TRAINING: Monday 5th December 2022

[Demonland 73,140]

KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING REPORT

A wintery morning, coldish and windy. Great morning for the time trials, headwinds on one side and a tail on the punt rd side.

Clarry smashed it. Goody was over the moon, they embraced several times. He is set for a ripper. Looking thin, nearly wirey. He is also showing some leadership qualities.

Others out front were Adam Tomlinson, he was in a different group to Clayton but gee, beat Tmac by at least 25 metres. ANB caught the front group.

Some bad news, Hibbo was having difficulty with his Achilles, left training.

Petracca was the only one missing.

So many new players out there. Here are some new numbers, 6 Grundy, 12 Hunter, 19 Schache, 26 Jed Adams, 28 Verral, 33, 38, 39, 43 (Burgoyne?), 45, 46 Sestan, 47 Jefferson and 47 Farris-white. Plenty of train ons.

Clarry has the hair bun. Langdon has crewed. Salem white.

After the time trials, they got into their boots, and it began.

Competitive right from the start. Into two stations, two players competing for position as the ball is thrown in the air, the other was soft tackling as the front player picks up a ground ball. Moved into three stations, short kicks, and the other two I can't remember. They transitioned to handball games with 6 on two in bibs. They then went to two stations, a sim with minimal tackling, (Hunter caught my eye with great outside run and kicks to advantage, Kossie and Sparrow as well). The other was a hard tackling handball game in restricted space. The tackler was not brought to the ground, but was expected to break and get the handball (plenty of noise as they prove to each other their shimmy and ability to stand up).

They went to their lines. Looks like TMac is with the back-line, as is Woewodin, and Salem stay there as well. Tomlinson doing some work with the rucks and the back-line.

Forwards bringing the ball to ground and snapping.

Some mids and forwards kicking down an alley, with a camera under the supervision of Williams for goal.

They then got their runners on again and hit up 10, 150 metre, in under 20 sec sprints.

Deakin Smith, and Moniz-wakefield, Verral, and Adams on a modified program.

Grundy and BBB working together in their individual program.

They have moved a gym under the shed where Joel Smith and Angus Brayshaw did light duties and were joined with some of the new players.

There may have been some drills I missed, it was a long session and with so many players out, there it was hard to follow. 

Addit, had a good look at Farris-white kicking when on the run and it was ok, hit lots of his targets.

DWORSHIP'S TRAINING REPORT

A few other random observations,

BBB looked to be moving untroubled by his knee, although it was lightly taped. At one stage he was doing a lot of one on one twisting and turning with a trainer.

The funniest thing I saw was a drill that Grundy was supposed to be involved in but he was off with the fairies and Clarry had to yell at him and then take him through the drill he was supposed to do. It would have made him feel better a short time later when Choco introduced a couple of drills that were obviously new and everyone struggled. The drills were all about quick and sure ball movement and as soon as they all had got the idea Choco just started barking at them "faster, faster, faster"

On the injury front; Joel Smith appeared to be feeling his groin a lot but I've never watched him that close so maybe he has a habit. Clarry had to get the Ventolin puffer out at one stage so him leading his group in the trial is even more impressive. Clarry also left the drills at one stage and was having some discomfort around the wrist and thumb area (hope that's not from the break last year). He got it taped and went back out so should be good. Disco came off and had his left boot off and looked to have tape high on his heel but was more than likely for a blister. Of more concern to me was the the tape down the side of his foot and supporting his big toe. The trainer was manipulating the toe and asking him how it was but he did go back out. Finally, I'm not 100% sure that Pig's issue was the achillies as I saw him pointing to his calf. Could be both. Regardless he has a bit of time before the season start.

All in all I was pretty happy with what I saw for the first session back. For those of us who have been observing training for 20yrs, some of us would remember us not looking this good at the start of round one.

I almost forgot, during one of the avoiding/breaking tackle drills Melky tried to side step Grundy and Grundy rag dolled him. He put him down gently but it was great to see.