Training - Wednesday 28th November, 2012

[daisycutter 29,914]

The "arm wave", it has almost become a trademark of Melbourne over the past decade.

Morton and Moloney were both very good at it.

don't forget robbo

[jnrmac 20,304]

Good report guys thanks.

[olisik 4,060]

How is Garland going, don't hear much talk of him these days.

Any indication if he will be played as a forward/back next season?

He is a fav of mine.

[jnrmac 20,304]

The "arm wave", it has almost become a trademark of Melbourne over the past decade.

Morton and Moloney were both very good at it.

And you could barely see Morton's .....

[Jonesbag 487]

Cheers to the blokes that go down and report on training, its an excellent read.

[Barney Rubble 1,576]

How is Garland going, don't hear much talk of him these days.

Any indication if he will be played as a forward/back next season?

He is a fav of mine.

Definitely training with the backs predominately sitting beside Frawley in the back pocket.

[Hannibal 5,814]

Good report.

Lots of match simulation today. Emphasis on running hard, defending man-on-man, repeat efforts, and playing on. Last year we often stagnated and were caught flat footed, but today it was play on, spread, play on, spread, play on. When your team has the ball run hard, or create space and become an option, when your team loses the ball go man-on-man, or defend space. I thought the skill level for such a high intensity drill was pretty good.

Earlier there were two separate groups in confined spaces doing "3 on 3" handball. The ball was tossed to an unsuspecting player who then had to evade, sidestep, handball, or make his way through tacklers. Viney was excellent at this.

Before the final match simulation with the umpire there were 3 groups - green, white and blue. One group was off the ground and the other two ran simulations that went the length of the ground. The interchange was constantly used with players calling their teammates off after a brief spell. There would be at least a half dozen players lined up waiting to get back on at any one time. When a blue player came off he was immediately paired with another player where a coach would throw the ball from 5 feet and quick spoils would take place and then the players would swap. One trying to mark and the other spoil. They'd then line up to go back on. The players are constantly working on their games, even the small stuff. Everything is loud, professional and timed to the minute. Very little down time. Even their drink breaks are short and sharp.

Toumpas, Terlich and Jones running the boundary at intervals, as mentioned by the first training report. I saw the big Kent on the other side of the oval, but he didn't take place with full lap running.

My standout today was Jetta. He moved quickly, tackled well (ran down Viney at one stage plus another great take down), got involved regularly and hit targets. Late in the session he also cleaned up Nicholson who took a while to get up. Tapscott and Watts also got tangled late and both were proppy. Tapscott played on, but Watts finished up. He slighly rolled an ankle, but looked fine. It wouldn't stop him training on Friday I wouldn't have thought. He took the boot off but was walking OK afterwards if not slightly gingerly. Jones and Howe were good. Viney tries to do a little too much on occasions, but I already love the guy. Hannath moves well for a big guy, is built well even though he's still young and looks to have reasonable skills. Davey had a decent session. Looked lively. Magner trained well and at one stage took Byrnes down beautifully after a chase.

It's only training, so I appreciate that there's not much to read into it, but having been to plenty of sessions over the years I'm buoyed by the atmosphere and quality of the various training drills. They already look far fitter, stronger and are running hard at pace.

There were quite a few people there, so there should be more reports from different angles.

[rjay 25,347]

The tackling coach is John Muggleton, from the Melbourne Rebels Rugby team, been in the game for 30 years, both with League and Union, renowned tackler when he played league, I loved watching him last week and good to hear he is again pulling up the arm wavers, the technique I think he is teaching is to aim for the midriff and push upwards and back.......I reckon we will see lot's of panicky handballs from tacklees (if that is a word) assume plan will be to get second player to follow in

The only way to tackle with more players becoming adept at lifting arms in the tackle and getting clean use away. Forget the idea of pinning the arms, you only risk tackling high. Take them low, take their body off the ball which does 2 things it hurts (takes the wind out) and they will be thinking preservation rather than getting off a good handball, the ball will go into dispute.

[beelzebub 23,390]

Thanks fellas.. i very rarely get to training but might try in the new year ( work permitting ) . I think im in for one hell of a shock( the good kind ) at what might present to me.

Are you sure its Melbourne youre watching...certainly seems like a very different bunch to the last session I saw..lol.

Tackling is interesting.. I wonder how long before they decide we are tackling "incorrectly".. Well we cant 'sling'...probably cant 'slam'. Im all for it personally... bury the bastards is my thinking. Make them hurt, make them panic, make them scared !!!

Seems like they will be much better prepared for the coming season.

Sounds interesting re Spencer as we are often described as poor developers of players but it sounds like were doing just that. Could be a monster if he can get it all together. Like the idea of Tommy changing his kicking ( I mean he had to..lol ) Not always easy though to unlearn and relearn a supposedly lifelong style.

It sounds a bit like now Neeld thinks he has a good smattering of capable cattle that hes unleashing more of the ultimate game style..or elements there of.

I was going to ask how the likes of Trengove were going and what style of play hes was participating in , but then noticed he wasnt see ( nor grimes ) ...interresting.

Finally...a footy team ...and not a bunch of kids !!

( thanks to all training reporters)

[Die Hard Demon 1,224]

Great report guys.. I could read this stuff all day!

[satyricon 267]

The only way to tackle with more players becoming adept at lifting arms in the tackle and getting clean use away. Forget the idea of pinning the arms, you only risk tackling high. Take them low, take their body off the ball which does 2 things it hurts (takes the wind out) and they will be thinking preservation rather than getting off a good handball, the ball will go into dispute.

Agree, you said it another way, if you pin the arms you also have the danger of hitting the head on the ground, I reckon this new way, the player will think preservation and try and get rid of the ball to make sure they land ok, hence my panicky handball, if we can follow through and land on them with the shoulder better still........being a fan of Nev Jetta since day 1 love to hear he is shining but I expected it, he loves the hard physical stuff just what Neeld is preaching

[Deestroy All 14,266]

I was there for a while. Agree with most of what has been said.

Jetta looked very good. Sharp, fit and tackles as well as always. Kicking was good too.

Tom McDonald's kicking was good too, I didn't see him miss a target.

Spencer suddenly looks like quite an athlete. Moves beautifully for such a big man. His ball drop is still horrible but he was on target.

Gawn ran solid laps, he's huge.

Dawes walked laps while I was there. So did Hogan.

We have some monsters on our list now.

Jamar was moving well too.

Garland looks bigger, I noticed it last week, and again today, his arms are bigger, he's very vocal and trained well.

Viney does try to do too much. But he's an impressive kid, beautiful blind turn and sidestep at one stage.

After the tackling coach mentioned in previous posts had the boys tackling the blokes with the bags, they went into a tackling/evasion drill, pretty much straight away Davey went the arm dive and flail technique that was the opposite of what they were just told to do. Apart from that he trained better than has been previously reported, but there was no endurance stuff that I saw.

Jimmy and friends ran laps, Jimmy lead the whole time.

I can't think of anything else, training is a lot more structured than my sloppy report.

[Outside fifty 967]

Here are some images from todays session.

[Outside fifty 967]

And more

[old dee 24,028]

I went today as well Deestroy all.

Agree with above and earlier posters.

Also agree with your comments on Davey.

I was pleasantly surprised I thought he put in a solid session.

We should remember he is coming back from injury and it is only the end of November.

3+ months till the Nab cup.

[Outside fifty 967]

If anybody knows how to setup a link to a photobucket gallery could you let me know. This damn interweb has confused the hell out of me.

[hardtack 10,980]

Devotion beyond the call of duty FNQ demon.

I suggest a medal should be struck in your honour.

Cannot think of a good name.

Any suggestions?

Perhaps the Grinter Award, the name of which is under discussion in another thread, should henceforth be known as the FNQ Award?

[Outside fifty 967]

Last one. I like the way Tappy almost launches Bail into orbit

[Pennant St Dee 13,414]

Cheers for all the reports everyone very much appreciated.

Really pleased to hear how Jetta is progressing always liked this kid, tackles and runs hard and is a player who goes unnoticed because he is not flash but does the team thing. Always felt he just needed an injury free run, he will never be a star but every good side has a couple of Nev Jetta's in it.

IMO only and would like feedback from others but a lot of talk about improved skills, I said on some posts last season once fitness improved and players were able to run games out better and deal with fatigue their skills would improve or seem to be improved. It appears on face value the players have come back fitter and just wondering is it a coincidence, with better conditioning resulting in less fatigue and better skills for longer periods, which hopefully will result in less turnovers

[old dee 24,028]

Cheers for all the reports everyone very much appreciated.

Really pleased to hear how Jetta is progressing always liked this kid, tackles and runs hard and is a player who goes unnoticed because he is not flash but does the team thing. Always felt he just needed an injury free run, he will never be a star but every good side has a couple of Nev Jetta's in it.

IMO only and would like feedback from others but a lot of talk about improved skills, I said on some posts last season once fitness improved and players were able to run games out better and deal with fatigue their skills would improve or seem to be improved. It appears on face value the players have come back fitter and just wondering is it a coincidence, with better conditioning resulting in less fatigue and better skills for longer periods, which hopefully will result in less turnovers

Will pay to wait till the real games start PSD.

Early signs look promising but remember it is late November everyone tends to look good. Lets wait till April for proof positive.

Amazing how when you go to training and get close to the players how much bigger they look than at the G where you are along way from the action.

Tom Mac is a big boy when you see him up close. I was also surprised at the size of Spencer he has always been tall but he appears to have gained weight and muscle since August.

I thought he was good today seems to have gained half a yard of speed as well.

He gets canned a lot about his kicking well today he hit almost every target.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

He gets canned a lot about his kicking well today he hit almost every target.

Without commenting on Spencer specifically today, he may hit targets at training, but with a flawed kicking action (a high ball drop in particular) there is a lower probability that in a pressure situation he will consistently hit targets. That's not to say he won't hit targets, it's just the probability of error is increased.

I picked it from looking at a photo early on that it is being addressed with McDonald, hopefully Spencer, Nicholson and Fitzpatrick get the same attention.

[Flemo56 409]

Great to read the reports ppl, ty

[Paul Prympke 14]

I went down also for a quick look, and agree with all of the comments. The one thing that I can comment on is how good the Big Pencil is disposing of the ball. Most of our players still kick passes that hang in the air for too long and force the recieving player to wait up or jump straight up. However the big fella was always passing with low hard kicks that were out in front...the ball drop isn't pretty but it's effective.

Taggert dropped a couple of marks and looked a little nervy.

Toumpas is a nice size, bigger than I would have thought.

[Redleg 42,044]

Interesting that we have another ruckman training with us when we have so many on the list.

[Paul Prympke 14]

Without commenting on Spencer specifically today, he may hit targets at training, but with a flawed kicking action (a high ball drop in particular) there is a lower probability that in a pressure situation he will consistently hit targets. That's not to say he won't hit targets, it's just the probability of error is increased.

I picked it from looking at a photo early on that it is being addressed with McDonald, hopefully Spencer, Nicholson and Fitzpatrick get the same attention.

Agree that the drop may get exposed in games, but you can't argue with the progress.