What’s your definition of pre-season Parradise? If you answered, “two hours on the training track pushing new levels of fatigue”, then today would have been just the ticket. If that doesn’t appeal, then it’s a good thing you’re not part…
Eels Pre-Season Training – December 7 & 8, 2020: Oggy & Stone, “Don’t You Forget About Me”
Second week of pre-season – will the new faces continue to measure up? The first week was a solid ask of the squad, but experience tells me that there’s an incremental build in the conditioning component each week. As explained…
Eels Pre-Season Training – December 4, 2020: Week One Done!
Don’t blink! If by chance you do, there’s every chance you’ll miss this pre-season. The comparative brevity of this pre-Christmas period is exemplified by how few weeks are available for NRL clubs prior to the festive break. With week one…
Eels Pre-Season Training – December 2 & 3, 2020: Managing The Training Load
What’s your image of a pre-season? Players running to the point of being physically ill? The tale of Dylan Brown requiring medical attention during his first preseason is evidence that this time of the year is unquestionably gruelling. NRL strength…
Eels Pre-Season Training – December 1, 2020: New Faces Edition
Finally, the Eels have come back to Kellyville Park! Unfortunately, I’m the poorest of substitutes for Dwayne Johnson. But, the start of the pre-season deserves a big announcement – after all, it’s where the countdown to the next season…
Eels Pre-Season Training – March 5, 2020: The Wrap Up
Welcome to the final edition of my pre-season training reports. Though I’ll still do my best to get to Eels training, the specificity of their work prior to matches makes it inappropriate to provide detailed accounts of their preparation. To…
Eels Pre-Season Training – February 24 & 26, 2020: Defence, More Defence, And Team List Wednesday
It’s starting to feel like the season proper. Training has become more targeted as the team prepares for a specific opponent. And though I’ll continue to front up at Kellyville, my pre-season training reports are coming close to an end.…
Eels Pre-Season Training – February 18, 2020: Trial Team Edition
Did the NRL Nines nail its unofficial mission statement – whetting your appetite for the season ahead? Whether or not it was a success, the Perth event is done and dusted and has now moved into that rear-view mirror, rapidly disappearing…
Eels Pre-Season Training – February 3, 2020: The Big Guns Shine
You know it’s getting close to the season when I cease to report on any of the conditioning component of the pre-season training session. Blue vs Gold football action was the dominant feature as the Eels kicked off the new…
Eels Pre-Season Training – January 31, 2020: Fire Up!
Fire up! I’m not sure whether that instruction was given this morning, but you could be forgiven for thinking that it was. It was no place for orange shirts out there in what a highly competitive, heavy hitting, opposed session.…