Training Preseason 2024

[vidwhal]

Full Intraclub Match #2 - 16-02-2024


Enjoy.


Or Cry.


Whatevas driving those emotions.

 

[DQ 4EVER]

Right. So what's better than a written report that tells us nothing? A whole bunch of low quality, grainy videos that tells us nothing!

I ended up deciding to record snippets of training instead of doing a written summary as it was easier and probably more informative than potentially biased observations. There's also a 20-odd minute long mini-match of sorts which I'll post first.

Hope you enjoy and can glean whatever insights are possible and apologies the many short vids and for any wonky handling.

Here's the YouTube playlist link, if preferred, otherwise will embed them below it:
Freo Training Playlist

Spoiler: Training Videos

Here's the Mini-Match vid:



All the training snippets:

That first kick down the line it looked like Walker was at the front of the pack & he rightfully peeled off to avoid being in the marking contest with the big blokes, but it made me pine for Roger Hayden who would have floated in front, outmarking everybody.

Does anybody else remember the game where Roger (small defender) took 3 contested marks within something like a 2 or 3 minute period, maybe in Melbourne, maybe against Melbourne? All I remember is it was crazy amazing from a small defender.

 

[The Feeder Club]

Half the time when people complain of poor skills it's poor decision making. There's only a couple of blokes on our list that genuinely look like they have poor skills i.e. the mechanics of the kick is wrong. But there's more than a couple of 'skilled' kickers that turn it over more than they should because of decision making errors.
The forward line has much to blame for our performance last year. When you're disorgansied ahead of the ball and don't provide multiple options you encourage both 1) slow play (guys look ahead, see nothing on so turn sideways/backwards) and 2) decision aka skill errors where you try to force a kick to the wrong option ahead.

 

[Purple Jesus]

I thought the same, looked like it was play on as much as possible (no one plays on every single time). You could slit wrists over the skills, though again, they are never as good as just the best 25 players

I only watched 5 mins. Are you suggesting I should read more than the headline before throwing up my hands??

 

[Snuffaluphagus]

I only watched 5 mins. Are you suggesting I should read more than the headline before throwing up my hands??

I mean, the second play was a dash through the middle before blondie ****ed it going for one handpass too many. There are a couple more good runs off turnover and it looked to me they were practicing starting from set defence turnover quite a bit (even here there looked an emphasis of getting it down the middle where they could).

The skills looked more the issue, not the intent IMO

 

[Dockeroo]

I tend to find that if a skill error is made by a player posters on here like the skill error is forgotten about rather quickly. If it’s a scapegoat player certain posters will go on about all the next week in the changes thread, no matter how good said player played in the rest of the game.

This is true but you have to remember that no player ever walked in the door at the Fremantle football club with scapegoat status before he ever kicked a ball for the club.
Unfortunately scapegoats earn that rep for a reason. They just make more skill errors and bad decisions in Fremantle games than the players people like. I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.

 

[anchor man]

I am going to have to stop reading here. It is destroying me. Gutting me.
Going to the club Monday and demand my *ingg money back for the last 29 years, plus this year. Doing a rummage through the house, find any thing purple and start a bonfire. Burn the sheeit out of it all.
Reading is destroying my love, no destroyed my love for all things purple.
I am also, when I go in Monday, demand, yes demand, not ask, each and everyone that is involved with the club, including the girls in reception to leave. Resign, pull the fck pin.
So much more knowledge here than at the coaching recruiting, staff.
I am devasted that our season is over before a ball has been kicked in anger.
I am shattered.

 

[vidwhal]

Imma gunna let someone else handle this one.

 

[nurries]

Not sure if serious?

 

[couldhavebeen]

I've not been going to training as much this year as I've retired and have bought a boat.
What I have observed is that they boys are training very in trying conditions. They are a very happy and cheerful group . The rehab list is very small compared to previous years. The emphasis has been on ball movement and moving the ball at pace with a lot of handpasses and as the sessions have progressed the hard running has been a feature . I have been to most of the match sims and I'm sorry to report my observations are not complementary to the players or the coaches in the most important area of the teams performances . If your are expecting to see a high scoring game with tenacious forwards leading hard at the ball carrier , If your looking for forwards making leads for the mids or wings you again will be disappointed at the lack of movement in the forward lines , If you are waiting to see pressure acts restricting the opposition defensive players ball movement you maybe very disappointed . If you are over watching players stop mid field pause , look sideways backwards and then finally just bomb the ball to a pack then thats what you will get from this group of players because thats whats happening in the match sims at both ends of the ground . Time and again we watched this scenario take place . The umpire would bounce the ball the rucks would tap the ball , the mids would move the ball forward with a chain of handpasses them they would kick it to a player on their team he would lok to move the ball onto another player with a short kick the ball would be on the HFF and thats when everything stops . He will look for a player thats hopefully leading .NO decent lead is on offer . Finally . he loads up and kicks the ball into the pocket to a pack or on some occasions puts the ball within 20 metres of the front of the goals to an even bigger pack of players . Because he has taken so long to kick the ball the defence along with their midfielders have flooded back to kill the contest . IT didn't matter which team won the centre break it was the same thing almost every time. The only time this system worked was when Jackson was in the front of the goals and he took a towering mark .
The coaches were watching . The members were watching but nothing changed . there was one time Longmure blew a whistle at a stoppage . He wasn't happy with how the players set up for the stoppage . They all had a bit of a talk about it and that was his total imput while the match sim occurred. . that was last Saturday . IM sorry to report that on Wednesdays training. when they once again did a mini match sim nothing had changed . Neither forward lines are functioning . THe back and the mids are working really well . Completion for spots in all those positions is white hot with so much depth its awesome . The entire forward line postions need help before the real season starts .If its not fixed very quickly we will be watching the finals from the sidelines

 

[freo_leo29]

Thats a good point on the forwards tbh

There seems to be a s**t tonne of shouting at each other to hold a lead going up the wing but then noone actually leads, we either kick it long to a pack or look sideways.

The forwards are obviously instructed to hold back but jeez it would be nice to see our talls leading up and taking marks on the wing instead of holding back and losing in a pack situation...

 

[couldhavebeen]

Thats a good point on the forwards tbh

There seems to be a s**t tonne of shouting at each other to hold a lead going up the wing but then noone actually leads, we either kick it long to a pack or look sideways.

The forwards are obviously instructed to hold back but jeez it would be nice to see our talls leading up and taking marks on the wing instead of holding back and losing in a pack situation...

There's distinct lack of method and confidence .

 

[anchor man]

Not sure if serious?

Oh you fckn bet Iam. Never come across such a negative ever in my life.
Just so glad that ijuts are not running the club.

 

[Stinky Lomax]

I only watched that first 20 minute mini-match, and it looked pretty grim to me. Maybe it was hot and windy and you've got the best 22 spread across both sides, but there was maybe 10 seconds to get excited about (12 minute mark) in the whole thing. Slow movement. No run from behind for handball receives. Poor skills. Everything a short chip kick after taking ages to assess options. Looks like the same old conservative JL gameplan where everyone is petrified of taking the game on in case they make a mistake.

Um, the whole drill was contrived for different end scenarios. They literally set up players for a down the line contest on 4 or 5 occasions. They were only allowed to start moving the ball once the opposition defence had completely set up the zone.

The majority of the drill was ball retention by foot until there was a turnover & then they could move the ball quickly by hand & foot. They even set up the switches to work on defensive transition.

There will be times where we move the ball quickly from defence & other times where it will be more calculated, it depends on how the opposition are setting up & that drill allows you to work on a heap of scenarios.

Thanks vidwhal for all the footage, the session had a great mix of intensity, basic forward connection, defensive structure & I loved the drill where they work on a contrived turn over at the centre stoppage so the mids have to switch from attack to defence & vice versa.

 

[Daddoo]

Right. So what's better than a written report that tells us nothing? A whole bunch of low quality, grainy videos that tells us nothing!

I ended up deciding to record snippets of training instead of doing a written summary as it was easier and probably more informative than potentially biased observations. There's also a 20-odd minute long mini-match of sorts which I'll post first.

Hope you enjoy and can glean whatever insights are possible and apologies the many short vids and for any wonky handling.

Here's the YouTube playlist link, if preferred, otherwise will embed them below it:
Freo Training Playlist

Spoiler: Training Videos

Here's the Mini-Match vid:



All the training snippets:

Seriously, wtf?! Are you trying to get me fired from work for spending all my time watching these videos instead of working?

Very irresponsible of you. You should be ashamed of yourself!



Luckily, I have some strong will power and will be consuming these voraciously tonight with a bourbon in hand.

Dude, you are a legend. Thank you so much for these! Your efforts are much appreciated.

 

[Dockeroo]

I think the personnel are key. You want the Clark, Wagner, Walker, Chapman types on the ball at half back for fast ball movement. Instinctive playing on and risk taking. Further up the chain link men like Switta and Frederick will play an important role in the rapid movement of the footy.

If players like Hughes and even the likes of Aish and worner at times, are on the ball in match sims - yeah of course they’ll be looking around scanning for 3-4 seconds before chipping it 20m sideways or backwards.

It’s hard to understate how much AFL football has evolved over the last 3 or 4 years and that type of football has become outdated. I’m desperately hoping our coach has properly embraced 2024 style footy and left the chip-chip stuff in the past.

 

[curnow inferno]

Annoying opposition supporter supercoach question…

How has taberner been tracking this preseason please?

 

[go_the_dockers]

Annoying opposition supporter supercoach question…

How has taberner been tracking this preseason please?

50/50 to make the best 22. Between him and Treacy.

Preseason has been good.

I would avoid, and target Young, Clark, Fyfe instead.

 

[blue shark]

Half the time when people complain of poor skills it's poor decision making. There's only a couple of blokes on our list that genuinely look like they have poor skills i.e. the mechanics of the kick is wrong. But there's more than a couple of 'skilled' kickers that turn it over more than they should because of decision making errors.
The forward line has much to blame for our performance last year. When you're disorgansied ahead of the ball and don't provide multiple options you encourage both 1) slow play (guys look ahead, see nothing on so turn sideways/backwards) and 2) decision aka skill errors where you try to force a kick to the wrong option ahead.

If you have midfielders that can kick them from 50, then you have the defenders in two minds.
Would you just let a S Hill run rampant towards the 50m arc?
Wingers that score, worked for the Hawks and even that player ended up
an important player in the Cats flag.
Our midfield is lacking that quality, and there is a sameness about it that will
win contested ball, then butcher it going forward.
Switching play where there is less congestion and more space makes the forward
line harder to defend.
Playing on quick only works sometimes, especially playing down the line.
The switch of play is what we need to see in training, on all lines.
You do that with hand and foot and demand a forward to lead into space.
No wonder we look unskilled, it was exactly the same under Lyon but at least
then we bullied teams, and as mentioned Hill was then tagged.
Honestly we will be lucky to even get to a GF, but the list is capable of much
more.

 

[Docker82]

This is true but you have to remember that no player ever walked in the door at the Fremantle football club with scapegoat status before he ever kicked a ball for the club.
Unfortunately scapegoats earn that rep for a reason. They just make more skill errors and bad decisions in Fremantle games than the players people like. I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.

Whilst this is true to a degree there’s players that can do **** all and this board will be impressed and others that have to play like prime Nat Fyfe for certain posters to admit they had a good game.

I’m not exactly going to say to drop some of our best players because they make skill errors occasionally but they do make them and for some of them it’s an area of their game that could be improved.

Some on here seem to want to believe our good players are perfect and them improving isn’t a massive part of the team improving. Yet at the same time guys like Banfield and Hughes are the sole reasons we lose games. There’s actually similar players in every team in the league.

What we overrate is our stars and B graders (i.e. firmly best 22). They need to get much much better across the board if we want to rise up the ladder. Replacing the scapegoat players with players that make a few less mistakes won’t improve us nearly as much.

 

[FUS_RO_DAH]

I've not been going to training as much this year as I've retired and have bought a boat.
What I have observed is that they boys are training very in trying conditions. They are a very happy and cheerful group . The rehab list is very small compared to previous years. The emphasis has been on ball movement and moving the ball at pace with a lot of handpasses and as the sessions have progressed the hard running has been a feature . I have been to most of the match sims and I'm sorry to report my observations are not complementary to the players or the coaches in the most important area of the teams performances . If your are expecting to see a high scoring game with tenacious forwards leading hard at the ball carrier , If your looking for forwards making leads for the mids or wings you again will be disappointed at the lack of movement in the forward lines , If you are waiting to see pressure acts restricting the opposition defensive players ball movement you maybe very disappointed . If you are over watching players stop mid field pause , look sideways backwards and then finally just bomb the ball to a pack then thats what you will get from this group of players because thats whats happening in the match sims at both ends of the ground . Time and again we watched this scenario take place . The umpire would bounce the ball the rucks would tap the ball , the mids would move the ball forward with a chain of handpasses them they would kick it to a player on their team he would lok to move the ball onto another player with a short kick the ball would be on the HFF and thats when everything stops . He will look for a player thats hopefully leading .NO decent lead is on offer . Finally . he loads up and kicks the ball into the pocket to a pack or on some occasions puts the ball within 20 metres of the front of the goals to an even bigger pack of players . Because he has taken so long to kick the ball the defence along with their midfielders have flooded back to kill the contest . IT didn't matter which team won the centre break it was the same thing almost every time. The only time this system worked was when Jackson was in the front of the goals and he took a towering mark .
The coaches were watching . The members were watching but nothing changed . there was one time Longmure blew a whistle at a stoppage . He wasn't happy with how the players set up for the stoppage . They all had a bit of a talk about it and that was his total imput while the match sim occurred. . that was last Saturday . IM sorry to report that on Wednesdays training. when they once again did a mini match sim nothing had changed . Neither forward lines are functioning . THe back and the mids are working really well . Completion for spots in all those positions is white hot with so much depth its awesome . The entire forward line postions need help before the real season starts .If its not fixed very quickly we will be watching the finals from the sidelines

There's distinct lack of method and confidence .

My reaction to this extremely disappointing and depressing review is some good old fashioned denial

 

[apuchar]

Um, the whole drill was contrived for different end scenarios. They literally set up players for a down the line contest on 4 or 5 occasions. They were only allowed to start moving the ball once the opposition defence had completely set up the zone.

The majority of the drill was ball retention by foot until there was a turnover & then they could move the ball quickly by hand & foot. They even set up the switches to work on defensive transition.

There will be times where we move the ball quickly from defence & other times where it will be more calculated, it depends on how the opposition are setting up & that drill allows you to work on a heap of scenarios.

Thanks vidwhal for all the footage, the session had a great mix of intensity, basic forward connection, defensive structure & I loved the drill where they work on a contrived turn over at the centre stoppage so the mids have to switch from attack to defence & vice versa.

Yes agree. We needed to practice both scenario's. We have never been set-up correctly when we needed to go down the line. Teams are just not going to let us run the ball out of defense quickly, every time.

 

[Dirty_banchez]

I've not been going to training as much this year as I've retired and have bought a boat.
What I have observed is that they boys are training very in trying conditions. They are a very happy and cheerful group . The rehab list is very small compared to previous years. The emphasis has been on ball movement and moving the ball at pace with a lot of handpasses and as the sessions have progressed the hard running has been a feature . I have been to most of the match sims and I'm sorry to report my observations are not complementary to the players or the coaches in the most important area of the teams performances . If your are expecting to see a high scoring game with tenacious forwards leading hard at the ball carrier , If your looking for forwards making leads for the mids or wings you again will be disappointed at the lack of movement in the forward lines , If you are waiting to see pressure acts restricting the opposition defensive players ball movement you maybe very disappointed . If you are over watching players stop mid field pause , look sideways backwards and then finally just bomb the ball to a pack then thats what you will get from this group of players because thats whats happening in the match sims at both ends of the ground . Time and again we watched this scenario take place . The umpire would bounce the ball the rucks would tap the ball , the mids would move the ball forward with a chain of handpasses them they would kick it to a player on their team he would lok to move the ball onto another player with a short kick the ball would be on the HFF and thats when everything stops . He will look for a player thats hopefully leading .NO decent lead is on offer . Finally . he loads up and kicks the ball into the pocket to a pack or on some occasions puts the ball within 20 metres of the front of the goals to an even bigger pack of players . Because he has taken so long to kick the ball the defence along with their midfielders have flooded back to kill the contest . IT didn't matter which team won the centre break it was the same thing almost every time. The only time this system worked was when Jackson was in the front of the goals and he took a towering mark .
The coaches were watching . The members were watching but nothing changed . there was one time Longmure blew a whistle at a stoppage . He wasn't happy with how the players set up for the stoppage . They all had a bit of a talk about it and that was his total imput while the match sim occurred. . that was last Saturday . IM sorry to report that on Wednesdays training. when they once again did a mini match sim nothing had changed . Neither forward lines are functioning . THe back and the mids are working really well . Completion for spots in all those positions is white hot with so much depth its awesome . The entire forward line postions need help before the real season starts .If its not fixed very quickly we will be watching the finals from the sidelines

I am glad you found the time to write this because I have been thinking the same.

 

[freo1997]

The only silver lining with a s**t year is I feel we’ll bring in a Master coach to replace Jlo.

Any competent Coach can see our list has so much potential. Only a crab couldn’t take it to finals.

 

[freo_leo29]

The only silver lining with a s**t year is I feel we’ll bring in a Master coach to replace Jlo.

Any competent Coach can see our list has so much potential. Only a crab couldn’t take it to finals.

Not many master coaches on the market right now

 

[freo1997]

Not many master coaches on the market right now

Long year my friend.