Welcome to week two of the Eels 2027 preseason
This week is significant because it reveals how the coaches assessed the opening week of their preparations for next season.
How is this done? By awarding the first of the “Tour de Parra” shirts of the preseason.
The winners:
Gold (leading trainer): Teancum Brown
Green (speed/power): Tyrese Lokeni
White (strength):Max Popo
Dots (grind/effort, team first): Saxon Pryke
Tyrese in his green Tour de Parra shirt (image Eels media)
For regular readers of the reports, these names should be no surprise. Big T is continuing his efforts of last season where he commenced the preseason by taking home multiple shirts.
The other winners all grabbed a mention in my reports last week. It should also be noted that the field sessions are only one component of training that occurs each day. I choose to attend the heaviest loading days and I don’t have access to what occurs indoors at Kellyville HQ.
After the warm ups what I witnessed today was a session that was heavy on conditioning and defence. Even the ball skills components pushed fatigue into the players.
Defence is a priority
Outside of those ball skills the conditioning involved a variety of timed traditional “straight line” running with players quickly transitioning to the next drill. This ensured that goal of executing under fatigue.
The ball skills are increasingly containing a competitive element, which draws in not only the battle against fatigue but also the battle against defenders.
From my perspective, this progression highlights the scaffolded learning built into each day/week of the preseason.
So to the defence. What I witnessed today was an aggressive attitude.
There was genuine contact and ball runners were taken to the ground in drills that started with just markers and A/B defenders then extended to edge defenders.
As a spectator, the sound of contact is the key indicator to what’s happening in the session. For mine, it’s an early indicator of what lies ahead.
As far as these reports are concerned, the early preseason components that allow me to differentiate player performances are related to conditioning.
Today, there was more of a uniformity in conditioning performance. That’s not to say that there weren’t standout efforts, as last week’s leading players continued to shine.
Saxon Pryke
Rather, the margins are narrowing. Players are raising the bar on their own efforts to compete against each other.
That said, the conditioning work allowed me to identify players that I might have missed last week. Therefore I can add Devonte Vaivela and Siamani Lealuai to the preseason list. Both are being rewarded for their lower grade performances in 2026.
Furthermore, though I had already listed Zack Visconti in my first report, he caught the eye with his conditioning efforts today as he kept pace with the leading runners – a big effort from a forward.
As yet none of the new signings have joined the group.
I’m looking forward to getting a first look at those, be they top 30 or train and trial. I also think the returning top 30 that are yet to start might get a bit of a surprise at where this mostly younger group are at. It’s a genuine look into the future.
Eels forever!
Sixties
