no pics from Friday or today?

I spoke to one of the players last year who is a good mate with Riv. He was critical of the training program last year with its focus on fitness. His comment was that they would start every session with their running requirements and by the end of it they were spent. Anyone who saw the running last year knows how demanding it was and I regularly saw players vomiting as a result.. He said by the time they got to the footy drills they were so tired they really couldn't practice their skills. He contrasted this with Geelong who do all their footy skills stuff first whilst they are fresh and then if they need to do extra running they do it at the end of the session. This comparison came from Riv who experienced Neeld in his first year only. The second year was supposed to be a step up.

For those that have been to training this year how is it organized? It may be that because of limited numbers they are not yet doing the footy drills first or it may be Roos is continuing to do the running first. But I thought it was an interesting observation and one that on the surface at least seemed to make sense.

FWIW Shannon Byrnes has said that Melbourne last year trained harder than he had at any time at Geelong. Our poor performance last year certainly didn't relate to a lack of effort in preseason.

Last week they were running at the end. Today I missed the running and they did light skill work at the end. I think a mix is probably the best.

But as of right now I'd say Misson is taking a bit of pressure off whilst the players come back and just getting the legs warmed up and letting the players get used to Roos and the other coaches. It's what he's said and it's how it looks.

I expect it will be similar for the next week or so before a heavy block of training heading in to Christmas break. I think Misson last year realised that the players got the miles in the legs but might have been fatigued both mentally and physically by the start of the year.

Mind you, at some stage I'd like them to be making skill-based decisions when they're tired so as to simulate game day experience

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That was the rationale behind doing things that way. It was mentioned in an article early on in Neeld's tenure that they wanted the players to practice executing their skills while tired so that they could do it in games. The whole "train as you mean to play" thing. I think it said it was something the Storm do in their training.

Got this from bigfooty:

Just finished watching training and chilling in Edwin's Café just down the road haha. Few notes I took from the session...

Training notes

Jackson here

Roos working with Gawn + Kent

Watts + Barry's first session (that I've seen)

Toumpas performing well in running drills - hopefully over hip complaints which forced him to start a little behind last season

Clark still struggling but give him time

Tom McDonald is killing it in the running drills!

Viney, Jamar, Tapscott, Hogan, Nicholson, Michie and Tyson in the rehab group.

Howe running laps

Gawn and Kent left session early

Considering he is coming back from a toe injury Evans is going well in running.

Byrnes running laps

McDonald, Spencer and Evans joined rehab following running drills. The rest of the group focused on ball handling

Frawley and Dunn had a stroll around the park, having a run before returning next week

Tyson is still feeling a pinch in his hamstring and grabs it from time to time

Main group focusing on reaction time with ball in hand, quick handballs and kicks to players in quick succession

Considering he is still learning the game, Westrupp went alright in the reaction drill

Jamar running laps, Tyson and Tappy also

Kicking was reasonable in windy conditions

Toumpas is using the ball extremely well so far during pre season.

The group came together at 11 to observe a minute's silence which was a very nice touch. Session then concluded.

Also, Roos is becoming more vocal and is very supportive of the boys. A lot better than Neeld as you would expect.

Stressed me out.

Hope it's fitness related, not inflammation related.....

It's fitness. If it was inflammation he wouldn't be training.

I spoke to one of the players last year who is a good mate with Riv. He was critical of the training program last year with its focus on fitness. His comment was that they would start every session with their running requirements and by the end of it they were spent. Anyone who saw the running last year knows how demanding it was and I regularly saw players vomiting as a result.. He said by the time they got to the footy drills they were so tired they really couldn't practice their skills. He contrasted this with Geelong who do all their footy skills stuff first whilst they are fresh and then if they need to do extra running they do it at the end of the session. This comparison came from Riv who experienced Neeld in his first year only. The second year was supposed to be a step up.

For those that have been to training this year how is it organized? It may be that because of limited numbers they are not yet doing the footy drills first or it may be Roos is continuing to do the running first. But I thought it was an interesting observation and one that on the surface at least seemed to make sense.

FWIW Shannon Byrnes has said that Melbourne last year trained harder than he had at any time at Geelong. Our poor performance last year certainly didn't relate to a lack of effort in preseason.

I have been to two sessions so far this year and my observation would be that they start off with light jogging (which makes sense), then they do ball work - hand passing and short kicking with some bumping and blocking - which is then followed by gut running.

The first official session of the season finished off with twelve 300m runs in groups of 4 or 5, and the second session finished of with a hard competitive 2000m. I think this is about what you would expect at this time of the year, but I have not seen hard running exercises to start of the sessions.

The other observation I would make is that Dave Misson has been associated with Paul Roos through some of his most successful times, and I'm sure they would have got the formula right. Neeld had some pretty strange Collingwood inspired ideas.

Very nice hh. Link to more? Cheers

I haven't been to a lot of training but under both Bailey and Neeld they always started with some stationary kick-to-kick.

Last week they were running at the end. Today I missed the running and they did light skill work at the end. I think a mix is probably the best.

But as of right now I'd say Misson is taking a bit of pressure off whilst the players come back and just getting the legs warmed up and letting the players get used to Roos and the other coaches. It's what he's said and it's how it looks.

I expect it will be similar for the next week or so before a heavy block of training heading in to Christmas break. I think Misson last year realised that the players got the miles in the legs but might have been fatigued both mentally and physically by the start of the year.

My wife and I watched some of the later training and practice games at Casey last year and we both thought the team went into the season cooked. They looked flat and tired and the legs looked slow. We both walked awy from the St Kilda practice game thinking the players still did not get the game plan and that it was going to be a long season. We were amazed to hear the way Neeld spoke with confidence after we just got flogged by a team neither of us rated.

Hopefully this year the fitness regime Roos and Misson come up with get them to the season fit and with som zing and they have a game plan they can 1, understand and 2, execute.

My wife and I watched some of the later training and practice games at Casey last year and we both thought the team went into the season cooked. They looked flat and tired and the legs looked slow. We both walked awy from the St Kilda practice game thinking the players still did not get the game plan and that it was going to be a long season. We were amazed to hear the way Neeld spoke with confidence after we just got flogged by a team neither of us rated.

Hopefully this year the fitness regime Roos and Misson come up with get them to the season fit and with som zing and they have a game plan they can 1, understand and 2, execute.

Yes I felt the same after that Stkilda practice game on an extremely hot February day. It was obvious to me it was going to be a long season. I remember driving away fom Casey at three quarter time being genuinely surprised that we seemed to have made so little progress. In retrospect though it should not have been surprising at all. We had recruited has-beens or never-weres, and it was becoming obvious that Neeld was incompetent, and was pursuing a gameplan pursued by Collingwood four years before. We neither had the cattle nor the coach to succeed.

Today I think we are getting to the point where we are assembling both, and I would be extremely surprised if that did not reflect in our onfield performance from pretty early on in the season.

Yes I felt the same after that Stkilda practice game on an extremely hot February day. It was obvious to me it was going to be a long season. I remember driving away fom Casey at three quarter time being genuinely surprised that we seemed to have made so little progress. In retrospect though it should not have been surprising at all. We had recruited has-beens or never-weres, and it was becoming obvious that Neeld was incompetent, and was pursuing a gameplan pursued by Collingwood four years before. We neither had the cattle nor the coach to succeed.Today I think we are getting to the point where we are assembling both, and I would be extremely surprised if that did not reflect in our onfield performance from pretty early on in the season.

Also felt the same at that practice match. The saints split us open in the second quarter I think, and there was just no response. It proved to be a characteristic for the whole season. I think if you can guarantee one thing with Paul Roos, it's that he breeds a tenacity for the contest, probably built on collective unity and responsibility within the collective more than anything. It would seem we have a list that is potentially able to carry this out more effectively, so my hopes become higher. I think the biggest hindrance to our progress will of course be injuries, because albeit that it's only November still, all the other boxes look to have been ticked.

I am thinking this pre season will be a lot easier than the last one. Last season most of the coaches/players commented on how bad the fitness was according to afl standard. Hence the reason Misson had to [censored] the players in pre season. Yes they were cooked coming into round one, however if they really that far below afl standard then it was necessary. This pre season should be a lot easier on the players and they should just have to do the regular amount of running required to be an afl player as their fitness should be better than previous seasons.

it should be.......but lets see

theres a bunch of posts missing from this morning

Shame as i posted a bunch of great training pics

theres a bunch of posts missing from this morning

Shame as i posted a bunch of great training pics

You posted some great pictures but they were subject to copyright.

A link is acceptable but we can't publish those images without the owner's prior written consent.

Thanks

from the Dees website... training vid....bit wet out there

Pre-season training footage

Anyone go yesterday??

Anyone go yesterday??

just these guys I think !!

just these guys I think !!

One of the greatest movies ever made.

Was that Vince I spotted in the handball drill?

Was that Vince I spotted in the handball drill?

Yep, believe that was him

Surprising part form a Melbourne supporter perspective is that we may have a team that will shepherd an block for one another next year!

Well...looking at the training video anyway

Was that Vince I spotted in the handball drill?

I thought that was Riley with short hair...

When is next training session in town?

Assuming tomorrow?

from the Dees website... training vid....bit wet out there

Well, footy's a winter sport!