Russell Crowe's Band
Referee
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Hey Folks
So as some of you know last year i went to the states to see some games.
I went to the Baltimore @ San Diego game where Ray Rice went 4th and 28.
After that I was pretty mad at a few things. A, why couldnt the line block for Rivers just a little better so we could have scored another TD.
B. Where the hell was the defence on that play?
I have often been an armchair critic of something i know nothing about. As most of sports fans are.
I never played league as a kid. I played soccer a bit but my sport was Cricket.
The amount of times I used to bag a guy like Mathews for not being LT or whinge deluxe about Sharks players. I have said horrendous things about poor Ben Pommeroy and spent years deriding Brett Kimmorley etc even though i had never laced a boot except for Oztag.
Like, we bag Peyton Manning for "Choking in the playoffs" or question a guy like Jay Cutler who gets injured.
Bag a guy like Tebow for not throwing the ball properly and stuff like that.
These guys would murder us.
Anyway this year I decided that I would test myself and actually give this stuff a shot, so I signed up to play Gridiron with one of the local teams in Canberra.
My sisters friend plays linebacker for Centurions so he invited me to a meet and greet/bbq to kick things off. i had often thought about giving it a go but then just..whatever. it didnt happen.
In May the first thing was a meet and greet for new and old players and a chance to play flag football. it was heaps of fun and i caught the ball and threw it a round and decided i would play the season. Pre Season was to start in June and run twice a week up until the season started.
Anyway so June rolls around and the first training starts. We did football 101. Rceiving a handoff, Ctching the ball out infront. holding the ball with 3 points of contact securely, Rnning a receiving route, shuffling, backpedalling
etc. lots to learn. lots to get my head around.
over the next few practices once everyone had paid their fees for insurance we got into the hitting. Oklahoma Drills, Tackling practice, blocking drills, 11 on 11 scrimmages etc. its all been a steep learning curve on the field as well as off it (learning the playbooks, the responsibilities etc)
The coaches decided that while i was quite quick and my hands pretty good i was poor at running routes that werent fly or post/corner i wouldnt be a WR or TE.
Given size, Iwouldnt be a lineman at all either. Hwever i could run the ball quite well so on offense i would be back up running back to our main bloke who is f**king fast, has played for 4 years and plays for Australia.
On Defence, somehow they have put me at Strong Safety as a starter. Wether i remain there is to be seen.
i can tacke a bit. That said im not an agressive person and I have often wondered if I lack that mongerel to be on the defence. There is a definite difference between being tough enough to be tackled and the actual want to fly in there and belt someone.
That and the amount of times i have been in the wrong place on coverage out of position in defence is laughable.
Since June we have developed as a team, run practices, honed our skills as best we can all still learning and getting better etc. Still alot to do though. we have a small ish team in size and alot of rookies. on Offense if i am in the game, our first game will have a Rookie QB, RB, FB #1 WR, LG and RT. On Defence we have Rookies at SS (Me) DT, DE and our punter and kicker is playing Free Safety.
I cant begin to describe what a learning experience it has been on the field.
For a start catching the ball and holding it is so different to what we play. hands out infront, disciplined 3 points of contact. Its something that i am still trying to get my head around doing it at speed and safely and securing the football.
Then theres running a route properly. making that 90 degree cut etc. it requires actual work and discipline to get it right. im still crap at making em lol.
this is the easy shit. apparently
Then theres oklahoma drill. which for those who dont know is basically a sumo match between a guy on O line and a guy playing D line. you line up in D in the stance, hit the guy and try win the battle. then you swap out and play the o line stance and do the same. its pretty tough. its all about being the low man and driving your legs, which im still figuring out. the first time you get the facemask to facemask full on bashing is something else lol.
we had a scrimmage on wednesday against another team. They are very experienced and had been playing for years together and it showed. They dominated our offensive line. On Defence we did ok but our main D Tilt player was away so they made alot of yards up the middle.(we play a 4-3 defence with 2 ends, a tackle and a tilt)
my results were mixed. i took 6 hand offs made 2 positive gains, 3 times i was destroyed in the backfield and once i fumbled but recovered it. I did however pick up blocks in passing however the QB was red shirted.
Our Other RB had more success but even he was bossed around a bit. he took a huge hit at one point by one of their linebackers.
On defence I made 2 solo tackles at safety but also got completely steamrolled by their running back who lowered his head into my facemask and stomped over me on the way to score.
I had never been hit that hard by anything im my life.However i found it wasnt the end off the world. and i got up and on the next play i did infact tackle the guy low and hard (we did 20 minutes straight of offense and defense regardless og what happened, turnovers, interceptions, TD's etc)
2 people on the opposition were hurt during the practice. one looks like he's definitely going to be out for a few weeks with from what i saw was a hyper extension of his knee. it was a tough thing to see. he was in alot of pain and there was a great deal of concern for him.
This game is very tough even at basic canberra comp muck about level. its rough. people go out there to smash each other. Im not exactly sure if thats me as a person TBH. but im sticking ot the season obviously.
It has definitely given me a new appreciation of what is involved in the sport, how great these athletes are and how tough it actually is to play.
so i can definitely appreciate how hard it is to make yards when your o line is being bossed and how physically tough it is as well as the mental side of the game which is definitely way more involved than i first thought it was.
I doubt i will bag a guy like Ryan Mathews or whinge about O line play ever again. its f**king hard work.
cant make any promises about Pommeroy however.
Anyway, we play our first game on Aug 24. I will keep you updated as the season progresses.
So as some of you know last year i went to the states to see some games.
I went to the Baltimore @ San Diego game where Ray Rice went 4th and 28.
After that I was pretty mad at a few things. A, why couldnt the line block for Rivers just a little better so we could have scored another TD.
B. Where the hell was the defence on that play?
I have often been an armchair critic of something i know nothing about. As most of sports fans are.
I never played league as a kid. I played soccer a bit but my sport was Cricket.
The amount of times I used to bag a guy like Mathews for not being LT or whinge deluxe about Sharks players. I have said horrendous things about poor Ben Pommeroy and spent years deriding Brett Kimmorley etc even though i had never laced a boot except for Oztag.
Like, we bag Peyton Manning for "Choking in the playoffs" or question a guy like Jay Cutler who gets injured.
Bag a guy like Tebow for not throwing the ball properly and stuff like that.
These guys would murder us.
Anyway this year I decided that I would test myself and actually give this stuff a shot, so I signed up to play Gridiron with one of the local teams in Canberra.
My sisters friend plays linebacker for Centurions so he invited me to a meet and greet/bbq to kick things off. i had often thought about giving it a go but then just..whatever. it didnt happen.
In May the first thing was a meet and greet for new and old players and a chance to play flag football. it was heaps of fun and i caught the ball and threw it a round and decided i would play the season. Pre Season was to start in June and run twice a week up until the season started.
Anyway so June rolls around and the first training starts. We did football 101. Rceiving a handoff, Ctching the ball out infront. holding the ball with 3 points of contact securely, Rnning a receiving route, shuffling, backpedalling
etc. lots to learn. lots to get my head around.
over the next few practices once everyone had paid their fees for insurance we got into the hitting. Oklahoma Drills, Tackling practice, blocking drills, 11 on 11 scrimmages etc. its all been a steep learning curve on the field as well as off it (learning the playbooks, the responsibilities etc)
The coaches decided that while i was quite quick and my hands pretty good i was poor at running routes that werent fly or post/corner i wouldnt be a WR or TE.
Given size, Iwouldnt be a lineman at all either. Hwever i could run the ball quite well so on offense i would be back up running back to our main bloke who is f**king fast, has played for 4 years and plays for Australia.
On Defence, somehow they have put me at Strong Safety as a starter. Wether i remain there is to be seen.
i can tacke a bit. That said im not an agressive person and I have often wondered if I lack that mongerel to be on the defence. There is a definite difference between being tough enough to be tackled and the actual want to fly in there and belt someone.
That and the amount of times i have been in the wrong place on coverage out of position in defence is laughable.
Since June we have developed as a team, run practices, honed our skills as best we can all still learning and getting better etc. Still alot to do though. we have a small ish team in size and alot of rookies. on Offense if i am in the game, our first game will have a Rookie QB, RB, FB #1 WR, LG and RT. On Defence we have Rookies at SS (Me) DT, DE and our punter and kicker is playing Free Safety.
I cant begin to describe what a learning experience it has been on the field.
For a start catching the ball and holding it is so different to what we play. hands out infront, disciplined 3 points of contact. Its something that i am still trying to get my head around doing it at speed and safely and securing the football.
Then theres running a route properly. making that 90 degree cut etc. it requires actual work and discipline to get it right. im still crap at making em lol.
this is the easy shit. apparently
Then theres oklahoma drill. which for those who dont know is basically a sumo match between a guy on O line and a guy playing D line. you line up in D in the stance, hit the guy and try win the battle. then you swap out and play the o line stance and do the same. its pretty tough. its all about being the low man and driving your legs, which im still figuring out. the first time you get the facemask to facemask full on bashing is something else lol.
we had a scrimmage on wednesday against another team. They are very experienced and had been playing for years together and it showed. They dominated our offensive line. On Defence we did ok but our main D Tilt player was away so they made alot of yards up the middle.(we play a 4-3 defence with 2 ends, a tackle and a tilt)
my results were mixed. i took 6 hand offs made 2 positive gains, 3 times i was destroyed in the backfield and once i fumbled but recovered it. I did however pick up blocks in passing however the QB was red shirted.
Our Other RB had more success but even he was bossed around a bit. he took a huge hit at one point by one of their linebackers.
On defence I made 2 solo tackles at safety but also got completely steamrolled by their running back who lowered his head into my facemask and stomped over me on the way to score.
I had never been hit that hard by anything im my life.However i found it wasnt the end off the world. and i got up and on the next play i did infact tackle the guy low and hard (we did 20 minutes straight of offense and defense regardless og what happened, turnovers, interceptions, TD's etc)
2 people on the opposition were hurt during the practice. one looks like he's definitely going to be out for a few weeks with from what i saw was a hyper extension of his knee. it was a tough thing to see. he was in alot of pain and there was a great deal of concern for him.
This game is very tough even at basic canberra comp muck about level. its rough. people go out there to smash each other. Im not exactly sure if thats me as a person TBH. but im sticking ot the season obviously.
It has definitely given me a new appreciation of what is involved in the sport, how great these athletes are and how tough it actually is to play.
so i can definitely appreciate how hard it is to make yards when your o line is being bossed and how physically tough it is as well as the mental side of the game which is definitely way more involved than i first thought it was.
I doubt i will bag a guy like Ryan Mathews or whinge about O line play ever again. its f**king hard work.
cant make any promises about Pommeroy however.
Anyway, we play our first game on Aug 24. I will keep you updated as the season progresses.
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