Training 2015/2016 Preseason Training Reports Only

[Taylor]

6th of January 2016 - (Page 61 to 63)

Just Zarke Fyfe SOS Yazz and Ape out there doing a bit of skipping at the moment as you do on a beautiful morning such as this. I'm sure many of you skipped to work this morning.

Ape no bigger but he doesn't need to be either.

He's a long way from being match ready though. Got a real uncomfortable looking gait like one leg is longer than the other or something.

He's kicking goals with a tennis ball now.

It was quite disheartening to see Ape doing his 1/2 oval gentle run thrus today. He does seem to have an uncomfortable gait. He was staring at his feet after each run which can be a sign that he is struggling with fitness. I've seen coaches talking to him about his kicking action before which he often performs without a ball. The tennis ball thing today is either for him to demonstrate his action or to practice it. He probably hasn't kicked a ball for close to 6 months or more I would guess. On the up side, SOS and Yazz appear to be reasonably close to joining training. Yazz ran intervals around the oval and SOS did running and a little bit of ball work.

Does

Does anyone know why SOS is rehabbing? That guy is never fit.

I was just thinking the same thing this morning. He did a bit of agility work today but not at top speed. He did some run throughs too but not at top speed, he also did a couple of running shots on goal which he did perform at speed so it was difficult to assess exactly why he is being held back.

I don't know how long you were there for PR but SOS did an absolute power of work. Started with the others but was last to leave the track by a long way and did more taxing drills than the others too. He said that he's back with the main group next week

Just to add some further info to that presented by PurpleReign and Scham in their posts above.
Yeah I agree with Scham as above as I was standing with Fred Ziffel for a while at the 50 metre arc on the northern end having earlier been up at the clubhouse and we both considered SOS was having a very tough fitness test of sorts. After he had done various running and agility drills he then had shots at goal on the run at speed. Then he had one of the conditioning guys kick the ball to him where SOS had run out at 45 degrees to take a mark. He alternated marking with spoiling the ball . He was the last to leave the track after running some laps and his overall performance was very very good. He had well over 90 mins of almost non-stop hard work on the day. Some of the drills that he had to do were similarly applied to Mora when he was being tested.

Re: Apeness best you see PurpleReign and Scham's posts as an independent or rather a realistic view to how he is tracking which is contrary to the view being espoused by couldhavebeen (who suggests he is well ahead of schedule and discounts that he is limping in his running) as we cant upset a fellow poster unless they are from the St Kilda and Giants boards.

Harley Bennell was at the ground but didn't do any training and a player who looked like Alex Pearce was working in the gym on one of the bikes but only saw him through the windows (cant see that well through them as they have film applied).

Fyfey did a lot of running including twisting and turning.He did some short kicking with almost no follow through with the conditioning guys which looked like a scissor action taking pressure of his back. He later had some shots on goal following through a little further but over a very short distance.

Yarran ran laps all session except for a short time at the end when he had some short kicks with one of the conditioning guys.

One of the conditioning guys said that the players were running the 3km's time trial today at another location. Danyle Pearce and Sandi (in his bright orange Gecko Contractors 4WD) drove in as training on the field had finished so not sure if they were to do any more work but Harley Bennell and Sandi then drove away.

Hoping to see a great session on Friday when most of the players will be on the field with the Rehab list being down to maybe 1 or 2.

I left at around 10, it's great to hear that he's done with re-habbing. I'm touching wood as I say this but the list is looking pretty healthy. Fyfe and Clarke did quite a bit of 3/4 pace running. I was expecting to see Bennell there today but he must be ready to join full training. Ape looks like the only serious injury we have. Fyfe is moving particularly well considering he only had the bionic spine graft a week or 2 ago.
The CH7 helicopter flew over the ground early in the session, Basil and Co. were probably filing an up-close, first-hand, painstakingly accurate update on Fyfe's season ending back injury. I reckon you could make quite a meticulous assessment from 500m above the ground.

Yeah Baz with his Bino's in the Chopper. They may have been heading over to the other venue where the boys did the time trial.

Just as an aside did you know there is a Leader's Board in the reception area where Donor's for the build of the existing Clubhouse are listed and Bazil's name is on that Board so does he support Freo or the Slime up the road.

Clarkey basically did his running in the same pattern for the whole session out to the marker he had out and back and didn't seem to do too much else.I noted he had 1 knee bandaged whereas on some days he had 2 on. Maybe the club is light on for tape ha ha .

In regards the player's coming back at about 10.30 I saw the convoy but at a distance. I guess they probably had to check in for the day's program to see if they were required for anything else after today's 3km run and some probably dropped in for lunch.

I suspect that Bennell didn't do the run as he was at training around 9 but maybe he did and got away early to be at Freo Oval.

Was that Yarran as a passenger in Bennell's white Jeep 4WD when they left training?

 

[Taylor]

8th of January 2016 - (Page 63 to 66)

Just rocked up to training and you'll be pleased to know that an almost full contingent out training.

Yes a few guys still rehabbing or doing their own individual training loads but we have close to 40 guys out there warming up.

Some players are a joy to watch whether they're playing, training or just walking thru gateway shopping centre with the family. (Ok that last one was a little bit creepy). I'd happily pay an admission fee to watch son son train. Some players are able to "switch on" when required but sonny just is incapable of switching off. He is just a great big bundle of energy, enthusiasm and talent. He took a wonderful mark on the wing today during one of the drills. Definitely leading the TTHD award this summer. Once again I was impressed by Griff. He has a relatively small window of opportunity left in his career to make a mark in the AFL and he appears determined to make the most of it. He's fit, footy smart and set for a big season. I hope this is his year.

Went down for about an hour with 2 of my kids, who despite having Mackers still found was to annoy each other (and me) resulting in my early departure. A vast majority were on the track in what could only be described as difficult, hot and humid conditions - the most notable absentee I believe being fyfe as I couldn't see him anywhere, but others without 2 restless kids may have seen him. Players seemed involved in a number of skill based drills which incorporated running such as handball keep it offs and leading and kicking drills across the Centre square. After this the squad was broken in two and engaged in some match sim across opposite sides of the ground. Individually some of my observations were:
Weller has definitely added muscle and whilst I am in the group which considers his kicking to be elite, he did miss 2 targets in match sim that I thought unusual, but it's still pre-season!
Blakely has trimmed down but his kicks are still too loopy.
Mundy, sonny and hill glide across the turf and consistently kick worm burning passes to the leading player.
Good to see Pav and Sandi on the track and looking fit.
Darcy tucker showed good foot skills in the drills.
Mora partook in all drills and was twisting and turning with no issues (thank god!).
Finally apologies to those under the fig trees, I would have introduced myself but the kids wanted to get cracking. Hopefully you lot can add some more details.

I was on the terraces so I couldn't see who was coming or going but all the first year players seemed to disappear before the more brutal second half of training. The rehab guys came out at the end of the session for a bit of light running and Bennel just walked laps. The second half of the session consisted of all of the remaining fit 2nd year and beyond players. Marc Webb ran the session, I didn't see RTB.

I managed to find a shady spot under the Moreton Bay Fig Trees with many of our regular training watchers on the terraces today. It does appear however that full pre-season training does not resume until the 11th of January due to the fact that there was only about 30 players actively participating in the training drills, plus no sign of Ross Lyon or the media.

Through the gym door I could see Zac Clake, Nat Fyfe and Michael Apeness, whilst Clancee Pearce and Cam Sutcliffe emerged to jog a few laps, and Harley Bennell came out and walked laps only with a trainer and a football.

It appeared that there were 6 players in the gym that I could see.

Harley doesn't look injured and doesn't have any strapping on his calf, so I am not sure why he is only walking and not doing much else at the moment.

The rest of the squad was broken up into two groups and practiced their ball movement skills from one end of the ground to the other.

Mora contines to train the house down, even if he does miss the odd target or two.

Sonny, Ballas and Chris Mayne were all really good today as was Matt Taberner who was marking, leading and kicking really well.

Weller and Blakely look ready to take the next step to me, whilst I still haven't got used to many of the new faces out there.

The boys were done by 11.00am so I expect a big session on Monday.

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)

He was doing gym work and popped out for a few laps. He didn't have any strapping on or a compression bandage. Hope he's just being monitored.

I was there to watch training this morning and can't add much more than has already been said. I left and went to the markets, only to return a little later(about midday) to check out the team store to find Harley Balic and Silva doing hard run throughs in seeeeeering heat Gee these boys work hard!

Is it just me or does Johnno look particularly lithe and agile this summer. His body shape is more like a first year player. He's a long way ahead of where he was this time last year. If I recall correctly, this time last year he was doing lengths of the oval on Po's scooter. Pav was also bounding about like a youngster.
I did laugh at one play today. In one match sim Sherro kicked to Ballas who was being closely checked by Tanner. Tanner easily spoiled the ball but straight after this play about 10 others gave Sheridan individual advice about where the kick should have gone. With so much advice on offer I guess his team mates were suggesting he could have and should have kicked it anywhere by there.
My last thought for the day is Crozier. Of all the up and coming players he is my absolute favorite. I often think back to the enormous potential he displayed in a good Friday game for east Perth some years ago now. But watching him today I couldn't help but think that maybe Weller has moved ahead of him now and Langdon and a couple of others are closing in too.
Actually one more thought, I was quite taken by Sandi's white and metallic red boots today but as I looked across the elaborately colored boots of the players I noticed Chalky was wearing black. Now there's a diamond who wants to stay coal.

I went to training as well and agree completely with the above. The session consisted of a ton of kicking and our skills looked to be improving massively.

Something I noticed with all the kicking was that the relatively small number of errors made those who made mistakes stand out.

Johnson is looking fantastic and an absolute ton more mobile than a year ago. He always hits the target.
Blakey has too much loop in his kick and still need to work on his foot skills.
Mora is looking exceptionally athletic, but the clear weakness in his game is his short kicking. At one point today he missed three targets n a row.
Hughes also still has some work to do on his foot skills. He seems to take slightly longer than others to get the ball to boot. To be honest he missed a lot of kicks today.
The star in the kicking drills was Walters (as said by others). Tucker also kicked the footy fantastically.
I would disagree that Tabs looked good today. He is moving very well and looked quick on the lead, but he fumbled the ball on a number of occasions. At one point Walters gave him a serve for not taking his goal kicking practice seriously.
Smith and Collins looked terrific following around their man. Smith has definitely improved significantly since a year ago.
Hannath took some terrific marks today. Another player who has improved a ton.
Spurr's kicking was truly terrible in match sim's today. Ill leave it at that. Ballas fumbled a ton IMO as well.

On a positive note Barlow looked really quick in handball and transition drills today. Sheridan is also looking terrific IMO. Langdon made some fantastic zig zagging runs in the match sims.. TTHD goes to Walters with second place shared between Langdon, Neale and Barlow.

Anything to note on Alex Pearce?

He was in the gym again today. Not surprisingly they seem to be focussing on putting muscle on him.

He looks slightly bigger this season

I got there early before training started, and A Pearce, Sos, and Clarke were all in civies walking out of south Freo oval... I was actually surprised as I expected these guys training , but in comparison - A Pearce is still significantly skinnier than Clarke.

I got down to training late but I was lucky enough to see the match sims . The big improver this preseason would have to go to Jack Hannath IMHO .
He has shed a large amount of the bulk that slowed him down and his kicking has gone to another level .
As the heat started to effect the players their skill drop off increased .D Pearcs in particular was missing players with his kicking .Suban wasn't performing that well either . As stated in other posts Ballas was feeling the heat which resulted in some poor disposals . By the end of the season it was looking more like a WAFL team training rather than an AFL team out there . It is early in the preseason and players look a little rusty .
On my way out I caught up with one of the trainers and we had a good conversation .
When I asked him about Apeness he confirmed that The AP is doing better than the coaches had expected but he is still having issues with the knee and will not be in full training before the start of the season .His Knee injury was classified very serious but he is working his way back and they are happy with his effort and level of fitness he has so far achieved . The interesting comment came when we were discussing the new recruits .
Collins and Uber are leading the pack at the the moment with Balic coming a close third . Tucker is impressing the coaches with his general skill set as well .
We talked about Hurley and his willingness to learn but when he gets excited they start looking for an interpreter to translate for him because the words come out so fast and with a broad accent .

Nice sharp stuff there from DudleyDocker!!

Still, I couldn't resist the call to arms PR

 

[Taylor]

9th of January 2016 - (Page 66 to 68)

I popped my head in briefly this morning but only stayed long enough to watch the guys run laps. It was basically the same guys who participated in the 2nd half of training yesterday, not sure where the rest of them were. I guess they were in the gym, I saw Pav heading to the old gym with his boxing gloves.
The players organized themselves into groups for the laps, 1:46 first, 1:50 next and so on. The first group had the usual suspects in deBoer and Sherro but I was pleasantly surprised to see lachie Neale, croz and Connor in there too. Tabs got elevated to the next group during the drill and one of the coaches shouted to Balic to lead his group after the first 2 laps which he did comfortably. Johnno, Dawson and Youbi made up one of the slower groups. Mora and Chalky were also in a slow group and both appeared to be labouring. Griff and Mammoth ran together with the mammoth clearly being the better of the 2.

JMT posted a few comments about Nyhuis. His kicking is excellent and looks a really good mover on the track. For what it is worth he reminds me a bit of Shane Parker when I look at his highlights and how he moves in training. Really quick and capable of playing on talls and smalls. I spoke to him briefly and he said he was still growing and was now 189cm's. That is significantly bigger than the 181cm he was listed at in some of the draft previews.

 

[Taylor]

11th of January 2016 - (Page 68 to 72)

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.

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.

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.

http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2016-01-11/firsttime-players-unite

Edit: ah via video! was wondering how that was possible.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

[Taylor]

13th of January 2016 - (Page 72 to 74)

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.
Pav'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For what it is worth Tabs has copped two massive sprays for not taking goal kicking seriously (both lazy snaps over the shoulder) Both were from Walters who I really hope is added to the leadership group. I was a fair way away, but I think RTB also made the entire squad to push ups last week for Ballas having a lazy kick for goal too. There have also been a number of sprays for not moving the football quickly. While not 100 burpies if the error demonstrates a player is not following instructions they definitely do push ups as a group.

 

[Taylor]

15th of January 2016 - (Page 74 to 78)

I attended training today. After a pleasant chat with DannytheDoorman by the clubhouse, I went round and sat under the Morton bay figs on my own.

Maybe it was just my mood, but I found it an uninspiring training session. There was lots of kicking drills and plenty of ball movement, and there was nothing specific that was wrong, but nothing much done that seemed impressive.

I never thought I would say this, but it was the first time ever when Sonny did not TTHD. Usually his class, enthusiasm and leadership make him sparkle. For me, he did not sparkle today.

It is hard to pick up who's who under caps and zinc, but I did not see Croz or Sutty on the track today. Bennell came out to walk a lap or two and Balic was working on running with a fitness guy.

There were a few good things. Before doing running, Sandi took part in kicking drills. His kicking was excellent. Precise and well weighted. He does not take long to get boot to ball, he really should kick more.

Langdon continues to impress me. He has neat skills and is pacey and evasive.

And finally, TTHD. Mundy looked several classes ahead of everyone else today. He cruised around, looking in second gear, waltzed away from clearances, laid tackles, kicked perfectly, took intercept marks etc etc. TTHD by a country mile.

PS Sandi looks really fit and athletic.

Yes, competitive stuff, with full ground ball movement. Griff and Hannath did ruck work as Sandi was running. Tanner played on Pav for a while and was badly out pointed. Zac D looked Ok and kicked Ok. Tommy probably one of the better trainers.

Yeah you've pretty much summed it up for me too Dockerfemme.
Most of the team looked to be going at it at about 80% and all of the drills were pretty low key.
Croz was out there. Seen him kick a beautifully weighted kick into a leading player in one of the drills.
Agree on Sandi's kicking. It looked majestic today.
I can't imagine Balic would be too far off, only light strapping on his wrist. He seemed to get quite a few miles in his legs. He's a decent size too.
Didn't notice Ballas much today and when I did see him, he didn't impress.
Tabs looked pretty good today I thought. Used his size well to out mark a few times, or at least contest well. Showed good pace aswell.
I left just as most of the guys seemed to be doing a bit of a scratchie using most of the ground, so maybe there were some standouts there.


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Id agree there is not much to report.
There was lots of stoppage and short kicking work at the start of the session, with a significant time spent in near full ground match sims to finish the session.

I made an effort to follow what Weller was doing today. In the Wednesday session I noticed he wasn't winning much of the ball in the all ground drills in match simulation. Today he struggled again and seemed to have his hands on his hips a lot (catching his breath).

It was kinda strange to see Dawson and Sonny paired up in the kicking drills. Even more surprising was that Zac D kicked the ball better than Sonny.

Pav dominated when matched up on Tanner or Silvagni in match sims. Pav looks terrific.

Langdon looked fantastic again linking up play brilliantly.

Crozier missed a soda in front of goal, but also had some brilliant kicks today.

Sutty went on some excellent runs and kicked really well today. At times he seemed to be playing a closing down role on a taller player for what it is worth.

Hurley did really well when matched up on Pav and also ran off his man on a number of occasions. In one significant piece of play Hurley spoiled and then sprinted to receive the ball and then completed a perfect thirty metre chip kick. The most impressive part was his speed into space.

Collins body work in marking drills was terrific today. He outworked Tabs a number of times and also took a couple of marks forward of the play. From what I have seen his kicking is excellent.

Ballas was running all over the field today. He made a number of errors taking on his man. The person most responsible for the team doing extra penalty push-ups (which are done by the entire squad) is Ballas. On a positive note he seems to be playing more of a roaming role, rather than close to goal. His fitness is very high.

Suban kicked a terrific goal and looked good out there again.

I agree Captain Mundy looked awesome out there. Hill too continues to look terrific. Sheridan also looks fantastic running the football.

Salim would be happy to know Mora did some outstanding work playing as a tall defender including a brilliant mark in the goal square.

The recovery group still consists of Fyfe, Johno, Balic,Yarran, Clarke,Bennell, A.Pearce, De Luca and Apeness. Ibbitson is also not training.

Crozier and Suttcliffe were out there.
Crozier was impressive today in trying conditions.