Originally Posted by
bloodspirit
I attended training this morning and can confirm the coaches, and at least some players, are back. Unfortunately it didn't start until 9.30 and I couldn't stay long enough to see very much.
Pretty much all that I did see was that 8 of our most junior players emerged and then, after spending a bit of time warming up, and supervised by pretty much the whole complement of coaches (I can't say I identified them all individually but there were many of them so probably included Inness (the new performance guy replacing Rob Spurrs) and maybe our new physio - I did see Horse, Macca, and Cox for sure), they ran a time trial (pretty sure it would have been 2 km), running laps around Lakeside Oval.
The order in which the group of 8 completed the time trial was: Gulden (sprinted off at the beginning and then maintained his lead from start to finish without ultimately increasing the gap on second place he established in the first 150 m or so), Ronke, McLean, McDonald, Sheather, Wicks, Bell, and, far behind (I reckon about 300 m behind Gulden and well over 100m behind Bell), Amartey. Amartey was far behind last season also, so, despite his reported quickness over 20 m, it seems that he doesn't cover the miles quickly. I would have thought this was a concern for someone who wants to play in the midfield but perhaps not because he isn't improving and we keep re-signing him. As Ted Richards has pointed out, the 2/3km time trial doesn't really reflect the repeat sprint efforts that are more typically required in a game, and it is worth bearing that in mind when considering these results.
Great to see Gulden determined to make whatever good impression he can from the get-go. Impressive to see McLean do so well for a big man. Logan McDonald lived up to his reputation as having a good tank by finishing not too far behind first place.
None of the other players showed up while I was there. I'm curious why the two other draftees, Campbell and Carruthers, didn't take part in the time trial too.
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