Welcome to your catch-up training report. It’s been a massive week in PARRAdise, with the team preparing for their first trial game, and the Lomax saga playing out in the media.

Throw in the Member Forum at the James Hardie Community Centre, and the Parra Leagues AGM voting, and we’ve been busier than a seagull at a hot chip eating convention.

With everything going on, I even missed the Monday session, which means that this report begins with Wednesday’s session.

Firstly, the Tour De Parra shirts for the week were as follows:

Joash Papalii – Yellow

Josh Addo-Carr – Green

Will Penisini – Dots

Lorenzo Talataina – White

Please note that these shirts are awarded after the efforts of the previous week. The Foxx was with the Indigenous Team this week, which made him unavailable for training or for trial team selection.

Wednesday was a massive opposed/scrimmage day, and it saw the team use both the main training field and the match field for the session. They kicked off with skills work and opposed drills in front of the Centre of Excellence before moving to match-like contact scrimmages in front of the Jack Iori Grandstand, where they also utilised the scoreboard and clock.

Team huddle on the match field

Gerard Sutton was in attendance to officiate, alongside another ref who mostly ran a sideline. Please note that NRL refs are available for all clubs and provide authenticity and feedback to any scrimmage work.

Both Nathan Brown and Jason Ryles gave the squad a bit of a blast for aspects where they wanted sharper attention to detail. It looked like both players and staff were in full NRL game mode.

As someone who taught in the classroom for nearly a quarter of a century, the change in delivery appeared very effective. The departure from the usual voice, language and intonation definitely had the squad’s attention, and certainly mine.

My highlights from the morning were as follows:

A deep and perfectly weighted kick from Moses in his own half, coupled with a terrific chase from the team that forced a line drop out

A terrific catch from Will Penisini for a try

A NSW Cup attacking kick that resulted in a tap back for Toni Mataele to cross

Another NSW Cup try, this time to Jordan Samrani on the wing after great hands shifted the ball quickly to him

Joash Papalii beating defenders with insane footwork in the space of a phone booth (someone else can explain phone booths to any younger readers) to score an NRL team try

Lincoln Fletcher taking on the line and wearing a shot from JDB and Hoppy. They forced an error but the rising half got straight to his feet

And finally the biggest moment – an intercept from Samrani that resulted in almost the entire NRL team chasing hard to run him down, with about five of them involved in actually catching him. It was match day attitude!

The kick chase in action

There was not as much to report from Friday’s session. It was a lighter and shorter session as the players load was tapered in the lead up to Sunday’s trial.

A celebrity supporter was in attendance – Simon Pryce from The Wiggles. When the session concluded he caught up with a number of players for a chat and Eels media grabbed a few photos.

Pryce with Moses, JDB and Hoppy

The week concluded with Saturday morning’s captains run. Those not involved in Sunday’s trial had the kilometres put into their legs in a gruelling 7:30am session. This was followed by the NSW Cup caps run and finally the NRL run.

Typically, a captains run tells me very little apart from maybe how focussed the team is as they finish their prep for the week, along with the general vibe in the team. It’s the lightest field session of the week, rarely going for beyond an hour, even including any extras. Normally, it’s just an unopposed run through.

The only difference this week was that the number of players involved meant that the basic shapes and plays could be done in an opposed context. The squad looked very upbeat both entering and leaving the field. They are ready, the coaches looked ready, and classic Aussie music from The Angels provided the ideal soundtrack for this 65 year old correspondent to finish his note taking.

My thanks to assistant coach Scott Wisemantel for taking the time to answer questions about the extra work being done by the kickers this preseason, both general field kicking and goal kicking. In addition to their dedicated sessions with former Wallaby Matt Burke, the kickers are the last off the field after extras with Wisey. There is a subtle change in technique with them all, and the reps should help to achieve greater consistency.

Parra Proud!

Sixties

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