Training 6/12

[Kooley]

ventured down to pp this morning for my first look at the new look blues and i'll just give a quick summary of some the things that caught my eye:

jake edwards
still only 18 and trained the house down today. as i expected they are grooming this boy to play a role up forward in 2007 and beyond. he was part of the forward group (fev,fisher,wait,betts,raso, young and blackwell that split from the main group to practise some forward strategies. edwards is quick and strong and moves like a panther. if he has the footy smarts which i hope he has with his pedigree he will be our wildcard either up forward or in defence next year.

adam hartlett
trained really well and looks to have fully recovered from whatever injury he had reportedly sustained a few weeks back. Moves really well for big man and uses the ball as well as any other player on our list. if he can stay fit which i hope he does pencil him in for rd 1.

andrew walker
recovering from groin surgery and only ran laps. he is massive. in fact he probably is a little too big. his bottom half is huge and i can see him causing some players some headaches this year.

clinton benjamin & joe anderson
both look lean and powerful but will need to improve their kicking. they both continually struggled to hit targets in the simplest of drills with little or no pressure.

cain ackland
appears to have settled in very well and looks popular among the playing group especially with eddie betts whose enthusiasm around the place is so infectious.

tommi johnston
he is small, in fact he is tiny. lovely mover and very quick i have feeling we might rookie him in the hope that he can put on some size over the next 12 months.

cheers

kooley

 

[one_twelve112]

Thanks for the update Kooley

 

[Jeremias]

Thanks for that mate. Just a few questions:

1) Who was in the injury group?

2) Who else besides Tommi trained with us? Was Jake Williams there? Ty Zantuck? Cameron Cloke? Michael Jamieson? Orren Stephenson? Any others? If so, what were your impressions of them?

3) What sort of drills?

4) Who loked the best? And the worst?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Also, did you take any pictures?

 

[av76]

Thanks for that...good to here some news about Hartlett and Edwards.

The kicking situation with Anderson and Benjamin deosn't sound too surprising given what has been discussed on this forum. How much can kicking improve if they get a specialist coach helping these guys? Is it something you can improve significantly??? I imagine kicking on the run would be particularly hard to improve. Just curious.

 

[Kooley]

Thanks for that mate. Just a few questions:

1) Who was in the injury group?

2) Who else besides Tommi trained with us? Was Jake Williams there? Ty Zantuck? Cameron Cloke? Michael Jamieson? Orren Stephenson? Any others? If so, what were your impressions of them?

3) What sort of drills?

4) Who loked the best? And the worst?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Also, did you take any pictures?

injury group was both o'hailpins, walker, josh kennedy who ran laps and kouta who ran laps.

didn't notice both mclaren and wiggins. they weren't on the track.

jamieson trained and looks very focused and would be chance to be rookied or drafted imo. zantuck, ross young and jake williams all trained. ross young who i have seen alot of at vfl looks too one sided to me but you never know what the club are thinking. no stephenson or cam cloke thank god.

after the initial warm ups they did full ground drill moving the ball quickly from defence to the forward line. it was done quite well and most players impressed with their voice and enthusiasm.

after that they split up into forwards (fev, raso, betts, young, waite, fish, blackwell and edwards) defence (bower, lance, hartlett, jamieson, austin, anderson, t-bird, benjamin, teague, bannister ) and midfielders (the rest) to work on set plays.

they finished off with some agility work which was great to watch especially fevs group who had a bit of fun with it.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Moves really well for big man and uses the boy as well as any other player on our list.

I'm glad I didn't see this session .

 

[Jeremias]

injury group was both o'hailpins, walker, josh kennedy who ran laps and kouta who ran laps.

didn't notice both mclaren and wiggins. they weren't on the track.

jamieson trained and looks very focused and would be chance to be rookied or drafted imo. zantuck, ross young and jake williams all trained. ross young who i have seen alot of at vfl looks too one sided to me but you never know what the club are thinking. no stephenson or cam cloke thank god.

after the initial warm ups they did full ground drill moving the ball quickly from defence to the forward line. it was done quite well and most players impressed with their voice and enthusiasm.

after that they split up into forwards (fev, raso, betts, young, waite, fish, blackwell and edwards) defence (bower, lance, hartlett, jamieson, austin, anderson, t-bird, benjamin, teague, bannister ) and midfielders (the rest) to work on set plays.

they finished off with some agility work which was great to watch especially fevs group who had a bit of fun with it.

Thanks mate.

I can't think of any more questions at the moment, but if I do I know where to come!

Also, good to hear Carrazzo trained with the midfield group...

 

[Kooley]

I'm glad I didn't see this session .

hartlett kicked betts around for the entire session hitting fev on the titt every time. eddie just kept smiling.

 

[BlueBelle]

Thanks for the info Kooley! Most appreciated

 

[Deej]

You can teach people and improve their skills through mentoring and practise, not as easy to teach someone to be more athletic and dynamic/explosive, or to run faster.

 

[av76]

You can teach people and improve their skills through mentoring and practise, not as easy to teach someone to be more athletic and dynamic/explosive, or to run faster.

Thanks...I hope they really focus on those two kids while they are still pliable...sounds like excellent prospects otherwise.

 

[Marc Shmurf 3]

You can teach people and improve their skills through mentoring and practise, not as easy to teach someone to be more athletic and dynamic/explosive, or to run faster.

This is true to a certain extent. You need to be reasonably balanced have the right kicking action for this to happen. By the looks of both Benjamin and Anderson the seem to have the correct technique for kicking just the finishing in terms of power needed and direction is a problem. In saying this then tutorage will fix this problem. However in the case of Brad Fisher who we all know isn't the best kick in the side, training and teaching will not help his problem. He has been in the system for over 3 years now and i think his kicking has improved maybe 5-10% in this time. On the run & when under pressure his drop of the ball is hopeless, whereas when he is having a set shot, obviously has more time to think about what he is doing therefore connect in the right direction and position.

 

[Marc Shmurf 3]

In addition to training news i to was there today and Tomi Johnston and Jake Williams were both there. Possibly rookie listings for the both of them. Interesting to see both Pagan and Zantak talking together after training for about 5-10 minutes. I think the inevitable will happen and Zantak will be playing with the Blues next year. They better not F%8K up on this one or else we will be the laughing Stock again (Angwin, Norman etc).

McLaren and Wiggins were out with the boys not training for the first 20 min then went inside the training rooms. In regards to Wiggins, seems to have bulked up a fair bit over last couple of months.

Fisher was back on the training track after a week off. Looked to be in fairly good shape.

Ratts spent lots of time with Tex and Shmurf after training. In particular with Murf, doing a kicking drill which they had to kick a ball in a straight line. Ratts has not lost anything. Im convinced that he would still give a few of these boys a run for their money. Murf's kicking is becoming more consistent which is good.

I haven't seen Braddles for a couple of weeks now. Must be away.

Interesting to see Gibbs go off the track earlier than the rest of the boys. He was involved when the groups split up but then left the track. Guys you should have seen how good it looked in one of the drills with the onballers. They had Hampson in the ruck and his Rovers were Murf, Simpson and your truly Gibbs. How wonderful that looked. What a future that looks like.

About Hampson you should see his leap. On one occasion he jump over dempsey and landed on his back. I am amazed with his leap.

Like Kooley i to think that Edwards looks fantastic. I think that he could be the trump card this year. Mr Versatile. Was drafted as a defender but are grooming him as a midfielder. Interesting to see what they do with him. Personally i think that he and Fisher will be fighting for the same position this year. The second leading FP or HFF.

& Hartlett to looked free for the first time in a while. did everything without hesitation. Please be the end of his injury worries.

Go Blues

Cheers guys.

 

[blues2007]

In addition to training news i to was there today and Tomi Johnston and Jake Williams were both there. Possibly rookie listings for the both of them. Interesting to see both Pagan and Zantak talking together after training for about 5-10 minutes. I think the inevitable will happen and Zantak will be playing with the Blues next year. They better not F%8K up on this one or else we will be the laughing Stock again (Angwin, Norman etc).

McLaren and Wiggins were out with the boys not training for the first 20 min then went inside the training rooms. In regards to Wiggins, seems to have bulked up a fair bit over last couple of months.

Fisher was back on the training track after a week off. Looked to be in fairly good shape.

Ratts spent lots of time with Tex and Shmurf after training. In particular with Murf, doing a kicking drill which they had to kick a ball in a straight line. Ratts has not lost anything. Im convinced that he would still give a few of these boys a run for their money. Murf's kicking is becoming more consistent which is good.

I haven't seen Braddles for a couple of weeks now. Must be away.

Interesting to see Gibbs go off the track earlier than the rest of the boys. He was involved when the groups split up but then left the track. Guys you should have seen how good it looked in one of the drills with the onballers. They had Hampson in the ruck and his Rovers were Murf, Simpson and your truly Gibbs. How wonderful that looked. What a future that looks like.

About Hampson you should see his leap. On one occasion he jump over dempsey and landed on his back. I am amazed with his leap.

Like Kooley i to think that Edwards looks fantastic. I think that he could be the trump card this year. Mr Versatile. Was drafted as a defender but are grooming him as a midfielder. Interesting to see what they do with him. Personally i think that he and Fisher will be fighting for the same position this year. The second leading FP or HFF.

& Hartlett to looked free for the first time in a while. did everything without hesitation. Please be the end of his injury worries.

Go Blues

Cheers guys.

Thanks for the great update, keep them coming on all training sessions mate, i live on the gold coast now so all this ifor is sensational.

One question: What grooup did they have GRIGG in and how did he look?

thanks again

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

Thanks to everyone who puts training updates in here

Really appreciated Great to hear that Walker and Murphy hung around after training with Ratten to work on kicking.

Just a question - who marked up who in the Back/Forward bit? Last time i saw pics of Bower on Fevola. Just wondering who was on who, and who was outplayed by their opponent.

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

Thanks to bluesgirl at csc for these pics:-

The Defenders

Bower is a tank! And I love Ratts.

Grigg, Austin, Joey

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

Apparently this is Hartlett and Hampson

My man Mr. Kennedy.

Smiles down at PP

Ratten and Murphy

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

Setanta and someone

Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree?

Oh. My. God. I can't wait for next year.

Williams, Gibbs, Johnston, Benjamin and the Hampster.

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

Which of these photos makes you smile the most?

Again, massive credit to bluesgirl at csc for these.

Me? I like the Kennedy one. ANd the Bower one. And the ratten/murphy one. Oh, and the ones of Walker.

 

[carn_the_cattas]

Gibbs looks like a giant next to Jake Williams and Tomi Johnston.

 

[GYNO]

JK is a MONSTER!!!!!
Lookin forward to the 1st guy he takes out next year.
It's a gunna huuuurrrrt..............

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

I love how Kennedy's top is massive - everyone else has fitted tops, yet he has one miles too big, and it hangs off his shoulder like something out of the 80s.

I love how he is ultra casual and not metro.

CHF is looking the best it has looked for some years.

Just give it a few more years, he's still a kid, but my God, it's making me excited already!

 

[blues4flag]

Walker, you're a gun . Can't wait to see him next year.

 

[BlueBelle]

Apparently this is Hartlett and Hampson

Correct me if I am wrong but I think the guy on the right is Thornton?

 

[blues4flag]

Correct me if I am wrong but I think the guy on the right is Thornton?

That were my initial thoughts to, but he seems a little tall to be Thornton, if that is Hartlett next to him.