Spent this morning at Training at Lakeside on Driver Ave.
Hot. Very Hot. On all levels. But the heat was Hot.
When you go, take your own water and hat and sunscreen, you will need them. Take a chair too.
Now, I hear you ask, was it worth it? Yes it was. It was fun to watch because these guys are elite competitive, and the training was entertaining.
First of all you have the blokes running laps. Half naked. Well I was entertained at that level alone. Craig Bolton ran easily without a limp. Lewie lopes, he is not a natural runner. Braddy is Braddy. Sam Reid is all sinew and shoulders, he is coming back from shoulder surgery so is a way behind, and when he gets a chance to grow some muscle then Look Out. However, he is a bit behind some of the others, so don't start expecting him to line up in round one, ten, fifteen.
There was a cluster of three shirtless, Nic Smiff, Mummy, and Ben Harem (rookie). Now picture this, Smiffy is all muscle and a smooth mover, Mumms is a monster and mostly all muscle who exudes a real sense of physical power, and they were as brown as nuts. then came Ben Harem, white of skin, skinny of body but its all sinew and not an ounce of fat, and he was running with the elite shutdown player at the Swans and the billyard table that is Mummy, and he kept at it, and kept up, and after they stopped for a breather, he kept going and they cheered him on. If you were going to pick them on persistence and will power alone I would definitely give him a second look.
The training appeared to revolve around two main sections. One small area of close working with reflex handball in a competitive arena, one group trying to stop and the other trying to handball through the 'goalposts'. It worked on rotation with the main event, I think some would come off that, have a rest and rotate to the handball .
The main event Appears to have been quick movement and quick decision making in a competitive Game environment. Standouts were Macca whose decision making is non stop, NicMal who appears to have a year plan in mind of finishing in the top 3, MikePyke whose handballing is starting to improve and whose marking is whoa! in spots. Adam is called Adam, and Hanners is Dan. Shaw is noisy and effective. They all seem to trust and respect Benny, and Kizza doesn't seem to know its still training, they haven't started to rack up points yet.
New kids on the block were Andrejs Everett, who is nowhere near as tall as his brother (no idea why I thought he may be....daft girl), Eugene Kruger (Freddy from now on) who has the quickest hands on the block, his reflex takes are just great; Luke Parker looks to be the real deal; didn't note Jed Lamb but they were wearing anyone's number so had no idea.....Uncle Byron appears to have slimmed down and he impressed me a bit, as did Doggy who looks like he has taken a few inches off his waist, TDL was said to be working on his muscles, it didn't work, he is just as slight as ever. Quick though.
Jesse has been working on his thigh muscles - think Plugger.....he will be a lot harder to move off his line this season I predict, he has grown a pair of Baa Lamb thighs (for the ex NRLers).
Benny will take out a Swans gong one day.
Looked for and didn't see Tadgh, Seaby, kirky (yeah, well, you know how it is), Campbell Heath didn't train, he was consulting the physio.
Now for those of you interested, I spoke to a trainer who said YES THEY ARE TRAINIG ON WEDNESDAY, AUSTRALIA DAY, so for additional entertainment maybe you would like to get along to Driver Ave before going to wherever else you are heading. Just a thought. Start about 9, we left at 10.30, and they were still at it.
AS ROYBOY POINTED OUT, THERE WAS A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW RE TRAINING ON OZ DAY - PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK!!!!!
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Originally Posted by gumby_bolts
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