The Cumberland Throw

Eels Pre-Season Training – November 28, 2018: Noah’s Ark Edition

If you wanted to stay warm and dry, Old Saleyards was not the ideal place to be this morning. A TCT aquatic vehicle was almost required to venture down to Eels training on a day when I had to double check the calendar. These were not your typical late November conditions.

There would be no ice baths after today’s field session.

There will, however, be a point of difference to today’s post. I won’t just be reporting on Wednesday training, as for the first time this pre-season I took in part of the Tuesday morning program. There was no “field session” on Tuesday, but I was able to catch a couple of interesting components of the training conducted on the field.

Here’s what I witnessed over the last two days:

Tuesday

Athletic Performance

Tuesday mornings sees time dedicated to athletic performance.

Just like the last pre-season, this is the domain of the Head of Athletic Performance – Lachlan Wilmot.

In this session, Wilmot was working with groups of players on acceleration. This involved working on technique that didn’t rely on the arms, but rather the best leg action to achieve maximum velocity as quickly as possible.

The interesting aspect was the angled body of the players. Wilmot scaffolds the training from standard athletic sprinting up to running at speed with an angled torso. With most team sports requiring players to be running at speed whilst looking around, I could literally picture the players breaking the line then looking for support – all at speed.

The use of hurdles and elastic bands in the warm up before most sessions was explained to me by Lachlan. The hurdles are all about hips. The bands are about the glutes. By incorporating this into their warm ups, the players improve the way they move and the strength they achieve through the glutes. They try to inject these types of activities into training whenever possible.

Set Starts

The squad was divided into their two teams for this part of the morning. It was brief, but I walked away smiling.

This was an opportunity for Brad Arthur and the coaches to take the entire squad through some of the basic shapes that the team will be using to move upfield during matches.

There are a range of shapes and sequences that can be employed. These are the fundamentals of how they will function as a team. The players learn the shapes and the calls.

Without divulging anything, there are differences from last season and this would be expected. There was nothing in the way of special plays seen today. That wasn’t what this was about.

However, there was something that needed highlighting from this division of the squad. Moses and Norman took ownership of both teams – and that’s what any coach or fan would want to see.

Normz has been taking ownership.

The first team ran with Moses and Norman as the halves. It was slick, extra slick in fact, and to be fair, looked like late 2017 as far as combinations are concerned. A necessary counterpoint is that they trained well in 2018, but we all know the on-field performances left plenty to be desired.

Nonetheless, I’ll come back to just how seamlessly they went about their work and feel encouraged by it.

The second team then ran with Brown and Salmon. Moses and Norman had remained behind for this group and they took on a mentoring role. That ranged from speaking between sets to calling out to the halves during the set. For example, “Take it again Browny!”

A strong squad will have its senior players helping to develop rookies, even if they are competing for a spot. Leadership does not require a “C” next to the player’s name.

Not only does it benefit the senior player by ensuring better depth, it also sends a strong message to the other players and coaches about the value of the senior player.

Watching this unfold, in a brief unopposed drill, was a very positive indicator to emerge from the session.

Wednesday

Opposed

Don’t expect too much in my description. The rain was absolutely bucketing down, and as the play moved further away, it became very difficult to distinguish the players.

Check out the water spray!

Considering the waterlogged state of the ground, the play was relatively open. Some of the dropped ball was to be expected, considering the collisions.

This needs emphasis. The defence was akin to last Friday’s belter of a session. In one memorable moment, Oregon Kaufusi charged into the defence in the quarter and was dealt a bone rattler by Davey and Mannah, forcing the ball loose. The celebration and congratulations towards Davey were spontaneous and loud.

Other highlights included:

* Game management early in the contest by Norman and Moses, using the conditions to force multiple repeat sets.

Dylan Brown looked composed in his work.

* Brown and Salmon looking composed in directing their team in what was very testing conditions. Gutho played alongside them.

* Impressive passing/offloads by the forwards.

* Smith filled in at dummy half today. Stone played as a middle forward and again impressed. Schneider should be back in action next week.

Don’t read too much into who’s playing alongside each other at this stage. My experience/interpretation is that BA gives opportunities and mixes and matches in early pre-season, then you start to see a likely starting line up take shape in January.

I can’t recall any tries being scored – which speaks volumes about the conditions and the dominance of the defence.

The In-Between

The “half time break” in the opposed match involved conditioning and skills games.

Sliding in for the score in raid footy.

The first skills game, “beach footy”, was a game of four vs three in a small grid. The aim is obviously to find ways to use the player advantage to score tries. You see a variety of draw and pass, cut outs, dummies and improvisations in a game like this. Every player becomes a ball-player.

The second skills game was “raid footy” – a fun match played in a donut shaped area. The scoring zone was the inner circle. The aim of the game was for the player in possession to find support, and for those support players to put themselves in space against a close marking defence. It was action aplenty, especially in the wet conditions.

The Final Word

The unmistakeable feature of today was the smiles.

Oregon, Salesi and Filia.

All big kids enjoy sliding around in the rain, don’t they?

All big kids enjoy playing games, don’t they?

All big kids enjoy having a holiday, don’t they?

This was a session of tough wet weather footy with a healthy dose of games thrown in. There was a bagful of sliding and diving during the games, the sound of laughter and a bit of celebrating.

The squad has been excused from training for the next two days, giving them a well-earned long weekend. In my opinion, this is fair reward for their recent camp and last Saturday’s training. Managing physical workloads during a pre-season is important, so I’d imagine that the kilometres run have probably reached the suitable point for a couple of days of respite.

Time for me to find dry land.

I’ll return with my next training report on Monday.

Eels forever!

Sixties

 

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29 thoughts on “Eels Pre-Season Training – November 28, 2018: Noah’s Ark Edition

  1. rowdy roddy

    Very interesting read with continued variety being developed by coaching/training staff.
    The competitive intensity is still apparent with the challenge going out to our experienced halves to “show us how confident you are in your own ability by mentoring the young blokes who want your position in the team” I loved it!

    These Big kids coming through are doing it at an opportune time for the whole squad, not just for themselves individually. You can see the joy (of doing it together at this level) on the faces of Oregon, Salesi and Filia. Would I be wrong in assuming that these 3 have played a bit of junior reps together?

    1. sixties Post author

      Oregon, Filia, Stefano, Haze and Ethan were all part of the 2015 Harold Matts squad. I believe Salesi was an external recruitment by Fieldsy at age 17 from Wests.

  2. Glenn

    Oregon last season looked small so he must have put on a lot of weight since then. I’ve seen Fainga’a play for Fiji and he is a big bloke but Oregon looks as big. I’d say all 3 in the photo must be around 110kg if not slightly more.

        1. sixties Post author

          They look bigger than their listed weights
          Alvaro – listed 108 I’m sure he’s 114/115
          Marata – listed 102 looks 105/106
          I’ll see if I can find out.

  3. Parra Pete

    Sixties, I am SO jealous of you attending these sessions, but you make me feel part of it with your great coverage and description of the sessions.
    Thanks for this outstanding coverage and comprehensive reports. I hope the Club realises what an outstanding asset the TCT team is to the Club. I hope that you receive PRESS passes, at least..

    1. sixties Post author

      Thanks Pete. Getting feedback from fellow Eels tragics like yourself make it all worthwhile. Very grateful that the footy department make us feel welcome too.

  4. Poppa

    Gedday mate, question for you on Silvo, sorry cannot spell his first name. Is he settling in with the club and where would his culture be in comparison to Semi.
    We are all hoping of course that he can bring something like Semi but that would be unfair to judge this early.
    Maybe you might be able to say how he compares to the early days of Semi where it was just raw ability.
    Great read again, you should bottle these comments for some of our journalists to read, you leave them for dead with your narrative.

    1. sixties Post author

      Many thanks Poppa. I’ve spoken only once and very briefly to Maika. My only impression from that was that he was respectful. He was injured towards the latter part of last year, so he’s been doing some rehab. I don’t like to say more on people doing rehab, but I can say he’s been running very freely, and he can certainly motor. There might be some photos of him running alongside Manu Mau on the Eels website.

  5. The rev aka Snedden

    How did your u servive the big wet. I drive a truck n I’m sure I drowned a few ppl. 🌊🏃😂

    Keep the updates coming it’s good to here.

    #Eels4life#

    1. sixties Post author

      Hey Rev, we were very lucky. The team has been training on the field that’s beside the public ammenities building. It’s got an awning, so we were able to grab a seat and watch from under cover. Once they move over to the other field, it’s back to the elements!

  6. Milo

    I just say a huge thanks Sixties; i wish i was able to come down and see the team train etc and even if that was in the rain.
    Great to read as always mate we appreciate the insight into the club and also the younger players.
    Is Salesi more an edge forward?
    Maybe we should start a TPA for TCT to have a sponsored all weather seat down there….

    1. sixties Post author

      Salesi is an edge forward. His ball skills have seen him fill in in the halves in Flegg.
      I’ve attempted to start negotiations for a drinks service.

  7. Adam

    Does it surprise anyone that other clubs (Warriors) are wanting to get Dylan Brown on a Kalyn Ponga type swindle? Brown is elite for his age just like Ponga, who was light years ahead of his peers through the junior ranks. Every Cowboys fan I know reckons the single biggest mistake the club has made was not going harder to keep him. If we can all see how much potential he has, surely every talent scout and recruitment head can too. Buckle in, if he gets a chance to shine in 2019 we could be about to see a major bidding war.

    1. Milo

      Agreed; if he wants to stay I am sure he will and the club would be able to accommodate this $$$$. There is always a risk and reward with such young players. I would hope they are already onto it.

      1. sixties Post author

        He’s from NZ, he’s a loyal Kiwi, he is a naturally gifted player, but he’s developed in the Eels system. It’s Parra’s chance to develop a quality half.

  8. Grunta

    Thanks Sixties.
    Did they do the ‘beach footy’, 4 on 3 training last year?
    Seems like a good skill session to include in their training.
    Thank Jesus that the Hayne signing debate has ended. I have a feeling our recruitment isn’t finished yet and we may see a couple of proven players join the squad. A hooker is in the background ready to be exposed according to a sly whisper…

    1. sixties Post author

      They’ve always done different variations of grid drills designed to get all players to play what’s in front of them, use the footy and run at spaces etc. They change rules to mix up the games. The Raid footy was completely different.
      Two spots, and a few young players I’d like to be eligible for selection early on. Interesting next month or so.

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