Originally Posted by
liz
I went down to Lakeside to watch the advertised open training session last week. There wasn't a huge crowd - maybe a few more than generally stop by at pre-season training sessions but not a throng.
The main group switched between ball movement drills, with a focus on short and medium kicking. Most of them looked pretty good, but there was very little pressure on the ball carrier. Every twenty minutes or so they'd stop and most would switch to a short burst of endurance exercise in the form of a couple of laps of the oval for the majority (though I think it was timed - the faster ones managed two laps but when the whistle went to signal the end, the slower ones broke from wherever they'd got to). A handful sat on the exercise bikes on the side-lines instead. Then they went back to their skills drills.
Of those not partaking in the main group:
Sinclair, Naismith and Fox did an extended stint on the exercise bikes at the start of the session and then disappeared. I have a feeling there was another in this group but my memory has faded somewhat and I can't remember who it was.
Buddy did a little kicking at the start with Blakely and another, then took himself to the far side of the oval and did some short solo runs along the fence.
Harry C did a series of short runs, paced by a trainer. He wasn't quite sprinting, but was running at a faster pace than those doing laps.
Melican, McLean and Amartey did a few short runs in the middle of the oval at the start then disappeared - again, faster than a jog, not quite a sprint.
Heeney and Papley were in the main group but were confined to bikes, rather running, during the endurance breaks. Campbell and Gulden completed the first run, and then took to the bikes for the subsequent breaks. Reid and Blakey were also doing the ball movement drills, but they seemed to be excused from any endurance drills.
I didn't spot any of Parker, Mills, Sheather, BOC, Gould or Ronke. I'm reasonably sure the first five were absent - Ronke's somewhat more physically anonymous so he could have been there but invisible to me.
In terms of the running, COR looked the stand-out to me. He was near the front of the group, maintained a constant pace and his body form was sensational. Stephens and Tom McCartin also looked great. (The best runner I've seen - in terms of form of body, grace etc - over my time watching occasional training sessions is, by a mile, Heeney. As per above, he wasn't running on Wednesday.)
Rankin looked quick, strong and relaxed at the start of each run, but somewhat more ragged by the end. I guess that shows he was giving it his all. Roberts, on the other hand, looked like he was finding it a bit tough out there, lagging towards the back each time. On one run, Rampe fell back and ran with Roberts - a nice captain's touch.
During the skills sessions, most looked good, as noted above, but with the qualification of the low pressure nature of the drills. Gulden stood out not just for his neat kicking but also for his workrate. He'd pass the ball, run hard into space to receive it back, and then when not used, keep running forward to present an option further up the ground still. You could hear the sizzle everytime the ball left Campbell's boot - and he wasn't trying to over kick it (as he did at times last season). Stevens looked busy, strong and slick, while Heeney executed everything with his trademark grace and ease.
There were five academy players participating in the first half of the session. Later they broke off and did some skills and then running on their own. I suspect they were all U18/U19s from this year - the only one I think I could put a name to was Pfrengle. McCartin Sr was also participating in everything, and there looked to be a couple of non-squad faces (apart from the Academy Five) padding out numbers. Maybe they were members of the VFL squad.
Did anyone else pop along and have anything to add or to contradict?
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