Pre-season training. Bring it on!

[Slippery Pete]

In a a way i agree with you Slippery Pete. However, Surely you would want players with footy smarts and elite kicking skills and decision making rather than athletes with poor decision making? You can't really teach this. It is far easier to improve pace and agility than actually teaching a athlete (an when i say this i mean purely a sporting person that came to the game late) to kick and and have footy smarts.

I think the point i was trying to make in my post is that Sando wants players with skills but also play hard tough uncomprimising footy, if i'm not misunderstood. The recruits recently indicate they are more pure footballer rather than 'athletes'. I have no idea but i suggest Craig liked skills but his cattle did not allow for his game plan to be executed often. Also we were not a physical side compared to the top sides which were contested and skillful sides. Sando wants this

Completely agree.

A guy like Paul Chapman epitomises the player you have described. There's been better athletes, but there are few better footballers in the competition than him. That type of player is the one we need to value highly at our football club.

 

[BunjiMac]

I'll try and reserve my judgment of all players till at least mid way through season 2012.

I do get the feeling that the difference between the styles of NC and Sando is that it is more important what you do at a constest than how many you get to, with the emphasis being on "you" and not some pattern or system that you need to fit in to.

 

[jenny61_99]

Yeah but i have been pretty disappointed with our skill level for the last couple of years. I was also having a subtle dig at players that have poor skill

I agree. Everyone used to laud Adelaide as being "well drilled and well skilled" under Craig. But in probably that last 2-3 years our skills really dropped off. I thought it quite strange given the reputation he had developed. It was almost as if they were focussing on something else at the expense of core skills? Sometimes a "back to basics" is all that's required. Let's hope so!

 

[Mismatched]

I think this post shows an imperfect understanding of why our gameplans constantly didn't stand up when it counted under Neil Craig.

NC's gameplans relied very heavily on perfect skill execution. When skill execution waivered, the wheels fell off.

A successful gameplan needs to be built around the lowest common denominator. That is, winning ugly. Winning without perfect execution. A gameplan needs to be simple enough that it can prosper under these circumstances.

Perfect skill execution should always be a bonus, not a necessity.

Even highly talented players execute skills poorly at various times.

Very well said. A good game plan is one that doesn't require perfect execution.

When they worked, Craigs game plans were quite good, even in the last couple of years we took apart some rather good sides. Once a team worked us out, or got on top, we were in trouble.

It got to the point we never seemed in control of a game. We'd be on top, but it would just be a matter of time before the opposition came back.

In the end Craig's desire to create the "perfect" team was his undoing. He lost touch with the reality of football. These werent Crowbots, but footballers. The perfect plan is one that assumes and copes under imperfect execution.

 

[Allefgib]

Wheres our stab-a-thon?

 

[WALL-e]

Should I card him for no updates during sessions?

 

[Allefgib]

no. just threaten to so we get a result...

 

[WALL-e]

Could just kidnap Rory Sloane. That would get results.

 

[WAG]

First training i've been to in 2 years. A few observations so far this morning:

Tex is beautiful in close. Always seems to have time and find a good option.

Mackay has a sublime kick. Seriously a pleasure to watch.

Tambling on the other hand....

Stiffy has definitely enjoyed the off season and there's still Christmas to come.

Loving the full contact tackling drills.

 

[Slippery Pete]

Tex is beautiful in close.

Seriously a pleasure to watch.

the other hand....

Stiffy

Loving the full contact .

Are you sure you were at Crows training?

Sounds like you were watching pr0n.

 

[WAG]

More observations:

Jaench is a shit stirrer of the greatest quality. Was ribbing kurt for hitting the post from 50 out. Tippett's kicking at goal looks to have improved again. Looks much more fluid.

Danger is sporting a pony tail. I kid you not. Tried to get a photo which I'll post later.

 

[WAG]

Tippett on the lead is nigh on impossible to stop. Liking him as a CHF option.

Well that's it for my indepth training analysis. I hope stabby is here

 

[WALL-e]

Thanks WAG!

 

[Deaneus!]

Danger is sporting a pony tail. I kid you not. Tried to get a photo which I'll post later.

Ha, he had a mega-mullet last week, looks like he's let it go a la Fabio!

 

[WAG]

Are you sure you were at Crows training?

Sounds like you were watching pr0n.

I won't deny there was some man love evident.

 

[cmndstab]

Damn it guys at least let me leave the session and get back to a computer before baying for my blood


I went down today - great to see the boys running around again It's so difficult to figure out who everyone is though! With ten new faces at the club, I spent half the session gaping at scores of new players trying to figure out who the hell they were, hahaha.

When I arrived at 9:30 the injured group was doing handball drills. I didn't catch all the players but I believe Young was there, Henderson, Riley, McKernan and Ellis-Yolmen. Looking back I imagine Grigg was probably there too because I didn't see him for the rest of the session. Not that I'd likely recognise him anyway even if I did!

Shortly after I arrived though they all went indoors except for McKernan, who stuck around doing just kicking back and forth with a trainer, and Riley, who I didn't even realise was injured. It obviously isn't a lower body injury because the dude was cutting laps for most the rest of the sessions at a mean pace. He did also participate in some of the training drills early on before the laps begun.

The first thirty minutes or so were running drills - the old Goodwin run (or whatever they're calling it nowadays) was back again. They'd do a couple of full laps each (so four long runs, four short runs) before having a break, walking a lap, having a drink, then going again. The usual suspects were at the front of the pack. I'm almost certain I saw Crouch out there involved, though he disappeared about midway through the session - probably on "light duties" due to his wisdom teeth coming out - and he looked buggered during the run. I was pleasantly surprised with Stiffy, who I usually expect to be killing himself doing laps at this stage of the season But he looked lean and was holding his own in the middle of the pack.

I almost didn't recognise Dangerfield early on, the dude has grown his hair out long and wooly, it looks kind of amusing actually Apparently he was getting in trouble because it was getting in his eyes, so he had it tied back today with a tiny little stump sticking out the back, I assume as a joke. No idea if he intends to keep it going but if so by the end of preseason he'll sport a Ricciuto-esque mullet In other hair-related news (because I tackle the big issues in these posts) Walker has a tiny little moustache that I can only assume is still on his face because he forgot to check the calendar to see that Movember is over

After the sprint work they went into their usual stretching, and simple kick-to-kick stuff. I found it somewhat amusing when they were asked to do a forward somersault and then mark the ball - so many of the players did the somersault, stood up, got their hands to the ball and dropped the mark. I guess the foggy head got to them. Dangerfield had it slip through both hands, as did Rory. Walker of course did his somersault too slowly and the ball bounced over him while he was doing it

I really enjoyed the drills they ran today - most of them had a heavy focus on tackling. Fortunately though before they got started on those drills, they had a simple kicking drill - trainer rolls the ball on the ground, a player recovers it, and the player from the next group yells out the nickname to receive the kick, and so it goes around the ground. This was fortunate because it gave me a chance to figure out who the players were Johnston was out there, as was Jenkins, Dowdell, Brown, Kerridge. I didn't recognise Joyce, but then it dawns on me that I actually have no idea what he looks like I didn't hear anyone calling out his name but then he may have a nickname I don't know.

On that note, there was one player who was quite involved in a drill in front of me who the players kept calling "Jarrad", but it definitely wasn't Petrenko. I couldn't figure out for the life of me who it could be. It wasn't anyone I recognised, and he looked pretty young, so perhaps it's some kid we've got training with us? I know we only requested for Craig and Young to train on with us, but do you need to request permission for young kids? Or only players who have previously been on a list? I'm not sure. It could have just been some kid from the AIS, but if it was they were all treating him as though he were any other Crows player.

Dowdell shows all the signs of someone still learning to kick the ball - struck some beauties over long distance, but misjudged short kicks by 10+ metres. The players and coaches were really encouraging though, giving him a cheer when he gave off a nice pass by foot. He doesn't seem to have a nickname yet so they were mostly calling him "Benjamin" when yelling out for the ball.

There was a strong focus on the use of voice in the training drills. Everything was about calling out to your teammates. In the kicking drill they weren't allowed to pass until they'd heard the voice, and then they had to yell out to the player whether to go on or not - "roll on!" or "hold it up!" - while the ball was still in the air.

The first contact drill was similar to one Craig used to run where a couple of players are assigned as tacklers/smotherers, and they are outnumbered by players who have to work the ball by hand from one trainer to the other. Both Jenkins and Craig have fantastic hand-eye coordination for slapping the ball away in the air, while Shaw was firing off some beautiful handpasses and getting involved. At the end of one session a trainer concluded "Sammy's using his voice the best I reckon! Use your voice boys!" He's definitely got a touch bigger and looks fit, which is great to see (and, frankly, unprecedented for me). On the other side of the coin, James Craig has clearly dropped a bunch of weight, which can only be a good thing considering his body seems to wrench itself apart every time he tries to get out of bed. In terms of finding his way back on to our rookie list, he's ahead of Young purely in the sense that he's actually on the park. Luke Brown was getting fairly involved and has some nice skills, but is still quite slight.

The second contact drill was new to me and a lot of fun to watch. Two groups of two players each would run to coaches that stood roughly 10 metres apart. Both coaches had a ball, but only one would roll it away. Whichever coach rolled the ball, the two players next to him would become the receivers and the other two players would become the tacklers. The two players then had to get the ball to the opposite trainer, but couldn't handball over the top. They could handball to each other but had to run either through or around the tackling player - only once they had got past the tackler, or were in the midst of riding a tackle, were they allowed to fire the handball to the trainer. The tacklers, meanwhile, had to use their voice to assign a role. One of them would yell out to the other "Ball!" and that other player's role would be to go at the ball - and whichever player had it at the time. The first player's role then would be to cut off the player without the ball and ensure he didn't get it. It was really interesting to watch, with some fascinating plays. Contrary to WAG's report above I thought Tambling showed some really nice skills in this drill, though I didn't see him much for the rest of the session so perhaps he shanked some later on Mackay put on a quick shimmy and run entirely around Craig and some other tackler, doing it all on his own. On the other hand Callinan was sold in with a poor handball and looked up to see Tippett bearing down on him. He broke into a giggle and just covered up for the inevitable tackle Tippett made sure to put him down safely At one point Dangerfield tried to get around Otten who reacted quickly enough to block his path, so Danger doubled back and they came to a standstill staring at each other. Dangerfield tried faking left, then right, but Otten was having none of it. Finally Dangerfield attempted a wide handball to his partner who received the ball but was tackled immediately. Otten was given a cheer from his teammates I love seeing him fit again!

At the end of the two drills each little group's trainer made a decision as to whether the players with guernseys or the players without had done better, and the lesser-performing players had to do push-ups as punishment.

There was a final drill in which players had to work the ball by any means necessary past tacklers, and then kick the ball to the adjacent group, while receiving the ball from a previous group. There were no real standouts in this session from where I was standing - Shaw made some errors, the aforementioned "Jarrad" was doing alright but I still don't know who he is Kerridge was in the group near me and the dude has a man's body already. Everyone was looking pretty tired by this stage though and they finished up shortly afterwards. Around half the group stuck around to practise goalkicking, and some of the rucks were working on contested marking, but the main session was basically over.

As I was leaving I noticed a few of the forwards practising shots on goal. Now that Jacky's not here any more Petrenko has finally stopped practising the miracle corner shots on goal and was practising 45 degree angle kicks. Callinan, Jaensch and Lynch (who I hadn't seen for the whole session to this point, perhaps I just missed him - his red hair was hidden under a white cap) were practising the miracle snaps though. After Lynch missed one Callinan pulled him aside and told him that he needed to keep the ball shallow or else the wind would make it impossible - Lynch was rolling his eyes saying "heeeere we go" so it's obviously not the first time Amusingly Lynch then snapped a high goal while Callinan's low kick hit the post, and Lynch made sure to let him know about it. Later on Jaensch was collecting a ball when Callinan called out to him "Hey Jaenschy, check this out!" and attempted a snap on goal, but instead sprayed the ball horribly. Jaensch kept mocking him, crying out "Hey Jaenschy! Hey Jaenschy! Hey Jaenschy!" before bursting into laughter. At least they're having a good time


For the time being it seems that Sando is in charge in the middle, though I suspect once the other coaches get used to what he wants to do he'll take a slightly backwards step and micromanage less. Supposedly this was a weakness of Craig's - he didn't like to delegate tasks, he wanted to do them himself. I suspect Sando will take a different approach.

Didn't see Vince, Reilly, Doughty or Rutten today, I assume they're on restricted workloads.


I normally like to nominate a trainer of the session but it was really hard today - nobody stood out in particular. So instead of nominating the best trainer, I'll nominate the best training voice in Taylor Walker, whose country lad screech still cracks me up every time I hear it The big fella slotted some nice goals in practise and barely put a foot wrong while I was watching (other than his mistimed forward somersault ) so he may as well receive my coveted training report award. Congratulations Walker. Treasure it!!!


Edit: Oh, and sorry to any BF guys present that I didn't come and say hello. There were a few there that I suspected were BF posters but I was feeling tired and anti-social and couldn't be bothered going through the whole "HEY DO YOU POST ON AN INTERNET FOOTBALL NERD FORUM?!" routine, hahaha.

 

[PykeDream]

The Jarrad would be 2010 draftee Jarrad Lyons.

 

[cmndstab]

The Jarrad would be 2010 draftee Jarrad Lyons.

Son of a bitch!


I racked my brains trying to think what other Jarrods (or Jarryd in this case ) we had.

I'm so rusty

 

[WAG]

Great write up Stabby!

With regards to Bling, I was referring to the drill when they were kicking it from one end to the other to a leading player. He shanked one (which happened as I was writing) and then over cooked the next one I saw. I did see him spear a nice ball I50 a little bit later.

I did notice McKernan working 1:1 with Bode while the rest of the team was working with Sando.

Stabby, I also found it difficult to work out who was who, particularly those with caps on.

Was interested to check out Crouch and luckily he was on my side during the kick to kick warm up. Didn't seem to be getting great rotation on the ball when they were spearing 20m passes. Quite a 'slappy' sound as it hit is foot. Just something I noticed. Fumbled a bit when gathering the moving ball off the ground too. Tippett on the other hand was like a hoover. Very good at gathering the ball at his feet!

 

[NikkiNoo]

Symes won't get many games unless we are struck by huge injuries. At full strength he is nowhere near best 22.

Which club was our coach most recently at? Did any of their players play a full season? They had a policy of rotating players through the team. Which creates and tests out the depth, but also makes every player try that little bit harder to try and not be the player 'rested' back in the twos the next week.

To think that only our best 22 are ever going to get on the ground for a full punishing season is the height of naivety. We need quality in our depth and as much as many would love to include him in a list of crap players, Symes is not hopeless on the football field.

 

[craig crowing]

Great write up Stabby!

With regards to Bling, I was referring to the drill when they were kicking it from one end to the other to a leading player. He shanked one (which happened as I was writing) and then over cooked the next one I saw. I did see him spear a nice ball I50 a little bit later.

I did notice McKernan working 1:1 with Bode while the rest of the team was working with Sando.

Stabby, I also found it difficult to work out who was who, particularly those with caps on.

Was interested to check out Crouch and luckily he was on my side during the kick to kick warm up. Didn't seem to be getting great rotation on the ball when they were spearing 20m passes. Quite a 'slappy' sound as it hit is foot. Just something I noticed. Fumbled a bit when gathering the moving ball off the ground too. Tippett on the other hand was like a hoover. Very good at gathering the ball at his feet!

Great write up WAG and stabby and thanks.
Getting excited about Tippett from your reports especially if teaching him to lead.
Know difficult working out players but did either get any idea how Johnson-
Lynch and Jenkins going or fitting in.
Was there anytime they used rucks and did Jenkins match up against Jacobs

 

[DANGERZONE123]

Great write up Stabby!

With regards to Bling, I was referring to the drill when they were kicking it from one end to the other to a leading player. He shanked one (which happened as I was writing) and then over cooked the next one I saw. I did see him spear a nice ball I50 a little bit later.

I did notice McKernan working 1:1 with Bode while the rest of the team was working with Sando.

Stabby, I also found it difficult to work out who was who, particularly those with caps on.

Was interested to check out Crouch and luckily he was on my side during the kick to kick warm up. Didn't seem to be getting great rotation on the ball when they were spearing 20m passes. Quite a 'slappy' sound as it hit is foot. Just something I noticed. Fumbled a bit when gathering the moving ball off the ground too. Tippett on the other hand was like a hoover. Very good at gathering the ball at his feet!

Got to be from the operation. Might be feeling off, and the lack of running due to the operation then entering a high intensity environment could easily make him feel groggy.

 

[conVINCEd]

Thanks, WAG and Stabby!

Does Sloane look like he has bulked up at all?

 

[WALL-e]

Not nearly enough ramble Stabby. Lift your game

Stab: Hi, do you post on BigFooty?

Lyons: Um, I'm Jaryd Lyons......

Stab: username doesn't ring a bell

Lyon: 'Bert' wtf look...

Stab: Where's Rory Sloane?

 

[cmndstab]

Not nearly enough ramble Stabby. Lift your game

Stab: Hi, do you post on BigFooty?

Lyons: Um, I'm Jaryd Lyons......

Stab: username doesn't ring a bell

Lyon: 'Bert' wtf look...

Stab: Where's Rory Sloane?

IT'S ALL YOU'RE GETTING Also, hahahaha

Great write up WAG and stabby and thanks.
Getting excited about Tippett from your reports especially if teaching him to lead.
Know difficult working out players but did either get any idea how Johnson-
Lynch and Jenkins going or fitting in.
Was there anytime they used rucks and did Jenkins match up against Jacobs

No problem Johnston seemed involved with everyone, as did Jenkins. Like I said with Lynch I didn't actually see him until right at the end, but that doesn't mean he wasn't out there before that.

There were no ruck drills that I saw. They may have done some when they were also getting the rucks to practise contested marking (I saw the big cushion thing they use for ruck drills) but I wasn't nearby at the time I'm afraid.