Mothers Day training report

[Albert Parker]

Was driving Albert junior past Olympic Park today and noticed the lads were training. On a sunny day with Mrs AP a little unsure about what time we were due back from the long commute from Waverley (Southern zone?) back to AP, we decided to stop off and see what was going on.

Watched about an hour of training and observed.

Were working predominantly in two teams - whites vs pinks in contested matchplay.

Generally was pretty slick I thought.

Not participating as actively -
- Scharenberg did some run throughs and then did some goal kicking. Very accurate. Possibly missed only 1 shot from 12 I saw and certainly not straight in front at all times. His kicking will be an asset. He wasn't putting a time on his return though
- Reid ran laps at a reasonable tempo and was pretty tired with his efforts. I'm not betting he'd be back this week accordingly
- No sign of Freeman at all. Seems the least progressed of our injured players - while I am aware there was tendon damage detected too, amazingly from a hammy in our first practice match
- Not sure we spotted Seedsman or Broomhead out there either
- Cloke did quite a bit of set shot goal kicking practice. He just said he was relaxing when I asked him why he was isolated

Who was training amongst the previously injured?
- Maxy, Dasher, Sinkers, Fas, Dwyer, Oxley were all participants in lively match practice.

Who stood out in the match practice?
- Steele was probably the msot prolific for touches
- Jamie looked dangerous, finishing off his work well and using his pace to cut off one or two passes/kick outs
- Pendles showed his class. Even his team mates are confused by which way he is going to head and when he was going to release the ball.
- Witts was lively. Grundy got a bit of it but probably held the ball too long and tried to take opponents on a bit too much.
- Fas for his foot skills and delivery out of defence, where he was playing
- Brown offered some run and carry. Showed he was keen to get back in the ones
- White, his opponent, offered some reasonable leads and chased hard

Generally thought the practice was upbeat and lively. Mood of the group seems good.

Afterward the Group broke into 3 groups
- one group did goal kicking from 3 different type stations
1/ with 'mannequin' stationary men on the mark
2/ another where players had to come down the field, round a hat/post and head back towards goal and kick on the run
3/ snapshots or set shots from a tight angle. Luke Ball did pretty well hitting the goals on his left from set shots. He is more robust kicking on this side of his body I find
Bucks still hits his targets

Second Group in the middle seemed to be working on clearances

Third group, down the Yarra end, were taking hangers on the bag. Easier to see who was closest to us and had to kick the footy around with Albert junior a bit too

A shout out to all of the Mum's today.

AP

[stui magpie]

Cheers for that.

[watt price tully]

Thanks AP.

So the goal kicking should be fine as long as mannequins are on the mark

[Albert Parker]

^Yep

[HAL]

Can you please rephrase that with fewer ideas, or different thoughts?

[Didaksgoal]

Thanks, Albert. Good report, mate.

With no sign of Freeman (going on the report), I just think he'll be pushing it up hill to get a senior game this year. For starters, save for injuries, who would he replace? Heck, I saw him for 5 minutes at the Geelong NAB challenge game, and he hasn't seen the light of day since!! I think he may be Dracula!!

Better to take the easy-does-it approach with the younglings I suppose. Trent Cotchin had heaps of grief with injury early on, and he's doing well now.

Go the Pies!

[3rd degree]

thanks for that young Parker much appreciated