Titans Preaseason 2015

[Toads]

Listening to that, Zillman sounds as if he'd might be of more benefit as a coaching staff member, than a player..

I know, I know.. wishful thinking.

[Bayside Titan]

Tough start to new gig for Henry
New Titans coach Neil Henry isn’t winning over a lot of friends among the Titans' old guard as he prepares for 2015.

Henry has changed a lot of the processes and habits of former coach John Cartwright - and the traditionalists at the club aren’t happy.

But can you blame Henry? He is tough and old school - and is trying to shake the Titans up after years of mediocrity.

Time will tell if he succeeds…


I think tough love , now more than ever is what the club needs. If some of the old guard don't like it. Move on. King is here to change the culture and to make us a hardened winning team.

[Titanic]

That's an interesting post BT ... the old guard as far as I can tell are either the under-achieving senior players in Zillman, Bird and Myles or a whole group of under-achieving junior players.

[Bayside Titan]

That's an interesting post BT ... the old guard as far as I can tell are either the under-achieving senior players in Zillman, Bird and Myles or a whole group of under-achieving junior players.

That was an article from the Lurker off today's Twitter feed.

IMO these players that are not happy they can FIFO.

[Surfers66]

I would be happy to trade Bird for Taumalolo........

[Hail Sezer]

Lurker made that up.

I went to the Titans training today. Was the only one there besides Travis Meyn, who rolled up a little later after it had begun. Was really cool and the players were really cool, couple of them and the coaching staff made the effort to say what up. I was there for the full 3 hours and was really impressed.

Before I write out the recap I thought I'd mention that Srama, Li, Binge and Gordon were all in the rehab group so didn't train with the rest.

Anyway, the first thing they did after warm ups was split in to 4 groups. These four groups had something like a second rower, a prop, a half, a fullback, a wing and a centre. The group closest to me had Elgey, Hala, Ridge, Hoffman, Crampton and Don. Another group had Sezer Roberts, James, Myles etc, another had Mortimer/Hazard swapping at half and then tighe and Ahwang outside them, and another had Fogarty, Dowling, Broadhurstand some others. Obv I can't remember them all but you get the idea - they were split into groups.

2 of the groups would be taken by Matterson for attack (mainly tackle 3-5 options and set pieces) and 2 would be taken by Rohan Smith (looked like tackle 1-2 options and defensive work)

The attacking work was really cool to watch. We actually had some really creative set pieces and the plan was to be expansive - Roberts saw a lot of ball and was involved in almost every move. Our props were ball playing a lot as well.
A few notes from watching the attacking work:
-Hoffman and Mead are miles ahead of Zillman. Hoffman was very impressive with his work on and off the ball - his ball playing game even looked crisp but in a game that could be completely different. Oh and also, all 3 of them trained exclusively as fullbacks.
-As per the article in the Bulletin - Don saw a little bit of time at centre. Crampton looked impressive too - had the most well rounded skillset and really decent chat too. Hoping he can impress in the trials. The others training at centre were Tighe, Dowling and Roberts. Roberts looks quick as ever. Ahwang trained only on the wing.
-Fogarty was very impressive on attack. Crisp passing game and can give a fair wide ball too. Looked to be more seasoned than Elgey and Hazard (who also had very good skillsets), which was probably due to his time playing in Qcup. Sezer was the most crisp/natural of the halves training, as expected. The set pieces forced him to pass the ball wider as well.
-Taylor was training on the left edge, as was Roberts. Not sure if that was for the sake of the drill or what but yeah.

At the end they split in to 2 teams and played a few sets vs each other. I got these on video but the footage isn't too flash. We were scoring off more than just kicks though..which was pleasing. Roberts made some impressive linebreaks as expected.

All in all it was really good to watch and there is plenty more to add which I will as it comes to mind. Was a beautiful morning here on the coast however those thunder storms may roll in again this avo!

[lonegull]

great work HS thanks for the info

[K2G]

Yeah great post HS. More insights please
And chuck those videos up here when you can brother.
Much appreciated.

[ozynorts]

It is really great to hear that at this time of the year they are doing a lot of ball work. A lot of people assume that because they are NRL standard players that they don't have to work on the basics.
I remember when Rick Charlesworth took over the women's (and later the men's) national hockey teams he would heave them doing basic skills training for an hour before they started on any match type training. Basic skills are essential in any top level sport and if coaches want to get the most out of their teams they need to ensure that they are routinely practised.

[Titanic]

Yes thanks HS ... now how about changing your location from Kiwi to being at the beach as I have often wondered how you got local information and assumed it was from one of your cuzzies on the Coast. Now I think that you are, in fact, Travis Meyn and just posted this as a diversion

[Hail Sezer]

Yes thanks HS ... now how about changing your location from Kiwi to being at the beach as I have often wondered how you got local information and assumed it was from one of your cuzzies on the Coast. Now I think that you are, in fact, Travis Meyn and just posted this as a diversion

I have never read such an outrageous paragraph in my life

Heading back to kiwiland tomorrow, not after me and DB sink some brews tonight though!

[Hail Sezer]

This is DB. i have taken HS's computer hostage.''He and Travis disappeared into the woods for quite a while today, and i dont think they were discussing the benefits of a dual hooker rotation

[Mexican titan]

Yeah thanks for the post HS, very interesting read.
I went to Titans training a couple of times last year and like this year they really good until they come up against an opposition NRL team. Things turned to sh1t after that!!

[Titanic]

I have never read such an outrageous paragraph in my life Heading back to kiwiland tomorrow, not after me and DB sink some brews tonight though!

Good job lads, excellent for the economy.

This is DB. i have taken HS's computer hostage.''He and Travis disappeared into the woods for quite a while today, and i dont think they were discussing the benefits of a dual hooker rotation

Queue "Teddy Bears' Picnic" (elevator muzak version) ... and in fact they may have been DB, in the sense of the "Singapore sandwich" variety of hooker rotation, not that I know anything about that.

[Titanic skips into the sunset humming] if you go down to the woods today you'll get a big surprise ........

[Titan4Life]

Lurker made that up.

I went to the Titans training today. Was the only one there besides Travis Meyn, who rolled up a little later after it had begun. Was really cool and the players were really cool, couple of them and the coaching staff made the effort to say what up. I was there for the full 3 hours and was really impressed.

Before I write out the recap I thought I'd mention that Srama, Li, Binge and Gordon were all in the rehab group so didn't train with the rest.

Anyway, the first thing they did after warm ups was split in to 4 groups. These four groups had something like a second rower, a prop, a half, a fullback, a wing and a centre. The group closest to me had Elgey, Hala, Ridge, Hoffman, Crampton and Don. Another group had Sezer Roberts, James, Myles etc, another had Mortimer/Hazard swapping at half and then tighe and Ahwang outside them, and another had Fogarty, Dowling, Broadhurstand some others. Obv I can't remember them all but you get the idea - they were split into groups.

2 of the groups would be taken by Matterson for attack (mainly tackle 3-5 options and set pieces) and 2 would be taken by Rohan Smith (looked like tackle 1-2 options and defensive work)

The attacking work was really cool to watch. We actually had some really creative set pieces and the plan was to be expansive - Roberts saw a lot of ball and was involved in almost every move. Our props were ball playing a lot as well.
A few notes from watching the attacking work:
-Hoffman and Mead are miles ahead of Zillman. Hoffman was very impressive with his work on and off the ball - his ball playing game even looked crisp but in a game that could be completely different. Oh and also, all 3 of them trained exclusively as fullbacks.
-As per the article in the Bulletin - Don saw a little bit of time at centre. Crampton looked impressive too - had the most well rounded skillset and really decent chat too. Hoping he can impress in the trials. The others training at centre were Tighe, Dowling and Roberts. Roberts looks quick as ever. Ahwang trained only on the wing.
-Fogarty was very impressive on attack. Crisp passing game and can give a fair wide ball too. Looked to be more seasoned than Elgey and Hazard (who also had very good skillsets), which was probably due to his time playing in Qcup. Sezer was the most crisp/natural of the halves training, as expected. The set pieces forced him to pass the ball wider as well.
-Taylor was training on the left edge, as was Roberts. Not sure if that was for the sake of the drill or what but yeah.

At the end they split in to 2 teams and played a few sets vs each other. I got these on video but the footage isn't too flash. We were scoring off more than just kicks though..which was pleasing. Roberts made some impressive linebreaks as expected.

All in all it was really good to watch and there is plenty more to add which I will as it comes to mind. Was a beautiful morning here on the coast however those thunder storms may roll in again this avo!

Hi guys I'm back Bloody internet has been out for 3 days around my area. Great to hear we are looking good in attack and the coaches are bringing in plenty of positive change. Good to hear Roberts is being given the ball plenty and that Hoffman is trying to improve his ball skills. So excited for 2015!