The football season is here!

This is not a misprint, it’s how I’m viewing Eels training right now. Although opponent specific training doesn’t commence until the team prepares for the first match, there’s definitely a regular season feel at Old Saleyards right now.

With football drills and skills taking a greater prominence over the past week, the players have the opportunity to establish a form line based on footy execution and not just effort in conditioning.

That’s not to say that conditioning is not a contributing factor, because the capacity to perform under fatigue is integral to the process of all NRL teams. And importantly, the currently session structure is probably looking to achieve buoyant conditioning – with elite fitness levels that have them jumping out of their skins to play rather than having them feeling drained.

The competition for places is really heating up and players are now looking to keep their names prominent on the clipboard via their footy form.

Here’s what was covered in nearly two hours on the field today.

Warm Up

Spike Ball

After stretching and loosening up, there was plenty of laughs as the fellas launched into a few minutes of Spike Ball. For anybody not familiar with this game, this clip should provide a frame of reference. Footballers are incredibly competitive (as they should be), so the chance to get one up over a mate in any game is a source of bragging rights.

The running mechanics seemed to be focussing on the ability to generate power when driving off either leg. (I make this assumption though I didn’t have the opportunity to check.)

As per previous weeks, there was a discernible improvement in the squad’s transition through their mechanics drills.

When these drills were first introduced, the varying degrees of coordination within the group was obvious. This disparity is now less evident.

The elation of winning.

In referencing coordination, it would be remiss to not comment on Gutho’s rehab work this morning. As the team went through their paces, the King was hopping one-legged over small hurdles and catching a footy as he did so. To quote a wise observer, the coordination was like an athletic equivalent of rubbing the stomach whilst patting the head.

The prelude to the opposed work was rounded out with a defensive drill completed within a grid. Like much of their work, there was a competitive element and didn’t each group let their opponents know when they got the better of them.

Opposed

After a warm up game of full field two hand touch, and a bit of off the ground conditioning to ensure an element of fatigue, NRL referees were introduced for the remainder of the session.

The first half saw contrived scenarios in the red zone with the greens given the first opportunity with the ball. After around ten minutes of defending from drop outs, penalties or scrums the blues had held out every green raid. The communication and the scramble in defence was very encouraging.

With the blues then given their shot with the ball, the class of Norman and Moses took up from where they left off on Friday. These two dominated the action for the next ten minutes.

Normz was in fine touch today.

Norman scored a tremendous try after his lead runners ran superb lines to draw the defence and open up space akin to the Sydney Heads. Moses used pinpoint kicking to construct the next try, before Norman created space with a clever pass for Hoffman to cross.

Perhaps the most exciting play of the morning fell agonisingly close after the defence bundled Auva’a into touch right in the corner. Attempting to describe the interchange of passes would not do it justice and maybe reveal a play that the coaches are working on – but it was a thing of beauty.

Full Field

After the first half the group took a break to simulate half time. At this point the opposed work became full field – much to the approval of those of us viewing the opening stanza from behind the far posts. The play was under match conditions, with kicks for goal following tries.

The highlight of this final 20 minutes of the morning was a fine try to Taka off a 30 metre Moses break. The skilled half was very sharp today.

Another notable point was that Kaysa was given the opportunity to play for the entire period in the blue team. Earlier, he and King had alternated between both teams.

This second half was possibly a bit too scrappy for the coaches liking, as both teams failed to execute as effectively as they did earlier. Put simply, they just never really kicked into gear. As the minutes ticked by, the referees also found greater fault in the play the ball – something that all teams will need to be drilling.

The Captain

Undoubtedly, both Norman and Moses had the showreel moments of the day, but Tim Mannah was another standout.

The captain crosses the stripe.

During the opposed work, Tim came up with a number of clutch plays in defence. Later, one of his carries through the ruck saw him break the line then stand in the tackle to offload to a support.

Furthermore, his leadership was in evidence throughout the session. It was exemplified further after the final whistle as he summoned all of the squad over and addressed them before the coaches had their say. It was a real captain’s knock today.

Eels forever!

Sixties

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