Training 29/1/10

[Histrionics]

TradeDraft was heading down today and because he has a yellow card he couldn't start this thread himself so I thought I would help him out.

How did it go Dave?

Anyone else that went down feel free to let us know how it went.

 

[BEEG]

Ball update would be good few people have said his OP is giving him trouble

 

[The Dawes]

Ball update would be good few people have said his OP is giving him trouble

Unless one of those 'few people' is Dave Buttifant or some other Pies medico, then I give zero creedence to those reports.

 

[Bay Pie]

Ball update would be good few people have said his OP is giving him trouble

These people wouldn't be St.Kilda supporters are they.

He's been in photos in every training session that has been reported on with photos provided. In the middle doing the hard stuff too. If he was having issues he'd be eased back.

 

[DaVe86]

Unless one of those 'few people' is Dave Buttifant or some other Pies medico, then I give zero creedence to those reports.

you can gather a lot from these reports i reckon. If Ball is training in the main group, running freely and participating in all drills with the midfield group then it is a good indication he is on track to play the saints in the NAB Cup.

If he is running laps or doing light training, or leaves early or arrives late, then it is a good indication some of the rumours about his OP are on the money.



I'm interested to see what Dale Thomas and Trav Cloke are doing,

 

[dima17]

From my understanding, Cloke is really struggling with his knee injury. The club haven't come out and stated this but word is that he is not right and that what they claimed was a knock to the knee is far more serious. I think this is a great concern :s

 

[daics cousin]

From my understanding, Cloke is really struggling with his knee injury. The club haven't come out and stated this but word is that he is not right and that what they claimed was a knock to the knee is far more serious. I think this is a great concern :s

Its not his knee its his toe,thats why he grimaced when he kicks the ball

 

[NT.Thunder]

Its not his knee its his toe,thats why he grimaced when he kicks the ball

Just before it sails through the behind post after a shot on goal

Cmon, 'Straighten up and Fly right'

 

[The Dawes]

you can gather a lot from these reports i reckon. If Ball is training in the main group, running freely and participating in all drills with the midfield group then it is a good indication he is on track to play the saints in the NAB Cup.

If he is running laps or doing light training, or leaves early or arrives late, then it is a good indication some of the rumours about his OP are on the money.



I'm interested to see what Dale Thomas and Trav Cloke are doing,

None of us is privy to the details of the individual programs each player has these days, so the opinion of any given track watcher is based on guesswork. If they went to every or most sessions, then an opinion might be more informed, but really none of them have any way of knowing what is expected of each player in any given session.

I certainly appreciate the input of the track watchers who take the time to post their observations, but I'm not buying in to any theories relating to a player's fitness.

 

[Heater39]

Had the day off work today so I went down to my first ever training session.

The boys were split up into the main group and what looked like a 'rehab' group, consisting of Corrie (who had a moon boot on his right foot), Dick, Keefe, Dale Thomas and Scott Reed. The rehab boys just did some handballing drills away from the main group at first, Keefe and Dick then ran some laps while Dale did a few sprints.

From what I could tell everyone else participated in the main group session bar Jolly and Davis, who weren't there. The started off with some basic lane work before going into a scratch match, using the whole field. Blight and Josh Thomas did the lane work but left before the match

Trav was in the main group but about 2 mins into the praccy match he hurt his left knee (the bandaged one) and came off limping.

Jack, Rusling, Ball, Presti, Fraser all completed the full session and all looked to be moving well.

Luke Rounds showed some potential as either a small forward or rover with his ability to read the drop of the ball. It was only glimpses but I saw potential.

Wellingham was taking a lot of the kick outs and giving plenty of run from the back half, using his pace. I'm a big fan of Wellinghams and think he could be a real player for us.

Sinclair, Cook and Barham all have a few kicking issues.

Tom Young was there, training with main group and looked good.

Shae kicked a couple of freak goals in the scratch match including a snap from the boundary and hacked out of mid air for a goal. He is a great size, his marking is good it's just his kicking that needs some work. Although despite his awkward action his accuracy is ok.

Harry O is a legend, trains hard and is easily one of the most vocal, along with Heater and Maxy, no wonder our backline works so well together.

The best body is a 3 way tie between Simon Buckley, Macaffer and N. Brown. While Wood and Beams both look to have put on some size.

It was also great to see Bucks back at the Pies, he's still one of the best kicks at the club.

 

[Histrionics]

Thanks for the update Heater39

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

Thanks for the update Heater.

Funny thing is how much this reads like the last 5-6 training sessions

The whole Trav's-knee-thing seems a bit weird to me. There'll be those who would know a lot better, but wouldn't he be better off just continuing to rehab, do weights and light cardio and then just practice kicking drills rather than the full-contact group activities? There's still 8 weeks to go, surely a further rest would help sort things out?

 

[Bloben]

Thanks for the report Heater39.

Not good news on Cloke at all with him aggravating his hurt knee.

I'm expecting big things from Harry and believe he will be AA this year.

Our main worry is our forward line at the moment. Sorry to ask lots of questions but how did Jack, Rusling, Dawes and Medhurst train? Also who did Reid line up on and how did he go?

Thanks mate

 

[Unknown Identity]

Unless one of those 'few people' is Dave Buttifant or some other Pies medico, then I give zero creedence to those reports.

I can tell you speaking with one of the pies players, that his OP is troubling him and will need to be managed throughout the season.

 

[HFF]

Great news overall, particularly with Rus in full flight.

Thomas has done all of pre-season and went to Arizona early so him missing a few sessions now won't affect his season.

Cloke is the big concern. He has done almost all of the pre-season and he too was a part of the group that went to Arizona early. His fitness base should be fine, however, with the season so close, he should not be risked on the track if he is in discomfort. He is either ready to train or not in which case should be in rehab group.

Mixed reports as to whether it is his knee (heavily strapped) or his toe too. If we need to manage him throughout the season, so be it. He is of huge importance to us having a real crack at some silverware this season.

 

[3066]

Ok I went.

They came out late and I stayed till about 11. When I left they were still doing drills

Of note, the only players that I did not see were Jolly and Leon. If there were others that didn't train I didn't notice them. Everyone did full training except for the following ..... Daisy, Scott Reed, Corrie, Dick and Lachlan Keeffe (pretty sure it was). Crow took these guys along the side lines for rehab training and they did things like handballs in a 5 point star formation. At one point they had 6 balls in that 5 point star formation and it was pretty cool. When a ball was dropped they all had to do about 5 pushups with Dick of course doing crunches instead. Not sure what was wrong with Daisy as later on he was doing quite a few 120 metre sprints with Crow. If I had a pure, PURE guess I'd say lower back prob but only because it was noticable he had no bounce in his stride when he ran along side Crow. Maybe he was just tightness in general? Or toe problem again? Who knows? I didn't get a feeling of concern. Not sure what is wrong with Reed or Keeffee but Corrie was wearing a rehab moon boot type runner. Not really noticable and only picked it up when he was doing 15m kicks on his left. No real great loss.


Everyone is looking really, really fab but I guess people wanna know about key players.

Ball - the guy should be the cover of "perfect ripped bodies" if there is such a thing. His body fat level would put most elite to shame. He runs well, looked great had no idea or hint there might be something wrong unless you read a BF post with someone asking.

Trav - started well with drills, looks great BUT when they started to do more of a team game (white tops vs reds) he pulled up proppy. Doc went out and he was flexing his knee. Came off and MM was talking to him. He was pointing at top of his thigh to the knee. Trav aint right in my books and absolutely no way should he be considered for NAB Cup. At a guess latteral movement in the team game caused a twitch. Not worth the risk if he aint right at the moment IMO.

Stand outs - Woody. I remember last time I went to training a few weeks back I was impressed with his bulk and it happened again today too. N Brown looks a gun and 2nd best in shape at the club behind Ball. Everyone else looking in great shape. Wellingham looks a little better upstairs and I don't care what the baggers say I really rate him as a player. Harry - man what a gun..... just everything you want in a player. Heater, Dids, Maxy etc .... everyone going great.

Shae Mac .... coming along very, very nice and impressed how he is travelling in training. His handballs look natural in short passes though didn't notice how he was on his left. On warm up he kicks with Jaxson which personally I don't understand the wisdom of that?!!!???? He should be kicking with another tall like Fraser who kicks well. Not Jaxson who is a mid fielder and kicks shit. Anyway Shae Mac is great in training but when play starts he is LOST .... it's expected though. He trains great so it's promising but it's training after all and game play is obviously another. VFL this year for sure but unless a miracle happens and he studies really hard he won't be getting a senior game this year. He lacks the experience in a foreign sport and it needs to be 2nd nature. Shots on goal sometimes resemble a giraffe kicking on it's opposite foot. Poor guy is thinking too much at times but he is trying and there's a real lot to like about the fella. His huge hands, leaps, timing and marking are tingle worthy for the future.

any other questions just ask.

GO PIES!!!

 

[Old Spice]

Thanks for the update Heater.

Funny thing is how much this reads like the last 5-6 training sessions

The whole Trav's-knee-thing seems a bit weird to me. There'll be those who would know a lot better, but wouldn't he be better off just continuing to rehab, do weights and light cardio and then just practice kicking drills rather than the full-contact group activities? There's still 8 weeks to go, surely a further rest would help sort things out?

Same here. We have other options, best to play the %'s and rest them up if they have significant niggles, but what do I know.

 

[Heater39]

Thanks for the report Heater39.

Not good news on Cloke at all with him aggravating his hurt knee.

I'm expecting big things from Harry and believe he will be AA this year.

Our main worry is our forward line at the moment. Sorry to ask lots of questions but how did Jack, Rusling, Dawes and Medhurst train? Also who did Reid line up on and how did he go?

Thanks mate

Jack and Dawes were good, both managed to snag a couple of goals, however as is often the case with Dawes they weren't really 'key forward' goals. E.g. one was a handpass over the top from Jack while the another from an uncontested mark etc.

Medhurst got through unscathed but didn't really do much, same with Rusling.

Reid started off on Cloke, not sure who he went to after that. He got a bit of the ball and looked comfortable in the back half without standing out.

 

[mattys123]

Surely it's getting to the point where a decision has to be made on Travis Cloke over whether he has further surgery or is just rested for several weeks.

It seems there is no point in continuing to push Cloke at training, he just can't get through a training session, which begs the question "how far will he get in a real game?".

I'm not a medical expert, but I think the call has to be made for Trav to either have surgery or have a few weeks off physical training, because what he is doing now just seems to be making the injury worse.

Cloke IMO is still in our top 5 for importance on field, we just have to get him right, and action must be taken now.

 

[Histrionics]

Thanks 3066.

Obviously terrible news about Trav. Hopefully it's not too serious.

 

[DaVe86]

Good news and bad news. Sounds like training is really starting to hit full boil.

But Trav Cloke and Dale Thomas were 2 players earmarked for big 2010's and both seem to be really struggling at this stage.

Without Cloke, Dawes should be tearing up training. Cloke does not sound right. The last 3 training reports have all said that he has pulled up halfway through sore.

Dale Thomas has definitely aggravated the toe you would think going by previous reports.


But the positives are some of the younger guys like Reid, Brown and Wellingham who seem to be set for big years.

 

[Bloben]

Jack and Dawes were good, both managed to snag a couple of goals, however as is often the case with Dawes they weren't really 'key forward' goals. E.g. one was a handpass over the top from Jack while the another from an uncontested mark etc.

Medhurst got through unscathed but didn't really do much, same with Rusling.

Reid started off on Cloke, not sure who he went to after that. He got a bit of the ball and looked comfortable in the back half without standing out.

Cheers for that. A fit and firing Cloke is the missing link in our side right now IMO. Jack will kick his goals and we have lots of options with smalls. Hopefully Rusling may be able to add another dimension however we need Cloke to throw his body around to make an option.

 

[Pie eyed]

Ball - the guy should be the cover of "perfect ripped bodies" if there is such a thing. His body fat level would put most elite to shame. He runs well, looked great had no idea or hint there might be something wrong unless you read a BF post with someone asking.

That is particularly good news.

I'll take any reports of OP problems with a dose until the sources are more reliable then.
No offence Unknown ID.

 

[DThomas]

Good to hear that Daisy was doing sprints. He should be ok soon.

Where is TD/DTM and his happy snaps?

 

[danielnajdek]

Was Rusling there or is he enjoying his retirement
Doesn't sound good for Travis. We really need him for round 1.