Training 2015/16 preseason training (discussion)

sherrif

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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.
Great report. Cheers. I was on the opposite side of the ground to you Im pretty sure. Silvagni copped a bake from Pav at one point for not concentrating and staying with him on the lead. Pav also seemed to get away from him easily in one of the match sim drills. Thats why I posted he struggled. Im interested to read your thoughts on Weller. I thought his missed a ton of targets kicking into the forwardline and at one point missed Pav on the lead by more than ten metres on a thirty metre kick (may have been langdon I was along way away) . Like I said, we were on opposite sides of the ground so our view of training was different. Again, awesome report cheers.
 

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E Shed

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Great report. Cheers. I was on the opposite side of the ground to you Im pretty sure. Silvagni copped a bake from Pav at one point for not concentrating and staying with him on the lead. Pav also seemed to get away from him easily in one of the match sim drills. Thats why I posted he struggled. Im interested to read your thoughts on Weller. I thought his missed a ton of targets kicking into the forwardline and at one point missed Pav on the lead by more than ten metres on a thirty metre kick (may have been langdon I was along way away) . Like I said, we were on opposite sides of the ground so our view of training was different. Again, awesome report cheers.
yes sometimes just the different view and the different times you notice certain players can change the perception of how they trained. I saw Alex take a couple of nice intercept marks down at the northern end of the ground and he looked to be moving well. I think he's underrated for his ability to zone off and take defensive marks, he has a good pair of hands and reads the game well. He really goes for his marks and isn't afraid to take the game on which I like.
The times when I noticed Weller he hit his targets and he seemed to cover a lot of ground during the end to end drills. One of his longer kicks into the forward half, again at the northern end of the ground was poetry in motion. He has a beautiful kicking action and always seems to weight the ball well which gives me confidence in the long term that he will be a generally effective user of the footy.
 

salim malik

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yes sometimes just the different view and the different times you notice certain players can change the perception of how they trained. I saw Alex take a couple of nice intercept marks down at the northern end of the ground and he looked to be moving well. I think he's underrated for his ability to zone off and take defensive marks, he has a good pair of hands and reads the game well. He really goes for his marks and isn't afraid to take the game on which I like.
The times when I noticed Weller he hit his targets and he seemed to cover a lot of ground during the end to end drills. One of his longer kicks into the forward half, again at the northern end of the ground was poetry in motion. He has a beautiful kicking action and always seems to weight the ball well which gives me confidence in the long term that he will be a generally effective user of the footy.
Alex copped a football kicked from close proximity with the full force of a Clancee kick flush in the jatz crackers very early on which laid him low for a long time, He spent a lot of the time in the tent shade. Came back on but did not perform to his full capabilities. Humorous to the onlookers but not a laughing matter to Alex me thinks.
 

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Weller has that awareness and flair that makes him seem like he sees the game a bit faster than everyone else. He needs to be given more opportunities this year to get comfortable with the pace of the game. When he does. Watch out.
But, but, but... he's YOUNG!!! ;)
 
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Get this kid a crew cut, then he got one less thing to worry about, currently with his hair he can model for some shampoo company.:) he and Langdon hard to split between them regarding pre season training.
His hair has been pissing me off for a while now. That little hat hair mullet flick thing gives me some serious anxiety. I'm glad his footy training transition work is better than his long hair transition work.
 

meima

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His hair has been pissing me off for a while now. That little hat hair mullet flick thing gives me some serious anxiety. I'm glad his footy training transition work is better than his long hair transition work.
Maybe this is related to his poor disposal sometime, the hair get in the way. (Flick here , flick there and everywhere ). Blakely also got long hair but does not flick like he do.:D:D:eek:
 
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Allikat

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Weller has that awareness and flair that makes him seem like he sees the game a bit faster than everyone else. He needs to be given more opportunities this year to get comfortable with the pace of the game. When he does. Watch out.
Dare I say it... sounds Pendlebury-like
 

Allikat

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Your training report skill will be greatly be missed here. I only watch , read but can never write properly.
Hey we appreciate all the training reports - even if I have to pay more attention to reading it. And either you're getting better, or I'm getting used to your writing.
 
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Maybe this is related to his poor disposal sometime, the hair get in the way. (Flice here , flick there and everywhere ). Blakely also got long hair but does not flick like he do.:D:D:eek:
It's true Meima.

I find it interesting that Fyfe ties his hair up at training because it's obvz easier to play without hair in your eyes.

But will he play with his hair tied up come game day? I doubt it... Looking good on camera > hair in your eyes.
 

sherrif

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How is Irish going. I have moderately high hopes after his progress last year.
Increase your 'moderately high hopes' to 'significantly high hopes.' Hurley looked terrific out there today. He played as a defender in match sims and was excellent IMO. At one point he was matched up on Langdon and he showed the speed of a midfielder. I think myself and Salim are the first official members of the "Hurley will be awesome club', but new members are welcome.
 
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