2016 Pre-Season (All news, press conferences, training reports, Photos)

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Nice write up lookagoose

What was Eric the Eel's role in the drills?

Pretty sure he was playing ruck/forward role. Only 2/3 drills worth by memory. Spent last half hour running laps with Schache, Keays & Matheison.
 
On Keays, great flat kick, saw him close up & has a "sneeze" like reaction as he kicks. Head shoots down as he kicks through it. Great runner, wouldn't be surprised if he sees some senior footy next year.

Mathieson worked pretty well in the drills after coming DFL in the time trial. Playing centre/rover in all drills. As others have mentioned had no problem keeping up so looks like a white line fever runner. Same as Rocky, give them a footy to chase and they keep pushing themselves, gut running is above the shoulders & features a heavy dose of being very competitive. Not saying he will be running 15km a game but as others have mentioned footy smarts are priceless knowing where and when to run.
 
On Keays, great flat kick, saw him close up & has a "sneeze" like reaction as he kicks. Head shoots down as he kicks through it. Great runner, wouldn't be surprised if he sees some senior footy next year.

Mathieson worked pretty well in the drills after coming DFL in the time trial. Playing centre/rover in all drills. As others have mentioned had no problem keeping up so looks like a white line fever runner. Same as Rocky, give them a footy to chase and they keep pushing themselves, gut running is above the shoulders & features a heavy dose of being very competitive. Not saying he will be running 15km a game but as others have mentioned footy smarts are priceless knowing where and when to run.
you should post more lookagoose
 
On Keays, great flat kick, saw him close up & has a "sneeze" like reaction as he kicks. Head shoots down as he kicks through it. Great runner, wouldn't be surprised if he sees some senior footy next year.

Mathieson worked pretty well in the drills after coming DFL in the time trial. Playing centre/rover in all drills. As others have mentioned had no problem keeping up so looks like a white line fever runner. Same as Rocky, give them a footy to chase and they keep pushing themselves, gut running is above the shoulders & features a heavy dose of being very competitive. Not saying he will be running 15km a game but as others have mentioned footy smarts are priceless knowing where and when to run.

On Keays kicking, how was his long kicks looking? One of the question marks you hear about him is that his short to med kicks are pretty flat, but once he kicks long he tends to sky them (which is what I noticed in his U18 tapes)
 
On Keays kicking, how was his long kicks looking? One of the question marks you hear about him is that his short to med kicks are pretty flat, but once he kicks long he tends to sky them (which is what I noticed in his U18 tapes)

To be honest didn't see many. The head reaction may be instructed to correct this? During kick to kick pretty sure they were a good 35-40m away & he was keeping them 4-5m off the deck across the distance. Albeit no pressure.
 
Just ready now? Amateur.

It took me a while, but once I was able to ascertain there was a vacuum of solid facts, then and only then I felt more comfortable in passing down judgements.
 
So I just got back from running the course and it is about 30-60m (GPS watches aren't 100% accurate) long. Coupled with a slower surface, I'd guess the times would be somewhere between 10-25 seconds slower than if it was a precise 3km on a running track/footpath.

But that's a bit of a random guess, so it probably just highlights that we should be more interested in how the guys compare to each other (ie Schache is only 20 sec behind Robinson!) rather than the actual times themselves.
 
I think it's also good to see that 3 of our new recruits have shown they are very good runners. It's an important addition with the drop in the interchange cap and particularly with Bell and Bastinac being best 22 (you'd think) it might mean we run out quarters a bit better
 
So i just got back from running the course and it is about 30-60m (GPS watches aren't 100% accurate) long. Coupled with a slower surface, I'd guess the times would be somewhere between 10-25 seconds slower than if it was a precise 3km on a running track/footpath.

But that's a bit of a random guess, so it probably just highlights that we should be more interested in how the guys compare to each other (ie Schache is only 20 sec behind Robinson!) rather than the actual times themselves.
what was your time L Dizz? you might be a shot for a rookie spot in 2017:)
 

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So I just got back from running the course and it is about 30-60m (GPS watches aren't 100% accurate) long. Coupled with a slower surface, I'd guess the times would be somewhere between 10-25 seconds slower than if it was a precise 3km on a running track/footpath.

But that's a bit of a random guess, so it probably just highlights that we should be more interested in how the guys compare to each other (ie Schache is only 20 sec behind Robinson!) rather than the actual times themselves.

Going beyond the call of duty there, L Dizz. Well done.

Yeah, Andrews, Schache and Hipwood seem to have run together and finished pretty close. The ability to be able to get that much height to so many contests is kinda mind boggling. Of course they have to stay physically sound, but gee, you'd reckon it's going to be hard for opposition to mark long balls with height like that floating around contests.
 
I wouldn't be too worried about Rocky. Given the way he got banged up a bit last season I wouldn't be surprised that they've given him a bit more rest time in the off season with an eye to building his fitness back up to peak a little later. Once you get to that point in your career, the base work is done and its easier for him to miss a bit of extra training and still make his targets come end of pre season. Although realistically he's never been a great straight out long distance runner, he simply doesn't have a great running gait for it. Put him in a game situation however where its lots of short sharp repeat efforts and he's one of our best. Some people are long runners, some are better at lots of shorter sharper runs in succession. As long as we're using guys in the right roles it won't be an issue.

I used to have a mate who was really fit (when compared to me) he did a lot of cycling and played a lot of tennis. However when we used to go out for some 3-5km runs I would have him covered easily, mainly because he ran like a complete unco. Put him on a sports field or tennis court where it was shorter sharper runs and he'd outrun me all day.
 
Distance is different to sprint. With the right attitude, training program (including specific power and neural-speed periods) and a couple of years average runners can turn themselves into exceptional runners. Has to happen before they finish growing though, and I can't see any teenage AFL player putting a football down long enough to make a difference.
You can improve for sure, but to get to actually good low times you need natural ability. What you are saying is similar to saying anybody could ride the Tour de France if you trained hard enough. No, you need some ability and then the application as well. And while you might say distance is different to sprint (well i would of thought that was fairly obvious) you can improve your sprinting significantly with specific training, however doesnt meant you can run sub 11 if you dont have the ability. Hard to subvert genetics.
 
You can improve for sure, but to get to actually good low times you need natural ability. What you are saying is similar to saying anybody could ride the Tour de France if you trained hard enough. No, you need some ability and then the application as well. And while you might say distance is different to sprint (well i would of thought that was fairly obvious) you can improve your sprinting significantly with specific training, however doesnt meant you can run sub 11 if you dont have the ability. Hard to subvert genetics.

Obviously there's a genetic wall each person hits at some point. Kids like Hiscox and Schoenfeld are running low 9 mins at combine. That's beyond the capability of most humans regardless of training.

But I think full time, professional athletes with support staff, custom programs, masseuses, nutritionists and sports medicine people should be getting pretty close to breaking 11 (and 3/4th of those that ran are inside 11:20 seconds). Endurance is a huge component of this game. With short benches and moving, structural defences, there's nowhere to hide a fat guy any more.

Worth noting the Keays ran nearly 20 seconds slower than he did at the combine 12 weeks ago.
 
You can improve for sure, but to get to actually good low times you need natural ability. What you are saying is similar to saying anybody could ride the Tour de France if you trained hard enough. No, you need some ability and then the application as well. And while you might say distance is different to sprint (well i would of thought that was fairly obvious) you can improve your sprinting significantly with specific training, however doesnt meant you can run sub 11 if you dont have the ability. Hard to subvert genetics.

If you are interested in the nature vs nurture debate in development of champions I highly recommend the books Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Bounce by Matthew Syed. They both do an excellent job of presenting current scientific research in a understandable fashion. Syed's book has a chapter titled "Are Blacks Superior Runners? which includes a discussion of genetic test results across a number of racial and ethnic groups. Fascinating stuff.
 
Obviously there's a genetic wall each person hits at some point. Kids like Hiscox and Schoenfeld are running low 9 mins at combine. That's beyond the capability of most humans regardless of training.

But I think full time, professional athletes with support staff, custom programs, masseuses, nutritionists and sports medicine people should be getting pretty close to breaking 11 (and 3/4th of those that ran are inside 11:20 seconds). Endurance is a huge component of this game. With short benches and moving, structural defences, there's nowhere to hide a fat guy any more.

Worth noting the Keays ran nearly 20 seconds slower than he did at the combine 12 weeks ago.
The other point is 11mins isn't THAT quick. If you consider the world record in each event to be the limit of human ability, 11mins equates to a 14.5 sec 100m. 11mins should be achievable for most.
 
The other point is 11mins isn't THAT quick. If you consider the world record in each event to be the limit of human ability, 11mins equates to a 14.5 sec 100m. 11mins should be achievable for most.

I'm pretty happy at double that time thanks very much...
 
The other point is 11mins isn't THAT quick. If you consider the world record in each event to be the limit of human ability, 11mins equates to a 14.5 sec 100m. 11mins should be achievable for most.
I hope that all our mids can at least achieve 11 minutes... no excuse TBH everyone with a bit of training and the right attitude should be able to get to 11 minutes... especially considering that these blokes have been running since they were 10 years old at least so they should have a stable foundation. AS others have said this is a professional environment and I hope Austin can bring this club up to AFL standard in the running department for the bottom half of the squad. Would love to get 3/4 of the team running sub 11m 3km and I think that should be a reasonable benchmark they can set for next preseason.
 
The other point is 11mins isn't THAT quick. If you consider the world record in each event to be the limit of human ability, 11mins equates to a 14.5 sec 100m. 11mins should be achievable for most.

And time isnt really as relevant as people make out... I wonder what the fastest time a player covers 3km during gameday would be. AFL is more about gut running and repeat efforts. Speak to any AFL player and they will tell you the Gameday match fitness is where they really get their fitness from. Preseason is just to get some run in their legs
 

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2016 Pre-Season (All news, press conferences, training reports, Photos)

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