Training 27/3/08

[Drummond]

Well I made the treck to AAMI today to see the guys train before flying out to Melbourne. They trained on Max Basheer Reserve. On the website they described it as a ‘light session’ and that’s an understatement as they were barely out there for 40 minutes. Met up with cmndstab and Riggy1 and there was a cecent turn out actually. There’s really not a lot at all to write about, I’ll just mention a few things I noticed.

Only 25 players took part in the training run, the team that will take the field as well as the 3 emergencies. Henderson, Burton, Thompson and Gallman all started out running laps and interestingly Shaun McKernan was the lone draftee from last year that was out there. He didn’t take part in any of the session instead just taking shots on goal for a while.

They started out doing a bit of kick to kick spread out across the ground. It then shifted to one half of the ground and it was yellow shirts v red. One team was taking the kick outs from defence and the other was obviously defending. Nothing noteworthy really, Dangerfield did look good though. It then turned to a full ground drill where there were 3-4 players in one group who lead and then kicked to a leading player from another group. Again, nothing exciting and nothing really to report. Griffin did drop an absolute sitter though which happens all too frequently. As we all know Taylor Walker’s skills are superb. From memory Ben Rutten left the track before this drill, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. van Berlo and Porplyzia got through the session no worries.

The session basically finished there with players opting to take shots on goal before heading off. Ivan Maric and Kurt Tippett worked with the ruck coach and the midfielders in the centre of the ground. A nice moment was when Petrenko went over to Matt Rendell near the end of the session and the two shook hands as Rendell congratulated him on making his debut. Speaking of Rendell, he was on the phone for a while talking all things football. Petrenko, Tippett and Knights were the last of those playing to leave the track as they were all taking shots on goal. Gallman and Burton were the last to leave.

All in all a very low key session, not a lot worth mentioning but I did take a few pics.

 

[Drummond]

 

[-CG-]

Thanks for the report and pics

I thought we may have been wearing our home jumpers, I guess not...

 

[IddyBiddy]

Thanks for the report Drumm, some terrific pics.

 

[WALL-e]

Is Walker riding an invisible motor bike that i'm not aware of?

Thanks for the report drum.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Is Walker riding an invisible motor bike that i'm not aware of?

Thanks for the report drum.

Hes Superman and hes here to save us...
TEX crank that Souljah boy

 

[DirrtyBee]

Haha I still think those tops look really gay.
They remind me of that long iceblock with all those different colored strips.

 

[albyplus]

Saw and spoke briefly to Craigy as he was leaving training this morning.
He seemed to be very relaxed, calm and confident about tomorrow.
I have a good feeling.

 

[brucetiki]

On a slightly sidenote, good to see the yellow numbering on our away strip. The blue last year was a tad hard to see.

 

[Dandy_GO]

Cheers Drum! Great snaps.

 

[cmndstab]

Nice work Drumm As Drummond mentioned, I was also at training. Was good to catch up with Drummond and meet Riggy. There really isn't much to report but for the most part the skills looked pretty good.

McKernan was the only uninjured player not in the 25 out training. I don't know if it's because the others were training with their SANFL clubs, or just that he wanted to show a bit extra by coming to a training session he wasn't required to. In his usual way, he seemed to kick a lovely goal one kick and then spray it off to the side the next. One thing you can definitely say about McKernan, he is just a huge unit. The amount of bulk he's put on over the preseason is frightening, and he still looks like there's a lot more filling out to do. He is going to enormous.

Gallman, Burton, Henderson and Thompson were doing the laps, and later in the session all worked on kicking to one another and shooting for goal. It was good to see Burton working with Gallman on his goalkicking at the end of the session. Gallman had some terrible shanks but Burton spoke to him for a while and they started sailing through, which tells me that Burton is probably a better goalkicking coach than any others we've ever had Gallman is not someone I think of lining up in the forward line but I guess he's got the height and athleticism. Good to see Burton getting involved with a youngster despite recovering from injury himself.

With the main training group, there was a fair bit of enthusiasm and some smiling faces but mostly they were just going through the motions, as I guess you would the day before a match. For some reason Cook was wearing the #34 guernsey still, perhaps they haven't got him a correct away guernsey yet? It will be interesting to see if that happens tomorrow.

A few things stuck out to me in training... normally at training I don't see Dangerfield use his speed but he did a couple of very nice things in drills today, including a sprint to intercept a certain mark to Cook (though, unfortunately, he spilt the mark himself). He also laid a decent tackle later on which was nice to see. Cook made some great leads and showed off his pace in a lunging mark at one point.

Otten seems to be viewed as a linkman, which I think is a brilliant fit since in my opinion he has a great footy brain and he has good hands.

Despite the good signs, the Crows still seemed to struggle to break through their own zone. Whether this is because their own zone is just that good, or because they are still not good enough at it yet remains to be seen. We saw brilliant signs against Sydney but have to remember that Sydney does not play a zone.

At the end of the session a group of players were practising goalkicking. I've been super-impessed with Tippett's attitude this preseason, that dude never leaves the track early. He again was the last of the main squad to leave the track, practising set shots from 40m out all around the forward line. He didn't kick all of them but his action and the ball trajectory look 100% better than last year. He really looks like he's putting in the hard yards to get that part of his game fixed up. Jacky and Petrenko as usual were practising their snaps from the pocket, and were joined by Griffin and Dangerfield. There were some shocking kicks (Griffin in particular, who has fallen so far backwards this preseason), but also some really nice ones. After months of saying that Jacky cannot kick goals, he proved me wrong by slotting some beautiful snaps, including a few "Daniel Motlop-like" bouncing balls through the goals. Dangerfield doesn't seem to like the checkside too much and prefer to try to slot a drop punt through, and he got most of them so it's hard to argue with results. Petrenko seems to get less than 40% from the pocket so hopefully he doesn't take too many marks there

All in all, a bit of a nonevent training session but great to see the boys. Nobody got injured, most skills were sharp (though I did have a heart attack when Petrenko grubbered the first ball of the session, until I realised they were practising the other guy scooping the ball off the deck ) and the goalkicking looked better than it has all preseason. I have a nagging doubt about our ability to beat the zone but certainly many of our players are starting to look in really good form.


I can't end a training report without mentioning Walker, so let me just say I looked at him closely today and there is no doubt in my mind he has the body to play a key forward role. He's bulked up beautifully over the preseason, his arms have real definition, and I didn't see him miss a kick on goal today. A shining debut awaits!


I'm so pumped for tomorrow! GO YOU CROWS!!



PS - Drumm and Rigs, you'll be pleased to hear I did manage to meet my supervisor before he left and get sorted out what I needed to. And Drumm, you'll also be pleased to hear that I will be able to leave the birthday lunch in time to watch the match tomorrow. Things are looking up!

 

[NTRabbit]

Is it just me, or is Tippett starting to look even beefier than Drago?

 

[adelaide_40]

Great write up and pics Drummond.


Good ot hear porps, VB, Rutten made it through ok.

 

[SAAndy]

Nice to see someother people look good in the the away jumper than me haha just joking Nice Pictures

 

[Riggy1]

They should wear red shorts.

Nice reports Drummond and Commander. I would do one, but I knew it would be crap compared to all of your ones.

Just to add to it. There was a SAFM interveiw before you got there. With Vince's sister

 

[Symesy15]

LOL his arms make it look like he's about to serve in a game of tennis.

 

[macca23]

Nice work Drummond and beautifully rambled Stabby.

Love your pics Drum - keep up the good work.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

There was a SAFM interveiw before you got there. With Vince's sister

Which one?

 

[Riggy1]

Which one?

interveiwer- the chick
sister- the hot one

 

[Symesy15]

interveiwer- the chick
sister- the hot one

Shayla? she's the youngest one and IMO the prettiest
Elle?
Wouldn't have been Kirra since she's now going out with Paul Stewart even though like 3 months ago she was with Aaron Kite.

 

[WALL-e]

haha alkward....

 

[cmndstab]

So I tried searching for Shayla Vince on Google Image Search and the first result was for a Shayla Vincent, the 2006 Miss Abbeville recipient at the Louisiana Cattle Festival.



.......

 

[Riggy1]

So I tried searching for Shayla Vince on Google Image Search and the first result was for a Shayla Vincent, the 2006 Miss Abbeville recipient at the Louisiana Cattle Festival.



.......

if you go searching into it as much as you did for Rory Sloane, would you get in trouble for stalking?

 

[cmndstab]

if you go searching into it as much as you did for Rory Sloane, would you get in trouble for stalking?

Shayla doesn't have as good hair as Rory.

 

[-CG-]

About Cook's guernsey... the proper one still mustn't be ready, because he was wearing a replica one today.