Suns intra club report courtesy of Big Footy, Hollands injured unfortunately 😔
:-
I could not resist to see the boys, so I drove to Metricon from Brisbane this morning.
It was a hot morning, 30 degrees when session finished at 11:30am.
Only crowd of 50-70 turned up.
Players were very generous with their time and friendly with people who stayed until the end. I really wish them success this year. They deserve it.
Coach King run the drills.
Coach Kaesler on crutches with a moon boot.
Boys turned up before 9am, 30 min warm up, 2x 30 min scrimmage, 30 min drills focused on ball movement from defence through middle , 20-30 min running.
Teams - positions could be incorrect in some cases.
Red team - 20
Lemmens, Collins, Powell
Markov, Ballard, Weller
Ellis, Miller, Sharp
Witts, Anderson, Rowell
Ainsworth, Chol, Macpherson
Rankine, Casboult, Jeffrey
Swallow, Holman
Blue team – 17
Brock, Thompson, McLennan
Graham, Nicholls
Atkins, Davies, Constable
Moyle, Tsitas, Fiorini
Flanders, Corbett, Hollands
Sexton, Burgess, Rosas
Plus 4 academy kids (Bella, possibly Walter, one look older)
Jeffrey swapped team with Corbett after first 30 min.
Not present
Day (wrist ligament damage), Luko (Achilles), King (ACL), Ace
Present, out of scrimmage
Bowes (no sling, looking good)
Murtagh, Farrar – both looking healthy, no activity
Uwland – no activity, I assume still recovering from back fracture/stress reaction
Andrew – no limping
Conroy, Budarick - both not involved in scrimmage but Budarick participated in ball movement drills, both practiced mark/contest with Ballard when team was doing running drills
Some bad news (but not disaster news)
Luko got Achilles injury according to Macpherson, hopefully not serious as Darcy mentioned that Luko could be a chance next week (probably not).
There were no injuries during scrimmage except one nasty contest which left Chol a bit uneasy but he finished the session. He did look a bit sore after the session.
Unfortunately, during running it looks like Hollands did something to his groin, he looked very disappointed afterwards.
Good news
It was a pleasant surprise to see Witts and Thompson in action.
Though Budarick and Conroy did not play in scrimmage, both seem to be close.
As for scrimmage, hard to assess as it’s only practice while watching from sidelines and most importantly my worried eyes were glued on Witts and Thompson.
Just some observations.
- Red team dominated. Slick movement from defence and through midfield. Weller, Powell, Markov worked well together. Perfect spot for Weller, he looked great, Powell as well.
- Witts looked good. For 10 min he swapped place with Chol. It was unbelievable sight Thompson playing on Witts 😊
- Thompson also looked good. I am pretty sure he can still play at AFL level. Fingers cross his body holds up.
- I enjoyed Moyle work in the ruck against Witts/Chol. Not sure how he goes around the ground, but he is good below his knees. I hope we re-sign him. I can foresee Moyle to get some games if injuries hit. Not sure how good is his tank but his body is Witts like.
- Ellis had some good moments, so Miller and Rowell – both look a real class, Rowell always bobbled up with a ball, snatched a couple of goals, seems enjoyed having Witts with him in the middle.
- Rankine scored a couple of his typical goals.
- Sharp had a memorable moment when running 100m along the wing while Atkins was chasing him only for Sharp slotting a beautiful goal from difficult angle.
- Casboult as predicted made a couple of nice contested marks. He did miss a set shot (it was actually a nice kick action).
- Burgess, Casboult, Markov did some extra running.
I would say the red team is close to round 1 line up. Luko is obvious in if he is ready. Corbett could be fighting for spot with Jeffrey.