Training 2026 Training Reports

[Taylor]

Sorry, bit confused, sounds like you would have positions for them all in the team or is just these the positions you'd play them in when they played? Having Cox as the guy who brings it to ground wouldnt matter if there's no one there capable of being a ground ball threat.

I think they can all be played in the same team with the appropriate game plan and smalls in the side around them. If the game plan is "get the thing forward" then we need representation forward or we won't be able to lock it in even with the fastest smalls in the world chasing.

Everyone wants the ball use to be elite all the time but we have only the players we have. We have two guys I can rely on to hit a target leading at them, if the kick is off the ball spills into the corridor and rebounds all the way to our defensive fifty.

Our guys will get exhausted with constant transition footy, we have to minimise the workloads which means keeping the ball in parts of the ground longer. I think that happens, with long bombs, by having a taller forward line if they can create a contest and create a stoppage. If they can't contest, mark or create a stoppage they will have a great view of their opponents walking it out.

I am expecting us to have clearance dominance translating to inside fifty dominance. I want the ball to stay there because I think we are one of the worst teams, at least we were in 2024, at repeat contests inside forward fifty (think stoppages, ball ins etc).

We either get better users, elite one on one tall forwards and get out of their way, or big guys who throw their weight around to not be beaten foward.

I don't think we can change the users, we have two, we have two to three elite forwards too. The cute kick inside the corridor has us come unstuck too much.

 

[bigfoopy]

WOW, I can't believe the non supporting suoporters have made Caleb Serong the latest kicking boy.
Such low low depth in many ways.
Un be fckn levable.

Don’t think anyone’s kicking him? Just pointing out strengths and weaknesses, everyone has them and Caleb’s has always been his inside 50 delivery. We become a much better team with Youngy or Bruce lacing out our forwards rather than Sebba and that’s just facts

 

[Heave Ho Bro]

Brayshaw has had more score involvements than any other Freo player in each of the last two seasons, and would presumably be miles ahead of next over a 3 or 4 year aggregate.

Andy's field kicking is generally quite tidy but for whatever reason when he's kicking inside F50 or having a shot on goal it's ugly. No doubt he is involved in lots of scoring chains from further up the ground.

 

[anchor man]

Welcome aboard mate - I'm assuming you're new

I wouldn't think about 15 years makes me new.
Sorry 25 years, with one long holiday away because of the reason you ar alluding to.

 

[Stevooo3940]

Not particularly, I would prefer a mobile link forward who can run up the field to offer a marking target over Mason Cox but if the game plan requires someone to stand under the long ball (and be there for it) then he is the one I choose over all the rest.

Jackson I'd play mid, Amiss I'd play as a medium forward who leads, Voss and Treacy as the key forwards who wrestle. Cox as the sacrificial lamb to let the mids who can't kick have somewhere to send it where they know he will be and it comes to ground.

We have the mids we have, we can't expect them to become great kicks and they are smart enough to feed it to Reid but that will get shut down fast by opposition, so we need the game plan to work with that and not expect Serong and Brayshaw and Erasmus etc to hit the leading tall in the corridor as the rebound is so punishing.

Historically, the majority of Serong and to a lesser extent, Brayshaw's kicks are under pressure. Yes we will feed it to Young and Reid, but if they want to shut that down, almost instantly, Seb and Snea are kicking without pressure. Stress less. This list is it. Just need to players to live in the moment.

And for what its worth, Raz was hitting them sweet on the weekend! Im bullish on him this year!

 

[Boomer93]

Serong has also become much more damaging with his possessions as well. Noticed it in the Vic game and in the scratchies against WCE. He's not looking to start handball attacking chains, he wants to kick I50 to the advantage of his teammates. He's also hugely improved on his left too, so he doesn't have to switch or slow down to take a kick on his right. He won't need so many possessions to make such an impact this season. You add Serong to the list of many lower possession-higher impact players like young, reid, jackson, bolton, treacy, freddy, amiss running amok forward of the centre bounce.... Good luck anyone stopping that.

One of the myths in football is starting a "handball chain" is less damaging than a kick.

A handball to release a free runner for a kick is so much more damaging than a dump kick long out of a stoppage, even if the stats like inside 50s, meteres gained etc dont say so. Guys like pendlebury and murphy reids handballing is so much more effective at generating shots on goal than harley reid or worpel shrugging a tackle and bombing it long, even if it looks cool.

Serongs inside 50s are his weakest trait. He really SHOULD be handballing more.

 

[Stevooo3940]

Has anyone ever questioned as to whether training at Cockburn, in constant wind makes our team struggle with kicking? It would affect the way they drop the ball all week. It would knock their confidence, never seeing the ball flying as intended. Its a real issue. Get us back to Freo Oval asap pls.

 

[bigfoopy]

Has anyone ever questioned as to whether training at Cockburn, in constant wind makes our team struggle with kicking? It would affect the way they drop the ball all week. It would knock their confidence, never seeing the ball flying as intended. Its a real issue. Get us back to Freo Oval asap pls.

No wind in freo

 

[gaskin]

Has anyone ever questioned as to whether training at Cockburn, in constant wind makes our team struggle with kicking? It would affect the way they drop the ball all week. It would knock their confidence, never seeing the ball flying as intended. Its a real issue. Get us back to Freo Oval asap pls.

Yeah, because Fremantle is known to be sheltered from the wind.

 

[FreoRicci]

Serongs dump kicks are an on going frustration. May be a little less with quality smalls at the feet of quality talls. But you don't want him kicking to a leading forward, left or right

To be fair though, he has been trying to work on those kicks and take more time.

 

[Andy Brennan]

WOW, I can't believe the non supporting suoporters have made Caleb Serong the latest kicking boy.
Such low low depth in many ways.
Un be fckn levable.

He'd be one of the highest paid blokes on the list. I don't see why we shouldn't expect him to work to improve his weak areas (kicking/goal kicking)

 

[theGav56]

Dump kicks into the forward line should be ending up 50/50 contests at worst wouldn't they?

Top level KPFs should improve those odds, and I am confident our smalls can do better than break even as well.

 

[Taylor]

Dump kicks into the forward line should be ending up 50/50 contests at worst wouldn't they?

Top level KPFs should improve those odds, and I am confident our smalls can do better than break even as well.

AFL stats would rate a player who wins a third of their contests as elite, going at roughly a third wins, a third split and a third lost is around the mark for the best in the game. Two thirds not losing is the key take away but you can see how the more involvements in the chain the less likely the wins keep stacking - and that's with elite player to elite player going contest to contest.

 

[theGav56]

AFL stats would rate a player who wins a third of their contests as elite, going at roughly a third wins, a third split and a third lost is around the mark for the best in the game. Two thirds not losing is the key take away but you can see how the more involvements in the chain the less likely the wins keep stacking - and that's with elite player to elite player going contest to contest.

I would assume Serong isn't going to make any but changes that will upgrade his kicking from congestion. But getting Reid closer to the action and teaming with him may help. As will getting bigger bodies in the mix.

I think keeping dump kicks into our forward line locked in there is an area we are looking to improve. That is, the 'lost' third.

 

[stax on the mull]

If you look at Hayden Young

26

Hayden Young

Age

25

Ht

189cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.0

3star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

3.2

3star

T

1.4

3star

CL

0.2

2star

D

10.0

3star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.4

2star

M

3.2

3star

T

1.4

2star

CL

0.2

2star

D

10.0

3star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.4

4star

CL

0.2

2star

's kicking efficiency from year to year, it has dropped when he's moved into the midfield, from a high of 79.4% in 2022 to 60.1% in 2024 and 57.4% in 2025 (not a good sample size year). So position has something to do with it. Similar story to Ed Richards

20

Ed Richards

Age

26

Ht

188cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.4

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

5.2

4star

M

2.5

3star

T

2.4

4star

CL

0.7

3star

D

11.3

3star

K

6.0

2star

HB

5.3

3star

M

1.5

2star

T

2.5

3star

CL

1.1

3star

D

14.6

4star

K

9.8

4star

HB

4.8

4star

M

4.8

5star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.2

2star

who has moved to midfield in recent seasons, but visually nobody would say these players don't use the ball as well as they previously had. Having time and space is maybe where they make it count.

Caleb's kicking efficiency was 48.3% last season from an average of 13.8 kicks per game. It's his lowest kicking efficiency average, though not much lower than other years, but his highest is 59.2% in 2022. When it's these numbers eg 14 kicks - 7 good ones, if you can make it 9 out of 14 good kicks then your average suddenly gets talked about in the elite stats area.

Andy Brayshaw was 63.4% with kicking efficiency last season, his best year, which in 2025 was higher than Nick Daicos 62.4%. Bontempelli was 66.9% in 2025 whereas the season before he was 57.1%.

 

[largebus]

Young's highest DE came when he played off half back and had less pressure on him at disposal.
Its similar to why Ryan has such high DE every year

 

[Taylor]

I expect there's the ability for regular folk to use the AFL stats to link Kicking DE% and metres gained and rank by that to cover the players behind the ball kicking sideways and long down the line to a contest (but that last part, that kicks over 40m that aren't a direct turnover are considered effective, is the real kicker that will distort that data).

 

[gaskin]

Young's highest DE came when he played off half back and had less pressure on him at disposal.
Its similar to why Ryan has such high DE every year

Ryan has such a high DE because 90% of his kicks are playing kick to kick with Cox.

 

[Big Animal]

we were 15th last year for marks inside 50, a highly rated stat and why almost all of the top teams were at the top of that ladder. It is an area requiring significant improvement, considering we have Amiss, Treacy, and Voss down there with Darcy and Jackson passing through. Seems a waste not to utilise that firepower better.

 

[Dirty_banchez]

Good to hear about McVee because I thought he was a bit off the pace on Saturday morning. Perhaps he is focusing on defending first at the moment. Hard to see his defensive efforts. Would like to see more offensive kicks from defence.

McVee will take a few rounds to get his rebounding going. The team can't quite get him involved in the play, but that will come.

 

[2big2strom]

all I'm saying is I have seen improvement in serong's disposals going forward, both kicking and handballing. but most importantly kicking (because as rightly pointed out his handballing is already a massive strength). and he's doing that kicking with both feet. yes, we need to get the ball to ground more in the fwd 50. yes, we need to WIN those ground balls. yes, kicking under pressure reduces your accuracy.

i wanted to highlight a positive that Serong is already working on. I think there's a lot of people expecting him to be tagged out of games again this season but I think he is smarter and harder working than those people are giving him credit for. he was mentored by Fyfe & Brayshaw for his whole care FFS, he's not going to plateau at 25 years old or continue to hack kick it fwd for the rest of his career.

other kicking improvements I saw in the WCE game: Johnno, Ras, B. Cox (he had some very positive link up passages, it was nice to see him involved in that way)

another hot take: I don't think Walkers skills were wildly better than previous years, his game was exactly what he has shown he is capable of. I think we have better more mobile players now that match up with how he plays. He has been known for doing those quick dashing runs out of defense since his first 10 games. BUT he often got caught in a mess or holding the ball because our whole forward half would be STAGNANT. just absolute statues. Walker would be made the scapegoat for any turnovers without any acknowledgement there was ZERO opportunities being created fwd of the ball. The infamous Collingwood final is a classic example of this. Now we have 3 hungry tall fwds + Bolton + Reid + at least 1 hungry youngster small forward etc all running around providing leads for him. Of course it makes him look better but he's always had it in him.

 

[Stevooo3940]

Yeah, because Fremantle is known to be sheltered from the wind.

Having played most of my footy in and around freo, and been to bulk Cockburn training, id say they are incomparable. Yes Freo is windy, particularly in the Arvo's but Cockburn blows hard, a lot!

I think the Bombers are in a similar situation at Tullamarine. Almost impossible to train some days.

 

[stax on the mull]

Darcy trained today is what the training report headline in the West says (also mentioned in Josh Treacy's interview).

 

[GingerDocker]

all I'm saying is I have seen improvement in serong's disposals going forward, both kicking and handballing. but most importantly kicking (because as rightly pointed out his handballing is already a massive strength). and he's doing that kicking with both feet. yes, we need to get the ball to ground more in the fwd 50. yes, we need to WIN those ground balls. yes, kicking under pressure reduces your accuracy.

i wanted to highlight a positive that Serong is already working on. I think there's a lot of people expecting him to be tagged out of games again this season but I think he is smarter and harder working than those people are giving him credit for. he was mentored by Fyfe & Brayshaw for his whole care FFS, he's not going to plateau at 25 years old or continue to hack kick it fwd for the rest of his career.

other kicking improvements I saw in the WCE game: Johnno, Ras, B. Cox (he had some very positive link up passages, it was nice to see him involved in that way)

another hot take: I don't think Walkers skills were wildly better than previous years, his game was exactly what he has shown he is capable of. I think we have better more mobile players now that match up with how he plays. He has been known for doing those quick dashing runs out of defense since his first 10 games. BUT he often got caught in a mess or holding the ball because our whole forward half would be STAGNANT. just absolute statues. Walker would be made the scapegoat for any turnovers without any acknowledgement there was ZERO opportunities being created fwd of the ball. The infamous Collingwood final is a classic example of this. Now we have 3 hungry tall fwds + Bolton + Reid + at least 1 hungry youngster small forward etc all running around providing leads for him. Of course it makes him look better but he's always had it in him.

Walker is a paradox for me.

The Good

He is our best lock down, small defender.
He is arguably our most dynamic rebounder (not as good but more dynamic than Clark I'd argue).

The Bad

He is our king of Cat 5 errors (sorry Bailey, I think he pips you)

The question is, how do we want to use him? Lockdown or freed up? Security or risk?

With a bit of help from his fellow defenders, maybe he can do both, I'm not sure.

This is where JL really need to earn his dough and get the most out of the raw talents of this bloke and allow him to play in a system than rewards his attacking style.

 

[oldgoat]

He'd be one of the highest paid blokes on the list. I don't see why we shouldn't expect him to work to improve his weak areas (kicking/goal kicking)

You got the job Andy...
Make sure that lazy sod doesnt go all soft and complacent now hes signed for life.
For my part, I will keep a close eye on his skin folds.