I am expecting my report to not be the only from today's session, considering that there were a number of bigfootyers around the reserve this morning
- Gill, Stevens, Griffin, Edwards and Armstrong were the early arrivals of the group and warmed up with a couple of laps around the oval. Burton joined them shortly afterwards and par took in nothing else.
- The restricted group involved Gill (who showed he can cleverly juggle three footballs at a time), Cook, Moss and Kite. While the main group completed their warm up, these guys were doing handball drills.
- As part of the warm up there was a wrestling drill where one player is encouraged to bring the other to the ground. During this, Knights lifted Armstrong onto the ground but in doing so appeared to hurt his already strapped wrist. The trainer had a look at it and tested it out with some handball and kicking work but he sat out the next few drills, before joining in later.
- The first main drill focused on one side of the ground and basically just involved the players moving the ball from one end to the other in varying ways. After a while the players then switched to focusing on moving the ball down the other wing. Only one forward 50 and the centre of the ground were used.
- The other 50m arch was occupied by our new draftees who were refining their kicking technique. A trainer was pretty much going through step by step how they should kick the ball.
- The next main drill involved the main group splitting into two, with one half practicing their agility by weaving through poles down the centre of the 50 and then moving off to the side to have a shot on goal. The other half were working in the other 50 and moving the ball along the edge by handballing and kicking before a player running forward would have a shot on goal. After a period of time had elapsed both groups switched drills.
- Two separate groups remained in place for the next round of activities. One group was doing a kind of circuit like work around the oval which involved varied actions such as jogging, short sprints, dropping to the floor, push ups and wrestling. While there have been some question marks over his head of late, Sellar seemed to have no issues with keeping up. The other group were going through ball movement in the centre involving a mix of defensive zoning like players. The groups then switched.
- At this time all the new recruits were on the bikes. Cook, Moss and Kite were running laps, Mackay, Maric and Gill were working together completing various small activities and Dangerfield may have hopped on a bike for a bit and I saw him later icing his right hamstring. I also spotted Porplyzia out on a bike.
- One of the final drills for the morning had a strong focus on tackling and was very entertaining to watch as it was completed right near all the supporters! Basically, a triangle is set up with two players on a point who then run around a cone before enter the triangle to tackle/evade the other player. At one point a handball receiver was introduced into the drill, so there were three players at a time. Mark Bickley was conducting one group who he game some strong pointers to afterwards!
- The last two drills involved the whole main group and covered the entire oval. The first drill was more structured while the second was freer flowing and game like.
- As things were beginning to wrap up and some players were starting the long walk back to the visitor's rooms, Sellar, Tippett, Hentschel and Jacky were goal kicking. Hentschel seems to have corrected his unusual run up to some degree. Mackay also had a couple of shots and goal and Sell and Gill were having a couple of stab like kicks at each other, so the person receiving the ball was marking the ball in their hands as if they were on a lead.
- Gill, Stevens, Griffin, Edwards and Armstrong were the early arrivals of the group and warmed up with a couple of laps around the oval. Burton joined them shortly afterwards and par took in nothing else.
- The restricted group involved Gill (who showed he can cleverly juggle three footballs at a time), Cook, Moss and Kite. While the main group completed their warm up, these guys were doing handball drills.
- As part of the warm up there was a wrestling drill where one player is encouraged to bring the other to the ground. During this, Knights lifted Armstrong onto the ground but in doing so appeared to hurt his already strapped wrist. The trainer had a look at it and tested it out with some handball and kicking work but he sat out the next few drills, before joining in later.
- The first main drill focused on one side of the ground and basically just involved the players moving the ball from one end to the other in varying ways. After a while the players then switched to focusing on moving the ball down the other wing. Only one forward 50 and the centre of the ground were used.
- The other 50m arch was occupied by our new draftees who were refining their kicking technique. A trainer was pretty much going through step by step how they should kick the ball.
- The next main drill involved the main group splitting into two, with one half practicing their agility by weaving through poles down the centre of the 50 and then moving off to the side to have a shot on goal. The other half were working in the other 50 and moving the ball along the edge by handballing and kicking before a player running forward would have a shot on goal. After a period of time had elapsed both groups switched drills.
- Two separate groups remained in place for the next round of activities. One group was doing a kind of circuit like work around the oval which involved varied actions such as jogging, short sprints, dropping to the floor, push ups and wrestling. While there have been some question marks over his head of late, Sellar seemed to have no issues with keeping up. The other group were going through ball movement in the centre involving a mix of defensive zoning like players. The groups then switched.
- At this time all the new recruits were on the bikes. Cook, Moss and Kite were running laps, Mackay, Maric and Gill were working together completing various small activities and Dangerfield may have hopped on a bike for a bit and I saw him later icing his right hamstring. I also spotted Porplyzia out on a bike.
- One of the final drills for the morning had a strong focus on tackling and was very entertaining to watch as it was completed right near all the supporters! Basically, a triangle is set up with two players on a point who then run around a cone before enter the triangle to tackle/evade the other player. At one point a handball receiver was introduced into the drill, so there were three players at a time. Mark Bickley was conducting one group who he game some strong pointers to afterwards!
- The last two drills involved the whole main group and covered the entire oval. The first drill was more structured while the second was freer flowing and game like.
- As things were beginning to wrap up and some players were starting the long walk back to the visitor's rooms, Sellar, Tippett, Hentschel and Jacky were goal kicking. Hentschel seems to have corrected his unusual run up to some degree. Mackay also had a couple of shots and goal and Sell and Gill were having a couple of stab like kicks at each other, so the person receiving the ball was marking the ball in their hands as if they were on a lead.