It only involved a couple of days, so Tuesday saw the Eels squad wrap up their preseason workforce time.

Call it dipping their toes in the water of life away from professional football, or simply giving back to the community, I reckon it provides each player with their own insight.

Across those two days they become part-time footballers, juggling footy and work.

On that topic, the Kellyville fields were also taken up by lower grades and SG Ball squads going through their paces. It was testimony to the value of the five fields at the new Kellyville CoE. Other clubs just can’t boast such a facility.

When it comes to the NSW Cup squad, over two dozen part-timers were training last night. The players that I can confirm as staying in the Eels system include Arthur Miller-Stephen, Pat Spence, Max Tupou, and Meni Luke.

There will be others who have remained in the Blue and Gold, but my purpose last night was watching the NRL, so I’ll update readers when I learn more.

The Tuesday session was more intense and longer than Monday’s. I had to depart after 90 minutes due to podcast commitments, and there were still unused stations set up across the fields.

In that regard, all of the staff deserve a shout out. Whether it’s the coaches, high performance staff, physios or those in other roles, everyone jumps in to help out with the drills.

Multiple drills take place simultaneously, so staff might hold bump pads, fetch footballs, act as dummy halves, whatever is needed. It means no time is wasted.

All hands on deck with multiple simultaneous drills

Part of the warm up included a relay passing game, with the group split into four teams, with “dummy halves” firing bullets off the ground with the goal of being the first team to have everyone catch the ball and pass it back to the dummy half.

Tallyn Da Silva’s team were victorious and I reckon the houses down Memorial Avenue that heard about it!

Defence kicked off the session, with line movement and footwork the focus. A sequence of rapid fire defence drills followed. Three on two, four on three with sliding positions, and six on four throwing shapes at defenders.

The squad was then split into three teams with opposed sets through the middle third involving contact and take down to the ground. Whilst two teams would be in play, the third was undertaking conditioning runs. The groups rotated to ensure all players had their turns attacking, defending and running.

At this point it seemed that the focus may have switched to attack, with more shapes being run at defenders, especially around the ruck. Despite the absence of key ball players, I thought that the shapes were well executed, and some of the variations had me looking at the wrong receiver. Sometimes a play is so deceptive and fast that it’s difficult to spot as a spectator let alone defend. I have the sense that I’m seeing more of that this preseason.

Outside backs train for those spectacular finishes

Just before I departed, the outside backs were working on their finishing with Scott Wisemantel. We often marvel at the aerial antics of wingers, and the way they can ground the ball for a try in seemingly impossible situations. The reason that they can is that they practise.

Simultaneously, the rest of the squad undertook rapid fire sets through the middle and edge into bump pad defenders.

At this point I left the centre as I was on a tight schedule.

Wednesday is a rest day from field duties, so it’s back to normal scheduling on Thursday.

See you then.

Eels forever!

Sixties

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