The players were out nice and early this morning, training for the first time on Max Basheer Reserve for the pre-season. The large group, including all new draftees, started as usual with some stretches. The exceptions were a group of players on the far side of the reserve, restricted to handball and light drills for the morning. This group consisted of Nathan Bock, Trent Hentschel, Nathan Basset, Scott Thompson, Michael Doughty, Nick Gill and Greg Gallman.
Having completed their stretches, the main group moved onto a simple drill. One player would stand out, from a group of about four, and dribble the ball on the ground for the oncoming player to pick up and finish through with a handball and kick. The player out in front then mixed it up a bit, either dribbling the ball or throwing the ball high into the air.
At his point, Luke Jericho and Jason Porplyzia were running some laps and stretching but joined in with the main group for most of the session.
The main group then progressed to a kick-to-kick drill, one player kicking to another over a reasonable distance. The skills here were a little off. Plenty of marks were dropped and targets were missed. Hopefully that's just due to the early start.
The next drill involved two large groups, which then split up; half down one end half down the other. This drill involved handball, and kicking over a longer distance while running. Brett Burton was happy to give young Patrick Dangerfield some tips (Dangerfield is quite speedy!).
Young draftee Myke Cooke and James Sellar then begun some work on the bikes.
Pressure was the focus of the next drill. Groups of four worked within a square with one team mate trying to possess the ball of the other three.
Following this, Neil Craig called his troops in for a chat before moving onto the next drill, which was done for a reasonable amount of time. It involved a trainer for each group (about four groups all up), again with half down the other end. It started with one player passing the ball to the trainer with a short kick, the trainer would then either handball, dribble or throw the ball to the player who carried through from the kick. After receiving the ball, the player would handball to the oncoming player then that player would kick to the trainer, receive a handball back and then pass the ball on. Mackay looked good in this drill he was moving well and Tony Armstrong looks a lovely player, very Nathan Krakouer, but not quite as skinny.
The next drill involved the whole main group working with just the one footy working on handballing. It was very fast paced with limited room to move. It then got a little more complicated when sheparding was introduced. Jonathon Griffin looks the same as earlier this year and Andy Otten is quite tall and well built. Nick Gill and Nathan Basset moved onto the bikes at this point. Another handball drill followed, this time working in three moving the ball back and forth, some players would then continue running and have a shot at goal.
As training moved towards the end of the session, more game-style situations were focused on. Trent Hentschel, Nathan Bock, Scott Thompson and Greg Gallman were working together with a trainer doing some handball and ground work. The main group were split into two, one in each 50m arch, were kicking the ball between them before one would have a quick shot at goal. Luke Jericho, Aaron Kite, David Mackay, Jarrhan Jacky, Tony Armstrong and a few others were jogging around the boundary at this stage. Myke Cook and James Sellar had finished up on the bike, and after a light stretch, they did some handballing between them.
The main drill for the day then begun, there were no separate 'teams' to start with. A light shower passed through for about 5-10mins but all continued as normal. Nathan Basset came off the bike and was favouring his left hamstring. Back on the reserve, the main group split into two teams, white v blue shirts with three players wearing fluoro shirts. On the other side of the park and separate group, made up of players from the main group, would rotate through with the main group. This smaller group would work on push ups, sit ups, short sprints etc. Trent Hentschel was lagging a couple of metres behind in his separate group, who were now running some laps.
Back with the main group, it appeared Kite was matched with van Berlo, Johncock on Jacky and Massie on Otten. Craig gave the call, "Move it out!" on several occasions. Jacky took a lovely mark in front of Johncock and also one back with the flight of the ball. Jacky was fast, and beat Johncock on most occasions. Bernie Vince was in a fluoro shirt, and was positioned in the midfield; he rarely dropped a mark or missed a target. Kurt Tippett had his left calf strapped, but appeared fine. It was great to see Trent Hentschel have some shots of goal towards the end of training.
Overall, it was a pretty good session, just disappointed to see our skills a little down. But I guess that would surely improve over the next month or so. I saw the new guernsey in Crowmania and it looks much better in real life, different, but definitely better than the red one
Oh and I'll have some pics up soon.
Having completed their stretches, the main group moved onto a simple drill. One player would stand out, from a group of about four, and dribble the ball on the ground for the oncoming player to pick up and finish through with a handball and kick. The player out in front then mixed it up a bit, either dribbling the ball or throwing the ball high into the air.
At his point, Luke Jericho and Jason Porplyzia were running some laps and stretching but joined in with the main group for most of the session.
The main group then progressed to a kick-to-kick drill, one player kicking to another over a reasonable distance. The skills here were a little off. Plenty of marks were dropped and targets were missed. Hopefully that's just due to the early start.
The next drill involved two large groups, which then split up; half down one end half down the other. This drill involved handball, and kicking over a longer distance while running. Brett Burton was happy to give young Patrick Dangerfield some tips (Dangerfield is quite speedy!).
Young draftee Myke Cooke and James Sellar then begun some work on the bikes.
Pressure was the focus of the next drill. Groups of four worked within a square with one team mate trying to possess the ball of the other three.
Following this, Neil Craig called his troops in for a chat before moving onto the next drill, which was done for a reasonable amount of time. It involved a trainer for each group (about four groups all up), again with half down the other end. It started with one player passing the ball to the trainer with a short kick, the trainer would then either handball, dribble or throw the ball to the player who carried through from the kick. After receiving the ball, the player would handball to the oncoming player then that player would kick to the trainer, receive a handball back and then pass the ball on. Mackay looked good in this drill he was moving well and Tony Armstrong looks a lovely player, very Nathan Krakouer, but not quite as skinny.
The next drill involved the whole main group working with just the one footy working on handballing. It was very fast paced with limited room to move. It then got a little more complicated when sheparding was introduced. Jonathon Griffin looks the same as earlier this year and Andy Otten is quite tall and well built. Nick Gill and Nathan Basset moved onto the bikes at this point. Another handball drill followed, this time working in three moving the ball back and forth, some players would then continue running and have a shot at goal.
As training moved towards the end of the session, more game-style situations were focused on. Trent Hentschel, Nathan Bock, Scott Thompson and Greg Gallman were working together with a trainer doing some handball and ground work. The main group were split into two, one in each 50m arch, were kicking the ball between them before one would have a quick shot at goal. Luke Jericho, Aaron Kite, David Mackay, Jarrhan Jacky, Tony Armstrong and a few others were jogging around the boundary at this stage. Myke Cook and James Sellar had finished up on the bike, and after a light stretch, they did some handballing between them.
The main drill for the day then begun, there were no separate 'teams' to start with. A light shower passed through for about 5-10mins but all continued as normal. Nathan Basset came off the bike and was favouring his left hamstring. Back on the reserve, the main group split into two teams, white v blue shirts with three players wearing fluoro shirts. On the other side of the park and separate group, made up of players from the main group, would rotate through with the main group. This smaller group would work on push ups, sit ups, short sprints etc. Trent Hentschel was lagging a couple of metres behind in his separate group, who were now running some laps.
Back with the main group, it appeared Kite was matched with van Berlo, Johncock on Jacky and Massie on Otten. Craig gave the call, "Move it out!" on several occasions. Jacky took a lovely mark in front of Johncock and also one back with the flight of the ball. Jacky was fast, and beat Johncock on most occasions. Bernie Vince was in a fluoro shirt, and was positioned in the midfield; he rarely dropped a mark or missed a target. Kurt Tippett had his left calf strapped, but appeared fine. It was great to see Trent Hentschel have some shots of goal towards the end of training.
Overall, it was a pretty good session, just disappointed to see our skills a little down. But I guess that would surely improve over the next month or so. I saw the new guernsey in Crowmania and it looks much better in real life, different, but definitely better than the red one
Oh and I'll have some pics up soon.
