Firstly, matt_bas would like to apologise for going awol for most of the year. matt_bas had a lot of issues going on on a personal level and needed to put his head down and really work hard this year. Having said that he can see the light at the end of the tunnel and is glad to be back.
Is it really preseason without a preseason training thread? matt_bas thinks not! Some of you may be aware that matt_bas likes to do some training write ups so he thought after our greatest ever premiership who better to do the first preseason write up than the greatest ever poster. So down to Subi he went. Hid in his favourite bush after kicking Dark Sharks out and watch on as the some players started thier training. Details of what matt_bas saw is below:
- Gee Venables has some skills. He mainly jogged laps before spending the last half hour or so on set shots - curled a few beauties from behind the boundary line at the end for a bit of fun. Hardly saw him miss a kick.
- What interested me the most was that McGovern split his time between the defenders and the forwards, could be seeing a swingman role in 2018. He was his usual dominant self down back in some match simulation drills before going head-to-head with Mackenzie in a forward role.
- Bayok is very fast - Cripps was in most of the drills with him and couldn't keep up.
- Nelson is pale as buggery and still doesn't really have the body shape you'd expect of an AFL player.
- There was a big bloke who pulled up next to me and I could have sworn it was Suma, but I'm sure I was wrong...
- Masto was the player picked to kick the goal at the end today and nailed it. Celebrations were huge.
- No sign of Cole, Parto or Hill. Couldn't tell you why.
- Sheed kicked on his right foot for 80% of the session, I reckon. Nice to see players working on their non-preferred so readily.
- Mitchell looked a class above the other midfielders bar Priddis. Just knew how to find the footy and wouldn't miss a target all session. Shuey was very quiet and seemed to be taking direction from Mitchell. Doesn't bode well for his captaincy credentials, maybe he doesn't want the gig?
- Duggan looked on and was hitting targets left and right. Set for a huge 2018.
- Giles went up against Vardy in the ruck contests and I'd say that Giles has the inside running at the moment.
- Won't say too much about it in case I was just reading too much into it, but Rioli looked as though he'd enjoyed the Christmas break a bit too much. A few of the coaches pulled him aside and they were having quite an animated conversation before Rioli was sent to do laps for the rest of the session. Good news for Le Cras, I suppose.
- A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat.
- Petrie looked like he was doing a great job 'coaching' the younger forwards in between the drills. Darling in particular seemed to be following him around.
*matt_bas would like to clarify that these events did happen...perhaps not now...but many moons ago they did happen.
Is it really preseason without a preseason training thread? matt_bas thinks not! Some of you may be aware that matt_bas likes to do some training write ups so he thought after our greatest ever premiership who better to do the first preseason write up than the greatest ever poster. So down to Subi he went. Hid in his favourite bush after kicking Dark Sharks out and watch on as the some players started thier training. Details of what matt_bas saw is below:
- Gee Venables has some skills. He mainly jogged laps before spending the last half hour or so on set shots - curled a few beauties from behind the boundary line at the end for a bit of fun. Hardly saw him miss a kick.
- What interested me the most was that McGovern split his time between the defenders and the forwards, could be seeing a swingman role in 2018. He was his usual dominant self down back in some match simulation drills before going head-to-head with Mackenzie in a forward role.
- Bayok is very fast - Cripps was in most of the drills with him and couldn't keep up.
- Nelson is pale as buggery and still doesn't really have the body shape you'd expect of an AFL player.
- There was a big bloke who pulled up next to me and I could have sworn it was Suma, but I'm sure I was wrong...
- Masto was the player picked to kick the goal at the end today and nailed it. Celebrations were huge.
- No sign of Cole, Parto or Hill. Couldn't tell you why.
- Sheed kicked on his right foot for 80% of the session, I reckon. Nice to see players working on their non-preferred so readily.
- Mitchell looked a class above the other midfielders bar Priddis. Just knew how to find the footy and wouldn't miss a target all session. Shuey was very quiet and seemed to be taking direction from Mitchell. Doesn't bode well for his captaincy credentials, maybe he doesn't want the gig?
- Duggan looked on and was hitting targets left and right. Set for a huge 2018.
- Giles went up against Vardy in the ruck contests and I'd say that Giles has the inside running at the moment.
- Won't say too much about it in case I was just reading too much into it, but Rioli looked as though he'd enjoyed the Christmas break a bit too much. A few of the coaches pulled him aside and they were having quite an animated conversation before Rioli was sent to do laps for the rest of the session. Good news for Le Cras, I suppose.
- A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat.
- Petrie looked like he was doing a great job 'coaching' the younger forwards in between the drills. Darling in particular seemed to be following him around.
*matt_bas would like to clarify that these events did happen...perhaps not now...but many moons ago they did happen.