Port training report 23/1/04

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Buddy players first. Poults was, well, Poults. Nothing new or unusual to report there. Damon White looked really good. Was being used in most drills as part of a two pronged forward role with Tredders across half forward, while all four rucks played out of the goalsquare. Damon looked fit, strong and mobile strong overhead and quick hands to the runners. Had a really good duel with Toby in the competitive end to end training, Toby probably shaded him with good defensive work. But looks like Damon could become a key part of the forward set up this year. Chad didn’t do the game simulation, so he might be carrying a slight injury. Did most of the other training though.

The new guys … Chaplin was clearly the standout. When I first got to training I thought how fit and mobile Ackland was looking, then realised I was watching Chaplin (the no.30 threw me). He really looks the complete package, strong (especially through the hips and thighs) good hands, mobile, good give of the ball. Pretty impressive, could well play this year. None of the others really stood out. Peel was leaner than I expected, nice kick. Surjan was confident with his voice but didn’t see him get the ball a lot. Pettigrew did some good things, in the “game” played HBF on Patfull who also did a few good things. RFK looked strong, sure with hand and foot, but they mostly all do at training. Ellis showed a bit playing out of FF as did Hassan running on the ball. Didn’t really notice Symes, Mahoney or Grocke.

Up and comers … White obviously. Salopek in the “game” got to the drop of ball well and gave off nicely. Ebert didn’t “play”, shoulder is still strapped. But he did other training. Gilham showed a bit of dash. Hall ran laps. Cassisi came out late with a strapped knee, must’ve done something minor early in training. Ackland looked pretty solid and moved well (though not as well as when he was Chaplin). Champion did quite a bit training, but not the competitive game. Shoulder was still strapped.

The usual suspects … Matty was the standout, fit and strong, did a lot of ruckwork and charged around the ground in that ruck roving Matty style. Took a couple of nice grabs when “resting” up forward and kicked well. Tredders worked over Bish a bit, especially with his fave trick of running his opponent under the ball. Kane Cornes worked hard as always. Didn’t see a lot of Jnr Burgs, but he was working upfield more. Laid one good tackle on his brother, brought him to ground. Dew seemed to be working around the midfield more. Looked to be carrying a bit of condition, but it’s hard to tell with Dewy … the monster thighs can skew your perception. Carry looked really fit and worked hard. Wilson seemed to shift in and out of training. Did some of everything, but also did some run throughs along the boundary with Dimma. Cochrane showed a bit of dash off half back, seemed to be giving off quickly instead of running round and round. Ditto Kingsley (who does look fit).

Training went around 2 hours (I missed the first 30 mins). When I got there they were doing a drill that appeared to be encouraging strong run and quick movement off half back (I’m sure many will be very pleased to see that put into practice in a game). Even Kingsley and Cochrane seemed to be getting the idea. Then came the competitive “game”. After that some give and run, bit of end to end. The on balers went off to the middle and later around the goals practicing stop plays, but I guess I’m not a seasoned observer of the game, cos I couldn’t pick what was new. They seemed to have players working out wider of the packs than usual, that was about it. And Lade roved a hitout and kicked a goal. There was much amusement among the players, so I don’t think it was part of the new look stoppage set ups.

I’ll try and answer questions if there are any, but generally I haven’t mentioned players cos I didn’t see them do much. I didn’t see Francou at all out there.
 

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#3
Yeah, nice work.

Good to hear about the more fit and mobile Cain Ackland doing so well. I'm also looking forward to the tenth avatar of Vishnu getting games this year....gee, how good would it be to have a half-decent full forward?
 
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Wakes was on Ellis in the "trial". Ellis lead him to the ball a few times. Seems to be Wakes MO, but it's hard to tell in these training sessions, the senior players tend to hold back - they have nothing to prove (eg Wangas was out there and did everything but it was a while b4 I noticed him). Wakes took a couple of nice grabs over packs tho (as he loves to do).
 
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Originally posted by Sandola
A pleasure to read, FF.
Sounds as if Surjan's showing potential for a future captaincy. :D :D :D
I know it's your job to talk him up, but I was impressed with his voice - didn't lack confidence, not arrogance, just self assured in the company. Good to see a young guy not overawed.
 
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Originally posted by Porthos
So Surjan is a FIGJAM of the future?
There's always the danger I guess ... but at the moment it was more that he presented himself and made himself known as an option rather than outright demanded the ball ... and there were no histrionics if it didn't come his way. I still remember the young Nathan ... ;)
 

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#13
Originally posted by Ford Fairlane
They seemed to have players working out wider of the packs than usual,
Seeking a Nick Stevens replacement ?

In all seriousness well done with that report.
The information on White and Chaplin is encouraging.
Gilham - I hear that he has added about 6 kg. Which would make him 191cm and 90kg - certainly now big enough for a key position. Is he a realistic option in 2004 from what you saw. Thanks.
 
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Re: Re: Port training report 23/1/04

Originally posted by Nod
Seeking a Nick Stevens replacement ?

In all seriousness well done with that report.
The information on White and Chaplin is encouraging.
Gilham - I hear that he has added about 6 kg. Which would make him 191cm and 90kg - certainly now big enough for a key position. Is he a realistic option in 2004 from what you saw. Thanks.
From the report in the Tiser today he's increased his weight to 83kg from 75kg when he was recruited to Port. He's looking to add another 5kg.

To be honest I'm not sure where that weight has gone, he still looks pretty splinterish to me. I thought Pettigrew looked 50% bigger than him, and in his draft camp pic looked emaciated (altho he has added 5kg since then).

Nonetheless Gilham looked to be playing BP/HBF in the trial attacked the ball hard, backed himself and was willing to run with it. And he beat some considerably bigger opponents in the SANFL last year. All encouraging signs and I think there could be a place for him on a HBF/BP in the Port side during the year. Hopefully in the Wizard Cup and certainly before the time it took for Morgan and Thurstans got their chances!
 
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Caught some of training again today. It was similar to last week with drills emphasising quick movement of the ball. Again they did the drill with a group of players at CHF/CHB and another on the wing, running the ball from one half line to the other through the group on the wing. Generally they'd use a big target like White/Cornes/Tredrea at the HB/HF positions to take the ball then the runners would swarm around them giving options for the quick give and movement.

There was some goal scoring drills, starting off with a couple of talls competing for the ball in the square - Ackland and Lade were the targets, Tredrea/White would mark ahead of HF and give the ball off to long kicking runners (eg Dew, Ebert, Hall) who would drive it in long to the talls. Later in the drill they switched to an empty goal square and having a tall flanked by a couple of runners running onto long kicks forward.

Next was a competitive drill, another mini trial. Chad, Ackland, Ebert didn't do the competitive trial. Again looked to be emphasising quick movement and bringing the ball into the centre corridor to attack. Mark made that very clear to Poults at one stage.

It was good to see most players doing most of the training - eg Francou, Cassisi and Hall who I didn't see much of last time. James and Hardwick were doing a little end to end (only over about 15m) to each other.

White impressed again as did Chaplin (who seems to be working up forward a bit in these drills). Lade looks really fit as well. I heard that Tredrea talked up White and Surjan in an interview on AA on the weekend - suggested Surjan could be playing Wiz Cup.

Just saw on Ch 10 news that Wallaby coach Eddie Jones was a guest at training.
 

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#17
Maybe Choco has actually taken the game plan criticism on board and decided that we both need a full-forward and to go down the corridor more with quick movement. I guess stranger things have happened.

These reports are definitely getting me psyched about the tenth avatar at full forward, you tease.
 
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Originally posted by Porthos
Maybe Choco has actually taken the game plan criticism on board and decided that we both need a full-forward and to go down the corridor more with quick movement. I guess stranger things have happened.

These reports are definitely getting me psyched about the tenth avatar at full forward, you tease.
If they play like they're training at the moment then match day will look different. But of course this is just training ...

In the competitive stuff White has been playing in a dual CHF role with Tredrea - like Cornes often does. It's a bit hard to tell what will come of that cos Cornesy hasn't been doing the competitive work. There has been talk that Chad will play some Wiz Cup down back though. Generally the rucks have been stationed in the square, especially Ackland and Lade - they had quite a duel today and Ackland took a couple of strong marks. But the opportunity is there to rotate Cornes, White and Tredrea thru CHF/FF/HFF - White has been quite a focal point in the training drills ... and he was prominent in the part of the drill where the talls ran onto the empty goal square.
 

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#20
To quote from earlier in the thread.

The new guys … Chaplin was clearly the standout. When I first got to training I thought how fit and mobile Ackland was looking, then realised I was watching Chaplin (the no.30 threw me). He really looks the complete package, strong (especially through the hips and thighs) good hands, mobile, good give of the ball. Pretty impressive, could well play this year.

I'd reckon he'll get a go in the wiz cup at some stage
 

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#22
will chaplin get a look for the poower this year?

going by those comments, he is going well!!!

hope he does this for Sturt this year, hope we cna get a full 20 out of him too!!!
 
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