Training Pre-Season 2025 - The boys are back in town.

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Awaiting the training reports...

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I am still dirty about the first 2 goals they kicked being from free kicks.

We had them under the pump, and the umpires lifted.



That "Free kick Hawthorn" period was embarrassing for the AFL.

The goal to Buddy in Q1 of the 2013 GF for McPharlin over stepping the mark when he didn't was a joke.
 
So I'll start with the important stuff first, Davies wasn't wearing a hat.

DSC02520.JPG

Now I've got that out of the way, I didn't make it down for the full session but I got to see maybe ~75 minutes until I bailed when the rain came.
I arrived after the warm up and initial drill, but I've included a pic which shows the rundown of the drills for the session for anyone who is interested.
The theme of the main part of training appeared to be ball movement, I was also keeping an eye on my little one so didn't have perfect attention but I liked how the team celebrated good tackles or contest wins.
As a side note Brayshaw really can tackle, he caught at least a couple of players who thought they could run through / brush him off and he wrapped them up.

DSC02496 (Large).JPG

Disruptor / Bingo - Not sure when it transitioned between these two drills but the main part I watched had approximately 3/4 of the team broken into 3 groups (forwards/back, midfield, back/forwards) and did a variety of basic handball and short kicking drills then the coaches would blow the whistle, pass the ball to one end and ask them to quickly transition to the other end so the groups had to sprint to get into position and quickly organise.
O'Driscoll and Frederick were a couple I liked the look of, and Ryan has an ability to make good decisions when pressured many other players don't, it's something I think he sometimes doesn't get much acknowledgment of.

The rest of the team were doing other drills and there was rotation of players between the groups.

DSC02507 (Large).JPG

Tug of War - most of the team participated, this was essentially a full ground movement drill. Some standouts for me were Pearce and Jackson in the air both had some nice moments, and Cox appeared to be covering the ground well.


DSC02537.JPG

Sturg's Stagger - practising overlap handballs and running in waves, I didn't see much of this until I left

There were quite a few players wearing hats (obviously not Davies) which made ID trickier, the funniest one was watching one of the smaller players absolutely tear around a couple of players and I was like who is that?! I realised after a minute or two it was Bolton.
Of the other new players I didn't see much of them except Riddle who was on the training watchers side a fair bit.
The key person in rehab was Darcy, Ollie Murphy also spent a fair time with him initially and then Sturt came over predominantly doing some running after the initial drills.
The only other players I didn't spot were Young, Walters, Narkle and Jones.

DSC02535.JPG


A few other takeaways;
  • Fyfe absolutely burnt the ball a couple of times, just terrible field kicks, but he also kicked a great goal almost over his shoulder, not sure if it was just because of the drills but Fyfe was often more in a forward grouping. Worner was another who also had some average disposal.
  • Brodie was a liability in the air, he got outmarked a number of times while I was watching him, and he wasn't happy about it.
  • Treacy doesn't look like he's lost any momentum like a few others have mentioned, he looks sculpted and he just hits packs and hunts with such intent, hopefully he continues his progression / backs up a terrific year
  • Nathan Wilson turned up to watch a bit of training, he got a very warm reception from a few of the coaches who ran over for a quick chat.
 

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So I'll start with the important stuff first, Davies wasn't wearing a hat.

View attachment 2180044

Now I've got that out of the way, I didn't make it down for the full session but I got to see maybe ~75 minutes until I bailed when the rain came.
I arrived after the warm up and initial drill, but I've included a pic which shows the rundown of the drills for the session for anyone who is interested.
The theme of the main part of training appeared to be ball movement, I was also keeping an eye on my little one so didn't have perfect attention but I liked how the team celebrated good tackles or contest wins.
As a side note Brayshaw really can tackle, he caught at least a couple of players who thought they could run through / brush him off and he wrapped them up.

View attachment 2180045

Disruptor / Bingo - Not sure when it transitioned between these two drills but the main part I watched had approximately 3/4 of the team broken into 3 groups (forwards/back, midfield, back/forwards) and did a variety of basic handball and short kicking drills then the coaches would blow the whistle, pass the ball to one end and ask them to quickly transition to the other end so the groups had to sprint to get into position and quickly organise.
O'Driscoll and Frederick were a couple I liked the look of, and Ryan has an ability to make good decisions when pressured many other players don't, it's something I think he sometimes doesn't get much acknowledgment of.

The rest of the team were doing other drills and there was rotation of players between the groups.

View attachment 2180054

Tug of War - most of the team participated, this was essentially a full ground movement drill. Some standouts for me were Pearce and Jackson in the air both had some nice moments, and Cox appeared to be covering the ground well.


View attachment 2180050

Sturg's Stagger - practising overlap handballs and running in waves, I didn't see much of this until I left

There were quite a few players wearing hats (obviously not Davies) which made ID trickier, the funniest one was watching one of the smaller players absolutely tear around a couple of players and I was like who is that?! I realised after a minute or two it was Bolton.
Of the other new players I didn't see much of them except Riddle who was on the training watchers side a fair bit.
The key person in rehab was Darcy, Ollie Murphy also spent a fair time with him initially and then Sturt came over predominantly doing some running after the initial drills.
The only other players I didn't spot were Young, Walters, Narkle and Jones.

View attachment 2180047


A few other takeaways;
  • Fyfe absolutely burnt the ball a couple of times, just terrible field kicks, but he also kicked a great goal almost over his shoulder, not sure if it was just because of the drills but Fyfe was often more in a forward grouping. Worner was another who also had some average disposal.
  • Brodie was a liability in the air, he got outmarked a number of times while I was watching him, and he wasn't happy about it.
  • Treacy doesn't look like he's lost any momentum like a few others have mentioned, he looks sculpted and he just hits packs and hunts with such intent, hopefully he continues his progression / backs up a terrific year
  • Nathan Wilson turned up to watch a bit of training, he got a very warm reception from a few of the coaches who ran over for a quick chat.

It sux how fyfe can't kick anymore

Hes a liability
 
It sux how fyfe can't kick anymore

Hes a liability
I did think of you when I saw those kicks, but in my opinion his handballing was absolutely elite in the first half of last season, so much so I saw opposition put some work into restricting his space.

I'm not saying he shouldn't be phased out but I see how he can still add value.
 
I did think of you when I saw those kicks, but in my opinion his handballing was absolutely elite in the first half of last season, so much so I saw opposition put some work into restricting his space.

I'm not saying he shouldn't be phased out but I see how he can still add value.

Yeah I've been a critic. It might grind on some posters. I just don't see how we move forward this year without clean ball work.

I listened to Briety speak today and he said this years focus is fast running high intensity football with the intent to maintain control. We can't do that if we are slow to react and turn the ball over.

He's my favourite player of the past but for Freo tk succeed we must move on.
 
That "Free kick Hawthorn" period was embarrassing for the AFL.

The goal to Buddy in Q1 of the 2013 GF for McPharlin over stepping the mark when he didn't was a joke.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I had only just ****ing calmed down and now you have me there again.

You terrible, terrible campaigners. Softest fiddy in the history of the sport and that abominable s**tstain of a maggot gives it to Buddy ****ing Franklin in a ****ing low scoring grand final.
 
So I'll start with the important stuff first, Davies wasn't wearing a hat.

View attachment 2180044

Now I've got that out of the way, I didn't make it down for the full session but I got to see maybe ~75 minutes until I bailed when the rain came.
I arrived after the warm up and initial drill, but I've included a pic which shows the rundown of the drills for the session for anyone who is interested.
The theme of the main part of training appeared to be ball movement, I was also keeping an eye on my little one so didn't have perfect attention but I liked how the team celebrated good tackles or contest wins.
As a side note Brayshaw really can tackle, he caught at least a couple of players who thought they could run through / brush him off and he wrapped them up.

View attachment 2180045

Disruptor / Bingo - Not sure when it transitioned between these two drills but the main part I watched had approximately 3/4 of the team broken into 3 groups (forwards/back, midfield, back/forwards) and did a variety of basic handball and short kicking drills then the coaches would blow the whistle, pass the ball to one end and ask them to quickly transition to the other end so the groups had to sprint to get into position and quickly organise.
O'Driscoll and Frederick were a couple I liked the look of, and Ryan has an ability to make good decisions when pressured many other players don't, it's something I think he sometimes doesn't get much acknowledgment of.

The rest of the team were doing other drills and there was rotation of players between the groups.

View attachment 2180054

Tug of War - most of the team participated, this was essentially a full ground movement drill. Some standouts for me were Pearce and Jackson in the air both had some nice moments, and Cox appeared to be covering the ground well.


View attachment 2180050

Sturg's Stagger - practising overlap handballs and running in waves, I didn't see much of this until I left

There were quite a few players wearing hats (obviously not Davies) which made ID trickier, the funniest one was watching one of the smaller players absolutely tear around a couple of players and I was like who is that?! I realised after a minute or two it was Bolton.
Of the other new players I didn't see much of them except Riddle who was on the training watchers side a fair bit.
The key person in rehab was Darcy, Ollie Murphy also spent a fair time with him initially and then Sturt came over predominantly doing some running after the initial drills.
The only other players I didn't spot were Young, Walters, Narkle and Jones.

View attachment 2180047


A few other takeaways;
  • Fyfe absolutely burnt the ball a couple of times, just terrible field kicks, but he also kicked a great goal almost over his shoulder, not sure if it was just because of the drills but Fyfe was often more in a forward grouping. Worner was another who also had some average disposal.
  • Brodie was a liability in the air, he got outmarked a number of times while I was watching him, and he wasn't happy about it.
  • Treacy doesn't look
Thanks for the comprehensive training report ubiquitous226

More reports of Bolton turning backman into witches hats please?

im-so-excited-cant-hide-it-wij1qq26lvjiqivt.gif
 
So I'll start with the important stuff first, Davies wasn't wearing a hat.

View attachment 2180044

Now I've got that out of the way, I didn't make it down for the full session but I got to see maybe ~75 minutes until I bailed when the rain came.
I arrived after the warm up and initial drill, but I've included a pic which shows the rundown of the drills for the session for anyone who is interested.
The theme of the main part of training appeared to be ball movement, I was also keeping an eye on my little one so didn't have perfect attention but I liked how the team celebrated good tackles or contest wins.
As a side note Brayshaw really can tackle, he caught at least a couple of players who thought they could run through / brush him off and he wrapped them up.

View attachment 2180045

Disruptor / Bingo - Not sure when it transitioned between these two drills but the main part I watched had approximately 3/4 of the team broken into 3 groups (forwards/back, midfield, back/forwards) and did a variety of basic handball and short kicking drills then the coaches would blow the whistle, pass the ball to one end and ask them to quickly transition to the other end so the groups had to sprint to get into position and quickly organise.
O'Driscoll and Frederick were a couple I liked the look of, and Ryan has an ability to make good decisions when pressured many other players don't, it's something I think he sometimes doesn't get much acknowledgment of.

The rest of the team were doing other drills and there was rotation of players between the groups.

View attachment 2180054

Tug of War - most of the team participated, this was essentially a full ground movement drill. Some standouts for me were Pearce and Jackson in the air both had some nice moments, and Cox appeared to be covering the ground well.


View attachment 2180050

Sturg's Stagger - practising overlap handballs and running in waves, I didn't see much of this until I left

There were quite a few players wearing hats (obviously not Davies) which made ID trickier, the funniest one was watching one of the smaller players absolutely tear around a couple of players and I was like who is that?! I realised after a minute or two it was Bolton.
Of the other new players I didn't see much of them except Riddle who was on the training watchers side a fair bit.
The key person in rehab was Darcy, Ollie Murphy also spent a fair time with him initially and then Sturt came over predominantly doing some running after the initial drills.
The only other players I didn't spot were Young, Walters, Narkle and Jones.

View attachment 2180047


A few other takeaways;
  • Fyfe absolutely burnt the ball a couple of times, just terrible field kicks, but he also kicked a great goal almost over his shoulder, not sure if it was just because of the drills but Fyfe was often more in a forward grouping. Worner was another who also had some average disposal.
  • Brodie was a liability in the air, he got outmarked a number of times while I was watching him, and he wasn't happy about it.
  • Treacy doesn't look like he's lost any momentum like a few others have mentioned, he looks sculpted and he just hits packs and hunts with such intent, hopefully he continues his progression / backs up a terrific year
  • Nathan Wilson turned up to watch a bit of training, he got a very warm reception from a few of the coaches who ran over for a quick chat.
Did they do any drills for long handballing. We don't seem to be able to handball longer than of a metre, which is about the distance in the dinky handball drills we do?
 
Cox is not a lock down defender, he’s an interceptor, like Ryan and Draper. That was the issue when Pearce went down, our lock down KPDs are Pearce, McDonald and Davies. After Pearce went down, we tried to play Cox as the lockdown with Draper and Ryan, the GWS game showed it clearly didn’t work, if Davies was ready we would have played Cox, Ryan and Davies instead of Draper. Davies isn’t ready so Cox played out of position, in no universe is Davies playing ahead of Cox, if he plays, Cox plays intercept role like he should be.
You can only have so many zone off interceptors in the best 22 , if you look at the behind the goal vision of what effort Cox put into stopping Hogan it was pathetic and cost us the game and eventually a top eight finish
Hogan would have also beaten Davies but at least he would have being giving it a red hot go
 
Did they do any drills for long handballing. We don't seem to be able to handball longer than of a metre, which is about the distance in the dinky handball drills we do?
Not that I noticed specifically, what I saw was the standard in close type of drill.

Not to labour the point, but that was something Fyfe actually did well last year, some of his handballs really unlocked some forward movement.
I agree it should be something in the arsenal for the right time.
 

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