After last Friday’s water aerobics capers , it was back to the summer heat for today’s conditioning/skills session. Even the early start provided little respite from the warm conditions. Our crew of teachers on holidays were in attendance, so it was virtually pre-season business as usual.
The Conditioning
You’d have to imagine that the lungs were burning as the players spent an extended period clocking up the kilometres. Plenty of time hitting the ground was again the feature of the conditioning, emphasising our intent at being better with that effort on effort around the ruck. Gutho’s high cruising speed has to be seen to be believed. I’d also reckon that Frank Pritchard will be in peak condition by the time the premiership kicks off. He looks as good as I’ve seen him in recent years.
Back to work for Normz today!
The Opposed Work
With the NRL referees again in control, and under the watchful eye of ex-English referee Russell Smith, the stage was set for a continuation of Friday’s match simulation. However, in contrast to Friday’s work which was entrenched in the red-zone, today’s hit-out was a full field affair with a more natural flow of possession. This included re-starts from scrums and the associated set plays.
Although the first grade line up is far from finalised, there was some sense of first team vs second team in today’s work. It’s quite logical to think that BA would be looking to consolidate some key combinations, particularly in the backline, as we approach the business end of the pre-season. To that end we witnessed Hoffman play right wing and the Jennings/Radradra pairing on the left.
One similarity to Friday’s session was the shifting of the football and the hits in defence. I’m sure that Gowie is still wearing the ice pack after one memorable hit from Tanginoa. Those shifts creating a number of scoring plays out wide, and that left side looked particularly slick. There is no substitute for speed!
Frank the Tank cops a hit.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Bevan French will effectively be in his rookie season as a fullback in 2017. There’ll be plenty for the young flyer to learn and it was good to see so much ball put in his hands this morning. Consequently, at the conclusion of the session we all reflected upon how little we noticed the halves today. Of course, that could be because they were focussed on delivering early ball for the outside backs. Nonetheless, it was one of the rare sessions where no individual really stood out.
Other Observations
Standing so close to these high intensity opposed sessions, the aspect that stands out is the amount of talk. It is constant, both in attack and defence. No doubt the aim is to continue this under match conditions. How often do we hear the sideline commentators make reference to whether there is plenty of talk or not when games get tight.
Another surprise was hearing the collisions. I’ve already referenced that hit by Kelepi but there were plenty of other tackles that the ball runners would have felt. As was said to us, if you don’t put something into the tackles, there is too great a disparity once you step onto the field in round 1.
Training is about preparing to play. These blokes are doing just that.
Eels forever!
Sixties
PS – Advice to Bernie Gurr – Time to lock up Kenny Edwards’ young son to a long term deal. He’s got the stamina, the kicking skills and hits those tackle bags like a demon. (Look for him to debut in 2034)
All images courtesy of Parramatta Eels
Nice work mate. Yes the boys would be resting now we hope. It was v warm today and its the same for the next few days…..they seem to be a good cohesive unit. Talk was very strong and its interesting seeing the squad do some extras after training.
I thought that I noticed the young K Edwards cramping up too after his work with dad….😀
Good to catch up today and see you in a couple of wks.
It was good to catch up. Yes, I wasn’t sure if it was a cramp from Kenny Junior, but now that you mention it ….
Always enjoy watching the extras, particularly the drills Joey Grima serves up. Always innovative.
I certainly notice the different work done by the coaching and fitness staff Sixties.
Particularly the work done in between sets.
As you mentioned the positive talk is really notable along with the intensity. Wednesday will be tough….
With spots up for grabs, no wonder the hits are hard, may have extra motivation to clear a spot. Looking at the eels home page and gallery shows some tired boys, Gower looked quite puffed.
Wednesday is said to top 40 in the west. so plenty of slippery plays if they are out on the paddock then.
Keep with the reports.
Thanks mate. Wednesday is normally light on with the field work. I think they felt that heat today.
My poor Gowie! Hope it didn’t knock any of his hair out. Great work again my friend 🙂
Fantastic to see you popping in here Gem. Keep it up. I know you’ve got a big spot in your heart for Gowie. He toughed it out.
Just love reading these reports, and the manner you present them.
Excitement for the coming season is building….
That’s a huge compliment coming from a Parra legend like you Pete. Even if I wasn’t reporting, I’d still be down there watching it. It’s a real eye opener to see the different drills used and the effort these blokes put in.
Legend….:lol: Mate I’m just a keen follower like everyone else…Love this website and the effort you blokes put in to bring enjoyment to those of us – especially us in the bush – who can’t get up close and personal.
Too kind mate.
Hi Sixties, thanks for the report. Do you mind indicating who appears to be the most likely starting 9 at this point in time? This is the position I am most interested in. I suspect it will be King, IDG or Fogarty, or perhaps one of those characters alternating with K Pritchard.
I don’t think that Fogarty comes into calculations there at the moment. For mine the tough call comes with whether we play an 80 minute dummy half. Each of the contenders are fit enough to do it. IDG and King are organising dummy halves. Kaysa is a bit more explosive. My guess would be IDG with succession plan to King. Kaysa to be used in a bench role if they go that way. Then again, I don’t think that the coaching staff have made any decision yet.
Great read as always Sixties. I’ve often wondered how we compare to other other clubs in terms of pre-season training. What do we do better than the others and what could still be improved? Could you shed light on this? Ronnie Palmer, for instance, could reveal how we differ from how the Panthers perform in the pre-season.
Good question. Obviously there’s similarities. I have asked about this with both players and staff. Here’s some of the things I’ve gleaned. Compared to some clubs we train a bit harder. Compared to others it’s similar. Compared to some clubs, we look after individual conditioning and rehab a bit better (players sometimes arrive at the club a bit busted up and require lots of attention to niggles/injuries). Compared to other clubs we do more skills. Some clubs tend to overlook footballer basics. Compared to some other clubs we allow the players to enjoy themselves and know that their family are welcome. I guess it comes down to the mix, which needs to be a balance of all of the above.
If I was to sum it up, I do know that everything has to be different and better than the year before. BA insists on development of everyone, players and coaches.
Another great read guys! I’m really interested to see how Bevan will go this year at fullback.