Bigman’s Training Reports

[Farno]

Appreciate the words of concern about my absence, thankfully I was just tied up rather than anything serious. Must say I enjoyed all the love though!

I did attend Mondays session but believe me when I say it was very uneventful (not a bad thing this time of year). Thilthorpe, Rachele, Rankine and Draper didn’t attend but they all trained today so no issues there.

As for today, everyone was on deck aside from Fog and O’Brien (and Strachan). I thought Fog looked a bit stiff walking around but couldn’t tell you what his issue is, could be nothing at all. Will be curious to see if he plays in Friday’s internal. As for ROB, he didn’t appear at all.

Overall the group seems in good health although Sholl had a decent amount of strapping on his knee as did Keane. Hinge was only doing running early on but eventually joined the group for the main drills.

There were teams listed for one of Monday’s drills, but I felt it wasn’t worth listing them given the prominent names that were missing.

Today’s session also had teams for about 20 minutes of pseudo-match sim and they were as follows:

Blue - Keays, Murphy, Crouch. Curtin, Thilthorpe, Rachele, Murray, Dawson, Walker, Soligo, Michalanney, Hinge, Rankine, Peatling, Neal-Bullen, Laird, Milera, Smith, Sholl, Cumming, Keane

White - Jones, Berry, Pedlar, Edwards, Cook, Welsh, Taylor, Burgess, Ryan, Worrell, Schoenberg, Nankervis, Dowling, Draper, Borlase, Gallagher, Drury, T. Murray, Bond, Butts, McAndrew

These are actually very similar to the teams on Monday but with the missing four added in. Both sessions Murphy and Smith were in the A team. Not sure how much to look into it though given Friday’s scratch match had neither in the starting A team.

The ‘match sim’ was more about controlling the ground and trying to prevent the other team from moving the ball from defence to attack. Teams were given a point for any intercepts, while hitting up a forward target (or scoring in play) also gave a point. The blue side won 11-6 so it wasn’t a blowout.

Other drills included the mids and defenders/forwards splitting off, with the mids working on boundary stoppages and the rest on aerial contests and front and centres. There was also some ‘king of the ring’ work at the end which is always fun to watch, unsurprisingly Thilthorpe was the hardest match up.

There was a bunch of fartlek-style running on Monday but thankfully for the lads they were sparred today in the searing heat.

A few player comments:

Jones - thought he was one of the better players in the ‘match sim.’ Got a fair bit of it on the wing and kicked a nice snap goal from the pocket. Always feel he looks quite natural drifting forward. Also noticed this summer he’s breaking more tackles when usually he’s been clamped.

Curtin - showed today he has a very reasonable opposite foot (rare for a lefty) when he received the ball at half forward and instead of putting a step on Edwards and onto his left, hit a lovely right foot pass instead. Was also very solid in the king of the ring.

Thilthorpe - such is his size and his hands, if he judges it well and gets front position it’s basically all over for his opponents. Pretty exciting to see what he’s doing at the moment.

Pedlar - took a ripping one handed mark in the pocket but sadly fluffed the set shot. Still very inconsistent with his skill execution at the moment - sometimes looks great, other times makes the simplest of errors.

Schoenberg - think people might be surprised how nuggety he’s become when they see him soon. Could be the buzz cut adding to the look but it’s showing in his football, as he’s become stronger around the ball and more difficult to bring down. Speed doesn’t seem too affected. At the very least he isn’t any slower than he was last year post-Achilles.

Nankervis - appeared to hurt his mouth in an aerial contest with Pedlar, but quickly returned to the field after being checked out. At this stage you would have to question if he plays round one given he’s rarely featured in the A side. Very strange in my view unless he’s had injury concerns. Hopefully he gets a real shot over the next couple weeks.

With the internal on Friday and the practice games following, most of you will see the lads for the first time this summer. Because of that, I might list the best performers over pre season, as well as how I feel our lineup is shaping out, in another post.

There’s still a bunch of questions I need to answer so I’ll get to them.

You, sir, are a deadset legend.

 

[cleanhands]

bigman I have to ask, how the **** can you go out in this heat to watch training and what hours they training in this heat?

Can’t fault the dedication

 

[Brenton Davy]

Jones appears to be around the mark. Would love to scrounge out a player after everything.

Hopefully he reaches his potential and garners interest from Tassie. A decent draft pick would be nice in that first Tassie draft

 

[bigman]

bigman I have to ask, how the **** can you go out in this heat to watch training and what hours they training in this heat?

Would love to puff my chest out but truth is I was watching from the car with air con on full blast.

Can’t do the same at Elizabeth or Richmond though. One of those days at centrals was pushing 40, fun times.

Training started at 8:45 and finished slightly earlier than usual, about 11.

 

[Mutineer]

Toby Murray but there was very little ruckwork Bicks.

Thanks mate, my dread was it might have been Thilly..

 

[Betts are off]

I actually wouldn't mind giving Harry the Sub to start the season.

Come in and be that burst of energy for a block of games, tell him to go out and find as much footy as he can as a mid (not on the graveyard HFF).

See if he impresses.

 

[Alwaysacrow]

Appreciate the words of concern about my absence, thankfully I was just tied up rather than anything serious. Must say I enjoyed all the love though!

I did attend Mondays session but believe me when I say it was very uneventful (not a bad thing this time of year). Thilthorpe, Rachele, Rankine and Draper didn’t attend but they all trained today so no issues there.

As for today, everyone was on deck aside from Fog and O’Brien (and Strachan). I thought Fog looked a bit stiff walking around but couldn’t tell you what his issue is, could be nothing at all. Will be curious to see if he plays in Friday’s internal. As for ROB, he didn’t appear at all.

Overall the group seems in good health although Sholl had a decent amount of strapping on his knee as did Keane. Hinge was only doing running early on but eventually joined the group for the main drills.

There were teams listed for one of Monday’s drills, but I felt it wasn’t worth listing them given the prominent names that were missing.

Today’s session also had teams for about 20 minutes of pseudo-match sim and they were as follows:

Blue - Keays, Murphy, Crouch. Curtin, Thilthorpe, Rachele, Murray, Dawson, Walker, Soligo, Michalanney, Hinge, Rankine, Peatling, Neal-Bullen, Laird, Milera, Smith, Sholl, Cumming, Keane

White - Jones, Berry, Pedlar, Edwards, Cook, Welsh, Taylor, Burgess, Ryan, Worrell, Schoenberg, Nankervis, Dowling, Draper, Borlase, Gallagher, Drury, T. Murray, Bond, Butts, McAndrew

These are actually very similar to the teams on Monday but with the missing four added in. Both sessions Murphy and Smith were in the A team. Not sure how much to look into it though given Friday’s scratch match had neither in the starting A team.

The ‘match sim’ was more about controlling the ground and trying to prevent the other team from moving the ball from defence to attack. Teams were given a point for any intercepts, while hitting up a forward target (or scoring in play) also gave a point. The blue side won 11-6 so it wasn’t a blowout.

Other drills included the mids and defenders/forwards splitting off, with the mids working on boundary stoppages and the rest on aerial contests and front and centres. There was also some ‘king of the ring’ work at the end which is always fun to watch, unsurprisingly Thilthorpe was the hardest match up.

There was a bunch of fartlek-style running on Monday but thankfully for the lads they were sparred today in the searing heat.

A few player comments:

Jones - thought he was one of the better players in the ‘match sim.’ Got a fair bit of it on the wing and kicked a nice snap goal from the pocket. Always feel he looks quite natural drifting forward. Also noticed this summer he’s breaking more tackles when usually he’s been clamped.

Curtin - showed today he has a very reasonable opposite foot (rare for a lefty) when he received the ball at half forward and instead of putting a step on Edwards and onto his left, hit a lovely right foot pass instead. Was also very solid in the king of the ring.

Thilthorpe - such is his size and his hands, if he judges it well and gets front position it’s basically all over for his opponents. Pretty exciting to see what he’s doing at the moment.

Pedlar - took a ripping one handed mark in the pocket but sadly fluffed the set shot. Still very inconsistent with his skill execution at the moment - sometimes looks great, other times makes the simplest of errors.

Schoenberg - think people might be surprised how nuggety he’s become when they see him soon. Could be the buzz cut adding to the look but it’s showing in his football, as he’s become stronger around the ball and more difficult to bring down. Speed doesn’t seem too affected. At the very least he isn’t any slower than he was last year post-Achilles.

Nankervis - appeared to hurt his mouth in an aerial contest with Pedlar, but quickly returned to the field after being checked out. At this stage you would have to question if he plays round one given he’s rarely featured in the A side. Very strange in my view unless he’s had injury concerns. Hopefully he gets a real shot over the next couple weeks.

With the internal on Friday and the practice games following, most of you will see the lads for the first time this summer. Because of that, I might list the best performers over pre season, as well as how I feel our lineup is shaping out, in another post.

There’s still a bunch of questions I need to answer so I’ll get to them.

Well done Bigman. Love ya work.

 

[Implanttheseed]

Apologies for the delay.

I thought Edwards was the better of the two though neither really stood out. Worrell and Keane were the most impressive of the defenders.

Both will start in the sanfl. They have Edwards training as a hbf/wing after playing predominately on ball last year. I have reservations but I suspect they want to make use of his kick, which isn’t exactly textbook but is definitely a strength.

I was more impressed by Ryan last summer. He’s bulked up a lot but hasn’t been able to get as much involved. Hopefully he finds form once games start as he has talent and a bit of mongrel.

Thanks for the reply

Edwards had some really good games at the back end of last season. I think once he gets that opportunity in the afl his strengths (kicking) will shine through

Sent from my SM-A556E using Tapatalk

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Would love to puff my chest out but truth is I was watching from the car with air con on full blast.

Can’t do the same at Elizabeth or Richmond though. One of those days at centrals was pushing 40, fun times.

Training started at 8:45 and finished slightly earlier than usual, about 11.

You should have taken GreyCrow as a sidekick as he is looking for a cooler place.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I actually wouldn't mind giving Harry the Sub to start the season.

Come in and be that burst of energy for a block of games, tell him to go out and find as much footy as he can as a mid (not on the graveyard HFF).

See if he impresses.

Would like to see us rotate the sub... but yeah, Schoenberg is a good option.

 

[1970crow]

I dont necessarily think it matters.

He'll be in the R1 side against St Kilda.

It may have been so one of the forwards had a harder matchup. But historically, the preferred round 1 22/23 are playing in the probables during match sim as preseason comes to a close. But maybe with our new coaching director, we're seeing probables in the possibles for matchup reasons. Can only hope, because Murphy and Smiths recent probables appearances would otherwise be very concerning.

 

[LoBu]

Nicks looks to be getting that yearly case of amnesia again where he forgets Nankervis can actually football quite well for the first month of the year....

Looks like Cumming has his spot more than anything else

 

[1970crow]

An exhaustive list of competition for spots where the player with less AFL experience is currently in our A-team at training:

Lachie Sholl (74 games) vs Chayce Jones (92)
Mark Keane (31) vs Jordon Butts (75)
James Peatling (45) vs Harry Schoenberg (61) and Sam Berry (57)
Daniel Curtin (7) vs whoever he might be competing with for a spot.

If our best 22 has been on our list the whole time it is incredible we haven't done better.

Can't help feeling we are pinning our ears back and gunning for 7th. The biggest damage the Ben Keays goalpost thing might have done is to turn a determination to get back into the finals into an obsession that finals are themselves the end game.

That was our end game 3 years before that happened.

 

[kirky]

There is so much genuine talent there. The other thing I love about the 2025 Crows is it appears they all want to play for the club. This cannot be understated. Even in season 2017 it felt like there were players who would leave at the first opportunity.


The next 5 years is going to be a really exciting time to be a Crows supporter. I could be completely wrong but it feels like something special is building. Enjoy the ride, it doesn't come around often.

Well perhaps now that Thebarton works have now started they want to be part of it. It can only be a good thing.

 

[FR0GGY]

People whinging about arguments and not training report related posts
We then have 3 pages of memes and other rubbish

 

[kirky]

Roo & Hentschel were both unavailable for finals that year - Roo had parvovirus, while Hentschel's knee had been destroyed by Matt Thomas.

If both were available, we probably would have won the flag that year. It was just bad luck that both got sick/injured just before the finals.

Parvovirus? Yeh, never believed that story.

Have only ever heard one instance of it in my lifetime and that was it.

 

[kirky]

If I were picking the side id err on the side of caution with Milera and let him gain confidence in the sanfl first. But that’s looking more and more unlikely. Laird makes the side though his kicking wasn’t flash on Friday. He’d want to use it better when the real thing starts.

Peatling was good, just better in the previous trial game. He’s in, no doubt.

It’d be out of Berry or Schoenberg for the next in line mid unless they want to blood Draper. I think Berry is ahead but Harry has been impressive. Pedlar and Taylor appear to be considered forwards this year.

As for Curtin, it’s worth noting he grew a lot late so isn’t as accustomed to playing key position as some others. I think it’s more a matter of time than anything. His judgement and body work still need work of course but they’re decent. He has huge hands too which will help.

Milera can’t be in our R1 side.

I’ll lose it if certain players are in our side come R1.

 

[rabidcrow]

That was our end game 3 years before that happened.

“fortunately” our continued poor performance may have saved us from ourselves. We now have the equivalent of any rebuilds bottom out high draft picks by adding Curtin and Draper the last two years

Then we actually recruit multiple guys that should be in our best 18

If we aren’t good enough for a genuine crack now then it’s on Hamish for not using those high picks well enough - and obviously Nicks and his team for not getting the best out of them. If we had beaten Sydney we would still be those 2 high picks short (potentially)


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Carmo]

Anyone going to the trial in pirie on Friday? If it was sat or sun I would've gone but Friday FFS?

Anyone know if there will be footage of the whole game anywhere or if it'll be live streamed?

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Milera can’t be in our R1 side.

I’ll lose it if certain players are in our side come R1.

If the club has learnt anything from the past, they would know Milera is best finding form 1st in the sanfl.

Sadly our club like to repeat the same mistakes... so watch them overlook Nankervis like last season.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Anyone going to the trial in pirie on Friday? If it was sat or sun I would've gone but Friday FFS?

Anyone know if there will be footage of the whole game anywhere or if it'll be live streamed?

Is anyone on here from Port Pirie or near by.

Reckon this one is out of Bigman's reach.

 

[cleanhands]

If the club has learnt anything from the past, they would know Milera is best finding form 1st in the sanfl.

Sadly our club like to repeat the same mistakes... so watch them overlook Nankervis like last season.

Let’s hope a new voice is heard

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Let’s hope a new voice is heard

Davis.

 

[Peter Doherty]

Anyone going to the trial in pirie on Friday? If it was sat or sun I would've gone but Friday FFS?

Anyone know if there will be footage of the whole game anywhere or if it'll be live streamed?

It will be streamed on the club site, also last year Jeff Albertson uploaded it to YouTube.

The quality wasn't great.

 

[Flip Side]

Oh boy

Gary Lyon on SEN talking about breakout players - first one “Dan Curtin”

“What do you like about Dan” - asks Watson

“They’ve pushed him to the half back line, I think he’s going to have a big year” - Lyon

COME ON you ignoranus!!! At least read Bigmans training reports !!

They don’t even try outside the Vic border - Watson looked like he didn’t even know who Curtin is.