Richmond Training, January 10th 2011

Sorry in advance Richmond supporters for the lack of detail. I came late from Collingwood training thinking it was an 11am session. I was also told off by one of the Richmond officials for taking down notes and had to stop. Apparently other AFL clubs will use this sort of stuff (I'll bet).

• When I turned up the players were doing zonal type work, split up into three groups: orange, green and plain. One of the teams would stand out whilst the other two would try and keep possession of the ball and on occasions spot up the trainer at either side of the drill. The defending side would have one of their players stay out making it 9 attackers vs 8 defenders

• Man on the mark (defending team) would consistently call out "watch the middle" making the group with the ball play wide. 
• Plenty of talk, was impressed. Although the trainer had a go at Connors for not talking at one stage.

 

• Loved the desperation shown above.
• In one of the rotations I kept my eye on Taylor (Collingwood were heavily linked to him in the 09 draft), and he didn't get a sniff. At one point he was wide open but his team mate kicked over him. Not enough talk? I'm not sure, I still think he will be a good player if he wants to be.
• Here are some videos of the drill:

• Martin got plenty of it in the drill, as did tuck.
• I know this is pretty common knowledge for tigers fans, but far out Matt White is quick.
• Groups swap around
• Newman training today
• Noticed that it was more man on man at this stage
• Miller looked strong. Took a great grab and followed up with a tit bruising kick and more hard running into space for the next kick.

This is where I was approached by a Richmond official and basically told to piss off. He said that I would be in trouble if he saw me taking any more notes.

• After that they had two drills going, one was more on one one work with the trainer kicking it to pairs who would fight it out. The other was a midfield type clearance drill.
• Rance has a huge frame/upper body.
• Taylor did pretty well against his opponents from what I saw.
• One drill that intrigued me was one where four player would kick to each other, and hit Westhoff on the lead (who was practicing his leading, double backing etc) as the whistle blew. Westhoff looked pretty clean.
• King, Foley, Newman handballing with a trainer. Foley looked good all training from what I saw. Got plenty of it in the first drill.
• Tuck and white did some one on one evasive work with a trainer.
• King had some long shots on goal, he can kick a long way for a small lad.
• Westhoff finished off with some contested marking with the trainer. Looked solid.
• After this the players rapped it up, and the coaching staff had a game against each other, as they usually do.