Training 2015/16 preseason training (discussion)

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clivenator26

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Shane Parker is the most underrated player we have ever had. He could play on Richo then Phil Matera the week after, one of the greatest ever moments for the club imo was when in his 200th game he ran off Fev and snagged a very rare goal for us, overshadowed because some bloke wearing #29 kicked 9 that day!
 

sherrif

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So training reports?

The AFL site was already kind enough to report that neither Fyfe or Bennell were seen at training*





*and neither was the rest of the rehab group
Then the reporters from afl.com left the session early. I can report that Fyfe and Bennell were both at training. Bennell came out and walked laps and then did some kicking. Fyfe came out when the main group had gone inside and ran multiple 100's. Bennell has no bandage. Clarke, Apeneess and De Luca also came out at the end of the session.

Mora, Sheridan and Pav were the stars of the main session IMO. I love what Mora is doing but Im still a bit concerned about his short kicking. Crozier was another who trained really well hitting targets over distance and Hurley was a star too. Hurley is one player I now have massive hopes for. His kicking and speed were superb today. Hannath took some terrific marks.

Grey, Smith and Silvagni all had dead-set shockers today with Grey missing three short kicks in a row at one point.
 
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Freo Dr

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Then the reporters from fl.com left the session early. I can report that Fyfe and Bennell were both at training. Bennell cam out and walked laps and then did some kicking. Fyfe came out when the main group had gone inside and ran multiple 100's. Bennell has no bandage. Clarke, Apeneess and De Luca also came out at the end of the session.

Mora, Sheridan and Pav were the stars of the main session IMO. I love what Mora is doing but Im still a bit concerned about his short kicking. Crozier was another who trained really well hitting targets over distance and Hurley was a star too. Hurley is one player I now have massive hopes for. His kicking and speed were superb today. Hannah took some terrific marks.

Grey, Smith and Silvagni all had dead-set shockers today with Grey missing three targets in a row at one point in a short kicking drill.
Short kicking is hard to teach at later stages as well. Many kids go through juniors and look a million bucks because they can roost it a mile so they never focus on the different technique needed to kick short. Mora was getting remedial action done on his short kicking by Andrew Lockyer in the year he was drafted so it is nothing new. The problem is the Hawthorn game plan is really hard to break unless you can kick short to retain possession at times. To be honest it could be better if Mora takes Fyfes role busting through packs and then either dishing it off by hand or kicking long.
 

freoextra

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Then the reporters from afl.com left the session early. I can report that Fyfe and Bennell were both at training. Bennell cam out and walked laps and then did some kicking. Fyfe came out when the main group had gone inside and ran multiple 100's. Bennell has no bandage. Clarke, Apeneess and De Luca also came out at the end of the session.

Grey, Smith and Silvagni all had dead-set shockers today with Grey missing three short kicks in a row at one point.
Disappointing, I have high hopes that all three will be pressing for best 22 spots at some stage this year. It is clear that kicking accuracy is becoming even more of a key issue in the modern game and you are unlikely to get many opportunities if you can't consistently show accuracy by foot.

Having said all that, it is of course, only one session and they may just be having a bad one or the Boss wasn't watching!
 

E Shed

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Pumpkin Head Barich is reporting "Star Dockers Recruit Injury Set Back" via Twitter.

Full details in tonight's news.
No doubt Barra read the post here from the GC supporter who was talking about Bennell's calf problems and will now claim it as a bit of heroic in-depth reporting.
 

theGav56

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Disappointing, I have high hopes that all three will be pressing for best 22 spots at some stage this year. It is clear that kicking accuracy is becoming even more of a key issue in the modern game and you are unlikely to get many opportunities if you can't consistently show accuracy by foot.

Having said all that, it is of course, only one session and they may just be having a bad one or the Boss wasn't watching!
I really can't see those 3 finding an easy route to becoming best 22. Disposal skills are a huge obstacle.
 

meima

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I really can't see those 3 finding an easy route to becoming best 22. Disposal skills are a huge obstacle.
No worries if grey,sigvani came back from injury (rehab group) kick better than those trained earlier then I am more worries. Smith in rookie list there is reason for it.
 

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E Shed

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I was at training today. I can confirm what Sherrif said; Smith and Grey were both pretty awful today. I dead set saw Smith miss a trainer with a handball from 6 feet away, not just wayward, completely over his head and behind him. How this guy is on an AFL list is beyond me. He landed one kick that I saw and everything else was on the ground or over blokes heads, not just making them reach but missing by miles. He telegraphs his kicks too, there was one play where he was twisting and turning and looking for an option and went he finally wound up for a kick I could have run from the stands and marked it by the time he got it on his boot. As it was Weller picked it off in front of the defender and found Pav in the square. Ross yelled out, thats good punish the mistake.

Another play that typifies the bad skills of time of our players Barlow was kicking from full back and after dithering with it for ages he went sideways allowing the defence to press up, Mzungu received and again dithered and went back to Barlow who proceeded to kick it straight to the opposition for a turnover goal. And some classic Taberner who after using his body brilliantly in a contested marking situation to get a perfect protected drop then couldn't close his arms around the ball and had it bounce off his chest. He's frustratingly close to being a good player . .

Grey did a lot right but some of kicking was indeed appalling. After one shocker he swore and dropped his head. He is a great defender but not really even as good as Spurr at using the footy.

On the positive side of the ledger I thought Ethan Hughes was terrific. He positioned beautifully outworked and outmarked Mayne several times and his disposal was really neat. He's coming on really well and really fast. I have him in the top line of players most likely to crack the 22 along with Weller and Langdon who were both excellent today. Langdon and Weller setup as outside mids today and both kicked lace out balls to the forwards at times.

Hill was BOG for me today. He just seemed to be everywhere and in the drills he always seemed to be doing that thing where he runs by for a receive and as he takes the ball he flares slightly to the left and accelerates like the kick of a sprinter going for the line and at full pace he will find a target with total precision. He is so much better than anyone else out there except Mundy and Walters with his skill and ball use.

Morabito is the other who seemed to be involved in the play every time I looked around. He really knows how to be in the right place (I remember being surprised at some of his opportunistic goals around stoppages). Because his brute strength and running is so impressive its easy to disregard how smart he is as a footballer. Like has been noted his kicking is a mixed bag with his long kicking mostly excellent but his short game does need work. He seemed to be playing as a defender which still puzzles me slightly as he is good around goal and can take a strong mark. I would have thought with our dearth of even medium height forwards he would be considered at that end of the ground.

Blakely is right in the thick of it in the midfield drills. He plays inside while Weller and Langdon are groomed as outside. I would say Blakely is less likely to crack the team soon as he's behind Mundy and Neale in the that role. Neale was solid today and some of his clearances were magic, unbelievably quick hands and his anticipation is top notch.

I really like the way they are training. Its very simple. They do kicking practice over various distances and tight handball drills in congestion and other than that its all ball movement and transition work. There doesn't seem to be any weird extraneous drills that characterised previous years. Its pure skills and ball movement.

I watched the forward group for a while which was Walters and Balla playing high kicking it in to Pav, Mayne,Tabs, Hannath and Crozier. The defenders matched with them were Smith, Silvagni (who I thought was pretty good), Dawson and Hughes. Ibbo was not sighted today and neither was Alex Pearce. Bennell as has been noted was walking laps.
 

meima

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I was at training today. I can confirm what Sherrif said; Smith and Grey were both pretty awful today. I dead set saw Smith miss a trainer with a handball from 6 feet away, not just wayward, completely over his head and behind him. How this guy is on an AFL list is beyond me. He landed one kick that I saw and everything else was on the ground or over blokes heads, not just making them reach but missing by miles. He telegraphs his kicks too, there was one play where he was twisting and turning and looking for an option and went he finally wound up for a kick I could have run from the stands and marked it by the time he got it on his boot. As it was Weller picked it off in front of the defender and found Pav in the square. Ross yelled out, thats good punish the mistake.

Another play that typifies the bad skills of time of our players Barlow was kicking from full back and after dithering with it for ages he went sideways allowing the defence to press up, Mzungu received and again dithered and went back to Barlow who proceeded to kick it straight to the opposition for a turnover goal. And some classic Taberner who after using his body brilliantly in a contested marking situation to get a perfect protected drop then couldn't close his arms around the ball and had it bounce off his chest. He's frustratingly close to being a good player . .

Grey did a lot right but some of kicking was indeed appalling. After one shocker he swore and dropped his head. He is a great defender but not really even as good as Spurr at using the footy.

On the positive side of the ledger I thought Ethan Hughes was terrific. He positioned beautifully outworked and outmarked Mayne several times and his disposal was really neat. He's coming on really well and really fast. I have him in the top line of players most likely to crack the 22 along with Weller and Langdon who were both excellent today. Langdon and Weller setup as outside mids today and both kicked lace out balls to the forwards at times.

Hill was BOG for me today. He just seemed to be everywhere and in the drills he always seemed to be doing that thing where he runs by for a receive and as he takes the ball he flares slightly to the left and accelerates like the kick of a sprinter going for the line and at full pace he will find a target with total precision. He is so much better than anyone else out there except Mundy and Walters with his skill and ball use.

Morabito is the other who seemed to be involved in the play every time I looked around. He really knows how to be in the right place (I remember being surprised at some of his opportunistic goals around stoppages). Because his brute strength and running is so impressive its easy to disregard how smart he is as a footballer. Like has been noted his kicking is a mixed bag with his long kicking mostly excellent but his short game does need work. He seemed to be playing as a defender which still puzzles me slightly as he is good around goal and can take a strong mark. I would have thought with our dearth of even medium height forwards he would be considered at that end of the ground.

Blakely is right in the thick of it in the midfield drills. He plays inside while Weller and Langdon are groomed as outside. I would say Blakely is less likely to crack the team soon as he's behind Mundy and Neale in the that role. Neale was solid today and some of his clearances were magic, unbelievably quick hands and his anticipation is top notch.

I really like the way they are training. Its very simple. They do kicking practice over various distances and tight handball drills in congestion and other than that its all ball movement and transition work. There doesn't seem to be any weird extraneous drills that characterised previous years. Its pure skills and ball movement.

I watched the forward group for a while which was Walters and Balla playing high kicking it in to Pav, Mayne,Tabs, Hannath and Crozier. The defenders matched with them were Smith, Silvagni (who I thought was pretty good), Dawson and Hughes. Ibbo was not sighted today and neither was Alex Pearce. Bennell as has been noted was walking laps.
Grey only play one afl match as compare to spurr.
 

sij1981

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Managed to get down to training today for first time - so without repeating the above for me Sonny and Mundy were the clear standouts, Ballas was playing more out of the midfield and zipping about, also Weller noticeably has put on a lot of size. Was great to see Mora out there, and didnt look out of place at all. Was under the fig trees with my little one so wasnt able to follow things completely, but though Tabaner was sloppy today, to the point where after he did actually mark one (he dropped at least 3), took a lazy shot at goal which missed. Sonny standing behind him didnt hold back yelling out to the group as a whole something like " no sloppy kicks at training, we train like we play, FFS step up!". Good to see / hear.

The other thing I noticed at training was the amount of short low flat kicks that were being attempted. A lot more short passes to targets, with a lot of heat on the footy. This resulted in a few dropped marks etc due to the force of the kick. They ran the drilling repeatedly of coming out of the half back flank and either switching play or getting it quickly up the middle to the leading forwards.

As others have noted there were a number missing from the main session who came out after the others had gone inside to cool down ... Bennell was walking laps of the oval for the last part of the session and then was just kicking at goals as the rehab group got to work. The rehab group consisted of: Yarran, Balic, SOS, Clarke, A Pearce, Deluca (I think), Ubergang (I think), and then a late starter in Fyfe. Remarked to one of the other training watchers that he seemed to be moving freely and was doing all the rehab drills, also mucking about with the footy so clearly he is just being kept in cotton wool. Didnt poke my head in the gym (just the team store), but there did seem like there were quite a few players missing generally (Apeness etc) but again I wasnt paying full attention)
Intresting to hear Ballaz in the middle does that mean Yarran in pocket !!! Next Prince of Pockets !!!>?
 

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So training reports?

The AFL site was already kind enough to report that neither Fyfe or Bennell were seen at training*





*and neither was the rest of the rehab group
They conveniently changed the title of that article. Fyfe and Bennell have injury issues that they'll have to manage maybe for their entire careers. So what? Many players would it just doesn't get mentioned by the club. Didn't stop Pavlich being an absolute gun. Afl.com just knows anything about Fyfe and Bennell will get read.
 

E Shed

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Grey only play one afl match as compare to spurr.
yes. I mention the comparison because to some, me included, Grey is seen as a backup for Spurr and Spurr gets critiqued for his poor kicking at times. Grey is even worse but I think he's got real promise as a stopper.
 

salim malik

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Agree with E Shed and the Sheriff with regards to both their posts with I thought Mora,Hughes,Balla,Pav and Irish the standouts.
For me Hughes and Mora were the major standouts. Mora took a great contested mark with Grey bearing down and collecting Mora. The impressive part of the mark was that Mora did it instinctively with out what appeared to be any thought of the knee. Mora was also involved with Hughes in the play of the match sims. Hughes under extreme pressure with a brilliant full on the run one handed pickup and then a lightning hand pass to Mora who weaved through the congestion then back to Hughes and then back to a rampaging Mora who finished it off with a perfect long pass down field. It was enough to bring the old dudes to tears and the applause from the old dudes stand was deafening.
The first year players where not to be seen and Fyfe was continuing to roll out the laps when I left about 12,30.
 

Docker79

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I was at training today. I can confirm what Sherrif said; Smith and Grey were both pretty awful today. I dead set saw Smith miss a trainer with a handball from 6 feet away, not just wayward, completely over his head and behind him. How this guy is on an AFL list is beyond me. He landed one kick that I saw and everything else was on the ground or over blokes heads, not just making them reach but missing by miles. He telegraphs his kicks too, there was one play where he was twisting and turning and looking for an option and went he finally wound up for a kick I could have run from the stands and marked it by the time he got it on his boot. As it was Weller picked it off in front of the defender and found Pav in the square. Ross yelled out, thats good punish the mistake.

Another play that typifies the bad skills of time of our players Barlow was kicking from full back and after dithering with it for ages he went sideways allowing the defence to press up, Mzungu received and again dithered and went back to Barlow who proceeded to kick it straight to the opposition for a turnover goal. And some classic Taberner who after using his body brilliantly in a contested marking situation to get a perfect protected drop then couldn't close his arms around the ball and had it bounce off his chest. He's frustratingly close to being a good player . .

Grey did a lot right but some of kicking was indeed appalling. After one shocker he swore and dropped his head. He is a great defender but not really even as good as Spurr at using the footy.

On the positive side of the ledger I thought Ethan Hughes was terrific. He positioned beautifully outworked and outmarked Mayne several times and his disposal was really neat. He's coming on really well and really fast. I have him in the top line of players most likely to crack the 22 along with Weller and Langdon who were both excellent today. Langdon and Weller setup as outside mids today and both kicked lace out balls to the forwards at times.

Hill was BOG for me today. He just seemed to be everywhere and in the drills he always seemed to be doing that thing where he runs by for a receive and as he takes the ball he flares slightly to the left and accelerates like the kick of a sprinter going for the line and at full pace he will find a target with total precision. He is so much better than anyone else out there except Mundy and Walters with his skill and ball use.

Morabito is the other who seemed to be involved in the play every time I looked around. He really knows how to be in the right place (I remember being surprised at some of his opportunistic goals around stoppages). Because his brute strength and running is so impressive its easy to disregard how smart he is as a footballer. Like has been noted his kicking is a mixed bag with his long kicking mostly excellent but his short game does need work. He seemed to be playing as a defender which still puzzles me slightly as he is good around goal and can take a strong mark. I would have thought with our dearth of even medium height forwards he would be considered at that end of the ground.

Blakely is right in the thick of it in the midfield drills. He plays inside while Weller and Langdon are groomed as outside. I would say Blakely is less likely to crack the team soon as he's behind Mundy and Neale in the that role. Neale was solid today and some of his clearances were magic, unbelievably quick hands and his anticipation is top notch.

I really like the way they are training. Its very simple. They do kicking practice over various distances and tight handball drills in congestion and other than that its all ball movement and transition work. There doesn't seem to be any weird extraneous drills that characterised previous years. Its pure skills and ball movement.

I watched the forward group for a while which was Walters and Balla playing high kicking it in to Pav, Mayne,Tabs, Hannath and Crozier. The defenders matched with them were Smith, Silvagni (who I thought was pretty good), Dawson and Hughes. Ibbo was not sighted today and neither was Alex Pearce. Bennell as has been noted was walking laps.
Thanks for the update Eshed :)
Stoked to hear by buddy Hilly going great guns & primed for a big year
 

salim malik

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They conveniently changed the title of that article. Fyfe and Bennell have injury issues that they'll have to manage maybe for their entire careers. So what? Many players would it just doesn't get mentioned by the club. Didn't stop Pavlich being an absolute gun. Afl.com just knows anything about Fyfe and Bennell will get read.
It was mentioned at training today that Fyfe has had the back problem most of his life. He has learnt to manage the problem apparently.
 
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