Headed down for the first session of 2017, sun shining light breeze, perfect day for training.
Unfortunately the temp fencing is still up which made it that bit harder to pick up what was going on, but I'll tell you what I saw.
I want to talk about Jaeger first because that's who you are all waiting to hear about. All I can say is that I can see zero reason why he won't be playing from very early on in the season. He is doing everything the others were dong in terms of match type drills (6 on 6) and only went to jogging and walking laps with Tom Mitchell and Poppy after all of the ball work was done and dusted. He doesn't look like he is holding back at all and definitely showed brief flashes of class during the drills including a lovely one handed pick up at full steam and 30m pin point delivery to a team mate without breaking stride.
Whitecross looks very sharp, stood out in the various drills with his ball work and tackling and looks a certainty to be best 22 to me.
Frawley also stood out, was in everything, was burning opponents off with his pace and his kicking has gone a from a weakness to a positive.
Roughy - what a pleasure to see the big fella out there in full training and looking sharp. Can't see why he won't play round 1 to be honest.
Ty Vickery was interesting, he looked a bit lost during the drills, hanging on the outside of the pack a lot of the time, then he suddenly found himself in the middle of it all with the ball in his hands, got a ripper handball out to a team mate, received it back and put it through the goal. I think that once he learns the hawthorn game plan, running patterns etc we will have a more than handy player. He may also benefit from an exorcism to speed up the de-tigering process.
Other observations:
Tom Mitchell is taller than I thought he would be.
I reckon Dan Howe has grown, seemed noticeably taller than last year.
Pittonet is looking huge.
Hodge looks very trim and very fit.
Don't have anything to say about the new draftees as I wasn't able to really zero in on them today, but will definitely try to get a better look in the coming weeks.
Till next time.
Unfortunately the temp fencing is still up which made it that bit harder to pick up what was going on, but I'll tell you what I saw.
I want to talk about Jaeger first because that's who you are all waiting to hear about. All I can say is that I can see zero reason why he won't be playing from very early on in the season. He is doing everything the others were dong in terms of match type drills (6 on 6) and only went to jogging and walking laps with Tom Mitchell and Poppy after all of the ball work was done and dusted. He doesn't look like he is holding back at all and definitely showed brief flashes of class during the drills including a lovely one handed pick up at full steam and 30m pin point delivery to a team mate without breaking stride.
Whitecross looks very sharp, stood out in the various drills with his ball work and tackling and looks a certainty to be best 22 to me.
Frawley also stood out, was in everything, was burning opponents off with his pace and his kicking has gone a from a weakness to a positive.
Roughy - what a pleasure to see the big fella out there in full training and looking sharp. Can't see why he won't play round 1 to be honest.
Ty Vickery was interesting, he looked a bit lost during the drills, hanging on the outside of the pack a lot of the time, then he suddenly found himself in the middle of it all with the ball in his hands, got a ripper handball out to a team mate, received it back and put it through the goal. I think that once he learns the hawthorn game plan, running patterns etc we will have a more than handy player. He may also benefit from an exorcism to speed up the de-tigering process.
Other observations:
Tom Mitchell is taller than I thought he would be.
I reckon Dan Howe has grown, seemed noticeably taller than last year.
Pittonet is looking huge.
Hodge looks very trim and very fit.
Don't have anything to say about the new draftees as I wasn't able to really zero in on them today, but will definitely try to get a better look in the coming weeks.
Till next time.
