The guys were out on the track this morning for a solid session that lasted around two hours. Missing in action were our senior players namely Goodwin, McLeod, Edwards, Doughty, Burton, Bock, S.Thompson, Reilly, Rutten and Johncock.
In the restricted group today was Martin, Donnelly, L.Thompson, Porplyzia, Otten, Maric and Danger were back and forth, van Berlo, Symes and Moran. I was excited to see Andy out there in nothing more than a knee bandage although he is still walking with a considerable limp and can't straighten his left leg.
The first warm up drills were the stock standard rotating groups as seen all summer. One group would work on handballs, another kicking, one attempting to 'shut down' the player with the ball, goal kicking and some sprints. Despite Danger not participating in some of the other drills he was right into the one where a player would run in and apply a tackle on the guy with the ball. He managed to wrap his arms around Griffin and would show frustration when he missed a tackle.
Next up the squad broke into two separate teams, yellow v blue, and played a bit of scratch match. Griffin was up again Craig in the ruck and did a considerably good job. Craig appeared to be keeping his weight low and trying to move Griffin away from the path of the ball but big Griff was able to get first hands to the ball the majority of the time.
The ball was thrown up on either wing before being quickly worked out by the likes of Sloane, Dmack and Shaw on the wing who impressed me.
The forwards and defenders at either end switched teams from yellow to blue on a few occasions but stayed in their respective arcs. Some early match ups I spotted were Sellar (b) v Hart (y), Young (b) v Shaw (y), Armstrong (b) v Petrenko (y) and Davis (b) playing as the spare man. Down the other end was Walker (y) v Douglas (b), Talia (b) v Tippett (y) and Knights was down there too.
Tippett kicked a goal and Knights had a couple of shots in his typical play on sweeping style but other than that I don't think there were many chances for goal.
While this was going on Danger, van Berlo, Symes and Wright were off doing what looked to be a small kicking/leading type drill, and Maric and Porplyzia were running.
The next drill was a game style drill although it was executed with a lot more structure. Three or four players would run down the wing, having received the ball from a trainer, where they would handball between themselves before one player sent the ball to a trio who were running towards them. This group would then run in the opposite direction the first three were running and deliver the ball to a forward running back into space within the 50. About three forwards would vie for space against each other and their defenders.
Dougie impressed me the most in this one. He was running hard, showed clean hands and just generally looked really confident. Also at this point Brodie had moved on to some kicking and you really couldn't tell that he had a knee recon four-five months ago.
The following drill was similar in that there seemed to be a clear objective with structures and the like. One player would receive the ball in defence and kick long down the wing to a leading player who would then look inside to try to switch the ball to the other side of the ground. Once that was achieved the player with the ball would kick, most of the time, to a forward running back with the flight of the ball.
This drill didn't appear to be executed all that well with N.Craig giving the players a bit of a verbal spray at one point. It seemed to be working it was just when the ball was kicked to a forward where they would struggle to mark it as the kick was mostly poorly executed. Knights needed to be sitting outside the 50 so he could just bang it home. Also Young limped off with that appeared to be a right leg injury, it was hard to tell just what he had injured, or whether he was carrying it before I'm not sure as I didn't see a specific incident.
The group then moved onto a few warm down tasks including a zig zag type handball one and just some general kicking to watch other. They finished as usual with some shots on goal.
I definitely liked the look of Dougie out there today. With the senior players absent his performance appeared to go up another gear. Dmack was as good as always and Sloane showed some nous in clearing the ball. Cook, who hasn't really stood out to me that much over summer, looked really put together today and moved very well. Out of our new draftees Shaw used the ball really well down the wing and had no fear in backing himself in. Craig's kicking looked alright over short distances but again struggled over a greater length. Oh and Aiden Riley is apparently nicknamed 'Ros' if I heard correctly.
In the restricted group today was Martin, Donnelly, L.Thompson, Porplyzia, Otten, Maric and Danger were back and forth, van Berlo, Symes and Moran. I was excited to see Andy out there in nothing more than a knee bandage although he is still walking with a considerable limp and can't straighten his left leg.
The first warm up drills were the stock standard rotating groups as seen all summer. One group would work on handballs, another kicking, one attempting to 'shut down' the player with the ball, goal kicking and some sprints. Despite Danger not participating in some of the other drills he was right into the one where a player would run in and apply a tackle on the guy with the ball. He managed to wrap his arms around Griffin and would show frustration when he missed a tackle.
Next up the squad broke into two separate teams, yellow v blue, and played a bit of scratch match. Griffin was up again Craig in the ruck and did a considerably good job. Craig appeared to be keeping his weight low and trying to move Griffin away from the path of the ball but big Griff was able to get first hands to the ball the majority of the time.
The ball was thrown up on either wing before being quickly worked out by the likes of Sloane, Dmack and Shaw on the wing who impressed me.
The forwards and defenders at either end switched teams from yellow to blue on a few occasions but stayed in their respective arcs. Some early match ups I spotted were Sellar (b) v Hart (y), Young (b) v Shaw (y), Armstrong (b) v Petrenko (y) and Davis (b) playing as the spare man. Down the other end was Walker (y) v Douglas (b), Talia (b) v Tippett (y) and Knights was down there too.
Tippett kicked a goal and Knights had a couple of shots in his typical play on sweeping style but other than that I don't think there were many chances for goal.
While this was going on Danger, van Berlo, Symes and Wright were off doing what looked to be a small kicking/leading type drill, and Maric and Porplyzia were running.
The next drill was a game style drill although it was executed with a lot more structure. Three or four players would run down the wing, having received the ball from a trainer, where they would handball between themselves before one player sent the ball to a trio who were running towards them. This group would then run in the opposite direction the first three were running and deliver the ball to a forward running back into space within the 50. About three forwards would vie for space against each other and their defenders.
Dougie impressed me the most in this one. He was running hard, showed clean hands and just generally looked really confident. Also at this point Brodie had moved on to some kicking and you really couldn't tell that he had a knee recon four-five months ago.
The following drill was similar in that there seemed to be a clear objective with structures and the like. One player would receive the ball in defence and kick long down the wing to a leading player who would then look inside to try to switch the ball to the other side of the ground. Once that was achieved the player with the ball would kick, most of the time, to a forward running back with the flight of the ball.
This drill didn't appear to be executed all that well with N.Craig giving the players a bit of a verbal spray at one point. It seemed to be working it was just when the ball was kicked to a forward where they would struggle to mark it as the kick was mostly poorly executed. Knights needed to be sitting outside the 50 so he could just bang it home. Also Young limped off with that appeared to be a right leg injury, it was hard to tell just what he had injured, or whether he was carrying it before I'm not sure as I didn't see a specific incident.
The group then moved onto a few warm down tasks including a zig zag type handball one and just some general kicking to watch other. They finished as usual with some shots on goal.
I definitely liked the look of Dougie out there today. With the senior players absent his performance appeared to go up another gear. Dmack was as good as always and Sloane showed some nous in clearing the ball. Cook, who hasn't really stood out to me that much over summer, looked really put together today and moved very well. Out of our new draftees Shaw used the ball really well down the wing and had no fear in backing himself in. Craig's kicking looked alright over short distances but again struggled over a greater length. Oh and Aiden Riley is apparently nicknamed 'Ros' if I heard correctly.
I'm missing watching the boys run around so thank you both for the report 
