- Banned
- #1
The Starcevich Coterie over at Nicks has put up his Friday the 13th report
Drills
Perhaps not so much on drills today. In general, the sessions were pretty high on contact and emphasised moving the ball through packs of players in numbers, or setting up entries into the forward line using the full breadth and depth of the ground.
A couple of examples in the context of the player commentary below.
Players - "Man management"
Maxwell, Dwyer and Ramsay just walked laps. Makes sense as Dwyer has not really been seen at training yet (by me at least), and Ramsay and Maxwell clearly had issues in Wednesday's session. Maxwell was overheard saying that he was fine and was just having a rest and hadn't injured himself. Sorry Maxy. Clearly there was an issue (even a minor one) 2 days ago and you are recovering. Not all of us are Herald Sun journos looking for a space filler..!
Watts and Sinclair - these 2 hammered out some intense laps today. Won't be long until they join the rest of the group. They are going to need to be surgically separated in order to resume normal lives.
Karnezis and Fasolo - whereas Karnezis must be Greek for 'footballer condemned to a frustrating pre-season of rehab-related squats, sprints and pirouettes', Fasolo must be Greek for 'footballer wound up tighter than a spring but prevented by the fitness staff from participating in contact drills'.
At one stage the players broke into a full field circle work drill. Young Alex sneaked into the main group and joined in. The eagle eyed head fitness coach yelled to his staff, "Is Fasolo meant to be in that drill?" Despite his demonstrative protests, Alex was coaxed out of the drill and sent to complete some straight line sprints. Funny.
Toovey - had the shackles let off a little today. There was plenty of kicking, jogging and some light competitive work.
Brown - hammered out plenty of lap sprints. Looks fit and expect him to rejoin the main group shortly. Same with Clarke.
Seedsman - straight line sprints and then an early shower. No idea what is going on there, except to say that a few weeks ago he was in full training, and now isn't....
Goldsack - see Seedsman.
Scharenberg - not yet.
Swan - unsighted today.
Players - the rest
Marshmallow man - the project continues. He is fitting in pretty well and works mostly with the forwards. Did a full session today. As previously mentioned, just needs to go with the flow a bit rather than question and query aspects of the coaching session. Regarding his kicking, years of watching the techniques of players like Manson & Cloke, and many Saturday mornings spent coaching 7 year old AusKickers, gives me nearly zero background on the subject, but I have noticed that the issue may be a little feature of his ball drop.
He holds the ball well enough but on release he gives it a slight flourish so that the bottom end rotates toward his knee rather than drop straight down. This means that he strikes the ball whilst it is spinning and his foot ultimately meets it on the point rather than the flat so that it often spears off his boot. Mostly to the right.
* CFC, please send payment for the above coaching services to The Starcevich Coterie c/o 1990 Grand Final top deck of the Ponsford.
Broomhead - was on fire today with his sure marking and his disposal by foot. I think he is a gem, although I had difficulty spotting him as he had clearly read my previous reports which commented on his penchant for white socks and so... today he had changed to black.
Mr Lubumba - he really has a presence on the training field. He never stops talking and directing traffic. He looked like he was assigned to a couple of the younger folk today (Adams & Freeman or perhaps it was just coincidence) who he tackled and bumped maniacally at every opportunity. He also offered them heaps of encouragement.
Ball - love Luke Ball, but something doesn't sit right. He is such a professional - his disposal is clean, his decision making super, and he looks super trim. But in the training sessions I have seen recently his disposal is sometimes shabby and his decision making not as good as normal, but he is still trim.
Armstrong - when he is off the leash across half back he looks really good. As there were many full ground drills today where the attack was set up from half back, he had plenty of opportunity to sweep the ball up and deliver up the field.
Adams and Freeman - are both participants in the full drills with the adults, and both look like they can play a part early on next season. Some of Adams' kicks were shank-tastic when he was under a pressure but in general they got well involved and are both something to see when running the ball through the middle.
Langdon - he still has a way to go re fitness and frame, but he too was in the full session today and he was a fantastic kick around the ground. Despite his excellent field kicking his one shot for goal that I saw was the worst to grace a Collingwood training session. Mark him down for a back line role.
Lynch, Reid, Cloke, White - really are giving them a chance to work into forward-line form. They all get a go and are being drilled to run up the ground as we defend and then stream forward.
There was one drill where a player outside 50m had to deliver it to a congested forward line. The forwards had to work into space so they could be a viable target. The forwards really struggled with this and it highlighted last year's problem where we tried to deliver to Cloke et al once the defenders had fallen back to fill the space. There does not seem to be a solution yet. The coaches will have to get out their blackboard as at present it seems we can only score if we are rebounding off half back and the forward line is relatively open.
Steele and Beams - unsurprisingly they had a good session regarding disposal effectiveness and drive through the midfield. It is really noticeable how much they have developed when compared against the current crop of recruits. If they both dominate this year we could push far into the finals.
The Playing Coaches - one of the full field drills was built around the players being on one team and the coaches on the other. This means that we got to see Buckley, Burns, Harvey, Hart and Lockyer running around. Nathan swept the ball off half back a few times and launched it upfield. Not everyday you get to else see that many Brownlows and Best & Fairest winners running about from such close quarters.
Drills
Perhaps not so much on drills today. In general, the sessions were pretty high on contact and emphasised moving the ball through packs of players in numbers, or setting up entries into the forward line using the full breadth and depth of the ground.
A couple of examples in the context of the player commentary below.
Players - "Man management"
Maxwell, Dwyer and Ramsay just walked laps. Makes sense as Dwyer has not really been seen at training yet (by me at least), and Ramsay and Maxwell clearly had issues in Wednesday's session. Maxwell was overheard saying that he was fine and was just having a rest and hadn't injured himself. Sorry Maxy. Clearly there was an issue (even a minor one) 2 days ago and you are recovering. Not all of us are Herald Sun journos looking for a space filler..!
Watts and Sinclair - these 2 hammered out some intense laps today. Won't be long until they join the rest of the group. They are going to need to be surgically separated in order to resume normal lives.
Karnezis and Fasolo - whereas Karnezis must be Greek for 'footballer condemned to a frustrating pre-season of rehab-related squats, sprints and pirouettes', Fasolo must be Greek for 'footballer wound up tighter than a spring but prevented by the fitness staff from participating in contact drills'.
At one stage the players broke into a full field circle work drill. Young Alex sneaked into the main group and joined in. The eagle eyed head fitness coach yelled to his staff, "Is Fasolo meant to be in that drill?" Despite his demonstrative protests, Alex was coaxed out of the drill and sent to complete some straight line sprints. Funny.
Toovey - had the shackles let off a little today. There was plenty of kicking, jogging and some light competitive work.
Brown - hammered out plenty of lap sprints. Looks fit and expect him to rejoin the main group shortly. Same with Clarke.
Seedsman - straight line sprints and then an early shower. No idea what is going on there, except to say that a few weeks ago he was in full training, and now isn't....
Goldsack - see Seedsman.
Scharenberg - not yet.
Swan - unsighted today.
Players - the rest
Marshmallow man - the project continues. He is fitting in pretty well and works mostly with the forwards. Did a full session today. As previously mentioned, just needs to go with the flow a bit rather than question and query aspects of the coaching session. Regarding his kicking, years of watching the techniques of players like Manson & Cloke, and many Saturday mornings spent coaching 7 year old AusKickers, gives me nearly zero background on the subject, but I have noticed that the issue may be a little feature of his ball drop.
He holds the ball well enough but on release he gives it a slight flourish so that the bottom end rotates toward his knee rather than drop straight down. This means that he strikes the ball whilst it is spinning and his foot ultimately meets it on the point rather than the flat so that it often spears off his boot. Mostly to the right.
* CFC, please send payment for the above coaching services to The Starcevich Coterie c/o 1990 Grand Final top deck of the Ponsford.
Broomhead - was on fire today with his sure marking and his disposal by foot. I think he is a gem, although I had difficulty spotting him as he had clearly read my previous reports which commented on his penchant for white socks and so... today he had changed to black.
Mr Lubumba - he really has a presence on the training field. He never stops talking and directing traffic. He looked like he was assigned to a couple of the younger folk today (Adams & Freeman or perhaps it was just coincidence) who he tackled and bumped maniacally at every opportunity. He also offered them heaps of encouragement.
Ball - love Luke Ball, but something doesn't sit right. He is such a professional - his disposal is clean, his decision making super, and he looks super trim. But in the training sessions I have seen recently his disposal is sometimes shabby and his decision making not as good as normal, but he is still trim.
Armstrong - when he is off the leash across half back he looks really good. As there were many full ground drills today where the attack was set up from half back, he had plenty of opportunity to sweep the ball up and deliver up the field.
Adams and Freeman - are both participants in the full drills with the adults, and both look like they can play a part early on next season. Some of Adams' kicks were shank-tastic when he was under a pressure but in general they got well involved and are both something to see when running the ball through the middle.
Langdon - he still has a way to go re fitness and frame, but he too was in the full session today and he was a fantastic kick around the ground. Despite his excellent field kicking his one shot for goal that I saw was the worst to grace a Collingwood training session. Mark him down for a back line role.
Lynch, Reid, Cloke, White - really are giving them a chance to work into forward-line form. They all get a go and are being drilled to run up the ground as we defend and then stream forward.
There was one drill where a player outside 50m had to deliver it to a congested forward line. The forwards had to work into space so they could be a viable target. The forwards really struggled with this and it highlighted last year's problem where we tried to deliver to Cloke et al once the defenders had fallen back to fill the space. There does not seem to be a solution yet. The coaches will have to get out their blackboard as at present it seems we can only score if we are rebounding off half back and the forward line is relatively open.
Steele and Beams - unsurprisingly they had a good session regarding disposal effectiveness and drive through the midfield. It is really noticeable how much they have developed when compared against the current crop of recruits. If they both dominate this year we could push far into the finals.
The Playing Coaches - one of the full field drills was built around the players being on one team and the coaches on the other. This means that we got to see Buckley, Burns, Harvey, Hart and Lockyer running around. Nathan swept the ball off half back a few times and launched it upfield. Not everyday you get to else see that many Brownlows and Best & Fairest winners running about from such close quarters.
