I took a companion to training this morning and we watched from under the Morton bay fig trees. As DudleyDocker said there was quite a breeze blowing which probably did not help the skills.
I think Dudley has given a good account of the session but there are a few things I can add.
I was pleased to see that the club had taken note of my post above and the ball movement drills all involved having one on ones inside the 50. (I need some kind of emoji now but I am not sure what).
Cam Mac was the main forward at one end, Tabs at the other. I was really pleased with what I saw of Cam Mac, good hands, good kick, a few tricks. If he can keep his head together I think it will be all good. Some of the drills involved Tabs providing a target on the wing and then the ball being moved inside 50 to Cam.
I second Dudley on Sean Darcy. He looks very promising to me. At one point he was doing uncontested ruck work right in front of me. The ball was thrown in from the boundary and he backhanded it over his shoulder and down the midfielders throat. Sure it was uncontested, but it looked like beautiful control to me. He gets involved when the balls on the ground as well and seems quite good below his knees.
The other that I liked the look of was Joel Hamling. Surprisingly tall, just a little under Tab's height, with the lanky build that really suits defenders, he looks strong on the spoil and agile when the ball hits the deck.
I can't say that the session was particularly intense or impressive, but good to see more on the track and the conditions were tricky.
I also took a companion today, my son, when he saw Cam Mc for the the first time he described him as "what Bart Simpson would look like as a grown up".
I also thought the session seemed a bit subdued.
In the drill that several have described above where they kick to a one on one contest on the wing I watched Hamling easily spoil the ball from Tabs on several occasions but each of the kickers dropped the ball right on poor Tabsy's head. When it came to Cam Mc's turn he kicked the ball to a bit of space that allowed Tabs to easily mark it on his chest. I know it's only training but it's such an obvious thing to do, or maybe they were training for the spoil, not sure. Buddy Franklin is well known for his goal kicking ability but he's also an elite field kicker. The little bit of field kicking I've seen from Cam Mc on the 3 or so sessions I've been to has been right up there. A couple of other observations from today, Luke Ryan "looks" nothing like a footballer. I don't mean in terms of ability, he's just the most unlikely looking player in the team, a bit like Crighton was. I didn't actually see him until the end of the session when they did a bit of end to end stuff, and I didn't even see him touch the ball, but I am looking forward to seeing him play in the coming months.
I agree with DD, Brady's kicking looked quite good today, long and low, he just needs to do it consistently in a game. There were a couple of little highlights in the drills, Tabs took a fine diving mark which he completed lying face up on the turf, Fyfe ran very hard to make it to a ball which I really didn't think he would get to. He stuck out a mitt and the ball just stuck. Very cool. Crozier kicked a lovely goal from about 45 out after receiving a handball following some very slick and precise ball movement.
Cam Sutcliffe was running laps which seems odd considering where he finished in the time trial. When did the Apeman's thighs get that big? I mean they are of Plugger Lockett proportions, it was good to see him out running about. I don't get the optimism about Balic, I saw each of his WAFL games and when I see him at training, well, I just don't see anything. He seems a tad slow and he has a loopy kick, having said that I would probably have let Deluca go after his first year, he did't even look WAFL quality but this year he has been one of the most impressive improvers on the track.
I agree with the Darcy optimism though, he just looks like he knows how to play the game. He has nice skills and he took a very solid mark at FF today in one of the drills early in the session which caught my attention. Kersten showed a hint of his ability today also, his experience comes to the fore on the training track especially when he matches up against the bigger but less experienced guys in the team.
One final note, I'm still finding it difficult to get used to not seeing Micky B out there. He always used to be the one closest to the scoreboard in the kick to kick session at the beginning of training. I miss his banter with his partner in that particular drill, I remember one session where he was warming up with Sandi and he missed him with 3 kicks in a row (how the hell do you miss Sandi from 30m) but Micky had an amusing excuse for each one of those misses, a good guy, sorely missed.