- Dec 12, 2010
- 5,772
- 6,750
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
Managed to sneak away and have a good look at training this morning. I won't bother with a long-winded description of the session, but will provide a very brief outline and then comment on my player insights by exception. Before you ask, Dave, no, I don't have video or photos.
The session was a skills-type session (as opposed to a fitness session). There were four stations set up around the ground each working on a different skill-type. The playing group was split into four, and they just rotated through the stations in 15-20 blocks. The stations were focussed on marking long kicks into the forwardline / backline, working on quick decision and disposal by foot in traffic, traffic-based stoppage work, and one other one which seemed to be hands in traffic (but couldn't really see it and didn't spend too much time looking at it).
Selected (random) memories / thoughts from the session. As you will see, my focus was mainly on the younger / less exposed guys.
- One of the 4 groups was the active talls (i.e. ruckmen and kp players), and John Barnes was following this group from station to station and giving guidance. He then took some ruck drills at the end of the session. Clearly is a ruck / development type coach working with the talls.
- Keefe, N Brown, Dawes, Wood, Reed, Farmer didn't take part (i.e only walked a few laps or did quick hands drills). Apart from Wood, none of these guys had visible ailments, but Wood had his right arm in a sling. Was disappointed to see Keeffe not participate, as I am hoping he can develop quite a bit this preseason and push for selection, and a trip to Arizona would be important in this.
- Witts has a reasonably neat left foot kick, despite being somewhat awkward looking. He can hit short (30m) targets pretty well. He still got pantsed in body-work (both in ruck contests and marking contests), but hopefully some more leg strength and instruction will help him develop in this area. Also needs to work a little on timing his leap to take the ball at his highest point and with a full outstretch, which would make him difficult to spoil. At this point he still takes the ball too low (from what I saw).
- Macnamara has terrific skills for a tall, particularly on his left where he rarely missed a target, long or short. Shows the value of repetition training, and (as I have said previously) embarrasses some of our senior players who do not work on their opposite foot. Also possesses some good zip for a big bloke and a good leap. Just needs to work on his one-on-one body work / ruck work.
- Yagmoor is quite good overhead when competing with players around his size. I think he will develop into someone who can regularly outmark the small forwards (like a Milne, etc) when he puts on size and strength. Just reads it well and is very clean (one-grab).
- Mooney stayed back a little while and had a kick with Clarke. His kicking is still very robotic, as you would expect (i.e. puts head over ball, then throws back left arm, then guides the ball to foot, etc), but should develop fluency over time. Kind of reminds a little bit of Clement's action, which was never all that fluent (but obviously effective). His actual kicks were quite accurate over 20 - 30m, constantly hitting low bullet like passes to the chest of his target, despite sometimes not quite spinning right. Signs are okay at this early stage, but it should be noted that he was under no pressure, and didn't really kick too much in full flight (i.e. ony after a few balancing steps). Will need to start working on his left over this period as well (never too early).
Ceglar looked okay in the marking and ruck drills, and has a neat short pass.
Happy to answer any questions, and I will post anything that I may have forgotten if I can remember it.
The session was a skills-type session (as opposed to a fitness session). There were four stations set up around the ground each working on a different skill-type. The playing group was split into four, and they just rotated through the stations in 15-20 blocks. The stations were focussed on marking long kicks into the forwardline / backline, working on quick decision and disposal by foot in traffic, traffic-based stoppage work, and one other one which seemed to be hands in traffic (but couldn't really see it and didn't spend too much time looking at it).
Selected (random) memories / thoughts from the session. As you will see, my focus was mainly on the younger / less exposed guys.
- One of the 4 groups was the active talls (i.e. ruckmen and kp players), and John Barnes was following this group from station to station and giving guidance. He then took some ruck drills at the end of the session. Clearly is a ruck / development type coach working with the talls.
- Keefe, N Brown, Dawes, Wood, Reed, Farmer didn't take part (i.e only walked a few laps or did quick hands drills). Apart from Wood, none of these guys had visible ailments, but Wood had his right arm in a sling. Was disappointed to see Keeffe not participate, as I am hoping he can develop quite a bit this preseason and push for selection, and a trip to Arizona would be important in this.
- Witts has a reasonably neat left foot kick, despite being somewhat awkward looking. He can hit short (30m) targets pretty well. He still got pantsed in body-work (both in ruck contests and marking contests), but hopefully some more leg strength and instruction will help him develop in this area. Also needs to work a little on timing his leap to take the ball at his highest point and with a full outstretch, which would make him difficult to spoil. At this point he still takes the ball too low (from what I saw).
- Macnamara has terrific skills for a tall, particularly on his left where he rarely missed a target, long or short. Shows the value of repetition training, and (as I have said previously) embarrasses some of our senior players who do not work on their opposite foot. Also possesses some good zip for a big bloke and a good leap. Just needs to work on his one-on-one body work / ruck work.
- Yagmoor is quite good overhead when competing with players around his size. I think he will develop into someone who can regularly outmark the small forwards (like a Milne, etc) when he puts on size and strength. Just reads it well and is very clean (one-grab).
- Mooney stayed back a little while and had a kick with Clarke. His kicking is still very robotic, as you would expect (i.e. puts head over ball, then throws back left arm, then guides the ball to foot, etc), but should develop fluency over time. Kind of reminds a little bit of Clement's action, which was never all that fluent (but obviously effective). His actual kicks were quite accurate over 20 - 30m, constantly hitting low bullet like passes to the chest of his target, despite sometimes not quite spinning right. Signs are okay at this early stage, but it should be noted that he was under no pressure, and didn't really kick too much in full flight (i.e. ony after a few balancing steps). Will need to start working on his left over this period as well (never too early).
Ceglar looked okay in the marking and ruck drills, and has a neat short pass.
Happy to answer any questions, and I will post anything that I may have forgotten if I can remember it.
Thanks too to Shellz and Hoggy. I think we need to include this mystery dog in FMW asap. I don't know how he has been overlooked so long.
