Official Pre-Season Training Times, Photos and Discussion Thread

[ThePezDispenser]

lols at Edwards captain!!

 

[Old Skool]

Patch Adams - sex machine

 

[Limerick]

Good turn out. Shop was busy all morning. Boys looked good although without numbers I couldn't identify a few. Membership will get a boost.

 

[DunderHead]

Players currently doing circle work and kicking is impressive, mind you if you can't kick in these conditions you have issues. Big crowd too, must be at least 1200 here.

Big improvement over the last few years. I usually go and watch a couple of preseason training sessions and I don't think I've ever seen our boys this polished.
Couple of things I noticed from the session (first time I’ve seen the boys in flesh since round 24):

The boys were kicking low bullet passes. I was on the crowded side of the oval and was extremely impressed with Thomas and Edwards. I'm not an Edwards fan but his field kicking was perfect.

Aaron black looked good out there. In the match simulation stuff he dropped a couple of contested marks but each time gathered the ball after and wheeled round his opponent - has extremely high agility.

Guys who are huge – Luke Delaney, Robbie Tarrant, Jack Ziebell. All the players look bigger this year and I wonder if that has something to do with interval training, repeat sprints as opposed to the longer endurance running which may have allowed them to put on a bit more size. Robbie Tarrant looks as if he could pull a mountain behind him. He tried to show a bit of agro during the play (pushing blokes behind the play) and I hope this is a sign of things to come in-game.

Other blokes who impressed:
Campbell looks to have regained his high-intensity crumbing abilities. Scragged, tackled and generally harassed the backmen until they turned the ball over. He’ll form a dangerous combination with Harvey this year inside fifty.
Cunnington looks strong and determined. Didn’t stand out, but shows a great a ability to win the ball and make the right decision by hand and foot.

Wright, Harper, Harvey, Swallow at different times did things that really impressed – beating their opponents and putting the ball lace out to a team mate.

Our major problem still remains the final kick inside fifty.

I’ve come away from the session very positive and confident of our improvement going into this season. Really can’t wait for the season to start now and see what we’re made of.

 

[Bigeasy]

Good turn out. Shop was busy all morning. Boys looked good although without numbers I couldn't identify a few. Membership will get a boost.

Absolutely, took a pic of the membership queue to show how long the line was for the two hours I was there. I went past the queue about 6 times during that time and there was always at least 8-10 people in line:

The crowd in front of the facilities was fantastic:

The queue for the snags was at least 20 metres for the whole time I was there.

The training drills were mainly match simulation with centre break and boundary clearance work a major focus with some work on link up play.

Oh for those concerned whether Cunnington had an injury or not, the following Vid should allay your fears
[youtube]Wfw-I2vHn18[/youtube]

I really liked the 6 on 6 contest from the boundary where Crocker gave the ball to one team with the other team (orange vests) played the defensive roles with the aim to deliver it Drew about 50-60 metres away who had two defenders on him. I took some footage which I will upload soon and post.

 

[Bigeasy]

Here's the footage I took of the 6 on 6 drills:

[youtube]rdiBDGmbcbk[/youtube]

I thought the stand outs today were Cunnington, Zeibell, Campbell, Swallow, MacMillan, Hansen and Adams. Some players still making the same errors so hopefully they will iron that out soon enough.

 

[Only Forwards]

^^^ Yeah Cunners did seem uninhibited however I did notice that at a couple of points he sat out some of the circle work type stuff. This did not appear to be through injury rather through being spent.

Makes me wonder if he is doing extra as Ziebs was last yeah in order to get his endurance up.

 

[Bigeasy]

^^^ Yeah Cunners did seem uninhibited however I did notice that at a couple of points he sat out some of the circle work type stuff. This did not appear to be through injury rather through being spent.

Makes me wonder if he is doing extra as Ziebs was last yeah in order to get his endurance up.

He looked really fit and moved well.

 

[Dan]

Brilliant work BE

 

[Only Forwards]

He looked really fit and moved well.

No doubt, I am talking about specific instances where I saw him sit out 2-4 mins of the drills.
This only happened a couple of times that I saw. He walked to the side took a couple of minutes and then was back into it.

 

[Bigeasy]

Brilliant work BE

Cheers Dan, I left pretty pumped after all that. Great turn up, great atmosphere, training was very good quality, merchandise flying of the shelves and 8-10 people at all times queing up for memberships. You can sense the change

 

[ShinbonerBaz]

Brilliant work BE

Seconded

Very good for those of us too far away to attend.

 

[Bigeasy]

No doubt, I am talking about specific instances where I saw him sit out 2-4 mins of the drills.
This only happened a couple of times that I saw. He walked to the side took a couple of minutes and then was back into it.

Yeah I obviously missed that OF. What I did see though, I really liked. Did you see his play where they were doing centre clearance work and Macca knocked it down to him and Cunners grabbed it with two blokes around him and he propped and side stepped between them and fired a 25 metre handpass to MacMillan (I think)? Was very nice indeed.

 

[Bigeasy]

Seconded

Very good for those of us too far away to attend.

Cheers, I have more footage but because I took it on my phone, the quality isn't the best with regards to closeness to play. (Important note to myself: learn to use zoom ********

I may post a few more that are similar to the Cunners vid.

 

[Chron]

Seconded

Very good for those of us too far away to attend.

Thirded

i got a feeling cunners will explode this year

 

[Ghostwriter]

Looked like over 5000 ppl there going by the video.

 

[Old Skool]

i got a feeling cunners will explode this year

He won't be the only one exploding if that happens.

I'm looking forward to seeing a season of football out of Campbell for a change.

 

[Husk]

Cheers for the reports.

Good job on the vids BE

 

[GoodFootyNorth]

I took my two little ones down today, and agree with others that it was a really good turn out. Wrangling two kids under 3 I didn't see much of the actual footy, but I will give the club a big tick for the organisation and entertainment of these open sessions now. For eg, the big mascot was there (who scares the crap out of my kids, but others seem keen), and there was a bloke from the club handing out showbags and flags for the kids. Small thing but really important. My nearly 3yo was using her new drink bottle all day (saying go roos before every drink) and loved her flag - really important way of reinforcing their belonging with the club given that they're not really interested in the drills or the updated physiques of the young guys.

The improvement in things like this under our current club administration has been significant. Hopefully it's an indication in a general improvement in our ability to engage with supporters and build a new supporter base.

 

[the big lebowski]

Agree re the organization of the day. Great to see so many people there, got my membership and troo roo, debt donation and even got my nephew in law his first membership ( I need to stay on this so he doesn't get taken over by the other side of the family that are all essendon).

Some footy related observations

Black is an amazing kick. In fact as others have stated the overall skill level was very impressive when doing drills. It really fell away however when they started the competitive stuff, but I guess it is good they are training at that intensity.

Re cunners. Still not seeing it. Sorry but I just ain't. I'm not going to go into details but I just don't think he will be anything more than handy. It sucks that we have used a top 3 and top 5 pick over the last few years on handy types.

Liking what I'm seeing from bastinac for this year. He walked through three guys trying to tackle him in the 6 on 6 drill, one of which was loosy McMahon. Macca wasn't happy so dumped him well behind the play.

Tarrant truly is massive.

 

[Private Hudson]

Where's the money Lebowski ?

 

[Deleted member 98541]

Thanks for all the updates. I'm OS on and off for a while, possibly a long while, so I'm really starting to feel the pinch. My Internet is sheeeeeeeet. Have toned it down to 'text only,' as close as you can get anyway, so i'm missing all the vids and tubes posted.

seriously, you don't realise how much you appreciate access to the club til its gone. Make the most of it you lucky bastards!


everything sounded fantastic...until "that last kick inside 50" was mentioned. God damn we got to sort that out proper. If it's going to go 'click', it'd be loud and clear when we start nailing that everytime!


keep posting as much as you can folks, I'm starting to understand the gratitude of all the other expats.

Also, so good to hear about the turn out and membership sales, and the tectonic shift that's taking place. F*** yeah let's roll.

 

[giantroo]

 

[TheKanga]

Majak seems to have bulked up abit, looking good
It sounds like it was a great day and training session, thanks for all the pics and videos

 

[manboob]

Jesus he's turning into a monster!!! Can't wait to see him tear it up this year!