Training 2015/16 preseason training (discussion)

Righteo

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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.
Ha, I've been thinking the same. Probably a bit of both. Awesomely detailed reports as usual even if poor Josh Deluca almost never cracks a mention.
 

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Allikat

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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.
But he looks better with the hair tied back!!

Ha, I've been thinking the same. Probably a bit of both. Awesomely detailed reports as usual even if poor Josh Deluca almost never cracks a mention.
Deluca's been in rehab the whole time I've seen so there's not much to report
 

tants

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Was it Griffin who got the bake from Lyon for taking the intercepting mark and then kicking into the man on the mark?

Watching Mundy and Sandilands work is magic. At one point he glided through the pack, perfectly timing his run for Sandi's tap. Mundy will miss Sandi when he eventually retires. Some players are clearly a class above others.

Prior was very polite and friendly to my daughter, when she returned a football back over the fence.
 

meima

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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.
Now thing becoming complicate if both Mora and Irish impress who we going to upgrade from rookie maybe Mora the vacant spot and Hurley (apeness)?
 

theGav56

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How is Irish going. I have moderately high hopes after his progress last year.
Might chime in here. After sheriff helped with identifying who was who, young Hurley was pretty solid to watch. I don't think it is out of the question that he will get an opportunity in the bigs. I wouldn't say he has x factor, but he does have presence.
 
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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!
The Boss was watching hidden behind a strength and conditioning guy out in the middle ha ha. Even Suma was out there today running the major part of the session.
 

theGav56

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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.
Hughes looks better as a Spurr replacement at some stage to me. A little bit of extra height, yet still looks super mobile, fast and athletic. Was looking forward to seeing Grey but he was the biggest disappointment for me, but being the only training I have seen this season is an insignificant sample size. Will be interesting to see.
 
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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.
@ Salim Malik Love your report especially the comments about the old dudes given you were in the old dudes stand with us today haha. That play you referred to with Mora and Hughes was first class and a delight to watch especially the one handed pickup at speed by Hughes. That whole play was Gold and well finished off by the old dude's favorite Mora.
 
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PurpleReign

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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.
I normally like to wait until I get the very last email reminder the day before memberships are due before I commit. ;)
It's all about game play, has he learnt how to play yet? Looking forward to the intra club, they normally hold it on a Wednesday don't they? Which means it should be on 10 Feb or thereabouts.
 

E Shed

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Hughes looks better as a Spurr replacement at some stage to me. A little bit of extra height, yet still looks super mobile, fast and athletic. Was looking forward to seeing Grey but he was the biggest disappointment for me, but being the only training I have seen this season is an insignificant sample size. Will be interesting to see.
Hughes looks more of a rebound playmaker to me. Grey is the hard nosed shutdown role player as he showed on Wingard which is how I see Spurr.


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meima

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Hughes looks more of a rebound playmaker to me. Grey is the hard nosed shutdown role player as he showed on Wingard which is how I see Spurr.
Hope people don't expect too much regarding grey, just started in janua

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Hughes looks more of a rebound playmaker to me. Grey is the hard nosed shutdown role player as he showed on Wingard which is how I see Spurr.


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Also grey just came back from rehab group, give him a bit more time to settle before judging him.
 

Scham

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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.

Brilliant report thanks. It was particularly good to hear that Hughes has improved his disposal but disappointing that Grey and Smith haven't been able to. I guess if Hughes came to the game late he's still in that period of learning the skills rather than having to re-learn them like Smith and Grey.
 

Scham

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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.
It was Silvagni's first session with the main group so perhaps he's still catching up.
 

sherrif

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I know your tongue is firmly wedged in your cheek but if Bradley Hill can debut and be effective in his second year then it'll be breeze for Weller. He's smarter, stronger and much, much braver than Hill was at the same time.
B.Hill was a much, much better runner than Weller is in their second years. B.Hill's combination of endurance and pace was what got him a game early on. Some of the stuff on this board about Weller is over the top IMO.
 
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PurpleReign

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B.Hill was a much, much better runner than Weller is in their second years. B.Hill's combination of endurance and pace was what got him a game early on. Some of the stuff on this board about Weller is over the top IMO.
B Hill is an elite middle distance runner which is illustrated by his draft camp results, but Weller was running in the second fastest group last Saturday which means he is no slouch. Langdon was in the 3rd group and Tabs was in the 4th group just to add a bit of perspective to Weller's effort.
 
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B Hill is an elite middle distance runner which is illustrated by his draft camp results, but Weller was running in the second fastest group last Saturday which means he is no slouch. Langdon was in the 3rd group and Tabs was in the 4th group just to add a bit of perspective to Weller's effort.
Hi PR What was the criteria for being selected in what group in the running stuff last Saturday? Was it based on how fast they went in the 3 Km time trial last week? Or was it on perceived speed of the he runners?

I thought Langdon from my observations at training sessions is the faster of he and Weller yet you have indicated that Weller was in the faster group.
 
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