Training Saints preseason 2026

[SaintsSeptember]

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This is great by the club! I'll be dragging my kids across for it.

Any truth that there is free mushroom soup in the Kiosk, for collingwood supporters ?

 

[akaifu]

Wood, Nas, Stocker as well. Clark, Higgins and King rehab group.

Tell you what, he's always been fit but I don't think I've ever seen Butler in better shape.

Yeah I saw a photo of Butler - my first thought was that I've never seen Butler have more arm definition

 

[akaifu]

 

[SainterinSydney]

Yeah I saw a photo of Butler - my first thought was that I've never seen Butler have more arm definition

I reckon he is feeling the heat now with our inclusions.

 

[Zzzed]

Wood, Nas, Stocker as well. Clark, Higgins and King rehab group.

Tell you what, he's always been fit but I don't think I've ever seen Butler in better shape.

I’ve always thought Butler plays his best footy when he has a point to prove. Sharpens his focus.

Liam Ryan coming in, Collard fitter with another year under the belt. Butler will know he is no longer an automatic lock . Should bring out the best in him.

 

[TheJackal]

Yeah I saw a photo of Butler - my first thought was that I've never seen Butler have more arm definition

All the boys look fit, obviously. But he's got an Army haircut, not an ounce of fat on him and he's shredded. I didn't actually recognise him at first then it clicked as to who it was - #16 kinda confirmed it for me when he turned around

 

[Remboy]

All the boys look fit, obviously. But he's got an Army haircut, not an ounce of fat on him and he's shredded. I didn't actually recognise him at first then it clicked as to who it was - #16 kinda confirmed it for me when he turned around

Butler’s last two pre-seasons have been badly interrupted by injury. If he does every session he’ll be back to his best. I’m still not sure how he fits in though. There’s going to be some serious competition for spots.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Everyone is buying in. Love to see it

That’s the motto this year…..All In.

 

[Mystifly]

Butler’s last two pre-seasons have been badly interrupted by injury. If he does every session he’ll be back to his best. I’m still not sure how he fits in though. There’s going to be some serious competition for spots.

He fits in as our only reliable pressure forward. Collard has to take the spot from him and prove he can run and chase, and give repeat efforts. Also, if the coaches have moved past him (think he is still in the leadership group), then hopefully he is professional enough to try and earn his spot back, similar to last year post injury.

 

[Remboy]

He fits in as our only reliable pressure forward. Collard has to take the spot from him and prove he can run and chase, and give repeat efforts. Also, if the coaches have moved past him (think he is still in the leadership group), then hopefully he is professional enough to try and earn his spot back, similar to last year post injury.

It will be very interesting to see the round one side. I can’t imagine we brought in Ryan if we weren’t going to play him. But I can’t see Higgins, Ryan and Butler in the same side (let alone Collard).

 

[SaintSteele9]

Wood, Nas, Stocker as well. Clark, Higgins and King rehab group.

Tell you what, he's always been fit but I don't think I've ever seen Butler in better shape.

Butts is one of the best athletes at the club in a “power to weight ratio” sense. An electric Butler adds plenty to us still in 2026 hopefully

 

[boony7]

Wood, Nas, Stocker as well. Clark, Higgins and King rehab group.

Tell you what, he's always been fit but I don't think I've ever seen Butler in better shape.

Think it was just Macrae, Sinclair and Carroll from last year's group not there today.
TDK, JSOS and Ryan from the new cohort not there today. Can't help feeling like some of these new guys would be feeling like they are missing out when the group has clearly bought in.

 

[CursingFijian]

Newman Kemp Smith are coming off significant LTI. Smith hasn’t even played a game.

Reidy is very average. Pittonet can’t jump. He is a wrestler.

Florent was playing VFL.

McGovern is very average and they wanted to get rid of him.

JSOS allowed Weitering to play off the gun forwards to support. Dean will not allow that luxury and will have to reverse that type of advantage.

Curnow is still an elite key forward when fit. Look what he did to Wilkie in 15 minutes against us last season. Obliterated him.

They also lose the ability to push up as a side very high and contest space with Curnow then marking and wheeling with 60m bombs into players in space.

They won’t be a threat to the 8 next year.

But then they do land Walker the year after and he could be Daicos good unfortunately

The biggest thing with Carlton is that their coach (who their fans already question) blames the players who in turn blames the coach, and the coterie knives are being sharpened as we speak. If Carlton lose their first two games there will be upheaval.

 

[Diehard Saint]

Without being inside the club I'm really guessing what the structures and who the drivers are. I feel like Bassat is the main driver looking from afar. I think choosing Lyon was about bringing in someone who had the experience and the gravitas to build a football department as much as a coach.

Lyon has been able to bring in a lot of proven and professional staff and built the backroom to an industry standard. It's the first time possibly ever at the Saints.

Dilena is a good appointment but I see him as part of the pro staff rather than an architect or driver. I could be wrong though.

100% correct.
Dilena will be very good from here on no doubt, but he’s late to the party.
This was definitely driven by Bassat - it’s been a couple of years in the making already and he’s going to continue being the driver.

As discussed already on here, I don’t know all the inner workings, but hopefully plans are being made for the constitution to be altered to give him an extension.

It’s actually amazing how well he and RTB work together given they are both, quite obviously, A-type personalities with healthy egos.

 

[stavro#4]

He hasn’t nominated for the draft

Officially nominated.

 

[SaintWrld]

Officially nominated.

It appears he has. Sorry I was just going off the list of 750 the herald sun posted throughout the week.

Interesting that Patrick Said is nominated for the draft. Are we moving him to the rookie list?

 

[akaifu]

It appears he has. Sorry I was just going off the list of 750 the herald sun posted throughout the week.

Interesting that Patrick Said is nominated for the draft. Are we moving him to the rookie list?

Yeah it looks like we might be re-structuring our list in terms of primary/rookie ratio

Go down from 38 primary to 37 or less

 

[SainterinSydney]

Yeah it looks like we might be re-structuring our list in terms of primary/rookie ratio

Go down from 38 primary to 37 or less

Is it a risk having Said nominate for the draft considering how shit this draft is?

 

[BrutThough]

Is it a risk having Said nominate for the draft considering how shit this draft is?

Nah. He didnt nothing in the VFL last year that would make any club jump on him.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

I agree re: Carlton. I don't think their ins/outs are too bad but i still think they'll be bottom 6.

I could see Geelong, Collingwood, Adelaide and GC dipping with far more difficult draws.

I don't understand how the media suddenly has Sydney as top 8 locks just because they picked up Curnow. I expect they'll finish 9-12 again this year.

Overall, I'm not too upset with our draw. I'm glad we double up against Port. They'll be bottom 4 pretty comfortably this year.

Personally, I think the Swans will simply bounce back to 2024-ish, which is more their “place”. The beauty of the Academy - Mills, Heeney, Gulden, Lizard etc. Issue with Curnow is whether he plays / fully fit. Albeit if he plays, that’s filling a massive hole that they’ve had and he won’t have had that supply in his lifetime.

 

[tomjoad]

The Swans have needed a Curnow since Buddy left and if Warner, Gulden, Heeney and the Lizzard can stay fit they are going to be a better side. Losing Hayward and Florent is losing some of the hard working soldier class that has made them so solid. They could absolutely go either way. They seemed to have the collapse that sides that have been decimated in a GF often have. Losing Gulden, Heeney and a few other injuries really hurt them too.

Collingwood look really old with not much underneath now. They might be competitive but you can easily imagine them crashing. Geelong get such a huge advantage playing down at the Cattery. They'll always be reasonably competitive and are relatively young over all.

GC and Adelaide both had easy draws and good injury runs. They will have confidence ad momentum up but who knows if that's enough to keep rolling forward.

Sydney always bounce back. They're next to Geelong for mine with that ability to continuously stay up. They had a bad year...they were a higher profile version of us in many ways, ruined by injury, and a tinkered wit game plan that the old guard took a bit of adjusting to (where as our game plan is full of kids evolving and adjusting to the level required to implement the plan)
They'll be top 8 guaranteed I reckon.
We'll give them a shake though.

 

[SaintsofSteel]

Said nominated for the draft, as mentioned the premise must be to move him to the rookie list. Perhaps we will have 3 senior list positions at the National Draft even after Caminiti was promoted?

 

[saint66au]

If were just moving him to the rookie list, ergo can play anytime anyway. why would be need to nominate for the Draft?

 

[TheJackal]

If were just moving him to the rookie list, ergo can play anytime anyway. why would be need to nominate for the Draft?

List number restructure for a small salary cap loophole maybe?

Perhaps we have our eye on a slider or two, Cal keeps mentioning Jev could go past pick 20, Ludowyke and others also might slide due to their injuries more than anything. Just gives more flexibility.

All the talk is that we are going to be super quiet on draft night. So it would be a surprise, however we should never say never the way we are going lately.

 

[akaifu]

Said nominated for the draft, as mentioned the premise must be to move him to the rookie list. Perhaps we will have 3 senior list positions at the National Draft even after Caminiti was promoted?

I think we'll just have more rookies than before

Our 2025 list structure was 38 primary and 6 rookies - which is the most primary list players you can have according to AFL rules

Every chance we end up with 36 or 37 on the primary list in 2026 - more rookie contracts likely means more candidates to delist at year's end whilst saving some money