Hill and Walters continue to look awesome and Hurley, Mora and Hughes look massively improved. Smith continues to struggle.Sumich continues to look lazy coaching.

The injury report situation is interesting. The injured players now come out at the end of the session.
I was wrong about Alex Pearce when I said I thought he wasn't injured. He came out at the end of the session with a bandage on his shins and jogged slow 100's. His body language though was excellent.
Apeness on the other hand looked uninterested, unmotivated and simply looked like he could not be bothered. Saying his body language was bad is like saying America might be in trouble if Trump gets elected as president. A huge, gigantic, massive understatement.
Bennell was spotted running in the gym. He again came out for a bit of a walk and kick.
Yarran was apparently out at the start of the session. I didnt see him.
Clarke is running more and more. He has definitely added size across the shoulders, but still has a bandage on the knee.
De Luca came out and kicked the footy. He seems to have improved his technique.
Unfortunately Balic still has a bandage on his injured wrist.
Fyfe was doing a combination of extended running and then completing push-ups. He spent time with Webber completing an activity where he braced for Webber pushing him.

Anyway, I hope this helps. The sessions appear highly, highly organised and focussed. The assistant coaches are running sessions brilliantly IMO. Anthony Rock gives a ton of feedback to the midfield players.

Bloody good report mate. Appreciate the Uber stuff.

 

[malpaso]

Mayne problem always kicking goal in match day , will he do better than 2013 or just a one off.

Mayne's effectiveness could lift with the addition of Bennell, Fyfe playing more forward and a hopeful improvement in Taberner. The attention by the opposition given to Mayne will lessen and he's always had the work rate so he *SHOULD* improve.

 

[Bicco]

Mayne's effectiveness could lift with the addition of Bennell, Fyfe playing more forward and a hopeful improvement in Taberner. The attention by the opposition given to Mayne will lessen and he's always had the work rate so he *SHOULD* improve.

If Mayne could go from 'role player' to 'effective forward' as he has been in the past, 2016 will be a great year for us. I'm hoping he can lift in games the way the watchers have seen him at training.

 

[Granny Val]

Fav's touch is outstanding.

Thank you Sherrif. Such an informative post. Would love to get to training one of these days, but other things keep getting in the way. Love reading yours and all the other training reports so much. Were you referring to my mate Pav? Hope so

 

[theGav56]

If Mayne could go from 'role player' to 'effective forward' as he has been in the past, 2016 will be a great year for us. I'm hoping he can lift in games the way the watchers have seen him at training.

Not sure what we will get from Mayne, but I do believe that he can be more of a goal scorer this season and become a key to an improved forward structure.

During last pre-season he was being trialled as a backman if I recall. I hate this kind of thing, and much prefer effort being put in to make him/players better in their best position. Occasionally it can work, and it can 'freshen" a player up. But the value move for me with Mayne is tidying up his kicking for goal and his potential upside as a goal scoring forward. I am especially thinking the pressure it takes off Pavlich and an emerging Taberner, or the less than convincing ruck/forwards.

I can see our scoring improving by Bennell's inclusion impacting both transition from midfield-forward and his personal goal scoring ability, and by the potential of Fyfe to spend more time forward. But I rate Mayne's potential as the next most likely way we can improve our goal scoring.

 

[Okinakashi]

So I managed to make my training watcher’s debut for 2016 yesterday and it was a really nice day out. There was a pretty big crowd with lots of schoolkids hanging about the clubroom area and a generous amount of non-schoolkids (e.g. oldies) scattered about the ground in the pleasant shady areas.



I got there about 10.30, so I missed a fair bit.



When I arrived the main group were doing half ground work at the hospital end, but I went down the Prison end and watched the small group clearance work being led by Sumich. They were doing a drill with 4 on 4 simulating a throw in on the 50m line or a bounce on 50m arc at CHF. Mostly these guys were the “B” team – Uber, Brady Grey, Irish, Morabito and a few others (I’m not super familiar with our new recruits yet) - although at one point an “A” group rotated through (Griff, Neale, Barlow). Matty de Boer was with the “B” team for most of the time. I’m not sure if that’s an indication of where he sits in the pecking order, or a purely random grouping or if he was there to provide leadership – who knows, other training watchers might be able to provide more info as to MDB’s place in the team.

The point of the drill was to use quick hands to win a clearance – once a clearance was won, the coaches rotated the groups and re-set. There was a lot of emphasis on quick ball movement etc. Generally the skills were good.

One thing that irritated me was the lack of finishing class. On more than one occasion, the “attacking” team won the clearance and was able to have a shot on goal – instead of having a clean shot, most of the guys just threw it on the boot and got it away from the contest – with our goal kicking woes of late, I would like to have seen them making sure that EVERY kick on goal was executed well. While I realise goal kicking wasn’t the point of the drill, it should be something perfected all the time.

Of interest was that Uber and Irish were doing ruck work, not sure if we’re training them up, or they just needed a ruck for the drill and Sandi/Clarke weren’t available. Either way they both took quite a few taps and at one point Griff rotated through the drill and they rucked against him. Good to know we might have some depth ruck options anyway.

I know a few people have mentioned it, but Irish doesn’t look out of place. Sure he’s no Nat Fyfe yet, but for someone who hasn’t played the game until 2 years ago, it bodes well for his future success.

Speaking of not looking out of place – Morabito was doing these drills and he had no strapping on the knees and was moving with absolutely no regard to protecting his knee – with a full pre-season under his belt who know what he can do this year.

After a while, I wandered around to the clubhouse, so my little girl could use the toilets and after a quick break, I watched another drill where there were 2 teams of 6 in a 20m x 20m square with the point to use a series of quick handballs to move the ball from one side of the square to the other – kinda keepys off if you will.

Unlike the clearance drill the “A” team were on show – Pav, Mundy, C. Pearce, D. Pearce, Hilly, Sonny etc. I know it’s been said before, but it seems to me that Sonny Walters has gone up a notch this year. He was evading traffic, shooting off quick/accurate handballs and generally being all over the rest of his teammates like a rash. Mundy was also a standout – although he looks like he’s hardly moving he’s so relaxed out there.

At one point something wasn’t right and Pav pulled the group together (about 12/14 players) and gave them a good talking too – pointing at chests and showing running patterns with his hands. Watching this, I was totally convinced that he was going to keep the Skipper’s job this year – Imagine how upset I was last night when I heard he was handing the baton on!

The last part of the main session was a ¾ ground match sim. Not much else needs to be said that hasn’t been said by others – Mundy was playing CHB, which was interesting and Hilly looked to be able to find pace and space at will – Ballas worked as hard as ever and Mayne looked good (as has been previously mentioned).

However, the single biggest surprise of the day was David Hale – he was running the “keepy off” drill and at one point stepped in to fill in numbers. For a big guy he’s very light on his feet and has super quick hands – honestly, he looked like he could play if we had a big guy go down.

Also, the players hang off his every word. They huddled around him and were obviously asking questions of him (I couldn’t hear the conversation, but you could tell).

At the end of the main session, it was Hale who addressed the group and it looked like he was discussing forward movement patterns etc. He spoke to the whole group for 5 -10 minutes – as I said all the players were hanging off his every word.

THEN – after the players left, Hale addressed the coaching group for another 5 or so minutes. It was really interesting to see – even Ross the boss was listening intently.

We’ll have to see what comes of it, but maybe Hale will be the recruit of the off season???

Speaking of recruits, Harley Bennell was only walking laps and running slow jogs with a trainer. His calf was bandaged, but he didn’t appear to be hindered at all. Maybe just being super cautious.

After the main session, the rehab crew came out. Johnno (I didn’t know he was injured) and Clarke seemed like they were the closest to being fully fit as they ran 100m efforts together. A Pearce and Apeness look like they’re a while off and only jogged slow 100s.

As mentioned, Fyfey was working on his own with a trainer, but he didn’t look hindered. Again, maybe a precaution.

At this stage my interest in the Dockers was outweighed by the need to feed the 5 year old, so we left.

It was a really pleasant day, and I recommend it to any Dockers fans – if you have kids the players all generally will give a wave and say hello, so take them down too.

Yours in Purple – OK.

 

[DudleyDocker]

One thing that irritated me was the lack of finishing class. On more than one occasion, the “attacking” team won the clearance and was able to have a shot on goal – instead of having a clean shot, most of the guys just threw it on the boot and got it away from the contest – with our goal kicking woes of late, I would like to have seen them making sure that EVERY kick on goal was executed well. While I realise goal kicking wasn’t the point of the drill, it should be something perfected all the time.

Great training report Okinakashi - maybe YOU will be the recruit of the off-season!

I agree wholeheartedly with the quoted section, and this has long been a bugbear of mine. We used to always say practice doesn't make perfect, PERFECT practice does.

To me it's a bit like reviewing the kids' essays and they are full of spelling mistakes. When questioned they say "it's an essay, not a spelling test". For mine, spelling is spelling, and goal kicking is goal kicking whether that is the focus of the exercise or not.

Lazy, half-hearted snaps at training should be punished. I think the death penalty is probably too strong, but 100 burpees for the group for every shot missed will soon straighten them up!

 

[theGav56]

Crikeys we are spoiled with these reports.

All hail Hale!

Totally agree about the comment regarding the clearance kick/shot at goal Oki. It is another chance to improve, so should be taken. No stone unturned radah radah. And generally it is how the club approach things. My experience a couple of days ago at training was one of being pretty damn impressed with how the players and coaches were going about things.

 

[Superkoops]

Big thank you & kudos to all training watchers. You are all legends. I'm happy reading each and all individual thoughts and impressions. There won't be any comments from me except to enjoy the luxury of being able to absorb such interesting information on the pre-season training sessions. Keep up the great work and effort in posting your thoughts. It is great having variety of different reports.