2020 Preseason training Part 2

[FreeTK]

AFL season 2020: Adam Simpson driving flag desire at the West Coast Eagles, according to Nic Naitanui
Mitchell WoodcockThe West Australian
Monday, 18 May 2020 11:39PM


Adam Simpson’s message to his West Coast charges ahead of the unprecedented 2020 season is simple — there is a premiership here to be won.
The Eagles, who are only behind reigning premiers Richmond in the betting to claim the flag, have to start their journey to a fifth flag in the foreign conditions of a Gold Coast hub for up to a month.
All-Australian ruckman Nic Naitanui said the Eagles don’t care where they need to go, they just want to hit the field.


“We’re used to travelling. We spend half the year in hotels anyway, so it’s nothing to dissimilar,” Naitanui told Talking Footy.
“Simmo was clear to us the other week. He said to us there’s a chance for a flag to be won, albeit it might have a little asterisk next to it because there is not as many games and whatnot.
“He’s a real competitor and he wants to win. So he said ‘you know what, the sooner we can get up there and play footy, who cares what else happens in between that’.”
Coach Adam Simpson. Credit: Danella Bevis/The West Australian
Naitanui, who has played just 35 games in the past four seasons including missing the 2018 premiership win due to knee injuries, said stepping away from the football club had not had an impact on his fitness.
“I am ready to go,” he said.
“I have been good, my training partners over the last two months have been guys like Jamie Cripps and Liam Duggan, all these little small runners.
“They’ve been making me work which has been good.”
And his preparation is only going to keep getting better if yesterday’s training session was anything to go by, with Naitanui working alongside their best midfielders in Tim Kelly, Luke Shuey, Andrew Gaff and Elliot Yeo.
“I think it’s half of our salary cap,” Naitanui said when talking about the group.
“It is a good little crew to train with.
“We’ve got young Jarrod Brander as well, so I think he’s excited to be around some of those big gun mids in our team.”

 

[FreeTK]

West Coast coach Adam Simpson confident there is enough time to get Eagles ready for season
Mitchell WoodcockThe West Australian
Monday, 18 May 2020 8:30PM


West Coast coach Adam Simpson is confident the mini pre-season is enough to get his players ready for the rigours of an AFL season from June 11.
The Eagles were split into groups of seven based on their position with an assistant coach and take through a series of non-contact drills yesterday when they returned to the club for the first time in two months.
This will be the routine for this week before the intensity ramps up next week when AFL clubs are allowed two contact sessions per week to get their players ready for game day intensity.

Simpson said recovery from the physicality may take longer than normal, but he was confident his players had returned in the right shape.
“It’s just good to get everyone back and through the club, it will get a bit better in the next couple of weeks,” Simpson told 7News.
“It’s a fair spike in what we can do next week. Two training sessions where we get full contact and obviously one that’ll look a little bit like today.
“I think we get four of those (contact sessions) and then obviously the week building into the game. Not a lot of prep, but we’re all in the same boat and I think it will be enough time.

“We’re going to be missing some contact and the physical elements of how you recover and pull up from week-to-week, that will definitely take time. We’ll be a bit under, but I think we’ll be OK.”

Simpson said the club was optimistic when it came to all their players making themselves available to travel to the Gold Coast hub.
“We’re thinking players and staff are pretty keen to get there,” he said.
West Coast skipper Luke Shuey described the feeling of returning to training as like the first day of school and said the players were excited to take another step towards getting the season restarted.

“We’re pretty much (split into groups along position) lines at the moment ... just getting to work with the guys you play around most weeks and getting a bit of chemistry back and I think next week we can start a bit of contact (work),” Shuey told the club’s website.
“Trying to ramp (up our workload) as quick as we can, hoping that most of the guys have done their work which it looks like most of the boys have and we trusted everyone did, so we can get into it pretty quickly.”

 

[FreeTK]

Xavier Ellis: The five areas I would focus on during the shortened AFL pre-season
Xavier EllisThe West Australian
Tuesday, 19 May 2020 4:00AM

Finally, a ray of sunshine on the horizon! June 11 is the date, and the players reported for duty yesterday to begin preparing for the season to (re)commence. Naturally the coaches and sport science gurus would have liked a longer lead time to ensure players are both tactically and physically prepared for games, but this is the date that has been chosen, and I for one could not be more excited.
During a typical pre-season, players attend numerous fitness and skill sessions, meetings and community commitments. However, this year will be very different; the fat will be trimmed and only the most important areas prioritised. With such a short ‘pre-season’, these are the five areas I would focus on over the next month.

1. Team defence
Although I hope that the shortened quarters result in more free-flowing footy, it seems more likely that defence will be the part of the game coaches emphasise.
Coaches will have spent these past two months searching for ways to get more players around the ball to stop flow.
A technique often used to tighten up the defence is simply flipping a football field from north-south to east-west.
A reduction in the soft cap has seen coaches let go permanently, which means there won’t be as many eyes running over training sessions or editing film. We will see the coach’s coach in real time, using their instincts and what their eye tells them to make key decisions.

2. Body maintenance and rehabilitation
This is mostly applicable to those more experienced players who have had a significant or recurring injury.
All players are treated incredibly well by medical and sports science staff, but there are some who are simply more important than others (Nic Nat and Nat Fyfe spring to mind).
Injuries are the part of football that no one wants to see (especially to the stars of the game), so now that they have access to all the bells and whistles a football club can provide, those players will be diving head-on into their specific maintenance programs.
Fyfe will want to ensure his leg is in optimal condition, and Nic will be doing everything he can to ensure his knee is ready for games to kick off.


3. Unity and mateship
As much as we like to think the players are best mates, being in isolation for two months together will impact team chemistry.
In a normal season, players would have five or six teammates they’d spend most of their time away from the club with. This year, players will be living on top of each other in quarantine hubs, and players who wouldn’t normally interact socially will have no option but to spend most (if not all) of their free time together.
While it is rare for players to not get along, this kind of living arrangement will undoubtedly lead to a disagreement or two over the time.
Coaches should get the group together as soon as possible, emphasise the importance of mateship and work out a structure for ensuring team unity remains strong through the challenges of quarantine.
This is critical, as the side who ultimately wins the premiership is usually the one who demonstrates a closeness and a bond between players that cannot be measured or replicated.

4. Skills
Luckily for the players, this break has only been six weeks (not six months) and the touch-based skills practice will have been continued throughout the break, either with a training partner, a wife, partner or kids.
Kicking is obviously more difficult to replicate as players were unlikely to have had access to a defender’s pressure, but for the most part, skills are like riding a bike.
The primary concern when players return to kicking after time off is the inevitable ‘kicking quad’ that will flare up if a player hasn’t been doing his usual load over the break.
It would happen after every off season; a player or two would return without having done enough kicking conditioning, and within a week or two, would ping a quad.
Coaches should make sure players get the footballs out and get kicking to ensure the boys are ready for the intensity of game day in a few weeks.

5. Line work
These are the sessions where the ‘teams within a team’ unite and work together on structures. I spent most of my time in the “men’s department” (the back line) and always found the sessions that were devoted to learning how the rest of the back line worked were invaluable. Line work gives defenders the opportunity to play on the forwards, and midfielders get the chance to go up against midfielders.
The sessions aren’t meant to mirror match-day conditions, but they are as close as you can get. Kennedy against Barrass, Walters versus Fyfe etc.
These sessions give players the opportunity to learn how teammates in their ‘line’ work, think and react, and expose the boys to a level of intensity and conditioning that is essential in the lead up to the season commencing.

 

[06Premiers]

FreeTK? More like FreeTheWest.

Top stuff mate.

 

[FreeTK]

FreeTK? More like FreeTheWest.

Top stuff mate.

My work gives me free subscriptions to pretty much every newspaper in the country.

Perks of the trade.

 

[Dark Sharks]

Not sure i'd be calling a subscription to The West a good thing.


Any chance you could get some Hustler?

 

[06Premiers]

My work gives me free subscriptions to pretty much every newspaper in the country.

Perks of the trade.

Ah nice one Basil. Welcome to the board.

 

[RookiePick]

Free The Knose?

 

[FreeTK]

Didn't see much from the backs yesterday.

Schofield in with the 6 starters over Rotham.

Interesting...

 

[kerr87]

They all need to work on their tans - Gold Coast is perfect.

 

[Cm Perfect]

They all need to work on their tans - Gold Coast is perfect.

But will Nelson remain pale as buggery?

 

[kerr87]

Haven't seen Josh Kennedy look so good. Haircut helps but looks refreshed, lean and fit.

Should play on next year IMO.

 

[Yippy Yi Yeo]

Haven't seen Josh Kennedy look so good. Haircut helps but looks refreshed, lean and fit.

Should play on next year IMO.

All depends how his body holds up, he should still be good for 50 goals IMO. Hopefully losing a bit of size his body stay healthy

 

[Chris_6678]

If lists are cut i can see JK hanging the boots up , cant see him being the kind of person wanting to take up a spot over a young player.

 

[FreeTK]

If lists are cut i can see JK hanging the boots up , cant see him being the kind of person wanting to take up a spot over a young player.

Spot on.

We have 3 tall forwards trying to cement a spot in the best 22 with Allen, Waterman and Brander.

I could see JK being our forwards coach next year

 

[FreeTK]

TRAINING NOTES: Tim Kelly’s new isolation hair-do, first-choice mids stick together and the ruck battle heats up

Mark DuffieldThe West Australian
Wednesday, 20 May 2020 12:30PM
Mark Duffield

West Coast were back on the track on Wednesday morning following Monday’s first group session since round one.
Our Chief Football Writer Mark Duffield was there - this is what he saw.

Tim’s hair
Midfield recruit Tim Kelly was sporting a new look, a bleached blond hair do as he trained with other Eagles midfielders.
Kelly is looking trim and in good shape after his break and moved freely.

The A-mids together
The Eagles seemed keen to keep their first choice midfielders in the one place as they trained in reduced groups.
Joining Kelly on the second oval at Mineral Resources Park were Elliot Yeo, Luke Shuey, Andrew Gaff, Dom Sheed, Jarrod Brander and Nic Naitanui.
Overseeing the group was midfield coach Nathan van Berlo. It was a big plus for Brander who was tried on a wing against Melbourne in round one.
The other first choice mid is Jack Redden who is about to come out of quarantine after returning to WA.
Luke Shuey. West Coast Eagles return to training at Mineral Resources Park. Credit: Danella Bevis/The West Australian

Cameron cruising
A positive sign from the other group on the track when the media were allowed to watch the Eagles train was forward Jarrod Cameron who had been put in cotton wool at the start of the season because of a stress reaction in his hip/pelvis.

Cameron ran strongly with youngster Anthony Treacy and then did some ball work. Cameron’s recovery looks well advanced although he laboured a little towards the end of his running.

The ruck off
Interestingly West Coast had teammates and competitors for the back up ruck job underneath Naitanui training and running together.
Tom Hickey and Nathan Vardy did their running work with Oscar Allen who looks fully recovered from a couple of summer niggles.
Hamish Brayshaw and Brayden Ainsworth also trained in the group which was overseen by assistant Adrian Hickmott.

Simmo on watch
Senior coach Adam Simpson was doing some fitness work of his own and ran on both ovals, keeping an eye on the progress of the two groups

 

[Chris_6678]

Nic Nat said Gov has come back in good nick and lost around 6-7KG's.

 

[Avalor]

Nic Nat said Gov has come back in good nick and lost around 6-7KG's.

I thought that looking at the training shots. Augurs well for our coming season - playing group seem switched on with Simmo ramming home that 2020 is our year.

 

[kerr87]

Wow forgot how good our midfield will be...

Naitanui Shuey Gaff Kelly Yeo Redden Sheed.

Excited for 2020.

 

[FreeTK]

Wow forgot how good our midfield will be...

Naitanui Shuey Gaff Kelly Yeo Redden Sheed.

Excited for 2020.

 

[Dark Sharks]

If i recall the round 1 thread, i think there was a fair bit of melting in regards to Brander.

 

[Chris_6678]

I thought that looking at the training shots. Augurs well for our coming season - playing group seem switched on with Simmo ramming home that 2020 is our year.

It does seem they are up and about compared to last year. I think this hub period could really unit the players to give it a second crack.

 

[DanWCE]

If i recall the round 1 thread, i think there was a fair bit of melting in regards to Brander.

JK too

 

[Chris_6678]

West Coast Eagles

@WestCoastEagles
·
May 20

“We have 38 or 39 players that are right to go.” Simpson

West Coast Eagles

@WestCoastEagles
·
May 20

“We can’t quite get the full squad as a group, but it’s good to work in groups. We’re training in lines at the moment.” Adam Simpson on training

West Coast Eagles

@WestCoastEagles
·
May 20

“We can train in WA, but until the government restrictions give us that green light, we can’t play Fremantle.” Simpson on Derby


West Coast Eagles

@WestCoastEagles
·
May 20

“On Monday we can have contact. We have five contact sessions before we play games. Our guys should be fine. They’ve done their work. We’re working through that.” Simpson on training
West Coast Eagles

@WestCoastEagles
·
May 20

“We don’t have the full protocols yet for our travel. We’re working through that.” Simpson on hub

West Coast Eagles

@WestCoastEagles
·
May 20

“We’ve got 43 players on our list available at the moment. We’re going to have to look at that.” Simpson on young players

 

[FreeTK]

If i recall the round 1 thread, i think there was a fair bit of melting in regards to Brander.

He was not great in the Marsh series match against Essendon.

He was ok (except missing a goal he should have kicked) in round 1