The players returned to a wet Old Saleyards Reserve for the first training session of 2016. The structure of the morning training was as follows:

8am – Fitness – Beep tests and timed 1.2km run

11:30am : Skills session

Literally leading from the front – Tim Mannah impresses in fitness testing after the Christmas break

Observations

Fitness

There were a number of standouts.

Gutherson and Gordon look incredibly fit. They blitzed both the beep tests and 1.2km runs.

IDG must be close to one of the fittest blokes in the club. He was running against the backs and matched them.

Tim Mannah is really leading by example. In his group, he was one of the best performers in both the beep and 1.2km run. Seriously, this bloke looks in the best shape of his career.

Danny Wicks seems on track for his return from surgery. Ran strongly for a bloke who was in the rehab group when training resumed and looks ripped. I neglected to ask him about his shoulder (kicking myself for forgetting).

Matt Woods caught the eye. He led his group in the 1.2km run and pushed himself to the limit. A short time afterwards he was physically ill. This bloke is obviously looking to impress.

Rory O’Brien was a surprise for me. This bloke has completely changed his body shape in his short time with the club. Looks really fit and is one big unit. Could he be a surprise packet?

Nathan Peats, Kelepi Tanginoa and Cody Nelson were others to shine during my observations.

Matt Woods puts in a gut-churning effort to lead his group.

Skills Session

During the first half hour of this session the work included:

• catch and pass drill – a rapid fire activity with the focus being zero dropped ball
• Tap restart and play the ball passing rushes – focus seemed to be on a wide spread from the tap restarts, with work in a narrower corridor in the play the ball with lots of bodies in motion.
• protecting the ball in the hit up – the blokes were doing short hit ups and getting crunched by the tackle pad being swung at their chest, with the aim being to raise an arm to protect the ball.

Author’s Note

This was not a pleasant day to be trying to watch the players go through their paces (the rain was quite heavy at times) but one cannot miss the first session for the new year!

With the move to the new training headquarters, it is likely that the times for sessions have now changed. Consequently, it was mostly the fitness work that was in progress when I arrived at around 8am. By the time of my departure at around midday, the skills session had been in progress for around half an hour but the rain was becoming far too consistent and it was time to depart.

My thanks to both IDG and Danny Wicks for offering me some space on the field to do the fitness work with them. Obviously my poor condition warrants such a workout, but sadly I had to decline their kind offers!

Sixties

Credit to the Parramatta Eels for all images used.

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