Training 2025 Pre Season Thread

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With Bruce's career ending more than 12 months ago, there was a vacancy for another moustache to enter the kennel. That's still the case 12 months on.

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I'm all for Crossley. He's a better centre bounce ruckman than English, of that I have no doubt. Definitely more aggression which we need. He was huge for Southport last season.

Make it happen.

P.S. Is there room for both Brew and Crossley? I don't know how the logistics work. That would be cool having the two best players from the VFL grand final on our list for 2025 :)
Excited about this development, but Brew has worked so hard, hope we can recruit them both.
 

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Fair point on Jamarra. Although I just can’t see a world where Crossley lines up as our number 1 ruck in Rd 1.

Last played AFL 7 years ago, and when he did, he averaged 6 hit outs across 10 games. He’s also been overlooked by every AFL team since. Things can change, but there’s a heap of gun local and VFL ruckman around that look like champions that wouldn’t get anywhere near it at AFL.

I’d put my house on the coaches re-arranging the magnets with Lobb forward changing with Darcy in the ruck and JOD and Jones taking the key back roles. Possibly even Busslinger.
 
Fair point on Jamarra. Although I just can’t see a world where Crossley lines up as our number 1 ruck in Rd 1.

Last played AFL 7 years ago, and when he did, he averaged 6 hit outs across 10 games. He’s also been overlooked by every AFL team since. Things can change, but there’s a heap of gun local and VFL ruckman around that look like champions that wouldn’t get anywhere near it at AFL.

I’d put my house on the coaches re-arranging the magnets with Lobb forward changing with Darcy in the ruck and JOD and Jones taking the key back roles. Possibly even Busslinger.
Lobb will be staying in defence I can guarantee it.
 
Brisbane just won a flag with a 2nd string ruckman. Crossley makes a bunch of sense and moving Darcy away from our forward line makes 0 sense.

Dunkley could have rucked that whole game and the Lions would’ve still won by 10 goals.

I’m predicting Darcy to hit Gawn levels over the next 1-2 years. English will eventually move to the fwd/ruck role that Darcy currently owns.

He’ll be a good forward, but think of Gawn with 30 goals a season. You’d take that over a 50-60 goal a season pure forward Darcy.
 
Not exactly, Lobb was still a ruckman until half way through last year. I doubt we’d be looking at Crossley if Lobb weren’t now our CHB.
Was he? I thought he was a key forward in Bevo insane plan to play 4 of them in the same side.

Im clearly an outlier on this subject, but I think that we have enough coverage on the list now should English be out for longer than the club has publicly acknowledged. Unless his injury is long term or season ending then Id be fine with playing Lobb and any combo of other talls in the ruck and bringing in J'OD or the Buss as extra coverage.

If Crossley is added to the list. Im not sure how he'd get close to the level of fitness required of a player expected to carry the load of the ruck in the time remaining. He's never been a paragon of fitness and would be coming from a long way back and I just don't see the point at this stage of a pre-season that has been underway for 8 weeks. Whatever Crossley has been doing it hasn't been that.

If we wanted ruck coverage the time to do it was during the various pre-season drafts.
 
Crossly would be a footnote to history if it wasn't for the weird infatuation that the media had with him and their desperate need to build a cult hero out of whole cloth and his mums apparent attractiveness... An infatuation that lasted as long as a nervous teen in a knock shop.

If we're worried about the short to medium term future of JUH, then getting somebody straight outa palookaville with a level of fitness that has never withstood the rigours of the AFL as means of shuffling the deckchairs to cover other issues is not ideal.

Id suggest that if Crossly does any more than add another undersized ruck option during our Queensland sojourn then it's more a reflection of how far Smith is off the pace. Given he is the next designated ruckman on a list that is full to overflowing with tall options but thin on the ground when it comes to genuine backup ruck options. To be fair, I have no idea if Smith is injured or participating in full training, but the lack of discussion around his status since news of English's injury is a bit concerning. Indeed there has been more talk of Ryan Gardner as the break glass option since news of English's injury broke early this week.

I'll be genuinely concerned if this offer extends beyond this short contract. As it would be a good indictor as to the severity of English's injury something that would nobble our season before it starts.

We shall see.
Norm, love your posts but think you might be off on this one. He is a hard arse, big bodied with pretty good skills. He is the opposite of English if that makes sense. Reminds me of Hudson.
 
Fair point on Jamarra. Although I just can’t see a world where Crossley lines up as our number 1 ruck in Rd 1.

Last played AFL 7 years ago, and when he did, he averaged 6 hit outs across 10 games. He’s also been overlooked by every AFL team since. Things can change, but there’s a heap of gun local and VFL ruckman around that look like champions that wouldn’t get anywhere near it at AFL.

I’d put my house on the coaches re-arranging the magnets with Lobb forward changing with Darcy in the ruck and JOD and Jones taking the key back roles. Possibly even Busslinger.
I’m agnostic on Crossley. Don’t love the idea, I don’t think he’s a big need right now and there may well be better options. But if the footy department see a need I’m ok with it.

Maybe they see a list that in 2026 or 2027 has no JUH, Jones, Lobb or English? In that scenario Crossley, cheap as chips, wouldn’t have to make an immediate impact to be a worthwhile investment. Maybe not even playing a senior game in 2025. Time enough to become AFL-level fit for 2026.

Anyway your summary is a bit misleading. He has been out of top level footy for five seasons, not seven. He was barely out of his teens when he last played. Not the age you’d expect a big bloke to be dominating AFL. He did show just enough back then to get a few tongues wagging though.

Since 2019 he has had to serve a 12 month ban and sort out what he wants out of life and out of his sporting career. Seems like the penny might have dropped.

Understandably no club was going to look at him in those first 2-3 seasons after he got busted. Besides, big blokes tend to show their best after 25. It appears that it’s only in the last two seasons that he has turned it around and proved that he can apply himself consistently.

Anyway, why should we have to wait until other clubs get interested if we think we’ve spotted a bargain now? If he were to put in another big year in the state league in 2025 we’d be competing with a few other clubs for his services in 2026. So snaffling him now could end up being a savvy move.
 

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Should still be relevant because if Tim misses a month during the season what then? Blood an absolutely underdone Smith or try our luck with Gardner and that spoiliBuku ng fist in the ruck?
I think the move there would be Lobb to ruck and plug his hole in the backline with either Busslinger or Buku in the backline. Not ideal, but has been done prior to moving Lobb to the backline. Either way, it is a big hole.
 
Maybe. But it's not a new issue and it's one that the club has been willing to roll the dice on for the 12 months that Smith has been on the list. When the could've easily found a journeyman palooka like Crossley just about anywhere during the last couple of drafts.

For now. I'll take Power at his word from earlier today that English is still training, only restricted to non-contact activities and expected to be ready for the first practice game. If Crossley comes back to Melbourne with the rest of the squad in a week or so, then I'll determine that Sam Power is full of shit. And conclude that English's injury is worse than they've let on.

Until then...
I was at Training yesterday and English was training and looked ok to me because he was training and involved in drills.
 
Id suggest that if Crossly does any more than add another undersized ruck option during our Queensland sojourn then it's more a reflection of how far Smith is off the pace. Given he is the next designated ruckman on a list that is full to overflowing with tall options but thin on the ground when it comes to genuine backup ruck options. To be fair, I have no idea if Smith is injured or participating in full training, but the lack of discussion around his status since news of English's injury is a bit concerning. Indeed there has been more talk of Ryan Gardner as the break glass option since news of English's injury broke early this week.
I have no idea if Smith will make it, but he is 19 years old. We surely cannot plan to have him rucking yet if English can't.
 
Dom Brew’s spot on the list not looking good if Crossley trains well
I feel bad for Brew, but Crossley is a much bigger list need IMO.

IF he is prepared to become a professional the main concern. But it's the last/cheapest spot on the list to try.

Would also be good for training. Exactly the type of ruck that English needs to improve against.
 
Norm, love your posts but think you might be off on this one. He is a hard arse, big bodied with pretty good skills. He is the opposite of English if that makes sense. Reminds me of Hudson.

Dont feel bad. Its ok to call me out if you think Im wrong.

I understand the fascination that many have with a one dimensional bash and crash ruckman. However, it flies in the face of Beveridges coaching philosophy to play one. We had a much better version who'd done the hard yards of numerous pre-seasons to be match hardened and stood game ready if Beveridge changed his tune. Things that Crosley just cannot offer. I also understand why we'd want him to to participate in the Qld training camp given he's there on the ground and our first option is restricted to non contact work for a few weeks and the alternatives are being bedded into traditional key position structures for the season proper.

However, I dont discount the possibility that Im wrong and that Crossley is miraculously the missing piece on our road to grand final Valhalla. But I doubt it. Who the **** knows when it comes to the dark art of list management? Certainly not me, given my track record on such things.

I guess we'll find out in a week or so which way the coin toss falls.

But I'd be staggered if he's offered a contract going forward.

I was at Training yesterday and English was training and looked ok to me because he was training and involved in drills.

Its indicative of how bored I am that Ive invested any time in the likelihood of Crossley being added to the list as cover after the club taking a cautious approach to what seems a pretty minor setback for English.

I have no idea if Smith will make it, but he is 19 years old. We surely cannot plan to have him rucking yet if English can't.

It may not have been ideal, but English was the same age and much lighter when he made his debut.

Anyways, it reinforces my earlier point that if we thought we needed ruck coverage then the time to do that was during the last series of drafts when we could've got the likes of Crossley or any other journeyman into the system to get them up to speed match fitness and tactics wise.

And we didnt.
 
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Glad we seem to be trying to develop Smith’s forward game. If he is going to make it, he’ll need to rotate in tandem with Darcy. I really like him, could even see him as a defender, if needed. Good movement and aggression.
 
Are we forgetting about Darcy.

He’s an AA ruck in waiting and could comfortably cover the role if needed.

Smith and co are irrelevant in this discussion.

Darcy is basically our get-out-of-jail-free card. We don’t have to play pretty or move the ball in a structured way—we can just bomb it long, and more often than not, he’ll either clunk it or bring it to ground. His ability to nullify intercepts gives us an edge that most teams just don’t have.
 
If Tim is no contact for two weeks, crossley for the camp could just be a stop gap for the camp in QLD…..

I can see our invite to Crossley being just this, a stop gap for the camp.

At the same time, seeing how he fairs with the group and if all looks good is an option for Mid-Season draft selection.
 

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Training 2025 Pre Season Thread


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