Training - Saturday, 16th January, 2016

[Demon Spofforth 289]

 

Wayne - much appreciated.

Did you note where Frost played when joining the full ground match sim? forward or back?

He was up forward P-man.

[shorty 233]

 

I made the trek up to the training on Saturday from the GC to finally see the boys up here for the first time in three years. Most things have been covered pretty well but I thought I would share some things that I noticed as repayment for the many training reports I have sifted through.

I know everyone is always keen to hear about the new fellas so I'l start with them:

Oliver:

The kid has a massive frame and knows how to use it as evidenced by his crunching tackle on VDB (who looks like a bigger Viney at the moment having lost his excess fat), however, it looks like it will still take a while for him to look the part, happy with the aggression for now. He looked right at home during contested work and was really enthusiastic in defense as well when playing handball keeping's off early. He did look a little bit lost on the outside and knowing when to lead for a ball but he may just have been catching his breath. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this but he is one of the most energetic people I have ever seen when standing on the mark, this may be how he has increased his fitness.

Weidemann:

He's a pretty strong overhead mark and a fairly decent kick but it does seem that occasionally he loses focus and funnily enough it's the shorter kicks that go slightly astray, it looks a bit like his ball drop is still a bit high. He was a really great bloke and very happy to have a chat with the fans, he seems like he could be a potential leader at the club and a future replacement ambassador for Wattsy.

Hullett:

Everyone already knows he is a massive unit, he easily looks like 26 year old veteran entering his prime. Unfortunately, I didn't see a lot of him for some reason and i'm not sure if he was up the other end or doing other things.

King:

Still very skinny in the way that Oscar Mac was when he first started and needs to get up his fitness, one of the coaches kept on getting in his ear and the boys resting on the sideline were very encouraging while telling him where to run and when he put in the effort.

Wagner:

In my opinion he should get an upgrade at the start of the season, he reads the play quite well and had a pretty decent left boot. He was usually the centre of most drills and I found my eyes constantly being drawn to something he had done, not sure if it's just because of the blonde hair or not but he seemed a bit like the next VDB pick up with a bit less muscle and a bit more skill, he should cover for the loss of Melksham.

Smith:

I was really surprised when I saw this guy, from reports I expected a skinny kid who might look a little lost in training. He impressed me with his skills and seemed to be running really well. He has a good strength base to start from and his basketball background seems to have prepared him for football. He did not look at all out of place.

Bugg:

I'm pretty keen to this guy play, he was in all of the right places and found the ball easily. He did however take the completely wrong option out of defense at one stage kicking a long bomb to (i think) billy stretch on the sideline with big maxy 10 metres away who came thundering over with a massive spoil much to the fans pleasure, he completely crunched all in his path. He's very vocal on and off the ground and seems to have fit in very well pretty quickly.

Kennedy:

I think most people have covered it pretty well, his lateral evasive skills are excellent and his kicking wasn't nearly as bad as his 'highlight' reel made him out to be. Looks awful with the new shaven head but I can't hold that against him if he plays the way he trains.

Some other observations:

Maxy Gawn absolutely ragdolled Watts when he tried to run around him in the keepings off. Watts didn't seem happy and got up to push him back but I don't think Max noticed.

Vandenburg layed a few very strong tackles and a big bump on Tommy Mc which is no small feat.

I watched Trengrove pretty closely in the rehab group as I'm one of the many hoping he has a spectacular comeback. He looked very comfortable running and no longer looks like a sick cow during the sprints, while not the fastest, he certainly looks a lot quicker than he did pre-injury, more season debut Trengrove. I watched him do a bit of kicking too and seemed pretty comfortable but did not use his left. It was basically a kick to kick amongst the rehabbers and crossy, gawn? Hoges, spencil and King. He is also looking pretty big in the chunk style of body only taller. If I didn't know about his past injuries I wouldn't have thought he was that far away from a return to football, looks can be deceiving I guess.

Chunk and Gus are ultra competitive during a drill at the end of training, a trainer would throw up the ball for spencer to tap down to two competing players. Chunk and Gus were only interested in versing each other. Chunk came out on top 4 - 0 last I heard and absolutely let Gus know about it chanting '4 nil, 4 nil'. Salem and Garland were up against each other and Salem was unhappy about having his arms held while behind Garland, it seemed a fairly even contest.

Tommy Mcs kicking looks to have improved and he was switching the play really well, lets hope that translates to games.

Gus and Terlich got blasted by one of the coaches for 'not running [censored] hard enough'. A bit unfair on gus as he was still bitter about giving a free away on wagner.

A real stand out early on for me was JKH, he was really agressive in the drills and seemed constantly involved both defensively and offensively. Great hands in the hand ball drills.

Kent also looked great, during a two on two drill he was dominating the others and wrong footed JKH and burst past which didn't look like an easy thing to do.

Hoges left very early with the rehab group which included nibbler but both looked fine, might have just had a rest day. It was a bit of a shame I didn't get to see him but my sister ran him down in the car park and got a photo much to my annoyance.

I didn't see Max king anywhere but it was hard to tell the difference between some with the hats on.

Dom Tyson seemed to be on light duties and a fair few older supporters were asking me if I could see him out there, again, the hats didn't help.

Our training gear seemed pretty flimsy, Salem, Bugg, Kent all had big tears in their gear or needed new singlets. Could just be the aggression? 

Let me know if you have any questions and i'll do what I can.

P.S. I did not check for spelling errors, couldn't be bothered.

I Agree Wagner can fill the void, I think as he grows in confidence he will be an elite ball user off half back, Yep definitely something about this kid that draws your attention to him.

[dazzledavey36 55,892]

Great report guys! Loving the skip demanding high standard and giving Frost an earful for not doing the correct thing. And also Tmac for giving baby bro a spray which i found funny lol.

Also one thing, is Goodwin running the show full time during the match simulation drills or is Roosy still taking charge?

[Slartibartfast 18,009]

Thanks everyone for the fantastic reports.

Any comments on my boy Stretcher?

[AzzKikA 2,371]

Nice work reporters, makes me feel like im there!

 

[sue 9,195]

Glad to hear Hogan is working on his marking. As good as he was last year, i had the impression he ran under the ball quite often. Might be a wrong impression.

[TeamPlayedFine39 8,525]

By the sounds of it Frost has recovered from the recurrence of his toe injury... touch wood. 

[La Dee-vina Comedia 17,022]

 

By the sounds of it Frost has recovered from the recurrence of his toe injury... touch wood. 

I thought he was being put out with the other rubbish for recycling...

[daisycutter 29,892]

 

I thought he was being put out with the other rubbish for recycling...

wonder what oh&s would say about those contraptions. just looking for trouble

[Mad_Melbourne 877]

 

He was up forward P-man.

Not surprising and good to hear! 

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

 

wonder what oh&s would say about those contraptions. just looking for trouble

Indeed.

I hope Petracca doesn't stub his other toe trying to get out of one.

[daisycutter 29,892]

2 minutes ago, Choke said:

Indeed.

I hope Petracca doesn't stub his other toe trying to get out of one.

or into one, eh?

[Gator 17,972]

1 hour ago, sue said:

Glad to hear Hogan is working on his marking. As good as he was last year, i had the impression he ran under the ball quite often. Might be a wrong impression.

Timing in marking contests is one of Hogan's strengths, but when up against the opposition's best, such as Hurley and McPharlin, he needs to learn how to stop them pushing him under the ball, which is what all defenders try to do.

In one training session I attended a few weeks ago that's exactly what he and Rawlings were working on.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

2 hours ago, Demon Spofforth said:

Jones giving Frost an absolute earfull for having a snap at goal rather than dishing off a handball to Kennedy in the clear. Frost looks huge though and has good pace.

Wait, Frost is training? I thought he was injured.

[rjay 25,307]

36 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Timing in marking contests is one of Hogan's strengths, but when up against the opposition's best, such as Hurley and McPharlin, he needs to learn how to stop them pushing him under the ball, which is what all defenders try to do.

In one training session I attended a few weeks ago that's exactly what he and Rawlings were working on.

Yep, noticed them doing a lot of that working one on one...he was working to protect the ball coming in and not letting Rawlings get at it when I was watching.

[binman 44,533]

1 hour ago, daisycutter said:

wonder what oh&s would say about those contraptions. just looking for trouble

Melbourne's OH&S issues: players using wheelie bins as ice baths

EFC's OH&S issues: year long pharmacological experiment involving thousands of off site injections of god knows what

It's nice to not be the club in the news for all the wrong reasons.

[Gorgoroth 13,184]

Once again not a lot of remarks on Brayshaw during training. How is he going, seems quiet like last year.

[Whispering_Jack 31,144]

Day 3 Diary: Build up to big week

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

18 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Day 3 Diary: Build up to big week

Uuugghhh.

I really struggle with Burgan's articles.

I've gotten far far more value from the other reports in this thread.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Choke

[george_on_the_outer 7,843]

23 hours ago, Jrono64 said:

 

Hoges left very early with the rehab group which included nibbler but both looked fine, ............but my sister ran him down in the car park ........

That would have been enough to cause this site to go into meltdown!!!

[ManDee 7,320]

On 1/18/2016 at 11:37 AM, Jrono64 said:

 

Hoges left very early with the rehab group which included nibbler but both looked fine, might have just had a rest day. It was a bit of a shame I didn't get to see him but my sister ran him down in the car park and got a photo much to my annoyance.

 

Is the car ok?