Training Report No.5 (2015-16)

[Neil Appleby]

Training Report No.5. Thursday 24th March

It appeared that plenty of people had �Easter Thursday� off work, because we made it down Punt Rd in twenty minutes today. Into the caf� to join Neil Balme, Derek Hine and Matt Rendell for coffee and hot cross buns.

Players began arriving onto the oval at about 9:40 and just about the whole list put in an appearance today.

Restricted Training
Matty Sharenberg � ran laps, did some half pace 50m runs and did a bit of kick to kick. At the first session of the pre-season, just 3 months ago, Matty watched his teammates run time trials as he struggled with crutches. He has made a very solid recovery thus far; well done to the Collingwood medicos for getting this guy back on the track so soon.

Jamie Elliott � ran a few laps before going back inside. If you were none the wiser, you�d think he was further away from playing than Sharenberg. Nowhere near playing from what we saw today.

Travis Varcoe � appeared with a trainer to walk a few laps and then went back inside.

Apart from these boys, every other player participated in the full session including Jeremy Howe, Josh Smith, Tyson Goldsack and Tim Broomhead.

The Drills
The drills were pretty much a carbon copy of last week�s, so I won�t describe them all.

One new drill saw players broken into black vs white teams to practise disposal by hand when group tackled. Coach Burns threw a ball to a player who then tried to deliver to a teammate whilst being tackled by two opponents. Adam Treloar excels in this drill.

Jordan DeGoey limps from this activity to a trainer who immediately begins massaging Jordan�s left leg around the knee area. It seems he�s in a bit of pain as he walks away trying to stretch the leg and get some mobility. Two more trainers arrive and they have a chat. DeGoey heads back to his group but Scott Burns calls him in and Bill Davoren joins them. He rejoined training and saw out the rest of the session. He didn�t appear to be favouring his leg in any of the drills thereafter, so fingers crossed he pulls up OK.

Match simulation takes place about 40 minutes into the session. It�s Black vs White in this game. In the first centre contest it�s Witts v Grundy. Grundy taps it down, but there�s no clean possession. A pack of players try to win the ball before one player does, feigns one way, then the other and then spins from the pack to deliver the ball to a teammate. This silky smooth mover is Adam Treloar.

At the Yarra end, Ben Reid does the kick-ins for the White Team. Also defending there are Tooves, Marsh, Smith, Goldy. Jessie White is also playing in defence.

Now the ball goes back to Reid in the square. Quite a deal of discussion takes place about match ups before Reid kicks short to the pocket to Smith. Smith kicks along the Glasshouse wing to a stretching Aish, but Witts punches the ball away.

Rupert Wills is tailing Treloar, Pendles is shadowed by DeGoey as usual and Aish and Greenwood are opposed.

Ricky Ponting arrives and walks to a group of trainers on the running track. I wonder if Ricky is going to deliver a motivational speech after training?

Now at the Hisense end, Jesse White is defending Darcy Moore. Meanwhile, Witts leaves the field with blood streaming from his nose.

Aish gets two kicks on the Glasshouse wing within a few minutes. One, a fast low left footer hits Greenwood on the chest in the pocket. A few minutes later we see him on the wing with no obvious option. Players back in the middle scream for it, but Aishy waits and then delivers onto the chest of a running teammate in traffic. Very nice indeed. No rushing here, just poised enough to wait and then make a good decision with skill.

Witts runs back onto the field with his nose bandaged. He�s fine.

At the Hisense end, the White Team full forward is Jeremy Howe, who is being shadowed by Nathan Brown. Now DeGoey gathers a loose ball, runs through the centre and delivers to the chest of Aish.

It�s easy to miss James Aish; he doesn�t catch the eye like some others. He also tends to �play quiet� and can appear to be a bit detached or removed until he gets the ball in his hands.

Maynard with pace, feigns one way and then delivers a left foot daisy cutter to a teammate 35 metres away. Here�s one defender who can kick. Does he have a right side I wonder? If he does, he�ll be a ripper.

Nice kick from Ramsay finds Moore at CHF. Moore goes back to Faz who kicks it back into the corridor and it�s an awful kick. Turnover.

Now Bucks gives the ball to Goldsack and asks him to do the kick-in after a behind is kicked. At this end, Jesse White is off the field waiting to be called back in. At the other end, Ben Sinclair waits.
Now Goldy kicks in to Ben Reid who handballs to Toovey. Tooves is tackled but handballs to Broomhead who is bundled out.

Back in the centre it�s Cox, Adams, Treloar vs Gault, Sidey, Pendles. Cox wins it and down to Treloar. Ball is repelled by Smith who heads to the AAMI side to Sier. Long right footer to Grundy standing unattended on the flank. He kicks to Darrean Wyatt in the pocket. No problems for the basketballer as he splits the middle with a 35 metre kick that sails through post height.

Bucks calls the players into the middle for a long chat. Now players are split into three groups. The defenders are at the Hisense end and do kicking drills. The forwards are having goal kicking practice. The centre players are practising positional moves with Pendles calling the shots. Various players move through as the ruckmen including Gault, Cloke and Moore. Moore has an amazing standing leap.

That�s it now as players head off the field and sign autographs and have photos taken with fans. Ben Reid makes it through training unscathed.

Adam Treloar leaves no fans disappointed; he happily signs every book and jumper presented and then moves along the fence to have photos taken. He�s very obliging and well mannered to the fans. There�s no hint of ego here.

Final observations:
�Ben Reid did everything asked of him today. His beautiful raking kicks were a sight for sore eyes.
�James Aish finally gave me something to smile about. He won�t get a heap of possessions, but he knows how to use both sides of his body and he is a good decision maker.
�Adam Treloar is silk. Jordan DeGoey is looking mighty good too. Both these boys win their own ball and then deliver accurately.
�Swanny played the entire game forward. Not once did I spot Swanny in the centre and that includes during the drills.
�Ramsay and Sinclair are both fully fit. One displayed good foot skills today; unfortunately it wasn't Sinclair.
�Jesse White did not go forward once today. He was used exclusively in defence.
�Goldsack, Broomhead and Howe ran 100 metre sprints after the match play. All should be ready to play VFL along with Smith.

And so the preseason comes to a close. Now we�ll see if the precise kicking evident over the summer, holds up under real pressure. Over and out.

[John Wren]

based on this, i am confident reid will be named tonight.

[John Wren]

also, thanks for summary. much appreciated.

[watt price tully]

Thanks Neil. Wonderful report.

You know that Sinclair was one of our most efficient recently in a practice match with very high disposal efficiency.

[doriswilgus]

Great report,Neil.Very detailed and informative,as usual.And very exciting to hear about Reid and Treloar!

[John Wren]

[MightyMagpie]

Thanks again Neil, much appreciated.

Sounds as though Reidy is fit to go.

[Mossi]

So Neil you left out, who is going to play? who is going to take Buddy, are we ready for the SCG, and how much we are going to win by, but you did cover everything else!

[Dave The Man]

Thanks Niel

[Dave The Man]

[roar]

Thanks for the report, neil.

Forget the stats, wpt: they rarely tell the complete picture.

[HAL]

[Dave The Man]

[RudeBoy]

Top report, as usual, Neil Much appreciated.

The big question I guess is which ruck set up we'll go with this week. Is it Witts and Grundy, or do we bring in Gault and leave one of the other rucks out? We'll know soon enough.

[roar]

Agree, Rudi, one or two rucks is the big question.