Training - Tuesday 23rd February, 2016

[Cards13 9,117]

Was there training today? Anyone get along?

[Gorgoroth 13,188]

Training today, been heaps of tweets from the club.

[Whispering_Jack 31,299]

The tweets have included pictures of Clayton Oliver warming up, Nathan Jones looking on as Christian Petracca practices a shot at goal, Jack Trengove at training and a 24th birthday wish for Viv Michie.

[jnrmac 20,307]

Apparently Oliver impressed with some strong repeat tackling.

Lumumba in the main group as was Trenners. 

[beelzebub 23,390]

poor buggerz...hot day

[tasmanlvr 529]

Went over... here's my report

One more training session before the lads’ head off to Adelaide to play at the wonderfully named Playford Alive Oval, which joins the pantheon of great grounds such as 1300 Smiles Stadium, GMHBA Stadium (believe me, say it quickly) and the good old Woolloongabba ground. Up and coming names for grounds include “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” Oval and also the “She sells sea shells by the sea shore” Park. For the slightly less eloquent, training today returns to the familiarity of Gosch’s Paddock. Gosh.

 

Additionally, today is the very antithesis of everything Melbourne has stood for over the past two weeks or so as the less-familiar February feel of the cooler autumnal air is replaced by the more-familiar but steadily disappearing scorching variation of Jesse Hogan’s 2015 season. It’s going to be a bloody hot one, not that anyone in the area, by now, need this piece of ‘breaking’ news.

 

Anyway, less jabbering on about how hot the weather is and speculation over how I can improve the names of our simplistically named grounds, and more about how the Dees’ train this morning.

 

If they want to come out and train, that is.

 

At 10:15, not one of the boys fit for full training appear – it’s all, in fact, the rehab group. White, Newton, Dawes (solely walking laps of the ground), Petracca, Vince et al are all out on the ground, not doing an awful lot. Kennedy-Harris was out there, but has since disappeared. Finally, out of the AAMI Park mire, a wild Dean Kent appears, hopefully keeping in mind that we need someone with Mean Look just to keep him there in a move not seen since the good old days of trying to catch Raikou, Entei and Suicune all the way back in Pokemon Gold and Silver. #throwbacktuesday

 

A couple of things I notice as the boys file through – firstly THE CLUB HAS TAKEN MY ADVICE and invested in the new cloth I called for last week which is excellent. Secondly the sight of Christian Petracca in full flight getting the dukes up and reminding us all that Daniel Cross (who is acting as his direct opponent) is a retired footballer is a sight for sore eyes.

 

As the boys gather in to do their traditional Billy Stretch-es, the boys are all up and about cheering a couple of times – the first, and loudest, I presume is for Jack Trengove’s return to full training; the second (not as loud) cheer is for Max King training with the main squad again and the third (small) cheer… you can make up a story to your own liking, I couldn’t tell you that one.

 

A look around as the boys pass by the faithful for the first time, Hogan and Brayshaw are embracing in the manliest cuddle you can see; Tom McDonald has borrowed the #5 jumper just to confuse us all and James Harmes seems to have recovered from the unusual sort of claret formation that he had on Friday; obviously I presume most of you would have seen the photo of him looking more like the Flash than a professional footballer.

 

The stretches are such that I decide to replenish my water/sugar supplies across the road, and are perfectly controlled when I sit back down on return as they start their drills for the day. In between I see a bloke who I thought was Stevo and was ready to give him the ‘how do you do’ until I realised that it evidently wasn’t old mate, and then I see Hogan drill a goal from a difficult angle with frighteningly consummate ease. He goes okay.

 

That first drill that I mentioned for the day, split into two groups, goes briefly. One on the far side of the wing doing some sort of stoppage drill, and another group doing a triangle-like drill focusing on ball use and delivery inside 50. It looks like it was set to start well but believe me, Maxy Gawn coming close to barrelling into the fence just near where I’m at isn’t fun.

 

The next drill is this kind of zigzag formation which goes all around the ground and then ends with a burst down the middle and delivery to the goalsquare. Seeing Viv Michie absolutely streaking down the middle is a good sign, seeing Billy Stretch dart through the centre equally so. Meantime in the rehab group there seems to be this sort of goalkicking competition going on between Petracca, Jones and Cross which gets super competitive – Petracca absolutely nails it with a savagely beautiful goal on the run, and then you see the unusual sight of Jones shanking not one, but two kicks on the run that you would expect him to kick 11 times out of 10, the first going completely across the face and on the full. Such is the competitiveness between captain and arguably one of our two most prized talents I take my eye off the wider drill to focus on all the banter going on. It’s fun to watch.

 

The next drill in the meantime is more of a quick decision-making drill involving the use of handball in a small confined space. Easily the highlight of this drill is that man again – Hoges. Fairly corralled to such an extent by Jetta, the big boy not only finds his way through ole mate Neville but also two other players with ease to break open, almost midfielder-like. I wouldn’t exactly be against seeing Hoges put into the midfield for small bursts. Even if he is our best forward. He’s capable.

 

Another bloke who’s doing well for himself in this session is Wagner. I haven’t talked a hell of a lot about him since he’s come to the club, anyway, bottom line is he’s a competitor, a fierce one at that, and he doesn’t mind a tackle. He might be a decent chance of getting on to the senior list in place of Melksham.

 

The next drill is one which goes both ends, two groups in the middle trying to win a stoppage and two groups in either forward line jostling for the footy. A team in green bibs tries to defend against a team of jumpers. Near side, Weideman has the hard task (again) of manning Tom McDonald, while a couple of balls go in his direction, McDonald is just too strong for him at the moment. Meantime on the far side there is the extremely pleasing sight of Trenners’ going for a stroll, and also winning a hard ball in another contest.

 

This drill lasts another 10-15 minutes or so. The next drill after that is a spreading drill much like the one I detailed last week. Again, like last week, it’s pretty much the jumpers who are all over the bibs. Having the two best readily available players at the moment on form (Hogan and Viney) does that. Additionally pleasing was Bugg muscling his way towards getting Jetta in a crunching tackle which is a dead set ripper. Also pleasing was seeing Kennedy get the ball three times in the middle of the ground before delivering an absolute rip-snorter of a ball to Watts inside forward 50.

 

One more thing about Hogan, he’s on both teams at various stages of this drill and also, this drill is showing how much he’s outright dominating today. At one end, he delivers a low chizzler to a team-mate (might have been Bugg) in a crowded forward 50, and then at the other end he delivers the most perfect ball you could imagine, scything through a pack to find Stretch all on his own. You had to be there to appreciate it really, Hoges’ field kicking is so underrated.

 

In the meantime, Jeffy misses a sitter from 20 out. His set shots are something he has to continue to work on. He missed a whole heap of simple opportunities last year and if he sorts it out, we will be a much better team for it offensively-wise. Mind you there was nothing much wrong with the lead up, he took a ripping overhead mark from a very solid Viney ball, and he is still positioning himself really well. I think it’s five of the last six years he’s kicked over 40 goals, the challenge for him with me is to increase that to 50. If he’s kicking 50 goals a year he’s not far off his old mate Eddie Betts who some reckon is worth a million a year (except for Carlton, obviously, who reckon he’s not even worth $650k a year!).

 

The boys put the footy’s away now at least and then get into some running. Just as a measure of Trenners’ running capacity at the moment he gives Bernie a slight start then overhauls him at top speed. That’s always a good sign. Does that mean he could be finally over all those foot problems for good?

 

As a finishing up kind of drill (or at least the way I see things because the surrounds are getting cleaned up) there are various different groups. One doing a kind of fending off drill, one doing a stoppage drill and one doing a goalkicking drill. Nothing of the sort really standing out, but with the clean up in mind and the lure of airconditioning at Edwin’s too great knowing there isn’t much of the session left, I get over to the joint for a spot of lunch.

[13thFlagIsComing 542]

and then I see Hogan drill a goal from a difficult angle with frighteningly consummate ease. He goes okay.

I sense a new Twitter hash tag when talking about the Hulk!......  #hegoesokay

[TeamPlayedFine39 8,525]

Thanks for the great report.

Was Trengove doing contact drills?

[tasmanlvr 529]

23 minutes ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

Thanks for the great report.

Was Trengove doing contact drills?

He was. The really pleasing thing that I should really have mentioned was that in about 10 minutes of a drill that I mentioned his name in he had six or seven touches.

[Cards13 9,117]

8 minutes ago, tasmanlvr said:

He was. The really pleasing thing that I should really have mentioned was that in about 10 minutes of a drill that I mentioned his name in he had six or seven touches.

Were you able to gauge his pace in drills Tas? I see you mention he caught Vince but interested to see how he looks in drills with the pill.

[Salems Lot 2,691]

Thanks as ever TasIvr, your reads are most entertaining (up there with Ben Popje's reviews of MKR in The Age) (I don't watch the show; just read his reviews BTW)

[jimcor 212]

Popped by for an hour only.  Just a couple observations:

1/- Early passing practice seemed to focus on using the non-dominant foot and keeping the pass low (below shoulder height) and hard.  Think Gawn was paired up with Frost and suggested humorously that Frost was less than impressive in this.

2/- Terlich looks fit & focussed and might be competing for best 22!

3/- Pay Hogan whatever it takes to get him to re-sign.  It worries me that he and Gawn are Option 1 to 10.

[Satyriconhome 10,880]

I was there today, for the White lovers, has had a slight ankle issue, same with Terlich who did part of the session, JKL is hammy

HL and King were back in main group for 3/4 , then did an interesting drill with Crossy on the other soccer oval, with one in goal and the other firing shots at them?

Trengove did most of everything, looked unencumbered (nice word)

Nathan Jones was rehabbing, asked him why, said it was age

Hogan is fun to watch in the match sim

Only one who didn't seem to be there today was Spencer

Hulett hurt himself today, but seemed minor

If you have any question feel free, tasmanlvr has the drills covered

On the Petracca/Jones front, Trac made his usual smart comment to me when I passed him and Jonesy as they sat and watched the last of the match sim, I actually managed to get him embaressed much to Jonesys' amusement.

[SaberFang 7,151]

Brilliant training report tasmanlvr, great to have ya back! 

[Deestroy All 14,266]

4 hours ago, tasmanlvr said:

Hoges. Fairly corralled to such an extent by Jetta, the big boy not only finds his way through ole mate Neville but also two other players with ease to break open, almost midfielder-like. I wouldn’t exactly be against seeing Hoges put into the midfield for small bursts. Even if he is our best forward. He’s capable.

In a few years he should spend a year in the midfield, just to beat the distant 2nd, Cripps, in the Brownlow.

[Gorgoroth 13,188]

Info on Brayshaw would be welcomed. Has he built up a bit? Do you think he could play 50% of his game time in the midfield?

[SaberFang 7,151]

Just now, Deestroy All said:

In a few years he should spend a year in the midfield, just to beat the distant 2nd, Cripps, in the Brownlow.

Still makes me laugh:

 

[Its Time for Another 4,306]

1 minute ago, Deestroy All said:

In a few years he should spend a year in the midfield, just to beat the distant 2nd, Cripps, in the Brownlow.

The rate Cripps is growing he'll be playing ruck by then and Hoges can stay in the goal square.

[Deestroy All 14,266]

1 minute ago, It's Time said:

The rate Cripps is growing he'll be playing ruck by then and Hoges can stay in the goal square.

Hogan will still be taller, and Carlton supporters won't believe it.

[tasmanlvr 529]

2 hours ago, Cards13 said:

Were you able to gauge his pace in drills Tas? I see you mention he caught Vince but interested to see how he looks in drills with the pill.

Not really. A lot of occasions it was really get and give off, although there was one occasion where he had a stroll. Didn't really get to assess his pace because he himself was assessing his options.

 

2 hours ago, Salems Lot said:

Thanks as ever TasIvr, your reads are most entertaining (up there with Ben Popje's reviews of MKR in The Age) (I don't watch the show; just read his reviews BTW)

I'm curious to read some of these as well. I also do not watch the show.

 

11 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

Info on Brayshaw would be welcomed. Has he built up a bit? Do you think he could play 50% of his game time in the midfield?

Brayshaw hasn't bulked up an awful lot, it really depends on what Roosy and Goody want to do at the moment, whether they still see him as a defensive forward or trying to get him into the midfield more often. Expect him to line up in the midfield for longer periods on Saturday given Jones and Vince's absence. We will see how he goes once those two come back in.

[Satyriconhome 10,880]

5 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

Info on Brayshaw would be welcomed. Has he built up a bit? Do you think he could play 50% of his game time in the midfield?

Brayshaw is just not noticeable any more which is a good thing, he is just getting through the pre season, I reckon he has been told head down, tick all the boxes, he looks super fit

[Satyriconhome 10,880]

3 hours ago, Cards13 said:

Were you able to gauge his pace in drills Tas? I see you mention he caught Vince but interested to see how he looks in drills with the pill.

Cards, Trenners was fine, I watched a few of the early drills he was involved in, stepping off both feet, and quite a decent pace, reckon he is itching to get a crack at one of the NAB challenge games, got a big smile as he noticed I was taking a picture

[monoccular 17,699]

43 minutes ago, Deestroy All said:

In a few years he [Hogan]  should spend a year in the midfield, just to beat the distant 2nd, Cripps, in the Brownlow.

Like Roughead?

2 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

Cards, Trenners was fine, I watched a few of the early drills he was involved in, stepping off both feet, and quite a decent pace, reckon he is itching to get a crack at one of the NAB challenge games, got a big smile as he noticed I was taking a picture

Best news I have seen here for ages.

[Gorgoroth 13,188]

Cheers guys.

[Satyriconhome 10,880]