Wolves Training Down Under – Tom Reports

By: Toby | July 14th, 2009

Another article from the fantastic contributer Tom, this time he’s checking out a Wolves training session for us! I’ll leave you in his capable hands.

I went to training today at the WACA ground, which was, although a lot more low key than Friday night, equally enjoyable and quite well attended (about 50 people I think). I got a few signatures and photos as the players and coaching staff got on the ground, and the players were very good stopping and having a little chat with everyone.

The training session consisted of a warm up (away from the field, I imagine a run but I’m only imagining) while the keepers went through some agility and handling drills. Then, after about 15 minutes, Terry Connor (assistant manager) commenced a circuit for 1/2 the group which involved hitting a cross to a keeper (first Wayne Hennessey, then Carl Ikeme), who would then roll the ball out to the player, who’d run 30 yards and sidestep over 2 small hurdles and volley to a coach. They’d then slalom between 4 poles (see the Milijas photo) before having to do 4 180 degree turns. They’d then lay the ball off to Pat Mountain and hit a shot at the other keeper (Ikeme, then Hennessey). They then had to play two 1-2s with Mick McCarthy before dribbling over to the beginning. This was done for 3 cycles while the other 1/2 jogged slow laps. The groups then swapped and those on the circuit jogged and those jogging then did the circuit. The pace was a little slow, I thought, but then Pat Mountain (Goalkeeping Coach) came across and had a chat and explained they’d already been an hour and a half in the gym that morning.

The session then ended up with two 600m runs, Surman was the quickest. Kighlty didn’t train and David Jones was doing some rehab with the physios. Zubar seemed to be lagging during the circuit work, but I suspect he knew the running was to come, as he powered home in the 2nd 600 and didn’t look unfit at all. During the warm down and stretching Mick seemed intent on getting his workout done with crunches, push ups and the like. Zubar and Balde stretched together speaking French, and both seemed pretty happy.

I spoke to both George Elokobi and Ronald Zubar for a little while. Firstly, George looks even bigger in real life, and secondly tells me he doesn’t speak much French. Ronald Zubar does speak French, we had a little conversation when I asked him for a photo, and quickly he found out I spoke English as well. He said he’s very excited to join and was loving the mid-Winter weather in Perth.

So all bodes well for a good game tomorrow evening against the newly formed (and terribly named, North Queensland Fury, followed by Glory v Fulham (and drawcard Mark Schwartzer is guaranteed to play 90 mins, so hopefully we can push for a crowd of about 14 000). I’ll be happy to do another report if I’m welcome (you can count on it – Toby), and wish to thank Toby for again giving me some airtime and for running the excellent Wolves blog at www.theoffside.com. (I didn’t add that, honest)