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Training 2026 Training Reports

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Duursma report the big positive for mine!

Also stoked to hear of FOS finding plenty of it up the ground. If he can get it 25+ times a game it’ll go a long long way to us winning more games. Things just happen when the ball is in his hands.
Agree mate.

On the other side of the coin, it’s a bit shitty reading that Whitlock & especially Dawson look ‘way off it.’
 
Hearing that Xerri towelled up Goad is good news to me.
I can see another massive year coming up for X. I reckon by years end, he will have taken the mantle as the no.1 big man in the game. Time for Max to finally hand over the AA Blazer.

I was a little concerned Xerri might suffer from the new ruck rules & would struggle against the more athletic ruckman, but it sounds like it won’t have much impact. Goad is pretty athletic…
I don’t think Clarko will play 2 genuine rucks despite having 5 on the bench now, which means Goad is a long way off playing, unless X is injured.
No doubt our coaches believe Goad is still a couple years away, which is why we kept CCJ (despite him being always injured & a shit ruckman)
Goad can do his apprenticeship under Xerri, like X did under Goldy.
 
Saracens rugby team here in England had a sports science guy who incorporated some Tai Chi forms and elements of Pilates into individual training regimes for players with a history of soft tissue injuries. They saw significant improvement in his time (he is in USA now at some College). I am always surprised more teams do not try this. If players have balance/core imbalance issues contributing to injuries this could improve things.

The same with ballet for soccer players.

PS. Seemed to also work for Sam Wright: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-08/afl-players-using-ballet-for-rehabilitation/9840736.
 
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Goad doesn't need to be beating Xerri, the best ruckman in the competition. He needs to be beating the back up ruckman when Xerri is resting. He was competitive against many in the twos last year and not many have a 210cm athletic freak backing up in the AFL anyway.

Xerri had some long stints forward today, especially in the second period of the match sim. JD didn't even both trying to compete with Goad in the middle.

He'll be replacing JD as soon as he can run out a game.
 

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Saracens rugby team here in England had a sports science guy who incorporated some Tai Chi forms and elements of Pilates into individual training regimes for players with a history of soft tissue injuries. They saw significant improvement in his time (he is in USA now at some College). I am always surprised more teams do not try this. If players have balance/core imbalance issues contributing to injuries this could improve things.
Tai Chi gets laughed at alot but there's some really awesome stuff in it. Especially for developing balance, core strength and endurance.
 
Hearing that Xerri towelled up Goad is good news to me.
I can see another massive year coming up for X. I reckon by years end, he will have taken the mantle as the no.1 big man in the game. Time for Max to finally hand over the AA Blazer.

I was a little concerned Xerri might suffer from the new ruck rules & would struggle against the more athletic ruckman, but it sounds like it won’t have much impact. Goad is pretty athletic…
I don’t think Clarko will play 2 genuine rucks despite having 5 on the bench now, which means Goad is a long way off playing, unless X is injured.
No doubt our coaches believe Goad is still a couple years away, which is why we kept CCJ (despite him being always injured & a shit ruckman)
Goad can do his apprenticeship under Xerri, like X did under Goldy.

X was jumping over and into goad like he stole X’s bike
 
For 80 year olds

You can sneer if you wish but I took it up ten years ago (age 49) after a prolonged hospitalisation and massive spinal damage. Today my flexibility and balance/contact balance is better than my two 20 something ‘kids’, one who goes to a gym and the other who swims and runs. As a ‘small’ club we need to look for and exploit every cost effective marginal gain. Our training plans should be individualised and some of our players would almost certainly benefit from specialist low impact flexibility work in some form, particularly when recovering from soft tissue injuries.
 
But a Zurhaar injury aside, who drops out of our forward line to accomodate him?

Larkey and Curtis are all locks. Zurhaar too.
Then there’s one of Trembath and Darling, and at least one of Banch and Dovaston.
Leaves one on-field position.

You could minimise Powell and Jy’s forward rotations, but then does Tommy get selected at all? If there’s confidence that Wardlaw, Parker, LDU, Sheeze and FOS are enough midfielders to run out a game, I suppose that’s one option.

In the long run, I guess he’ll take Parker’s spot, but it’s impossible to see a fit and firing Parker get dropped early this season.

Otherwise the closest like-for-like position-wise is Bull. But it’d be quite the statement to see him dropped for Duurs.

My 7 forwards for round 1 are the following:

Larkey
Curtis
Zurhaar
Duursma
Dovaston
Trembath
Simpkin/Parker - both rotating forward and middle

To your point on FOS - he wont be seeing CBAs you wouldn't have thought. i think he plays on the wing predominantly.
 
Agree mate.

On the other side of the coin, it’s a bit shitty reading that Whitlock & especially Dawson look ‘way off it.’
I have no problems with these two plus Goad and Thredgold spending much of the year developing their craft in the magoos. 2027 is when they go bang!
 

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A shame we no longer train Saturdays
Should have slotted one in next few weeks and had the family day then too. Not rocket science. Family Day on a working/school day at 4pm beggars belief.
 
Should have slotted one in next few weeks and had the family day then too. Not rocket science. Family Day on a working/school day at 4pm beggars belief.


It’s ridiculous to be done over by the Club when the AFL/Fixture does it annually
 
Goad was schooled by one of the premier ruckmen in the comp. X will put more seasoned players to the sword this year.

Whitlock moved well. Showed some class on occasions. Needs to get stronger. Work in progress. Looks like a natural forward.

Dawson got towelled by Darling. Had the lesser VFL types under control.
Playing on darling is probably the best thing for Dawson’s education. He is decent on lead up types in the vfl, but cagey 300+ afl gamers, he is still learning.
 
Pleasing as well that with the improvement of Stephens (last year and continuing), the addition of a two way runner in Simpkin and the shift of FOS to the wing, we have now turned a previous historical weakness into a strength.
 
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A shame we no longer train Saturdays

Although last Saturday it seems like there was training despite it not being published so could it happen again tomorrow?

Training (Arden Street Oval)
Monday, January 19
8.45am-11.15am AEDT

Training (Arden Street Oval)
Wednesday, January 21
8.45am-10.45am AEDT

Training (Arden Street Oval)
Friday, January 23
8.45am-11.15am AEDT
Nah it seems like they like to have a days recovery between sessions.
From memory, the Saturday training was following a Thursday session.
 
Pleasing as well that with the improvement of Stephens (last year and continuing) and the shift of FOS to the wing, we have now turned a previous historical weakness into a strength.
FOS should be in traffic.

Smack in the middle.

That's where he'll do most damage with his vision, hands and that shimmy of his.

He'll cause nightmares for opposition coaches.
 
FOS should be in traffic.

Smack in the middle.

That's where he'll do most damage with his vision, hands and that shimmy of his.

He'll cause nightmares for opposition coaches.
Long term, agree. This year, I’ll settle for him being moved out of defence.
 
Playing on darling is probably the best thing for Dawson’s education. He is decent on lead up types in the vfl, but cagey 300+ afl gamers, he is still learning.

And you’d hope that they have Coffee today or whenever and Darling fills him in on the tricks of an experienced Forward
 
It's just a thought is all. Not sure if there's any literature on it.

A lot of the return to sport frameworks are all about strength, power, and coordination - and any subsequent breakdowns usually boiled down to 'tissues in that area of the body are not strong enough'.

But it doesn't explain why we (I include me in this) seem to do injuries in other areas of the body at a higher rate. Or why we smash all the strength and power metrics but then still ping a soft tissue injury or whatever.

The only common point I can think of is how the brain receives information and then sends messages to the body on how to respond (nervous system) and how we balance ourselves (vestibular system).

I guess I'm saying that the cause might be more 'upstream' than we think and that might not be as easily fixable.
Good enough for me, I'd be backing yourself as it sounds good!

Surprised jy not dominating as per
As per what? Meaningless Preseason games? I can't be bothered doing a deep dive into his preseason form but this sounds about right.

He's now a big bodied wingman, coming off the square looking to maim... also a long outlet kick (on a smaller opponent) from our disastrous kick-ins. He's a simple man, let's simplify his role a tad.
 

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