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Training Report – Running, Torture and the ‘This will be the last time tour’
As many around the squad have noticed over the last few weeks, a lot of previously ‘Retired’ players have returned to training with the ACTAFL 2/3’s squad. Many notable ex 1st grade players have decided to dust off the old football boots and leave the retirement home two evenings a week to join the rest of the squad at sunny Giralang oval.
What welcomed them at training was Jacob Mennen who had begun to relish his new role, developing the fitness of his players. He was doing this through endless repetitions of the Shuttle Run, Push up’s, Sit up’s, Burpees, As well as a previously un-heard of exercise that from then on was simply referred to as a Mennen. Both the men’s and women’s teams completed all of these drills giving their all.
Things then finally progressed as the squads fitness base became better, football orientated drills became more common and a new top secret game plan was introduced to the group. With Scratch matches and Practice matches against interstate teams scheduled over the coming two months the teams will look to implement this new game plan and have it ready for round one. It promises to be a great challenge for the squad with so many new faces and returning players from seasons past. When asked about how he expects his squad to handle these challenges Jacob was quoted as saying “Why are you here asking me questions when you should be doing shuttle runs?”
The latest period of training finished off with yet more 1km and 400m time trials. With Farran Dawe leading the pack again in the running. This was followed up with yet another fitness circuit which quickly whipped the smile off the faces of the guys that had picked that particular session to make their return/debut. The squad looks forward to its first hit out in a scratch match this Thursday as they prepare for upcoming games against interstate teams both on the road and at home. With spots up for grabs it should be an interesting first hit out.
Training Report – In the Beginning.
Over the last few weeks the teams previously known as Canberra Division returned to the training track. They were welcomed back to a newly structured league that had now renamed the men’s as 2nd and 3rd grade of the ACTAFL by an almost entirely new coaching staff. Over the next season they were to be guided by a relative new comer to the Club in Jacob Mennen who had strong campaigns as a player with both 1st and 2nd (previously 2nd and 3rd grades) grade the previous season but now returns as a non-playing coach for the newly labelled 2nd grade. The new coach of 3rd grade is Jeremy Walker, a club stalwart who is a Veteran of well over a hundred games at the club and was the Assistant coach of the side last year. The assistant of 2nd grade this year is last years only carry over coach in Michael Coate who has returned in his same role despite rumours that he was bound for ADFA this season. The women’s squad this season is to be lead by Paul ‘Macca’ McCaskill who is a Veteran from the West Canberra days and a past coach at the club
The first session kicked of on a sunny day at the squads new home at Giralang Oval, many of the players who were returning from or had played during the BBMFC (Before Belconnen Magpies FC (Around 1990)) days remarked that they had remember the old days of training sessions with the Cats out at Giralang. The rest of the squad continued on, ignoring the senile mumblings of the over 40’s group of the squad.
It was only a light session however with many players on the track still struggling having spent their off season doing mostly ‘Bicep Curls’ coupled with the occasional trip to the Dance floor at Moose heads for a quick ‘Cardio’ Session. The real fun wasn’t to begin until the next session with a surprise testing session to give the players a gauge of how their fitness was at the beginning of the pre-season. Several impressive performances from Vineel ‘Vinny’ Dutt, Farren ‘Faz’ Dawe, Nick ‘Buzzsaw’ Buddidge and Dan ‘Hasslehoff’ Irvine highlighted the session with the average of the whole group over the running session being higher than was expected at this stage of the year. The following session Jacob decided it was time to crank up the difficulty and after Push up and Sit up testing which was lead by Kris ‘I push the world down’ Archibald and Michael ‘Neck Raise’ Coate respectively a fitness circuit consisting mostly of push ups and sit ups was completed enthusiastically by the group.
The final session of the fortnight rounded out with some of the much dreaded shuttle runs (Actually a form of capital punishment in some countries) with the entire squad getting through the exercise and giving 100% on each effort. This was finished off with some longer kicking drills (Finally!) which despite being the first time the drills had been used, the squad was quick to understand and execute. The only down side being that as the session went on the sprints from earlier in the night began to take their toll and the skill level suffered.
All in all it was a great start to the season for the newly named 2’s 3’s and Women’s teams and it looks set to be a successful year for all sides.