Training Training Thread 2023

[berniemccarthy]

I mentioned it in his player thread, but I went and checked his combine testing results.

4th biggest hands in the draft (24.9cm), behind Madden, Lemmey and Barnett, all 200cm+ ruckman. They are 25cm taller than him. His handspan is 100mm bigger than Cadmans and 50mm bigger than Busslinger and Van Es. All genuine KPP's.

Most of the other smaller mids around his height were in the 20-21cm hand span range. That is a huge difference comparitively.


Certainly explains why he was so clean at ground level and why he appeared so strong overhead for a 176.0cm player on first very close viewing.

Is that right ? Handspan 4 inches bigger than Cadman ? He must be like a blood nut Stewart Loewe.

 

[speedy]

Is that right ? Handspan 4 inches bigger than Cadman ? He must be like a blood nut Stewart Loewe.

That would mean Cadman has very very puny hands...hehe. I think he meant 5mm and 10mm smaller. Still the ginger has big mitts.

 

[Sphynx]

Is that right ? Handspan 4 inches bigger than Cadman ? He must be like a blood nut Stewart Loewe.

Sorry incorrect.

He has hands almost 2 inches larger than the smaller forwards of his own size, which is still massive.

Hands 10mm larger than Cadmans.

 

[Sphynx]

Having a look at the state combine data, the person that jumps out there is Cooper Harvey for his height (180.2cm) with 23.9cm hands.

That would explain his overhead strength as well.

Drury would have topped the handspan at the WA/VIC/SA state combines, again, he would have been the 3rd smallest player tested out of the combined 73 there.

It's quite an unusual physical outlier.

 

[Horizons_00]

Got to say Chom, is probably the biggest dude on our list RN.

 

[My Left Foote]

That would mean Cadman has very very puny hands...hehe. I think he meant 5mm and 10mm smaller. Still the ginger has big mitts.

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

TT that is all,
If he starts preforming in the middle, we’ll be aiming to make finals.

The most gifted player we have had since Carey.

 

[DaveyBoy123]

"Hands up who is only drafting players with big hands now"

 

[Kangaroos techno]

That would mean Cadman has very very puny hands...hehe. I think he meant 5mm and 10mm smaller. Still the ginger has big mitts.

^ cadman when he offers to help his teammate up off the ground.

 

[Heaps of fun]

TT that is all,
If he starts preforming in the middle, we’ll be aiming to make finals.

And our #1 for Things Said Every Preseason.

 

[DuckYeah]

That’s the funniest vid around

You want some do ya

 

[DuckYeah]

FMD, with the state if these drop in pitches.. this is going to be one hell of a long pre season

 

[Passmore]

I have been sitting patience as, chomming at the bit as we say, yes " chomming". It is a word now.

Yeah * it start the thread, what could possibly go wrong?

To wait patiently = chomming.

 

[The acurate one]

To wait patiently = chomming.

Goodness me Michael that is it exactly. Well played .

 

[Passmore]

Goodness me Michael that is it exactly. Well played .

“I’ll be ready soon”

”Take your time darling, I’m chomming”

 

[spurs]

Having a look at the state combine data, the person that jumps out there is Cooper Harvey for his height (180.2cm) with 23.9cm hands.

That would explain his overhead strength as well.

Drury would have topped the handspan at the WA/VIC/SA state combines, again, he would have been the 3rd smallest player tested out of the combined 73 there.

It's quite an unusual physical outlier.

So The Ziebell now knows it’s not about height when you mark the ball it’s the size of your hands.

 

[DuckYeah]

arguably the best 5 pages ive ever read on this forum. Good job lads.

 

[The acurate one]

arguably the best 5 pages ive ever read on this forum. Good job lads.

thank you

and Passmore has done a fine job as well, but alas i will take all of the credit.

 

[Passmore]

thank you

and Passmore has done a fine job as well, but alas i will take all of the credit.

Yes, well I eased myself in with a Wednesday session. Back to Fridays from next week.

Been chomming for a few months.

 

[buttox]

Thanks for training reports peeps. I just knocked of work for the week and you made me smile more than the beer in my hand!

 

[Lomas]

Alright.

Perez and Corr were going about their best impersonation of a cross fit competition at the open door of the gym, between boxing circuits and weights. Flynn is a bit of a monster at his age. I was going to take a picture of Flynn, but with his top off, I felt like I would have been breaching some sort of digital revenge pr0n law.

I didn't see Stevo, Zurhaar, Bonar, Logue, Tucker, Greenwood, Spicer. I presume they were in the gym if there.

LDU, CCJ and Goater were doing a mix between the ground work and additional running.

Tarryn was training exclusively on his own, shadowed at all times by a S&C coach, he wasn't doing the high intensity circuits Flynn and Corr were doing and wasn't doing the running with LDU, Goater, CCJ etc. He then spent the last 15 minutes of training in the interchange bench. I asked one of the fitness coaches, he mentioned "he needs to get his running numbers up before partaking in ground work". I think the cuddle and the foot up the bum that Clarko mentioned was in line for J*F probably applies to Tarryn as well.

Pretty low intensity session with about 25 mins of a full ground drills, then some specialist forward and back 50-60m drills, some focusing on deliberate delivery inside 50 with a full zone in place by the opposition.

I mentioned in my posts, I think the most impressive person on the track regarding my initial expectations driving there to what I saw was probably Blake Drury. I've seen a bit of him at NAB League level, but I like to see them early in pre-season to gauge them against AFL bodies. So he gets the 'Alan Obst extended write up' from the session:

To start with, he's tiny, but that's not a bad thing. He's about a similar size to Boomer, minus the 25 years of weights routines. I mentioned in the posts that I think he's one of those freak natural ball sport athletes. When they split into this weird Gaelic football drill where you could only kick it off the ground and then pick it up with no U-turns allowed, he looked like a natural with the other ball. In all the various multiple ball handballing games, he made it look easy compared to others. He just looks like one of those AB de Villiers types.

In terms of his skill set. In the full ground work he rose up with a nice vertical and took a few semi contested marks against the likes of Simpkin that made me sit up and take notice (the type of aerial work that both Lazarro and Mahoney aren't capable of and this seems definitely underreported pre-draft ). In the contested work he was very one touch and clean when others weren't, reminiscent of Will Phillips etc. Then during some brisk circle work, he was hitting low penetrating darts around 40m with regularity. I was thinking to myself (ok.....), then Ratts whistled a change in direction of the circle and he got it back wheeling around on his left side and hit a 40m dart with a completely natural and fluid ball drop on his left side (Probably 5 players would have been capable of that out there today) and I thought (OK!!!!!!) There was even a bit of noise from a few players and coaches at this.

In the specialist forward work, they were doing a drill where they double back from a lead and receive an over the top kick. I got a good look at his foot speed. He's just quick enough to get some separation, he's got a bit of zip and is a yard quicker than both Mahoney and Lazarro who failed to get any separation in the same drill. Drury closed down Sheezel to get a spoil in, in this same drill when playing as the defender

In the goal kicking drills, he was sending the ball 50-55m with ease for someone 175cm, which says to me again, he's a bit of a "freak" a bit like Boomer was with his timing and ball handling skills.

Remembering this kid also has a 2km time in the low 6:00's.

I'm calling it now, not only will he play senior football in 2022, he will play 100+ senior AFL games. I saw Patch in his first pre-season, whilst he was a tough grafter with a superb footy IQ, Drury has more weapons and skill in his little toe than Patch had and I reckon he reads the game just as well. Patch lacked AFL athletecism, whilst Drury is small, he's just quick enough and definitely well above average overhead for his height.

For the others:

Wardlaw - Trains a bit like he interviews, a bit laconic, but also looks like he hasn't played in 7-8 months and is a bit underdone early days. Shades of when Will Phil came to us after the knee inury and Covid. In terms of the ball work, like Goater last year, his athletic attributes jump straight out at training. He hangs in the air with that monster vertical and can pull down one handed marks and handball recieves that others simply can't get to. He's going to be one of those hot and cold ball users by foot, he trys to hit most targets with real penetration. I suspect one day he looks like Nathan Buckley but on the odd occasion will cough it up. Luke McDonald/Anthony Stevens esque in this regard.

Sheezel - Unlike George, he doesn't look at all underdone. He has that bolt upright perfect posture that Pendlebury has that makes you think his parents strapped a dictionary between his shoulder blades during high school. His ball use is simply supurb. I don't mean good, I mean didn't miss a target for the entire session and barely missed a 10cm grouping on the middle of each of his targets chests for 90 minutes type good. He's quiet at the moment on the field and definitely looks the type that is drinking everything in. He's got a pretty stocky frame, in the separation drill that I mentioned with Drury, he cruises a bit and lacks that genuine explosive 5m burst and I suspect he's home is going to be across half forward, where his engine will get him up and back continually, rather than deep forward where he will rely on seperation.

Powell and Chom have both put on noticeable size, probably 5kg+ for each of them. Tom is physically starting to look like an AFL footballer rather than a kid. Chom is just ready. He was jumping on heads, he looks like a man now and the type of athletic forward we need to help out Larks. Kallan Dawson did really well defending him on a few occasions.

Will Phillips is winding back the clock to this time last year, where he looked imperious. He looks super fit, hungry, trained completely, putting in extra running between drills and was the center piece around alot of the ball movement stuff. He's absolutely going to captain the club at some stage. His Dad was there today, as he was last week as well, so obviously plenty of family support after the year he had.

Goats is big, like 10kg bigger than this time last year, I suspect the club is going to continue with the use of him off the wing this year given how much improvement he showed in the VFL and how easy he found the ball in his AFL debut.

Howes first kick in a training drill for North was a 30m mung off the side of his boot that missed the leading target by about 30m. I thought "You will fit right in!"

What a write up, Kudos!

 

[DesertRoo]

And our #1 for Things Said Every Preseason.

Yea, I know, this is me

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

FMD, with the state if these drop in pitches.. this is going to be one hell of a long pre season

It's pretty funny - they curate pitches that guarantee a Test runs 5 days so that they can maximise crowds but that just means 5 days in front of an empty stadium.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

View attachment 1566018

Hasn't been this level of homoerotic excitement over the physique of a key tall since a young Robbie Tarrant ran laps in the preseason back around 2009

 

[giantroo]