Horse made a big point that fitness / readiness to play was a KPI, so I’m hoping to see a few new faces against Essendon
There is no one outside the round 1 team fit worth bothering with. NEAFL stalwarts like Stoddart, Bell, Thurlow, Clarke, Fox etc are not best 22. Stephens and Gould are draftees, they offer less fitness-wise than most anyway. Our hand may be forced to leave the rd 1 side as was, with George in for Ronke. There are a handful of lucky Swans who will take on the dopers.
One other possible left field selection is Joel Armatey for Sinkers who can also play forward/Ruck, if selectors want to use this opportunity to develop him as he is more mobile with the faster/shorter quarters in mind. However i doubt they will seriously consider Joel at this point.
Amartey is at least 6 weeks away it was reported not long ago.
Just saw on the news that Fantasia has injured his quad and won't be playing.
I dropped by on training this morning. Some short observations:
* they WEREN'T training as a whole group - seemed to be about a third of the squad (approx. 14 players) and they were subdivided into two groups training at opposite ends of the field. Curious. Why wait all this time to be able to train together and understake stricter isolation measures and then not actually train all together?
* it was overall a very light hearted, easy training session. There was lots of laughing and banter. Nobody worked up a sweat or did much to work up a sweat. There was a bit of light jogging. There were lots of kicks for goal. A few stretches. Some handballing drills and games. A bit of kicking in pairs. Nothing involving contact. Nothing resembling match simulation.
* Hard to read too much into that but I was impressed with COR's focus during the training. He just seemed to be pushing it a bit harder than the others e.g. when they were handballing to each other in pairs he was with Brett Kirk and he was handballing at a faster rate and also deliberately doing some more testing handballs (higher/lower/left/right) to keep his partner on his toes.
* When Parker and Heeney were kicking to each other I thought Heeney's kicking accuracy was superior. There was a bit of a breeze that had to be factored in but most of the time Parker didn't need to take a step whereas Heeney would have to move a couple of paces this way or that to catch the Sherrin.
* Bell's accuracy kicking for gaol seemed to go down once Horse showed up and everyone was scrutinising the kicks a bit more closely. At one point Bell was attempting an around the corner set shot from tight in the pocket and Horse said something to throw him off as he kicked (they were all doing this to each other) and he missed wildly. Another wild miss a bit later on.
* Most of the time Bell paired up with Elijah Taylor. I had been wondering and it turns out that Elijah Taylor is the one (apart from Zac Foot) who has the shock of dyed blond hair. In a way, I think this is a good sign because it possibly shows his confidence. However he looked like the least fit player there. Conversely, when they did some of those handballing drills I noticed his stillness as he was catching and handballing the multiple balls that were flying around. He's definitely got talent. He also kicks beautifully and powerfully too.
* A player who made a good impression, although ironically for the (slightly) wrong reasons was Maibaum. He was quite understated in the way he went about it, not calling attention to himself, but I noticed he succeeded with every kick for goal I saw him attempt (which I didn't notice for anyone else). That said Heeney was showboating and attempting any number of party shots including from slightly behind the goals and outside the boundary fence. So it's no wonder he didn't kick them all. Heeney was the only player who spoke to me, when he called out to me that Parker was cheating (by overstepping the mark? I didn't quite follow) in one of Parker's shots for goal.
All in all, nice to eyeball the team in the flesh in the beautiful winter sunshine. Only 10 days until footy resumes! (Or 13 days in our case, unfortunately.)
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated, and well supported in logic and argument than others. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)
Good on you, bloodspirit.
I popped on to recommend the video of the match sim on the official site. A well compiled montage.
My observations from it
- Melican looked fit and sharp. I still think he's in our best 22 and adds flexibility to our defence, freeing Aliir or Rampe to play more rebounding roles.
- Taylor looked sharp around the stoppages. I think he'll become a useful player as his confidence comes on.
- I remain excited to see Gould and Stephens develop with us. Both seem to have great attitudes and are developing a bond. The former looks a future leader.
Bookmarks