Training - Wednesday 23rd March, 2016

[Whispering_Jack 30,054]

Anyone go?

[What 18,810]

28 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Anyone go?

 

Nathan Jones media conference  http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2016-03-23/media-conference-nathan-jones

[hells bells 2,023]

Pete Ryan (Twitter)

Trengove Casey intraclub return at Gosch's Paddock Friday will please @melbournefc fans. Petracca looked good at training too. Not far away

[DeeSpencer 25,687]

Dawes and Spencer doing boxing and crunches. 

Otherwise as far as I could tell it was a full squad for a pretty standard session. 

The ball was moving nicely in the shorter drills that they were doing. The 10 v 8 full ground match simulations were a bit scrappy but not too bad. 

I thought Clarry looked a bit weary in the legs early on but when the match sim started he was bobbing up regularly. 

Hard to know whether our forward pressure was really  good or if our backline was making mistakes but I think moving the ball out under pressure will still be our biggest weakness. Switches, quick ball movement and 'changing the angle' remain the focus to get out of the backline. 

Lumumba came sprinting out from half back to a high kick to the wing, timed his intercept perfectly, stuck the mark and ran off forward, dishing off to Kent who nailed the goal. It certainly reminded me of his athletic ability and talent, so hopefully he shows more of it this year.

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

5 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

I think moving the ball out under pressure will still be our biggest weakness.

Massively.

[TeamPlayedFine39 8,503]

20 minutes ago, hells bells said:

Pete Ryan (Twitter)

Trengove Casey intraclub return at Gosch's Paddock Friday will please @melbournefc fans. Petracca looked good at training too. Not far away

Petracca's appaently been looking very good for weeks.

Almost get the feeling the club is really rubbing it in to him that he's missing out on playing after the missed dunk.  Hopefully he'll find being held up a huge motivation going forward. 

[Emerald 1,744]

I made the most of my day off and went down to training today, it looked like the whole squad was there. ANB was first to hit the track doing some solo work. The rest of the team started with the usual warm-up lap,sprints,stretches,side step/agility drills. Morale seemed high with plenty of banter between players, most notable from Watts. Peter Jackson made an appearance watching from the sidelines for the first half of training.

Once training got into gear:

• the team was split into two groups, one doing a handball drill and the other a kicking drill
• sprinting in pairs
• Dawes and Spencer alternating between boxing and ab-crunches, it looked quite grueling
• the team split into 3 groups doing old fashioned circuit training but with opponents putting on pressure
• Gawn and Pedo did boundary throw in ruck training followed by Gawn and Frost doing ball up ruck work, in-between each ruck contest a bit of crumbing work was done by all three
• a group of about eight went off to the rugby ground (I couldn't see what they did) while the rest of the team split in two and did ball movement drills (McCartney curbing the enthusiasm by yelling "do the drill well but don't clobber eachother")
• the whole team spilt into two and did goalkicking practice for about ten minutes at both ends of the ground
• the team was split into 3 groups, two doing ball movement drills at one time while the other had a spell
• The team was split into specialist groups, midfield/ruck/marking/forwards

Overall the team looked good and were moving the ball fast although there was the odd bad decision and fumble. I had been to quite a few training sessions last year and we have improved greatly. One thing I was impressed with was the whole team doing goalkicking. Last year, goalkicking practice involved about five forward players having about ten set shots so it was great to see the whole team kicking at goal in a variety of ways, not just set shots. It seemed Goodwin was running the show more than Roos, with Roos addressing the team as a whole while Goodwin was in the trenches with the players during the drills. There seemed to be a catchphrase of "kick and carry" that was used by McCartney, N. Jones and others during the ball movement drills. One funny moment of Stretch being made to do push-ups military punishment style in front of the team gave his teammates a good laugh, I'm not sure what the reason was for the push-ups.

Bring on GWS!

[Captain Todd 171]

Petracca was looking really good. Too good for Casey and he knows it, the coaches know it. Hope he makes it by stop doing 19 year old stuff.

Full squad, great day for it. They are noisy and talking a lot, a great sense of camaraderie.

Goodwin and Watts had a good verbal joust. Watts was also kicking across the ground, pin pointing 50m kicks.

AVB will make it.

 

Bring on the Giants!

 

 

 

[DubDee 25,853]

time to get worried about Spencil?  injury still TBC and now training with Dawes (he is 4 weeks away at least).  we need him fit and playing well at casey in case Gawny goes down

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

21 minutes ago, Captain Todd said:

Goodwin and Watts had a good verbal joust.

About?

[Captain Todd 171]

Goodwin's kicking over the pads

20 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

About?

 

[hells bells 2,023]

15 hours ago, Emerald said:

One thing I was impressed with was the whole team doing goalkicking. Last year, goalkicking practice involved about five forward players having about ten set shots so it was great to see the whole team kicking at goal in a variety of ways, not just set shots. 

This is great to hear Emerald.  I believe bad kicking for goal was the reason behind a few losses last year, even on a couple of occasions being competitive.

Adelaide  12.8 d Melb 7.13

Melb 6.14 db Freo 18.10

Essendon 10.9 d Melb 7.18

Carlton 12.6 d Melb 7.13

Looking further into it I noticed that our goal kicking accuracy was very much in the bottom 4 at 50%. Not surprisingly Hawthorn were on top with 59%.  It's interesting to look at the ladder.  If we can improve the accuracy by 5% it will make a big difference to our W/L ratio at the end of the year. Particularly with a number of clubs predicted to be in the 7th to 14th ladder positions.

Goal kicking Accuracy 2015

Hawthorn 59%

Port Adelaide 57%

Bulldogs 56%

Fremantle 55%

Geelong 55%

Adelaide 54%

North 54%

Richmond 54%

 

Collingwood 53%

 

West Coast 53%

 

Sydney 52%

 

Brisbane 51%

 

Carlton 51%

 

Gold Coast 51%

 

Essendon 50%

 

GWS 50%

 

Melbourne 50%

 

Saints 49%

 

[AzzKikA 2,371]

What the heck is going on with ANB?  Didn't play a NAB game or anything, has hardly been mentioned.

[jnrmac 20,060]

golakicking is also related to the pressure on the ball kicker, the speed of entry into the fwd 50  and where the shots are being taken from. The good teams have less pressure generally and shoot from closer  to goal. That can change quite quickly for us if we get the ball in quicker.

[Redlegs Too 106]

Lifting accuracy to 55% needs a 10% improvement and I think that is well and truly achievable. 

[What 18,810]

6 hours ago, hells bells said:

This is great to hear Emerald.  I believe bad kicking for goal was the reason behind a few losses last year, even on a couple of occasions being competitive.

Adelaide  12.8 d Melb 7.13

Melb 6.14 db Freo 18.10

Essendon 10.9 d Melb 7.18

Carlton 12.6 d Melb 7.13

Looking further into it I noticed that our goal kicking accuracy was very much in the bottom 4 at 50%. Not surprisingly Hawthorn were on top with 59%.  It's interesting to look at the ladder.  If we can improve the accuracy by 5% it will make a big difference to our W/L ratio at the end of the year. Particularly with a number of clubs predicted to be in the 7th to 14th ladder positions.

Goal kicking Accuracy 2015

Hawthorn 59%

Port Adelaide 57%

Bulldogs 56%

Fremantle 55%

Geelong 55%

Adelaide 54%

North 54%

Richmond 54%

 

Collingwood 53%

 

West Coast 53%

 

Sydney 52%

 

Brisbane 51%

 

Carlton 51%

 

Gold Coast 51%

 

Essendon 50%

 

GWS 50%

 

Melbourne 50%

 

Saints 49%

 

 

 

Still cant believe we lost to Essendrug.  Worst kicking for goal Ive ever seen.

[Members' Wing 1,106]

5 hours ago, AzzKikA said:

What the heck is going on with ANB?  Didn't play a NAB game or anything, has hardly been mentioned.

Just hasn't been picked. Even Terlich was in the squads, so indicates he's currently nearly the last in line to be picked on our entire list. Is that an unbelievable surprise? He's been serviceable without showing a great deal so far I'd have thought.

People bring up a couple of opportunistic goals he kicked against Geelong but he was never noted as a goalkicker in his junior days and was recruited as an inside mid. Apart from that, I didn't think he was great in the AFL and even VFL games I saw.

[Nasher 33,615]

5 hours ago, AzzKikA said:

What the heck is going on with ANB?  Didn't play a NAB game or anything, has hardly been mentioned.

Second year player, taken mid draft, competing against some serious talent his own age, and older players in good form. Situation normal I'd have thought. 

[Courtney_Fish 183]

5 hours ago, AzzKikA said:

What the heck is going on with ANB?  Didn't play a NAB game or anything, has hardly been mentioned.

The one who's never mentioned is JKH.

[Ted Lasso 19,513]

Challenge has been laid down to ANB and JKH to break into the side, same with Stretch, OMAC, Terlich

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

Second year player, taken mid draft, competing against some serious talent his own age, and older players in good form. Situation normal I'd have thought. 

Not playing at all in the NAB Challenge was a bit strange, although I think he might have had a slight injury.

[Mach5 4,767]

17 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Not playing at all in the NAB Challenge was a bit strange, although I think he might have had a slight injury.

Someone at the club told me he'd been managing injury niggles.

Nothing too much to worry about.