Training Preseason Training Thread - 2026

[Keys]

The below is the OG faux training report from nearly 9 years ago - often imitated but never surpassed

In the absence of Keys I went down for a trundle this morning to check them out on return. Just a few random notes I took down...

• A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat.
• Duggan looked on and was hitting targets left and right. Set for a huge 2017.
• Giles went up against Vardy in the ruck contests and I'd say that Giles has the inside running at the moment.
• Mitchell looked a class above the other midfielders bar Priddis. Just knew how to find the footy and wouldn't miss a target all session. Shuey was very quiet and seemed to be taking direction from Mitchell. Doesn't bode well for his captaincy credentials, maybe he doesn't want the gig?
• Won't say too much about it in case I was just reading too much into it, but Rioli looked as though he'd enjoyed the Christmas break a bit too much. A few of the coaches pulled him aside and they were having quite an animated conversation before Rioli was sent to do laps for the rest of the session. Good news for Le Cras, I suppose.
• Sheed kicked on his right foot for 80% of the session, I reckon. Nice to see players working on their non-preferred so readily.
• Petrie looked like he was doing a great job 'coaching' the younger forwards in between the drills. Darling in particular seemed to be following him around.
• Gee Venables has some skills. He mainly jogged laps before spending the last half hour or so on set shots - curled a few beauties from behind the boundary line at the end for a bit of fun. Hardly saw him miss a kick.
• What interested me the most was that McGovern split his time between the defenders and the forwards, could be seeing a swingman role in 2017. He was his usual dominant self down back in some match simulation drills before going head-to-head with Mackenzie in a forward role.
• Bayok is very fast - Cripps was in most of the drills with him and couldn't keep up.
• Nelson is pale as buggery and still doesn't really have the body shape you'd expect of an AFL player.
• There was a big bloke who pulled up next to me and I could have sworn it was Suma, but I'm sure I was wrong...
• Masto was the player picked to kick the goal at the end today and nailed it. Celebrations were huge.
• No sign of Cole, Parto or Hill. Couldn't tell you why.

Will upload pics later if I have time. Let me know if you have any questions!

You might wonder why I’ve put this up and stickied it

Because this is the standard all copies should be measured against and it’s a reminder of how high the bar was set

And to hopefully discourage sequels.

If you want to have a crack in my absence, go ahead but if it doesn’t equal the standard set (as judged by me), then expect

• A one week threadban for a first offence
• A two week threadban for a second offence
• A one year threadban for a third offence

Actual training reports, minus discussion, can become found here:

Training - Preseason Training Reports -2025/26

This thread has been setup for training reports only and won’t be open for replies Informative reports from the preseason thread will be copied into this thread so posters have access to the quality work from the likes of LittleFires without wading through pages of general posts

www.bigfooty.com

 

[Matera92]

So are fapping to pics of Harley or not I can't tell with all the Bipolar posting in this thread.

 

[Alesana]

Speaking of wanking, give me some Shanahan material, I've got a free 30 mins rn

 

[Eaglemaniac]

Good to hear some kind of improvement in Bo Allan. I think if his kicking skills aren’t that great, we need to use his speed, size and strength to win the inside footy and get it out to guys with better foot skills.

 

[RanaNaved]

I'm already desensitised to this from over exposure

 

[Astro7]

I'm all fapped out till next week...but here's a pix of Snake, be great to have him back at full strength clunking marks and bagging snags!

 

[THE A5]

Not that it’s huge news but Barnett in a knee brace. Might as well cut him and pay him out if he gonna miss all of the preseason

 

[Bender_]

I didn't quite catch the end of the session as I was having a kick with Bender_'s young fella,

Thanks for that, he enjoyed it!

 

[LittleFires]

this article is genuinely absurd, it pivots to Harley so quickly for no reason whatsoever

that organisation is so obsessed with him

I overheard one of the photographers this morning say something along the lines of “can Harley just give his calf a stretch already so we can go”.

I don’t think they really care about what actually happens at the session unless Harley is involved

 

[PremiershipNo4]

Not that it’s huge news but Barnett in a knee brace. Might as well cut him and pay him out if he gonna miss all of the preseason

Plays like he’s wearing a knee brace, no different to normal.

 

[WCEswift]

https://archive.md/6K6hR

Tightness between the calf and WHERE

I had this when i was growing. hurts but harmless

 

[RustyShacklefordFalcon]

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

 

[Doashuey]

I overheard one of the photographers this morning say something along the lines of “can Harley just give his calf a stretch already so we can go”.

I don’t think they really care about what actually happens at the session unless Harley is involved

They are nothing but click whores. Absolutely 0 journalistic talent or integrity but like all gutter dwellers they have identified the easy kill and know that all they need to do is drop Harley's name and the clicks will follow.

 

[Goroyals22]

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

View attachment 2475584

I believe he is the best ruckman on our list.. he should have been given way more chances in there

 

[RustyShacklefordFalcon]

I believe he is the best ruckman on our list.. he should have been given way more chances in there

He was certainly very good in there on exposed form. Got a point to prove this year and I expect he will prove it, but I think he's naturally more of a pure forward personally. Just a natural footballer

 

[Seadog]

Some pretty ugly footage in this vlog. You'd hope Shuey and co are aware how amateurish this is, it's one thing not having the players, not having a well thought out strategy is something else.

 

[THE A5]

I’m

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

View attachment 2475584

The puppy fatss gone. Think more endurance having a bigger tank should help him turn those handful of good moments into a 4 quarter effort.

Best case scenario is that he’s contributing at AFL level and worst case, he’s kicking backs for the beagles and pushing jobe and archer

 

[Goroyals22]

Some pretty ugly footage in this vlog. You'd hope Shuey and co are aware how amateurish this is, it's one thing not having the players, not having a well thought out strategy is something else.

Well Shuey has had two years to figure out something to combat it but nothing.

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

View attachment 2475584

Where was this rig last year?

 

[Bender_]

Where was this rig last year?

Reckon he was told to put on weight to play proper second-ruck and he went the dirty bulk with too much froyo. Perhaps with AReid moving into the ruck they've backed-off that little experiment and gone back to mainly forward.

 

[matt_bas]

Harley hasn’t come back fat this year, WC finals footy 2026 confirmed!

Thats easy when everyone plays finals now.

If they're prepping Archer to be a full time ruck that's one of the things I'm genuinely excited about for next season.

Wonder if they don't pick CDT.

As expected, the Wednesday open training session was a lighter one, lasting about 90 minutes with a few dozen fans coming to watch. There was a slightly smaller cohort of players this morning but still a decent turnout and numbers in the drills.

The players were warming up when I arrived at 9:10 and shortly after got into some kicking drills. They spent the next 45 minutes in various groups doing different drills - some focusing on kicking, others on groundballs, and some on positioning in marking contests. There were also a couple of drills which focused on handballing in congested situations, where players had to try move the ball forward as quickly as possible by hand.

I didn't quite catch the end of the session as I was having a kick with Bender_'s young fella, but the players finished with some run throughs of the centre square and kicking before heading inside around 10:45.

Details on who did/didn't train:

• There were 11 listed players I didn't see at any point - Baker, Yeo, Kelly, Owies, Graham, Flynn, Cole, Bailey Williams, Edwards, Starcevich and Young
• Recent WAFL signing Ash Johnson was out there, as was Archie Watt, who I didn't recognise on Monday but Elite Pete pointed out might be him, and the players were calling him Archie today. So a total of 29 players on track today.
• Brockman made his first appearance of the preseason, though I only spotted him about an hour into the session so I'm not sure whether he started late or I just didn't see him.
• Ditto for Cripps - only saw him right at the end of the session but didn't see him do much/any training
• Duggan came out after the players had warmed up and didn't do much all day, spending a bit of time on the exercise bike and playing an easy role in a couple of the kicking drills
• Harley Reid, Barnett and Dewar spent much of the session on the exercise bike and SkiErg machines on the far side the oval. They came out on a couple of occasions - Dewar and Reid joined in twice with the handballing drills while Barnett still had his left leg brace on and did a bit of tap work with a trainer. Overall though clearly a light session for these three
• Gross once again did a power of work away from the main group, running laps at solid pace for about an hour before finishing with some agility work. Seems pretty clear they're trying to build his tank up.
• Waterman, Hough and Ginbey completed the whole session after being managed slightly on Monday.
• According to Keys Don Pyke mentioned on SEN this morning that he saw Yeo training by himself before the main session, which would explain why I didn't see him today. Also good to remember that he isn't technically required back yet so it's good to see he's leaving no stone unturned to try get his body right.

Again a pretty light session so not heaps to take away from today, but I was standing in a better spot today so I got a closer look at things. Some notes:

• Concur with Bender_ that Archer Reid appears to have bulked up. Has clearly added some size and is a pretty big unit up close. Seems like we might be training him up to play in the ruck.
• Also agree that Jack Williams is looking lean. Moved well in one of the agility drills they were doing.
• Brock also looks to have spent some time in the gym over summer, looking quite solid
• "Leadership consultant" Harry Taylor had a coaches top on and was taking the players through some positioning work in aerial contests near us. Could hear him really emphasising the importance of footwork to the players
• Tried to catch the gist of what Mini was saying to the group in the huddles but they were unfortunately too far away to hear.

Once again...legend!

 

[SAweagle]

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

View attachment 2475584

 

[Eastern Rangers]

Reckon he was told to put on weight to play proper second-ruck and he went the dirty bulk with too much froyo. Perhaps with AReid moving into the ruck they've backed-off that little experiment and gone back to mainly forward.

Hopefully Harley and Jilliams were channelling McGovern's pathway to greatness.

 

[Boohemian]

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

View attachment 2475584

He is very toight. Toight like a toiger.

 

[jdisc]

Jack Williams looking WAY slimmer. Built some endurance. This kid means business.

View attachment 2475584

A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat

 

[FKASC]

A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat

What interested me the most was that he split his time between the defenders and the forwards, could be seeing a swingman role in 2026.