Training Training Reports - Current report, Monday 13th February, Post #1427

[threesixpio]

Who are the top 3?

Thank goodness for this thread. This time of the year really drags on

Howe, Burton and........

 

[threesixpio]

JOR

 

[NICE1]

Anyone get a look at Hanrahan?

 

[threesixpio]

Anyone get a look at Hanrahan?

I liked his highlights a lot. Also interested

 

[Mrzohs]

to the guys that have been down at training
match simulation who is/ going to play chb....... how is brand going ? heatherley?
are timmy o and shoey both training with the fwd line maybe one of them will switch back.

 

[Brant]

to the guys that have been down at training
match simulation who is/ going to play chb....... how is brand going ? heatherley?
are timmy o and shoey both training with the fwd line maybe one of them will switch back.

I reckon TO'B's future lies in the Back Pocket, if he's to make it at AFL level (with us). Going to need to work on his body strength though, if he's to replace Gibbo.

 

[NICE1]

I liked his highlights a lot. Also interested

Moves well, nice burst of speed and neat kick..

 

[threesixpio]

I reckon TO'B's future lies in the Back Pocket, if he's to make it at AFL level (with us). Going to need to work on his body strength though, if he's to replace Gibbo.

Really? I definitely see him as a forward. Has a terrific set shot and can lead well. So close to clunking a lot of decent marks too.

Not saying he will make it by the way but see him as a forward if he does

 

[Brant]

Really? I definitely see him as a forward. Has a terrific set shot and can lead well. So close to clunking a lot of decent marks too.

Not saying he will make it by the way but see him as a forward if he does

I agree, he has those attributes, but he's not forcing Roughy or Victory out of the side & seems behind Schoey & Sicily (of which we'll likely only play 1).

I think he's in his last year of his contract & I just reckon he's got more immediate opportunity taking an AFL level role in the BP than he does up forward.

Either way, I reckon he's got a lot of classy attributes - just has to work out how to put them together as I don't think his game is (yet) anywhere near the sum of his parts.

 

[threesixpio]

I agree, he has those attributes, but he's not forcing Roughy or Victory out of the side & seems behind Schoey & Sicily (of which we'll likely only play 1).

I think he's in his last year of his contract & I just reckon he's got more immediate opportunity taking an AFL level role in the BP than he does up forward.

Either way, I reckon he's got a lot of classy attributes - just has to work out how to put them together as I don't think his game is (yet) anywhere near the sum of his parts.

Yep - Schoey, Sicily and TOB is an intriguing little list selection battle.

and burton and has turned up too!

 

[heh]

Burton would be handy in the back line, he showed class there in the few games he was there last year.

 

[Number 24]

It was a wet morning at Waverley to start with but as the players filtered out the rain stopped, leaving a cool and very overcast morning for training, much nicer than last week’s heat.

Managed to get a really good look at a bunch of the new/younger players. Here are my thoughts on today’s session:

James Cousins is this year’s Kade Stewart. Looks exceedingly comfortable for a Rookie and is not afraid to call for the ball and be the play maker. I called it for Stewart last January and I will call it for Cousins today, he will be elevated.

Connor Nash = Get Excited!! I am truly stunned at how quickly he has picked up the game. He has speed and agility to burn but his running patterns are fantastic, always seems to either beat his opponent to the ball for a big Gibbo style intercept fist or at least halves the contest. I believe there some within the club that are really pleased with what they are seeing.

Harry Morrison looks a likely type. Very comfortable in all of the drills and held his own in the tackling drills against Rough who is twice his size.

Sicily was very prominent in the match drill, taking really good pack marks and showing his trademark aggression. I think he will go up another notch this year and with Rough back in the forward line he will be a real handful for oppo defenders.

Speaking of Rough, showed some real class and trademark bullocking in the match drill. He is going full tilt and it’s a beautiful sight to see.

Fitzpatrick was good in the match drill. Shows good poise and is a great mark. Was used as the marking option number of times buy the defender taking the kick out.

Luke Surman really impressed me today. This is the first I have seen of him in full training. He was playing largely as key defender and was impressive with his closing speed and ability to get his long arms to the ball first. He successfully spoiled a number of what I thought would be certain marks by his opponent. Could he be a future KPD?

Ty Vickery = a total contrast to last Friday’s session. Last week he looked a little lost and reserved. Today I thought he was very good. Really stepped up in the match drills, was in the thick of the action and looked way more composed and comfortable. Hit his targets every time and used his big frame effectively. The de-tigering process is underway and starting to work.

Kieran Lovell is very quick and demonstrated his exceptional side step and evasive skills during the match drill. Took possession in the back line, ran down the middle evading all who came at him with deft little side steps in true Sam Mitchell style. Unfortunately he turned over the kick but the run and evasiveness was outstanding. He must have one of the best side steps in the league.

Tackling drills and core strength were a real focus today with two separate sessions approximately an hour apart. These sessions involved the players partnering up with one starting on the ground with the ball and the other holding him down. Objective of the player with the ball was to retain the ball and get to his feet, object of opponent was to keep them down and strip them of the ball. This was intense stuff. Haven’t heard that much grunting and groaning since Monica Seles played tennis. Jaeger was partnered up with Tom Mitchell in both sessions and there is no way known that they would be letting Jaegar do stuff like this if his knee was not 100%. The amount of strain on their joints is huge. Incidentally, Tom Mitchell was one of only a couple of players who managed to get to their feet. The guy is a beast. Whitecross was one of the others that manged to get his feet.

On the topic of Jaegar, he was again going full tilt in the match drill and is as classy as it gets.

O’Rourke, Breust and Stratton seemed to be part of a small re-hab group but I don’t think there is anything significant about that.

As always, I will add anything I remember over the course of the day.

Cheers,
Axeman

I was interested in the Axmans take on training Friday 13 January and that of the other contributors so I thought I might spend a couple of minutes outlining what caught my eye.

First is that this session was quite different to the other post Xmas sessions. In the others there has been considerable emphasis on competitive ball work by foot mainly involving competitive structure plays. Not so yesterday. By comparison there was minimal ball movement by foot. There was an extensive exercise of competitive ball movement by hand. "goals" were set up about 40 meters apart and the objective was to move the ball end to end by hand and only using a kick to someone out wide to get around the defensive wall the opposing side had established. All of this was done at considerable speed and using linking techniques to beat the defense. So speed by hand and accuracy were the key ingredients. I estimate this went on for about 20-25 minutes.

There were two exercises involving ruckmen and onballers. The first took place in the centre circle. The ball thrown up, ruckman goes up leaping into Monkey holding the bag, ruckman taps the ball down and a midfielder grabs is it. The ball is dropped and the ruckman and onballer run to the goal square at the freeway end, then jog back to the center whilst the exercise is repeated with another ruckman and onballer. This was not a competitive exercise. It's purpose ? I'm not sure but perhaps a combination of timing the jump and gather and aerobic efforts of pressing forward following a centre bounce scenario. But make of it what you will !

The second exercise was more clear in it's intent. This one was all about a punishing drill in getting to contest after contest. Three ruckmen and same number of onballers were set up on the near side of the ground and the same on the other-side of the ground. Okay, there's a ball-up at each location, ruckman jumps, ball down to the onballer who drops the ball and the ruckman and his mate run to the other location on the other side of the ground. Backwards and forwards they went non stop for over half an hour. It was exhausting. This was nothing to do with skill (of either the ruckman or the onballer) it was a grueling physical exercise.

Also of minor interest was the group of 18 or 20 of the players at the (city?) end of the ground spending more than an hour bare footed doing Pilate exercises focusing on the feet, ankles and calves.

So if you have seen the Jack Russell vid of the aims of the pre-season programme you might note that this session fits in neatly to that agenda.

As noted it was a no show by Hartung. From what I saw on Wednesday I suspect he has a back issue. Possibly a Hammy but the way he bent down to pickup a ball at his feet I suspect it is more likely his back. TOB, who has missed a few sessions since Xmas was back and completed the whole session of two and a half hours.

I watched a young tall newbie in consultation with Monkey. About 10 minutes of intensive talking and listening. I thought it was Mitch Lewis and he confirmed it was him when he came off the oval and had a chat. He said Monkey was explaining the Hawthorn forward line structures etc. Mitch said he was thrilled to be at Hawthorn and he is working with Roughy and Vickery on the art of forward play more generally. Nice Kid.

Poppy picked up a corkie to a knee on Wednesday and aggravated it again yesterday. Nothing serious.

And here endth the sermon.

 

[Fetnarr]

Thanks for the update Stratts

 

[hawker5]

View attachment 326649

Ice cream - what Ice cream

 

[moginie]

Thanks Number 24. Always interested to read your reports and your take on things.

 

[cryptor]

Sounds like a lot of training is intentionally being conducted whilst players are under a lot of fatigue. 16 new PBs in the time trial. Drills with a focus on quick movement by hand. Ruck drills with a running component.

I think it's pretty easy to see where Clarko is steering the game plan. The only worry I have is that no team was able to beat our premiership run by simply copying us. They had to innovate with a different answer. Hopefully the uniqueness of the new game plan will become evident later.

 

[Alley oops]

Thanks for the reports and different perspectives. It certainly sounds like a physical game plan in the making or is Clarko using it as practice to combat and find a way around it. While our team is the toughest going round over recent years, if we were to adopt a more physical and combative game plan, I wonder how we would handle it over a long period, even taking into account that we purposely have our players play light(er). Or is it as we have done- play different for needs. Can't wait for the game plan being unveiled.

 

[OzJohnnie]

Nice report. I don't know what the game plan will hold but I would be good money its faster and harder, particularly inside.

Can't wait. I bet the boys come out looking to punish. Round 1 will be so nice.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Burton would be handy in the back line, he showed class there in the few games he was there last year.

Would love him on a half back flank setting up play for the next 12 years.

 

[Garf]

JOR

3 out of 3

 

[threesixpio]

3 out of 3

Would be stoked if all three were in the team by years end (for the right reasons)

 

[Garf]

Anyone get a look at Hanrahan?

Yeah I did but then found out he was actually Harry Morrison

 

[Garf]

to the guys that have been down at training
match simulation who is/ going to play chb....... how is brand going ? heatherley?
are timmy o and shoey both training with the fwd line maybe one of them will switch back.

Heatherley has been going well, doing all the right things. Pulled off a great tackle in a drill which got a lot of support from those who saw it. He's been in the system long enough to expect good solid performances from, and he'll more than likely add to his tally of games (game) this season.

 

[stemline]

Just want to add my voice to others - thanks to those providing the training reports. Just awesome reading.

Also wondering, has anyone noticed any step-up from Hardwick or Willsmore? Especially Willsmore, who has been on the cusp for a while. Has he shown signs of improving the aspects he needs to in order to play senior footy (some hardness to start with)?

 

[Number 24]

Just want to add my voice to others - thanks to those providing the training reports. Just awesome reading.

Also wondering, has anyone noticed any step-up from Hardwick or Willsmore? Especially Willsmore, who has been on the cusp for a while. Has he shown signs of improving the aspects he needs to in order to play senior footy (some hardness to start with)?

I think a couple of things need to be kept in mind especially if you watch the video of Jack Russell talking about what he as the head fitness man wants to achieve over the coming weeks. The first is that getting the strength and aerobic levels up to the optimum is a primary focus. And to that end every player is wearing a GPS to record all his stats. The second is that each player has his own individual training programme. For instance I saw somewhere in this thread that JOR was in the rehab group on Friday. He was not injured and hence not really in rehab. He's had a very heavy training load and he was in a recovery mode, on a lighter training day. Therefore it's nigh on impossible to assess individual players until they start playing matches, scratch matches or otherwise, because one doesn't know what their training loads are.

But having said that Willsmore looks to me to have bulked up a little bit and is running particularly well at present. His skills seems fine and doesn't make any glaring mistakes that I've noticed when they are doing ball work. He has always been a beautiful kick. My issue with the lad is that he's too like Clinton Young for my taste......needs a cup of cement and a liter of water before every game if he's going to make it. Like Lowden, Grimley et al they can train the house down because they know they aren't going to get hurt on the training track. Different issue when it's a real game and you know the opposition will hurt you if they can. So for me it's a watch and wait to see if Dallas has taken another step. I hope he proves me wrong.

By way of contrast I have watched Langford especially when they are doing congested clearance work. He seems to still that 2016 (and earlier) trait of fumbling and double grabbing at the ball and hence players are all over him like a bad suit before he can breakaway. therefore his disposal by hand and foot is compromised.