2010/2011 Pre-Season Training

[KUNG FU]

For a guy who just posted a thread entitled "Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics" surely you can see the folly in using this kind of rubbish as ammunition.

If I remember correctly, NC said at the time that Taylor needed to go away and work on his "defensive game."

Vintage Neil. Pull a potential match-winner out of the line-up because he doesn't appear to be competing like some of his teammates - who would have less match-turning ability in their whole body than Walker has in one of his farts.

It was form related in that instance. Defensive game was 2009.

And we won that game he dropped for. One of the perceived plodders on this forum, Nathan van Berlo kicked the winning goal.

Don't get me wrong though, I would have stuck with Tex if it was my choice, but I hardly think being dropped for one game as a 20 yo KPF does any damage to a player's development. If anything it should reinforce hunger and I think that showed itself in Walker's last two games.

 

[Jars458]

Isn't this a pre-season training thread, not another Taylor Walker thread? Some posts need deleting or moving IMO.

 

[Southerntakeover]

And most of them had their gold passes confiscated (eg Edwards & Burton), had no alternative players waiting to take their place (Stevens), got injured/suspended just before the axe fell (Vince) or lifted their game just before the axe was due to come down (Tippett???).

He played 18 games last year and probably should have played more but for the Burton fiasco at the start of the season. We're not back in 2008 any longer, these days the position is his to lose rather than the other way around.

So whats the argument now, because its jumping around.

Originally the claim was being made that Walker failed to meet the time wide selection standards of consistency. Indeed the defense of Walkers dropping is that everyone is supposedly held to the same standard, and he falls short. An argument that doesnt hold if he has out performed others during a stretch in the team and still been the one dropped.

Now we're discussing individuals and the fact that selection policy differs for other players. If thats the case, not only can we dismiss the team wide consistency standard that Walker supposedly fails, but we can also ask why Walker as someone who most identify as a top line talent hasnt been placed as a priority selection, in order to best our football clubs chances of success.

 

[OldCrowBloke]

Isn't this a pre-season training thread, not another Taylor Walker thread? Some posts need deleting or moving IMO.

Yes, at least get this thread back on topic.
There were about 3 whole lines contributed about the scratch match (Thanks Chief Crow) - anyone got something more of real interest to add?

 

[Dandy_GO]

Thirded. We've had this Walker vs Craig argument enough times already without it cluttering up the only training thread we have this pre-season.

 

[SydCrow]

4thed - this is like Groundhog Day

which by the way is February 2nd so be sure to get it out and watch it as it is one of the finest movies ever made

 

[Elite Crow]

What's your definition of "better"?

Last time he got dropped, it was on the back of the following 3 performances:
R17: 10k 5m 1hb score 2.4
R18: 6k 5m 5hb score 1.1
R19: 5k 2m 4hb score 0.1

Anyway you care to dress it up, he got dropped because he was playing lousy football. He wasn't getting enough of the pill and he wasn't scoring enough goals (which is what he's supposedly good at).

He's treated no differently from any of our other youngsters. When he plays well he stays in the team. 3 bad games in a row and he gets dropped for a week or two to work on his deficiencies. It's not a Neil Craig conspiracy, no matter how much you might like it to be.

Pretty sure he got one vote in the B&F for round 17, so make that 2 bad games.

 

[Vader]

Anyway, back to pre-season training......

 

[Go You Crows]

Thankfully

 

[Schulzycrow]

Pluuuuueeeesssse! No more about Walker from last season or the season before or the conspiracy theories to keep him out of the side. He is still young and will improve and be a very good player for us if he puts in the effort. Lets wait until some games have been played this season to dig all this up again.

(I know we're bored and want footy back, but start a new thread and argue to your hearts content).

Anyone else get to training today??

 

[Tobster]

Isn't this a pre-season training thread, not another Taylor Walker thread? Some posts need deleting or moving IMO.

Excellent point J458. This is exactly why I advocated for a single post per training session and not one long post. I believe the quality and number of our pre-season reports has fallen dramatically this year due to having one long thread. This may or may not be the case but if we deleted all the rubbish in this thread i think we would be left with about 1 page worth of quality, insightful observations from people who have attended training, eg Stabby, CG, etc.

Without a doubt, The Crows BF Forum use to have the best pre-season training reports out of all the BF Forums, now I'm not so sure and that's a damn shame (because i love reading them and they keep me going through the off-season).

Enough of my whinging but I'm pretty sick of reading some posters stuff on here, especially because they are using far too much lube.

 

[Southerntakeover]

I am also mad that people are spending less of their time attending training and writing long detailed reports for my benefit.

 

[dylan123]

I am also mad that people are spending less of their time attending training and writing long detailed reports for my benefit.

Who should we take it up with?

 

[lunacy]

Well I attended training today and sat alongside Chief Crow. The boys did about 30mins of conditioning work which consisted largely of agility type work.

Knights and Walker did quite a few runs around the block together but were both moving quite well. Mackay was is the restricted group along with Craig, Schmidt, Shaw and I can't remember who else. Vince was not sited.

The boys then did some full ground drills. The skills were looking good and there is definitely a good mood around the club with a lot of strong voice and excitement coming from all players (the young and the old).

They then played a scratch match. Tippett and Mckernen were the twin towers up forward (Walker was obviously absent) opposed to Rutten and Davis. The match ups between these 4 changed regularly with Rutten v Tippett, Davis v McKernen and then they swapped. Whilst Rutten and Davis both looked good coming out of defense and both used instructional voice to those up the ground, I reckon Tippett and Mckernen both took the honors. Gees Tippett's good. And if Mckernen can be more consistent he is gonna be a really hard match up. He is so strong in the aerial contests but once the ball hits the ground he's as desperate as Tippett but even more agile and quick.

The set up was Tippett and McKernen with the forward 50 to themselves (along with their opponents) with two small fowards timing their run to head into their vicinity by running towards them to get at their feet. The 2 small forwards swapped between Callinan and Jaensch, then Porps and Sloane.

Otten played in the guts and accumulated a heap of the ball and was very loud with instuction and encouragement. Danger came off holding his chest and squatting down coughing repeatedly. I think he just copped a blow to the chest. Tambling and Martin looked good playing wing and hbf. Sloane kept racking up possessions both in and under and on the outside. Jaesnch, Hendo and Porps all looked good up forward. I liked the work of Jacobs today. He seemed to get involved in play a fair bit. Not so much link up handball but more as a marking target in open space.

Petrenko was another good trainer today repeatedly running the ball from defense and through the midfield. At one point he just quite a few possessions in a row and one of the coaches yelled out "see what happens when you put in Pup?".

Overall they looked quite polished and all looked in great condition. The session focused a lot on ball movement and running in numbers. It was pretty clear at times we'll start our ball movement wide at times and then cross it inboard while other times we'll go straight through the guts. It will depend on where and how the opposition defends. This supports what Craigy said last night on 5aa.

Btw I overheard Phil Harper say to someone "Vince doesnt have a lot of cartilage left in his knee" .

I'm really excited about this group. Walker and Dangerfield both look even bigger (if that's possible).

 

[WAG]

Btw I overheard Phil Harper say to someone "Vince doesnt have a lot of concussion left in his knee" .

I'm really excited about this group. Walker and Dangerfield both look even bigger (if that's possible).

Cheers lunacy .

WTF does that mean?

No mention of Knighta or Porps. Just wondering how they were travelling?

 

[Schulzycrow]

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

Thanks Lunacy a great write up!

May have to pick Otto up for DT if he is going to rack em up in the midfield.

Interesting with Smack and Tippett good to see both are putting in. Two desperate tall forwards are what we like to see.

Jaensch and Callinan are playing for the same spot I reckon. Will be interesting to see in the first NAB games where they line up.

Crows are always at their dangerous when they run in waves up the ground. In so many games over the years when they have smashed sides its the running in packs to the forward line that is so good to watch.

Hope Knighta and Tex get back into it soon.

 

[OldCrowBloke]

Thanks Lunacy!!

It is interesting to hear 2 of you were impressed with McKernan today. I think there is one spot up for grabs between him, Young, Sellar, Moran (& Tahlia). Not all the same sort of players, but they need to impress to get a go.

 

[Crows88]

I was down there today aswell and Lunacy has hit it on the head.

Interestingly, the session started with the players doing the 'yo-yo' test....and they were stuffed. They all did really well and we being pushed very hard.

I'll talk about the game stuff because Lunacy has knocked the rest of it on the head. I thought Sauce was fantastic today, Craigy was on his hammer the whole time....lots of get there Sammy, run sammy, etc, etc. He is a superb tap ruckman and he and porplyzia will cause alot of defences troubles this season, he gave porps it on a platter numerous times and he loved it. I think Martin was one of the best today, he showed good confident and poise and was not scared to take people on a deliver a quality footy. He owned one of the wings and I think if D-Mac struggles to get up he could make it his own.

Tippett was fantastic, however, we were very focussed on getting the footy to him and sometimes forced it a little. The rucks for the day were Sauce, Ivan, Sellar and Moran, moran looked good today and was recieving some great plaudits from the other players. McKernan teamed up well with Tip coming out of a forward pocket. However, one criticism of him is he doesn't have a left boot and got caught out a couple of times today. Phil davis was superb, lots of voice and was everywhere. The crows have always been trained by craigy to 'aim' their spoils. He did it perfectly today and would often spoil from behind straight into a crumbers hands who took it away. The focus of the game was transition and finding space to move the ball which was great to see. Van Berlo was good, porps was very good and he has a beautiful disposal. Today Brodie Smith and Symes struggled with their disposal and were both very frustrated with themselves. Jaensch was good as was Matthew Wright, got a heap of the footy and they loved the ball in his hands, he, sloane and cook were used frequently as outlets for the footy and got alot of handball recieved....Callinan played up forward similar to a porps role and you could tell Tip loved getting the footy from him. Not only does he give it lace out when required, he also cant weight a footy to ensure that he can beat a defender who is playing in front. McKernan is not overly quick on the lead so often he would do a 4 step lead, double back and get his defender off balance and wait for callinan to pop up a beauty over the defenders head. Tambling was good and will make a few highlights reels this year. Johncock was a bit quiet, however he had some great streaming runs from a back pocket which made the mouth water.

Even though Walker and knights were with the rehab group they were running bloody hard and pushing through which was good to see. Did numerous laps of the smaller oval.

I think that's all for now, any other questions let me know....

My top 5 for the training game would've been - Tippet, Davis, Sloane, Martin and Jacobs.

Lots of short sharp periods with a focus and stretching, breathing and cooling down between periods which was aimed to minimise the risk of injury which was good to see.

Very positive session and they were all very vocal, encouraging and best of all - competitive! They all want their spot in the 22 and it will be tough to leave people out that's for sure!

 

[Slippery Pete]

4thed - this is like Groundhog Day

which by the way is February 2nd so be sure to get it out and watch it as it is one of the finest movies ever made

Gobbler's Knob

 

[WALL-e]

Thanks Luny & C88. Enjoy the updates.

 

[WALL-e]

Gobbler's Knob

Sounds all sorts of wrong.

 

[OldCrowBloke]

Thanks for the detailed reports - what this thread has desperately been needing.
It is always interesting to read the varying perspectives that BF reporters take from the sessions, and the different things they observe.

 

[Schulzycrow]

Thanks C88. Not long to go now a couple more weeks and footy is back!

 

[Slippery Pete]

Sounds all sorts of wrong.

Poor old Punxsutawney Phil.

 

[-CG-]

Petrenko was another good trainer today repeatedly running the ball from defense and through the midfield. At one point he just quite a few possessions in a row and one of the coaches yelled out "see what happens when you put in Pup?".

Are you sure he didn't say, "see what happens when we play you in the right position?"

Thanks for the report guys They are super!