Still working his way towards a full recovery following his hip replacement, Kevin Sheedy pulled up a seat in the Essendon board room and surveyed the training action from there. The coach didn’t want to miss a minute of training with his first selection meeting for season 2005 just around the corner.
Sheedy would have liked what he saw. Despite the tough conditions the team trained well focusing on ball skills and handball drills, circle work and goal kicking practice.
A real positive was the form of Mark Johnson who trained extremely well with the main group well despite spending recent weeks on a modified training program after a post-season shoulder surgery. Adam McPhee was another stand during the session moving extremely well and looking very fit.
""Most of our list is travelling pretty well - your going to have various blokes who miss the first week or two of the Wizard Cup, but most are on track to play first game of the regular season."" Assistant Coach Garry O’Donnell said.
Jobe Watson, Damien Cupido, David Hille and Courtney Johns all had light sessions.
Cupido was restricted by hamstring soreness. ""I don’t think he’s done a hamstring, its one of those little niggly things that blokes get but it won’t keep him out for long.""
""It’s slow and steady with Courtney Johns, he’s had a number of set backs in the past two years, but his surgeon has said that everything is going pretty well. He’s actually on his feet now and actually doing some running. Certainly in the first half of this season we are hoping for him to really be hitting the scene and playing some good footy."" O’Donnell said.
