It was hot and hot early today at the Old Saleyards, with the boys well underway in sweltering conditions by the time I made it down to training at about 8:30 this morning.

It was my first appearance at Parra pre-season today, and in a similar vein to Sixties’ reports, for the couple of hours I witnessed this morning, the sessions continue to be heavily focused on endurance based training, mixed in with intervals of ball skills.

A Small Army

As this was my first training session this pre-season, what struck me most upon arrival was the sheer number of players present. It mightn’t be a stretch to suggest The 2017 Parramatta Eels training squad could invade a small island nation.

There were at least 3 full teams of thirteen out there today, plus Will Smith who was observing (in these weird red socks, as an aside). My quick maths tells me that’s a total of at least 40 players present this morning, and that doesn’t include the impending return of Manu Ma’u from his Four Nations duties for the Kiwis. In fact, all up, I’ve got the list of 2017 Eels currently sitting at 44 (yes, I did tweet earlier 45, but I had forgotten to remove Wicksy from this count). I’m pretty sure I identified everyone there this morning, but players I didn’t take a note of observing were Scott Schulte, Jack Morris and James Hasson (it doesn’t mean they weren’t there, however – they were bodies everywhere).

Within this number, there were a few people who I saw this morning who I didn’t necessarily consider prior to arriving. As an example Dane Aukafolau looks like he’s about 6’3 or 6’4 and at the very least has the build of a very handy winger, and someone I’ll definitely keep my eye on – Forty tells me he’ll be 20 in 2017, and has heard reports he’s a natural in reading the play in defence. Troy Dargan and Joseph Ualesi were both also spotted continuing to chip away at their first shot in the big leagues. Today was also my first look at Frank Pritchard, Hoffman, Matagi, Vave, Fogarty and a bloke I could only describe as Michael Jennings’ twin brother (George). If one wasn’t playing in field from the other I wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart – although I now know George appears to be about an inch taller and has a propensity to wear his cap backwards.

Work, Rest and Play

The aforementioned endurance work consisted of a series of running drills, from the tryline to the 50, down for a pushup, back to the 10, down for a pushup, out to the 50, down for a pushup, back to the 20, down for a pushup and on it went until it there did the full revolution and ended up back at the tryline. This drill was run in two groups – forwards and backs. The usual suspects (Gutherson and Corey) led the backs, whilst Tim Mannah and Cody Nelson led the way for the forwards (Kelepi Tanginoa came from nowhere to claim third in the forwards – must be all that push up training he does, that kid is carved out of stone).

As the players reached the final stages of the aforementioned circuit, Ronnie Palmer (now free of the moon boot) called out the seconds component of their respective times (31, 32, 33 and so on), presumably to engage the players to work harder and beat a previous time. Each player’s time was then recorded (again I presume to compare to times from earlier sessions). I spied Beau Scott and Frank Pritchard were on the bikes for this drill, but were in the thick of it later in the session.

Bear with me as this next activity could be a little to describe. In fact, some of the boys evidently didn’t understand it properly and were told in no uncertain terms by Murph that they needed to pay better attention when it was being explained the first time.

The boys were split again into two teams (about 20 on so in each group), this time with no obvious reason for this division, it seemed just based on numbers. Within each team, in groups of four (usually two backs and two forwards) players would race against a corresponding group from the other team (on the other side of the field) to pass the ball along the line and then back again. The four players would switch positions around a cone and sprint back (from about 20-30 metres out) to the tryline which they came from, passing it one more time along the line. Effectively the aim was for the now widest player to score a try off the final pass before the other team. First team to 10 won, no points awarded for dropped or forward passes. It was fast and competitive, and even though it would have exhausted me, but still looked like one of the lighter moments of the session.

The session was concluded with two 13 player teams game opposing each other in rolling sets of 6, with a third set of 13 players filling their time with sprinting laps of the field. These teams, indicated by their coloured bib, would then rotate so that two were always playing each other, with the third doing the timed laps. The opposed sets were run at least 80%, with an emphasis on running proper lines and a lot of talk on both sides of the ball. Cameron King looked particularly sharp playing both hooker and half, and Hoffman had some time at fullback. Corey Norman always looks in complete control – how far he’s come.

We also spotted Jennings boys paired up on the left wing a couple of times. There’s a prize if anyone ever catches our other brothered pair, Kaysa and Frank, ever man the centre-wing pairing. That’s like a rugby league four leaf clover – a four leaf clover that would happily destroy most centre wing pairings in the NRL, if it could catch them.

Quick Observations

Pritchard looked more comfortable than I thought he’d be, but Geoff suggested that after living in the UK for the past 12 months that the heat might be as big a problem for him as his conditioning. Still, he did everything asked of him and wasn’t last in any of the timed laps for his group.

As far as I could tell, all players and definitely all the coaching staff were wearing the new training kits (below), with the Leagues Club as the major sponsor. I should add I’m told this will not be our primary major jersey sponsor for the season proper, however, as the gambling laws in New Zealand prevent our Leagues Club’s name from appearing when we play the Warriors. I for one am glad I have no idea who our major sponsor might be, as people like me don’t need to know that sort of thing. Good to see that sort of thing staying confidential.

I thought it was interesting that for size comparison, Nathan Brown is about the same height and build as Cody Nelson. Geoff argued that he was closer to Tim Mannah, but he’s definitely not as wide as Tim. In any case, Nathan obviously plays well above his weight; and athough I hear he’s a great bloke off the field, he’s certainly a mean looking bloke on it.

Anyways, that’s about all from me and today’s training. Even though it was my first taste of pre-season, there’s evidently plenty to be excited about for 2017. Shout out to Big Pete and Geoff for their company and observations at this morning’s session.

Go you Eels.

– Mitch

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