The Cumberland Throw

Eels Pre-Season Training – December 1, 2017: Bruno’s Back And Cooking

Here’s a Mediterranean recipe for you.

Begin with a base of the first day of summer.

Liberally spread a layer of warm, humid conditions.

Mix in the toughest conditioning session of the pre-season.

Bake for 90 relentless minutes.

Yes, Friday was Italian international Nathan “Bruno” Brown’s first appearance at Eels pre-season, and Lachlan Wilmot had something special cooking on the athletics field across from Old Saleyards.

Although Browny was not part of the squad’s time trials, it was nonetheless a brutal welcome

Here’s what went down.

The Time Trials

And they’re off!

The playing group was split into two teams, competing over ten timed runs. The distances, firstly ascending then descending, were as follows:

200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m

1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m

That’s 6km in total.

There was little respite between the trials, and the conditions were oppressive.

Worth a Mention

Corey Norman – The enigmatic Eels playmaker could literally have come dressed for fine dining today, such was his performance. With seemingly little exertion, Mr Slide-On-In kicked away from his group in every single run. Was he even sweating? Was his pulse rate close to elevated? You’d be excused for thinking you were watching an experienced middle distance runner go through his warm ups, such was the ease of his stride.

Will Smith – Kicking away in the other group was 2017’s break out utility player. Impressively fit, Smith also handled the difficult conditions with apparent ease. The fullback/half/hooker seems determined to remind the coaching staff that he’s ready to again force his way into the top 17.

Pritchard and King pushing each other on the track.

Cam King and Kaysa Pritchard – Running as team mates, the two players competing for the same first grade position ran shoulder to shoulder in a number of the runs. Pritchard has always set impressive fitness standards so it was interesting to watch Kingy pushing up beside him.

Tony Williams – This was the first time that TRex has been off the bike and into a conditioning run. Although he wasn’t competing in the time trials, he was nonetheless expected to run for the majority of the 90 minutes. The big fella was equally big in effort – and by the time he finished we could hear how he felt!

Clint Gutherson – Freak! Gutho is still rehabbing, so he ran alongside Browny. For a while at least. I’m not sure what the expectation of Gutho was, but at some point it was as if he said “enough play time” and kicked into overdrive. What an athlete!

Nathan Brown – What a day to turn up! Browny kept pace with Gutho for some time. Consider that – trying to keep pace with the King. With shorter legs than the Guthbus, it seemed like Browny was having to work twice as hard to keep up. It was a solid effort for his first run of the pre-season.

Author’s Note

What a week we’ve just had! The Jarryd Hayne contract pushed plenty of media focus in the Eels direction.

On Tuesday, the team head up to the Northern Territory for community visits, open training sessions and coach the coaches. This is in lieu of a February trial. (There will still be a Premiership match in Darwin in 2018.) As such, there will only be one training session that I’ll report on next week.

Eels media will be covering the visit up north, so make sure you either follow their social media or download the app.

Eels forever!

Sixties

 

 

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23 thoughts on “Eels Pre-Season Training – December 1, 2017: Bruno’s Back And Cooking

  1. Trouser Eel

    So, what did you do while the boys were being flogged Sixties? I hope you weren’t kicking back watching with an umbrella in your drink. That’d be just cruel.

  2. Rowdy Roddy

    Great report Sixties. Trivic to see (that’s how good your reports are, I actually visualize them) Corey, Smithy and Gutho continuing their training excellence. That’s the first indication of a winner on the playing field in competition. An athlete trains harder than anyone else will likely perform better than everyone else he competes with!

    Nb to also see Kaysa and Kingy go toe to toe in fitness trials as provided by the Parra site is very encouraging for next year, Sadly one of either of them will likely be injured (one at a time) during the coming season if previous form is any guide. I have prayed their injuries be limited to the minor variety?

    1. Colin Hussey

      Rowdy, would love to see both Kaysa and Kingy both have an injury free year to see how they pan out in what will be a great competitive spirit between them.

      As I reflect on the both of them this last season, King grabbed his chance with the season ending injury, and showed versatility that was not so obvious in Kaysa, especially his kicking skills, and some variety from Dummy half.

      Kaysa, to me was rushed back for the finals which he should not have played, biggest booboo with BA that I can think of. Prior to his injury, Kaysa was gaining more confidence each game and became an 80minute player that I’m not sure King is, Kaysa also showed improvements in running and some variety from dummy half, as his speed gave some good metre gains.

      I like Kaysa and my view of King has changed owing to his improvement, so it will be a good year and wonder who will win out, if both stay injury free it will put some pressure on Will Smith who filled in as a very handy player of utility value. Can the eels have room for the 3 of them and each off contract end of 2018? May I think depend on how young Reed Mahony goes at Wenty so will very very interesting year ahead, just in that position alone.

      1. John Eel

        Colin I know that you were pretty keen on Kayser at the start of 2017 season and his passion and defence were really good especially once he started punching out 80 minutes. King however showed more skill and gave more options. His accurate passing game enable the halves to get good early ball.

        Given the roster we had last year we needed 4 big men on the bench. Do you see that it will be the same again next year. If so who will wear the nine.

        1. Colin Hussey

          John that’s the $50m question, & I don’t have the answer. Only to say that one of them will be the winner, Kaysa needs to add some tricks to his bag to make up for the deficiencies, thing is though at this point of time I not convinced the king is an 80minute player, a reason for the decision by BA in the final.

          There is also a need for the bench men to step up as Matagi and Vave were let downs over the whole season, did ok at times but again consistency.

          1. sixties Post author

            Colin, John and Rowdy,
            Great discussion between you regarding our dummy halves options.
            For mine, King and Pritchard are completely different players.
            King has a calm measured approach to his game that’s marked by his accurate passing that he maintains to the 80th minute.
            Pritchard is all energy. He approaches the defensive aspects of the game like he’s bigger than he really is.
            For mine, BA will decide on which player he feels will best fit the needs of the team.

  3. Shelley

    Start with the positive. Great reading TCT as always. I appreciate facts and reports, not gossip and rumours.

    Great to hear our players are training hard. Congrats to them. I know I would drop dead even having to do 1/10th of those runs.

    I suspect with all the craziness and gossiping in the media/ forums and facebook this weekend a trip away to NT is very timely for our team.

    Looks like we only had 1 year repreave from the mud racking that is the Telegraph, especially when you consider how desperately the Sharks need a 5/8th ( as they have realised quickly Moylan ain’t one) Obviously the head of recruitment for them, Rothfield, has decided Norman is his man, so we can look forward to team disharmony stories all season. I can see the headlines already, BA will loose the dressing shed around April and the players will rebel because he is too tough and of course don’t forget the disharmony caused by BA playing favourites with Hayne and not making him train. Can hardly wait.

    I wish the Telegraph would go back to picking on the Tigers and Dogs again???? That was much more fun last year.

    So I quickly want to have a more serious say on Rothfield’s article. His recruitment strategy, re the article, for the Sharks was very obvious today, unfortunately not all supporters can see it for what it is and that’s the problem. I have absolutely no idea at all if his claims have any merit but I trust our management and coaches and they will sort it out, if there is anything to sort. I know one thing for sure however if the Sharks got Pearce it would not have been in the paper today as this rumour and I say that as I have no evidence that it is true, about Norman is not exactly new.

    My main point of angst on the article is not Rothfield, as he is my eyes has zero credibility, integrity or honesty, I wish however the minority of eels supporters on facebook and forums who are gossiping and spreading rumours would stop as they must realise that Journslists like Rothfield get most of the stories from this and the supporters are in fact the ‘sources’. The journalist need to fill pages and get people clicking for $$$ on the story and our supporters give them this by gossiping. Because we are so popular, like the Dogs and Dragons we are the clubs targetted.

    If these supporters genuinely love the club like they claim to, then let the club know of anything you know about the players and let them deal with it. I don’t want players who are misbehaving or not committed ( disclaimer I don’t think this is the case) but I also don’t want the telegraph finding the solution to our perceived problems either. That will hurt our club and I can not understand how a genuine supporter could find it funny or entertaining to be part of the mudracking and slandering of our players and coach.

    If we believed all the rumours over the weekend then Hayne and Moses will be playing 1-7 between them with everyone else leaving or being locked up and thrown in jail.

    The fact is most if not all supporters,including me, know very little of anything at all about the inner sanctum of our club and players and should stop spreading rumours. They help no one, the player, his family , who also hear these rumours, the team or the wider club. It was sad and a really poor reflection on our supporters that a great clubman like Timmy had a respond earlier this year to a rumour about his retirement, a rumour that was made up deliberately by people for a laugh because they don’t think he should be in the team. Yet these supporters claim to care about the club. I think not.

    It is not funny, it is childish and if people on these forums can not pull themselves into line then I really hope the club does via legal action as free speech does not mean you can say anything you want and spread mistruths under the guise of banter or free speech.

    Rothfield will never ever change but I hope our supporters who have spread all this gossip over the past 5-6 months reflect on this past weekend and the set back it has caused to the club in the wider community and really wake up to themselves.

    1. sixties Post author

      Shelley – you have really fired up this time and you haven’t missed the mark!
      It really became a feeding frenzy over the weekend and it seemed like one crazy rumour was snowballing into the next. If it wasn’t the media, it was social media sites where somebody had told somebody else. I received quite a few private messages about rumours, and I didn’t mind addressing these because they weren’t put out into the mess that was already out there,
      Every time people react in a frenzy like that, it generates clicks, it sells papers, and it drives more of the same.
      We don’t sit at the table in the inner sanctum, but we can report on what we see.
      What I’m seeing is a team working harder, with the same bonds and positivity.

    2. Anonymous

      A well thought out reply shelly and spot on ,wish we had more supporters like you ,actually we do and their all on this site thankfully !!

  4. Jim Phelps IMF

    Great read as always. Boys really putting in.
    Can’t believe all the rumours in 48hrs. Wow what a joke.
    French to tigers, Gutho to Manly or knights , Normy and coach fighting at wrestlemania.
    Hope the players ingnore all the crap. Go Parra!

  5. Paul taylor

    Mate

    Perfect description of the training . Always feel like I am holding the drink bottle or setting the cones up for the next shuttle run. Your the best mate at this reporting of our team.

    Are you liking the style of our new trainer ? Lots of interval training shorter recovery and stamina building . Can’t be a bad thing . Will help us not fade in and out of games .

    Are you seeing big differences in the look of the players this Pre season as opposed to last years ?

    Thanks mate

    1. sixties Post author

      Thanks PT,
      I believe that the new conditioning is aiming at that improved stamina as well as the capacity to capitalise on their chances.
      Differences – blokes like Gutho and Bev look stronger, Marata looks to have added a few kgs (in the right way).
      It really is a different preparation and the players look to have bought in big time. They ask plenty of questions of Lachlan to make sure they are completing the drills properly.

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