snakehips wrote:
Had a look at training for an hour or so this morning to whet the appetite. By my count, just over half the list was out on the track, mostly the young blokes as expected but also appearances from Jones, Casboult and Newman (no Eddie while I was there). Of the old blokes only Jones was completing everything with the main group. Levi disappeared relatively early and Newman was running laps for a fair chunk of what I saw.
Probably the injury group (or modified load?), but Macreadie and SPS were separated from the main bunch doing lighter work, agility stuff and slow run throughs. Williamson did most of the early part of the session (and looked in good shape), but when they were all running he was in the same group as Samo and Macreadie, along with one other (may have been Polson). De Koning appeared later but only ran slow laps.
Most of what I watched involved short sharp passing drills by foot and lots of chatter. To begin with there were two main groups of about 10, short passing in a 25-30m triangle. They were really going for their kicks, plenty of pepper on them, very aggressive (and being encouraged to do so by the coaches). One group looked distinctly cleaner than the other, not sure if this was by design or just the way the cookie crumbled. Walsh, Stocker, O’Dwyer all looked very neat and were hitting their targets consistently with bullets, whilst the likes of DeLuca, Casboult and even Newman looked very tentative with theirs, much more reluctant to really smash it.
The next drill I watched was a seven on three short passing drill, which was an extension of what they’d been working on immediately prior. This version involved some pressure from the three on the defensive team, despite being significantly out numbered. Stanton was running this drill. He gave plenty of loud, clear and simple instructions and encouragement, which surprised me a little as I’ve hardly heard him in other sessions I’ve attended. He kept reminding the offensive team to make the ground big, stretch the defenders out (which shouldn’t have been difficult) and take the easy option whenever they could.
There was one handballing drill that I watched, three offensive players running the gauntlet against two or three coaches in a narrow, 15-20m long corridor. I guess they were attempting to practice finding space (where there wasn’t much), drawing a defender and timing your run. Williamson and Walsh both looked very slick in the group I was watching.
Not too much else that I thought worthy of note in the hour or so I took in, but suffice to say they all looked in great nick and were obviously training the house down.
SSSSSSSSSSspecial from the SSSSSSSsssssssnakehips.
Thankssssssssssssssssssss.
I did that without a lisp too. Onya legend
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