Training 2026 Training Reports

[GingerDocker]

I have to confess to being a bit ignorant as to how underdone some key components of our squad are.

Young, Pearce, Darcy, Switta and Brayshaw all seemed to be off the bit on the weekend.

I'm a little disappointed it wasn't a bigger consideration in how the team was eventually selected.

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

I have to confess to being a bit ignorant as to how underdone some key components of our squad are.

Young, Pearce, Darcy, Switta and Brayshaw all seemed to be off the bit on the weekend.

I'm a little disappointed it wasn't a bigger consideration in how the team was eventually selected.

The weird thing with Darcy was that clearly Ryan has been told he's not in the correct physical shape for AFL footy, so why play Darcy when Cox is there? Pearce I get, he's the captain and incredibly important. Playing Darcy, Young, Pearce AND Switta as underdone players was some weird arrogance when they've brought up fitness from round 0 so many times.

 

[GingerDocker]

The weird thing with Darcy was that clearly Ryan has been told he's not in the correct physical shape for AFL footy, so why play Darcy when Cox is there? Pearce I get, he's the captain and incredibly important. Playing Darcy, Pearce AND Switta as underdone players was some weird arrogance when they've brought up fitness from round 0 so many times.

There's a couple of conflating issues here.

I too, get a bit triggered by the one dimensional "sack JL" stuff that some posters go on with. Apart from it being tedious, it allows many to overlook the true criticisms that he and the coaching team should face.

A big one for mine is still a bit of selection stubbornness, and I think this answers the question of why did those players all take the field against Geelong. There's no doubt that Switta and Darcy, in particular, are considered to be favourites of JL and I hope that he is not pot committed to playing players like that, particularly Darcy.

The fact that Cox (L) is fit and available and appears to have had a flawless pre-season should have been enough to see him selected. If JL doubles down on playing Darcy as first ruck again, against Melbourne, it will be a strike against his name, in my book.

 

[freoextra]

Just spotted Freddy on the sidelines, no boots on but walking fine and no strapping on the ankle.

 

[freoextra]

freoextra Greatly appreciated your training reports.

One question - Where was Ryan training? Main group?

Sounds more and more likely he is just not playing because he is not best 23.

Yes the big story at training is Ryan, he is training his backside off (which is something new!). He has been in main training but in the B team in match sim. He certainly is putting his hand up but he does look knackered after each session, he is probably another week away especially with the second half fade out in our first game.

 

[freoextra]

Finally it has been a very long rehab session for Cox and JOM, would be surprised if they are not a Thursday training session match decision.

 

[Purple Suit]

The weird thing with Darcy was that clearly Ryan has been told he's not in the correct physical shape for AFL footy, so why play Darcy when Cox is there? Pearce I get, he's the captain and incredibly important. Playing Darcy, Young, Pearce AND Switta as underdone players was some weird arrogance when they've brought up fitness from round 0 so many times.

I think we saw what Geelong did last week once GC got on top and thought we could replicate it. Went hard early and ran out of puff when they came back strong. Some of the umpiring in the 2nd quarter didn't help either to give Geelong a sniff imo but we deserved to lose with that woeful last term.

Darcy was a strange one with Cox seemingly 100%. Maybe it was looking at next week thinking Darcy is better against Gawn and needs a game.

I hope they play a kid instead McDonald.

 

[chaosball32]

I think we saw what Geelong did last week once GC got on top and thought we could replicate it. Went hard early and ran out of puff when they came back strong. Some of the umpiring in the 2nd quarter didn't help either to give Geelong a sniff imo but we deserved to lose with that woeful last term.

Darcy was a strange one with Cox seemingly 100%. Maybe it was looking at next week thinking Darcy is better against Gawn and needs a game.

I hope they play a kid instead McDonald.

50% of M.Cox’s career Brownlow votes have come against Melbourne and Gawn, as recently as 2022 so he’s not a bad matchup either. Probably the only guy in the AFL taller than Gawn too (I haven’t fact checked this so don’t quote me on it).

I’ve said enough about Darcy but there really was no justification for his selection.

I actually thought McDonald went alright the few games he played forward for us last year. I never really rated him as a defender, he’s neither physical nor agile enough. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him take Amiss spot but I know that won’t happen because Amiss is one of JL’s undroppables and no amount of <5 disposal games will change that.

 

[BREATHLESS_987]

Another strange element to the Ryan story is he was on the radio last night saying he had Covid, which is why he didn’t travel or play.

I’m not interested in revisiting any sort of Covid protocols conversation - but on the back of a few our players being not 100% last week, surely there’s some form of isolation from the group in such instances?

 

[chaosball32]

50% of M.Cox’s career Brownlow votes have come against Melbourne and Gawn, as recently as 2022 so he’s not a bad matchup either. Probably the only guy in the AFL taller than Gawn too (I haven’t fact checked this so don’t quote me on it).

I’ve said enough about Darcy but there really was no justification for his selection.

I actually thought McDonald went alright the few games he played forward for us last year. I never really rated him as a defender, he’s neither physical nor agile enough. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him take Amiss spot but I know that won’t happen because Amiss is one of JL’s undroppables and no amount of <5 disposal games will change that.

On Amiss, this was his heat-map on the weekend:



What was the point in having him play higher up the ground over the summer if we weren’t actually going to implement it in game? I thought we had already learnt last year having him play one out is not the best use of his skills. Regardless of if he’s being held or not paid free kicks, he rarely if ever beats his opponents 1-on-1.

Compare that to Jeremy Cameron’s heat-map:



Now obviously Amiss isn’t at the level of Jezza and may never be but I’ve made the comparison a few times that Jezza is the prototype Amiss should be studying. Regularly pushes up the wing and rarely gets caught out in a 1-on-1. Is always active and keeping his opponent accountable.

 

[ignoramus]

The weird thing with Darcy was that clearly Ryan has been told he's not in the correct physical shape for AFL footy, so why play Darcy when Cox is there? Pearce I get, he's the captain and incredibly important. Playing Darcy, Young, Pearce AND Switta as underdone players was some weird arrogance when they've brought up fitness from round 0 so many times.

I commented on this the other day in the changes thread. My thinking is that there’s a bit of juggling of objectives (immediate: win game; longer term: win the cup), in which case the judgement may have been that the deferred advantages of increased match fitness and team connection for Darcy outweighed the risk associated with reduced run being taken into the R1 game.

When you consider that we weren’t far off from winning it, it wasn’t an outrageously bad call — so long as those deferred advantages do pay dividends.

 

[Diverbelow]

On Amiss, this was his heat-map on the weekend:

View attachment 2554035

What was the point in having him play higher up the ground over the summer if we weren’t actually going to implement it in game? I thought we had already learnt last year having him play one out is not the best use of his skills. Regardless of if he’s being held or not paid free kicks, he rarely if ever beats his opponents 1-on-1.

Compare that to Jeremy Cameron’s heat-map:

View attachment 2554043

Now obviously Amiss isn’t at the level of Jezza and may never be but I’ve made the comparison a few times that Jezza is the prototype Amiss should be studying. Regularly pushes up the wing and rarely gets caught out in a 1-on-1. Is always active and keeping his opponent accountable.

We also had Treacy playing much further up the ground and Amiss closer to goal. Treacy missed a couple of longer range shots and at other times passed off as he was outside his range. Fortunately he did get one over the back to Amiss in the square.

 

[rgauci]

On Amiss, this was his heat-map on the weekend:

View attachment 2554035

What was the point in having him play higher up the ground over the summer if we weren’t actually going to implement it in game? I thought we had already learnt last year having him play one out is not the best use of his skills. Regardless of if he’s being held or not paid free kicks, he rarely if ever beats his opponents 1-on-1.

Compare that to Jeremy Cameron’s heat-map:

View attachment 2554043

Now obviously Amiss isn’t at the level of Jezza and may never be but I’ve made the comparison a few times that Jezza is the prototype Amiss should be studying. Regularly pushes up the wing and rarely gets caught out in a 1-on-1. Is always active and keeping his opponent accountable.

Stop being logical, the coaches don’t learn IMO.

 

[chaosball32]

We also had Treacy playing much further up the ground and Amiss closer to goal. Treacy missed a couple of longer range shots and at other times passed off as he was outside his range. Fortunately he did get one over the back to Amiss in the square.

I’ve always said it should be the other way round.

 

[PrancingPony]

Amiss needs to be the one going up the ground, Treacy should be playing from the goal square.

 

[GingerDocker]

But when Treacy goes up the ground, he is able to tackle and apply pressure, hardly a strong suit of Jye's.

 

[Purpletown]

On Amiss, this was his heat-map on the weekend:

View attachment 2554035

What was the point in having him play higher up the ground over the summer if we weren’t actually going to implement it in game? I thought we had already learnt last year having him play one out is not the best use of his skills. Regardless of if he’s being held or not paid free kicks, he rarely if ever beats his opponents 1-on-1.

Compare that to Jeremy Cameron’s heat-map:

View attachment 2554043

Now obviously Amiss isn’t at the level of Jezza and may never be but I’ve made the comparison a few times that Jezza is the prototype Amiss should be studying. Regularly pushes up the wing and rarely gets caught out in a 1-on-1. Is always active and keeping his opponent accountable.

That heat map from Amiss versus Geelong is barely luke warm.

 

[PrancingPony]

But when Treacy goes up the ground, he is able to tackle and apply pressure, hardly a strong suit of Jye's.

Fair point, we need to at least interchange them throughout the game so they can both get up there.

 

[chaosball32]

But when Treacy goes up the ground, he is able to tackle and apply pressure, hardly a strong suit of Jye's.

Yes but he’s also better in

• 1-on-1’s
• Pack situations/contested marking
• Set shot accuracy

Then Amiss. And just an all-round better presence.

We’re robbing Peter to pay Paul having Treacy play so far up the ground. Have Voss be the one push up the ground if we want physicality. Treacy should be the target man in our 50 virtually at all times, only time he should be moving up the ground is to d50 when we are defending a tight lead late in the game.

 

[Taylor]

Treacy is a better mark than Amiss, that's why he gets the ball kicked to him, that's why he is up the ground. That's where we have trouble moving the ball so it's where we send him to secure field position.

I was hoping to see Amiss having his 2025 style last quarter few amazing leads and marks that help up move it towards goal and win us the game but he didn't seem to have that in him.

 

[chaosball32]

Treacy is a better mark than Amiss, that's why he gets the ball kicked to him, that's why he is up the ground. That's where we have trouble moving the ball so it's where we send him to secure field position.

I was hoping to see Amiss having his 2025 style last quarter few amazing leads and marks that help up move it towards goal and win us the game but he didn't seem to have that in him.

Last year we were dead last for marks per inside 50.

Treacy being a better mark is the exact reason he should be parked in the 50.

 

[Taylor]

Last year we were dead last for marks per inside 50.

Treacy being a better mark is the exact reason he should be parked in the 50.

Not if the ball can't get there, we need/want him in both places.

 

[chaosball32]

Not if the ball can't get there, we need/want him in both places.

We are a strong clearance team and we showed that on the weekend (when Jackson was rucking, not Darcy).

We were the 5th best clearance team last year (and this was without Young for most of the year), yet dead last for marks per inside 50. This should never have been the case especially with three tall forwards + occasionally Jackson.

If we are regularly winning the ball out of the middle like we should be, and we isolate Treacy in the 50 who will win or at least halve a lot more contests then Amiss currently is, ball movement becomes less of a problem.

Wasn’t that the whole point of the McVee recruitment anyway? To assist Clark in being the runners off half-back?

They’ve got it all backwards.

 

[GingerDocker]

Jye is just too one-dimensional atm. It's lead/mark or nothing. If we don't see him on the lead or can't get the ball to him, he's essentially a passenger.

He's got to find different strings to his bow and find other ways to contribute.

 

[Taylor]

We are a strong clearance team and we showed that on the weekend (when Jackson was rucking, not Darcy).

We were the 5th best clearance team last year (and this was without Young for most of the year), yet dead last for marks per inside 50. This should never have been the case especially with three tall forwards + occasionally Jackson.

If we are regularly winning the ball out of the middle like we should be, and we isolate Treacy in the 50 who will win or at least halve a lot more contests then Amiss currently is, ball movement becomes less of a problem.

Wasn’t that the whole point of the McVee recruitment anyway? To assist Clark in being the runners off half-back?

They’ve got it all backwards.

It's not the set play from a bounce that's the issue, it's the ball movement out of the back fifty that is the problem.