Ah, the life of a Uni student. Remember those days? Four months summer holidays and two ‘tough’ 10 week semesters for about 12 hours per week.
Tom has again dropped in to Eels training and checked out what the squad is up to as we hit the first week of footy. Here’s his summary of what went down.
Highlights:
- There was some solid contact out there today. Folau put on a memorable hit on Tepai.
- Nines Action looked great to watch
- Big Junior crashing over for a try from a grubber kick
Goal Line Attack and Defence:
This involved the left side of the purple team matching up with the right side of the blue team to run attacking and defensive sets of six. It wasn’t perfect, the attack could have been smoother, but that’s what training is for – to iron out some kinks.
Brad Arthur spent the majority of this drill directly coaching the right side of the blue team. He also spent a lot of the time working on the defensive side of the field.
When the NRL boys flexed their attacking muscle, some of the play was great to watch – crisp passing, fast hands and hard running decoys. Norman Jennings and Semi are gelling nicely.
Brad Arthur sets out his expectations for the defensive drill.
Full Field Game:
This involved a full field, refereed game, with the purple team facing the blue team.
The highlight of this drill was the positional play of Michael Gordon. He was there to catch every kick on the full and returned it at pace.
The NRL referees again blew up a few penalties. This is the aspect of the play that BA is keen to rectify.
Jennings is showing his worth – consistently getting outside his man and putting Semi away down the sideline. It was very impressive to watch.
The importance of training to the players was exemplified in a key moment. A player knocked on then gave away a silly penalty and Tim Mannah screamed at him from the sideline to pull his head in. Tim is increasingly finding his voice and growing in stature as a captain.
Tim Mannah – not just leading by example.
Nines:
The players who are participating in this weekend’s Auckland Nines split into two teams of nine. The players who aren’t going did fitness training. This was entertaining to watch. My tips for a big weekend are Norman, French and Tepai.
Tom’s Notes on drop goals:
As much as I love him Manu Ma’u cannot kick a field goal.
Tepai is quite good in that respect
Semi kicks the ball so high, it reminds me of Inu’s goal kicks.
Player Updates:
Kieran Foran – spent the session boxing
Watmough – Trained for the full session today
Danny Wicks – Individual sprint training
Kieran Moss – His moon boot is off and he was doing individual agility training
Choc Watmough is happy to be back in full training.
Sixties’ Notes
TCT is really appreciative of Tom’s efforts to keep the training reports coming to you. The recent footage on the official Eels website really compliments Tom’s previous post. Tom will be visiting Eels training as often as he can up to the season kick off.
Tom, Chris and Sixties
All images courtesy of the Parramatta Eels
Well done Chris,keep the good work and thanx for the training update…..
Very concise report thanks Tom. As with all things in life you need to keep a good balance and from my perspective I think a healthy mix of UNI and training reports in 2016 would be ideal for you Tom. Cheers
Love the reports guys, just terrific. Congrats & appreciation to all concerned.
A couple of things sent a shiver down my spine reading this.
The comments regarding Jennings putting Semi away. The comment regarding Jennings, Semi and Norman ‘gelling’ well, and of course Choc back to full training.
The best part was reading the title, Nines Week!
Bring on the footy!
Thanks for the update gents, it is great to hear how the guys are progressing.
Tom’s doing well isn’t he! I vaguely remember my uni years (too many years ago now).
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Why is Foran not training with the team? Thought he had trained with the team previously so is this a new injury?
Good report Tom although a little brief. Lecturers probably prefer a few more words submitted to them so use this as practice to add more content.
Glen you know kids these days, he was probably on screen time when the real stuff was happening. He is on notice though !
Thanks for the feedback glenn. Reports a little shorter because i couldnt be at training for very long due to work commitments
Thanks again Tom…. A little worried about the amount of individual training Foran and Wicks are still doing. Let’s hope it’s precautionary and they will be 100% for the opener. Good to hear Choc is back in there though.
MIchael TCT understands that the training program for Foran is to build up considerable strength in his legs. He will be right for the start of the season.
Wicks is looking very fit. Amazing how much his body has changed since his years at Newcastle. He would have been great at the 9’s too but isn’t ready after the shoulder surgery.
I dont thinm wicks will be ready for round one but alvaro has been training really well in his place