I was rapt to finally be able to head out and watch the Tigers train and I’m happy to report I got quite a bit out of the two hour session!

There were a few players in the rehab group from what I saw; Ben Griffiths, Trent Cotchin, Jake Batchelor, Jack Riewoldt, Luke McGuane, Steve Morris, and Andrew Browne.

None of them looked injured, so they might’ve just been on light duties for the day. Trent Cotchin was running laps with Wayne Campbell for the first quarter of the session, and I must say, he was looking mighty fit! Cotchin is due to participate in full training by next week, as well as Jack Riewoldt.

Kelvin Moore and David Astbury walked laps and then disappeared under the race for the rest of the session. We know Moore is still recovering from a severe hip injury, but I’m not exactly sure what was wrong with David Astbury.

Players I didn’t see were Addam Maric, John Heslin, Dean Macdonald and Gibson Turner, but I very well might have missed them.

There were a few match simulation drills that caught my eye because it gave a fair idea of some player positions.

Much has been made about Brett Deledio and Reece Conca moving to the midfield, and while they did train there, it was interesting to see the captain, Chris Newman playing up the field as well. He did a lot of kicking inside 50, and was very much a link up player in the centre square in the drills. Other players rotating through there were Dustin Martin, Daniel Connors, Matthew Arnot, Shane Edwards, Nathan Foley, Shuan Grigg, Daniel Jackson, Jeromey Webberley and Shane Tuck.

Training in the backline group were Brandon Ellis, Dylan Grimes, Bachar Houli, Alex Rance, Ben Darrou, Piva Wright, Steven Verrier, Matt Dea, Bradley Helbig, Jayden Post and Matthew White.

Brandon Ellis was fantastic in the drills. He stands up in the tackles brilliantly with his powerful core, and best of all I didn’t see him miss a target all day. There’s been talk he may be strictly a shut down defender, but from what I could see, he and Bachar Houli were the two ‘kickers’ out of defence. If Chris Newman ends up playing up the ground, then Bachar Houli could be an excellent choice for Dream Team because he’ll be the main ‘go to’ guy out of the backline.

In the forward line, things were pretty interesting! Obviously without Jack Riewoldt, they structured up a bit differently, with Tyrone Vickery playing at centre half forward, Tom Derickx out of full forward, and Brad Miller playing as a floating third tall. Todd Elton substituted with Tyrone Vickery every few minutes, and he looked extremely impressive. If I were to hazard a guess here, I’d say when Jack Riewoldt is back, Miller would be the guy to move out.

Damien Hardwick likes to play three talls up forward, so at the moment I have Tom Derickx in my round one side. He had a horror 2011 with injuries after he was bookmarked to play much of the season as a mature age draftee. He’s now 24 years old, and has grown to 202cm, after being 195cm as an 18 year old. He moves extremely well for a big guy and he clunked some really great contested marks in the drills. If you look back at his NAB Cup performance last year against Collingwood, he showed some great contested marking ability in that match. Most importantly, I saw him take about ten set shots, and he didn’t miss one of them.

Robin Nahas and Jake King were the two terriers in the forward line, and Nahas especially looked really lively and looks set to continue on from his brilliant 2011 season.

Another new draftee that was training up forward was Brett O’Hanlon, who I really liked. He linked up well up across the wings and half forward and he has such a good kick on him.

I got quite a lot out of yesterday, and I really recommend if you’re keen on certain players to head down to training. You can really get a grasp on what type of role they’ll be playing and best of all you get to see them for yourself and make your own judgements. It’s especially better at this time of year now because there’ll be mainly match simulation drills going ahead, but unfortunately some clubs don’t offer open training sessions as much as others clubs do; in particular Essendon.

I’ll finish off with a little predicted round one side after what I saw today.

I hope this article helps with your Tiger selections, there are certainly a few to consider!

 

KRISTIAN’S PREDICTED ROUND ONE SIDE

FB: Alex Rance, Dylan Grimes, Steven Morris

HB: Brandon Ellis, Jayden Post, Bachar Houli

C: Chris Newman, Brett Deledio, Reece Conca

HF: Dustin Martin, Tyrone Vickery, Shane Edwards

FF: Robin Nahas, Tom Derickx, Jack Riewoldt

R: Ivan Maric, Nathan Foley, Trent Cotchin

INT: Daniel Jackson, Shaun Grigg, Shane Tuck, Jake Batchelor

*NOTE* Jake King is suspended for round one.