TRAINING: Monday 29th January 2024

[Demonland 73,139]

Demonland Trackwatchers Picket Fence and Joeboy made the trek down to Casey Fields on Monday morning to bring you the following observations from preseason training.

PICKET FENCE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Conditions very hot but plenty of shade.

NO SHOWS 

OLIVER, BBB, SMITH, FULLARTON, MELKSHAM

MODIFIED DUTIES 

HUNTER, PETTY both on the bikes, and later JEFFERSON and VERRALL running

NOTE 

SALEM, MONIZ-WAKEFIELD all back in FULL TRAINING!

TRAINING DRILLS MANY AND VARIED

1 One on one full stoppage simulations and hemming opponenent in at boundary.

2 Random player ground ball gets and then precision passing to leading forward option.

3 Rotating forward entries from centre transitions to forwards leading with one on one defenders as checkers spoilers.

4 Whole ground manoeuvers from back to forward.

PLAYER WATCH 

SCHACHE Standout player today for mine took several strong contested grabs against quality defence May and Thommo and perhaps the penny has dropped about being more hungry and aggressive at the ball.

Mc ADAMS Um sorry I don't buy this fitness lacking thing , he is an excitment machine who figured in goals and knows where to run and go.

WOEWODIN Continues to improve and looks confident and strong.

JED ADAMS Looked pretty composed by hand and foot and could surprise.

BILL LAURIE Trained very well and generally disposes well, but I'm not sure he has the X factor needed.

KOOYONG KOLT We have a goodun in this guy, punches well above his weight and at one stage provided 3 pressure acts in a row and resulted in a turnover. A lot to like.

MARTY HORE For some reason he just looks like he's ready to go, works well into a contest and disposal is very sound.

ANDY MONIZ -WAKEFIELD Some serious X Factor, involved and very skilled in linking up.

As you would expect MAX, LEVER, MAY, THOMMO, RIVERS, KOZZY NIBBLER, et al all trained as seasoned pros.

HIGHLIGHT... A drone was hovering over Bowsers head and he thought swatting it was a good idea, got close but no cigar. Funny to see though.

Drills are a lot more corridor based and feature the ability to

a) Select the best option in traffic

b) Execute skills to best advantage.

Its coming together and the intensity is definItely obvious.

N.B Not sure I saw Trac!??

JOEBOY'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

I attended my first preseason training this morning in hot and breezeless conditions.

I’m not a big fan of training techniques so I’ll concentrate on some observations on individual players, and let others comment on set plays.

My initial observations were very pleasing:

TMac has certainly changed his body shape (and hairdo) looking much lighter and running  comfortably; 

Adam Tomlinson is generally not noted for his agility but a dedicated summer of training sees him looking lighter and quite fast too.

Koltyn Tholstrup looks and trains like a man on a mission and his repeated efforts certainly don’t go unnoticed.

Jake Bowie has muscled up and his kicking was a weapon 

Trent Rivers looks supremely fit and continues to give the impression he’ll play more midfield time this year .

Not overly impressed by the fitness of Shane McAdam who seems to be coming from a fair distance behind the others in fitness

Harry Petty likewise to Shane McAdam seems a fair way off match fitness, understandably.