Training Pre-season 2026

[cairo tiger]

I miss Dimma.

He was a bit of a loose cannon but he was a fighter and wore his heart on his sleeve and was entertaining once he got used to it all.

Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying yze too. Hopefully he gets there and shows some mongrel once we start competing properly again.

dimma betrayed us when the going got touch. thanks for the 3 prems but he had a team around him. I am not sold on Yze but dont forget what he did, lined up the job well in advance. we move on.

 

[_RT_]

Does this link work?
It's just lines of code when I click the link

Did you download it?

 

[captain cotch 9]

dimma betrayed us when the going got touch. thanks for the 3 prems but he had a team around him. I am not sold on Yze but dont forget what he did, lined up the job well in advance. we move on.

Yep...that was exactly his issue...he got touchy with a staff member

 

[Drunken Wookie]

That's a moustache you can set your watch to.

if you want it set to either 345 or 915

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

dimma betrayed us when the going got touch.

What a breeze it was between 09 & 16.

 

[From45SlightAngle]

dimma betrayed us when the going got touch. thanks for the 3 prems but he had a team around him. I am not sold on Yze but dont forget what he did, lined up the job well in advance. we move on.

Can't believe people still hold this view of hardwick.

literally came in the darkest days, rebuilt the club to not one but three flags - think of those teams who have never won one in their history - then gave it his all until midway through 2023 and the list was fading. You really think he would go through another rebuild? F**k that. Be grateful. Plus getting the team over the 2013-15 finals debacles was huge in itself.

 

[THE_GUN]

Eagles fans love Ginbey
Richmond fans want more from Brown

Tom Brown and Reuben Ginbey AFL Stats Comparison

Tom Brown and Reuben Ginbey AFL Stats Comparison.

www.footywire.com

He will get more possessions but lets face it we have Vlastuin taking his chips

 

[Lacustrus]

Been one of the standouts at training so far ...

Needs to translate it into playing - hopeful

 

[Danog]

Went and watched about 100 minutes of training this morning.

MRJ does indeed look fit. Was running all day and at front of shuttle runs.
Lalor is a superstar
Trainor looking noticeably bigger
Liked Grlj's movement. His kicks are accurate but they do this thing where they lose all momentum towards the very end. Weird. Could be a forwards dream though.
Clarke and Banks doing run thrus (in runners)
Vlastuin doing the same in footy boots
Special K does a few things that make you to "wow" re: his speed and agility for a big guy. Still raw, but nowhere near as unco as the likes of Colina OHB Ryan who we have persisted with.
Didnt really notice Burton outside of the smaller drills. He was mostly clean. What stood out to me was his good sportsmanship. He was regularly trying to bring Special K into the drills when they're competing for 1 list spot.
Red bib rotated for a full field drill between Green, Smith, and maybe 1 other. Was hard to see. Not sure if they were designated distributor or just a number for either side to use.

If others comments jog my memory, I'll add more

 

[cairo tiger]

Can't believe people still hold this view of hardwick.

literally came in the darkest days, rebuilt the club to not one but three flags - think of those teams who have never won one in their history - then gave it his all until midway through 2023 and the list was fading. You really think he would go through another rebuild? F**k that. Be grateful. Plus getting the team over the 2013-15 finals debacles was huge in itself.

He had the right people around him and Benny and Peggy made sure of that. He had to re assess his style and his manner, again Benny and Peggy. He had a a great skeleton- cotch, dusty, rance, grimes, jack etc. Yes he did reassess and build but the manner in which he left will always reflect on him. Shagged a young staffer. Had anger issues and lined things up when we needed a good head. The recuruiting of taranto and Hopper was diabolical, enginerred by the back pocket accountant. Yes I have said thanks for the memories, but it is time to move on, I wish him no luck moring forward, he has an incredible list to work with and took some good richmond men with him.

 

[Toadvine]

Went and watched about 100 minutes of training this morning.

MRJ does indeed look fit. Was running all day and at front of shuttle runs.
Lalor is a superstar
Trainor looking noticeably bigger
Liked Grlj's movement. His kicks are accurate but they do this thing where they lose all momentum towards the very end. Weird. Could be a forwards dream though.
Clarke and Banks doing run thrus (in runners)
Vlastuin doing the same in footy boots
Special K does a few things that make you to "wow" re: his speed and agility for a big guy. Still raw, but nowhere near as unco as the likes of Colina OHB Ryan who we have persisted with.
Didnt really notice Burton outside of the smaller drills. He was mostly clean. What stood out to me was his good sportsmanship. He was regularly trying to bring Special K into the drills when they're competing for 1 list spot.
Red bib rotated for a full field drill between Green, Smith, and maybe 1 other. Was hard to see. Not sure if they were designated distributor or just a number for either side to use.

If others comments jog my memory, I'll add more

You mentioned Grlj, Special K and Burton. Did you notice Cummy or any of the other draftees?

 

[Coach_Required]

Can't believe people still hold this view of hardwick.

literally came in the darkest days, rebuilt the club to not one but three flags - think of those teams who have never won one in their history - then gave it his all until midway through 2023 and the list was fading. You really think he would go through another rebuild? F**k that. Be grateful. Plus getting the team over the 2013-15 finals debacles was huge in itself.

Totally agree, 3 premierships. Let that sink in.

We had done nothing for 37 years, was beginning to think it would never happen. Dimma deserves some recognition for getting the best out of our players and also getting the right assistant coaches after we had a massive clean out.

The only knock I have on him, is the last roll of the dice with Taranto & Hopper then bailing on those 2 when our season turned to crap. I don't even have any angst on him leaving early though as it allowed the club a new rebuild focus, from a club perspective he left at the right time, from a Taranto & Hopper perspective it was a dog act.

 

[4tune8]

Alot of hype on Tom Brown, output has been minimal.
He needs to have more influence in a game.

What is his role, Bowden? Vlastuin? Broad ? Back pocket or flank?

If he doesnt cement a role/spot, he will lose it.

He seemed to go alright when Short was missing.......

 

[Meteoric Rise]

He had the right people around him and Benny and Peggy made sure of that. He had to re assess his style and his manner, again Benny and Peggy. He had a a great skeleton- cotch, dusty, rance, grimes, jack etc. Yes he did reassess and build but the manner in which he left will always reflect on him. Shagged a young staffer. Had anger issues and lined things up when we needed a good head. The recuruiting of taranto and Hopper was diabolical, enginerred by the back pocket accountant. Yes I have said thanks for the memories, but it is time to move on, I wish him no luck moring forward, he has an incredible list to work with and took some good richmond men with him.

Jesus, what would Hardwick need to have done to win your approval if taking a long term basket case to 3 x flags and almost total domination of the competition for 4 years isn't good enough?

To get that type of success everyone needs to do their job well. Chief amongst them all is probably the Head Coach. Hardwick is a brilliant coach. He focuses on the right things to get the team to perform. And he gets players to invest. We were extremely fortunate to have him as our coach. He did nothing wrong, he just elected to move on. Our list was left in good enough shape that we could trade out 3 players for 5 rd 1 picks in a very strong draft. Compare that to how Carlton's list was when they went into their rebuild, or North's or Saints and Dockers after Lyon made a mess of their lists.

 

[Dr Tigris]

Jesus, what would Hardwick need to have done to win your approval if taking a long term basket case to 3 x flags and almost total domination of the competition for 4 years isn't good enough?

To get that type of success everyone needs to do their job well. Chief amongst them all is probably the Head Coach. Hardwick is a brilliant coach. He focuses on the right things to get the team to perform. And he gets players to invest. We were extremely fortunate to have him as our coach. He did nothing wrong, he just elected to move on. Our list was left in good enough shape that we could trade out 3 players for 5 rd 1 picks in a very strong draft. Compare that to how Carlton's list was when they went into their rebuild, or North's or Saints and Dockers after Lyon made a mess of their lists.

Agree ... But

Dimma dwelt on past glories too much in the end.

He thought another shot was there, when we'd slipped off the peak. TT and Hopper were solid pick ups, but 2 years too late.

However, last year we carefully gutted the squad for picks in a super deep draft, whilst still having a good leadership group. That the list was strong enough to do that is partly to do with Dimma. He instilled fantastic leadership in the group which helped our trades being advantageous (compare with North & Carlton).

So, Dimma was a magician - with his about third game plan. He had to fail and learn. that he did this is evidence of him being smart and self aware (compare to Voss, Lyon etc). But he also got arrogant and self deluded.

Still gave us 3 premierships with a very good, but not great list. So an amazing coach, but with some issues.


Saying al that his arrogance and delusion led directly to last year's wooden spoon and trades, and so possibly the best draft haul of all time. Indirectly he may have set up another dynasty - here's hoping. > Thanks Dimma.

 

[Danog]

You mentioned Grlj, Special K and Burton. Did you notice Cummy or any of the other draftees?

Noticed Cumming. Looks a good size already. You'll all be happy to know his nickname is Cum.

Fawcett's is Forey.

 

[The Vaucluse]

Watched training in the heat for about 100 minutes, the boys put in a good session. From what I could see the drills were the same one’s that they ran on Monday.

Most of the extended drills involved quick ball movement from defence into the forward line, with penetrating kicks to advantage and players leading up to create separation.

At one point in the session, Big Lynch, Balta & Meatball were teamed up and worked with the new draftees.

I must say it was good to see Big Balta out there for the full session. He has a commanding presence, very positive in his feedback to his teammates and was playing deep in defence. In the partial match simulation, the coaches had Balta on Lynch, Gibcus on Faull and Retschko on Alger. Again, there was no Miller or Broad out on the track.

The standouts from todays session are as follows:

Alger, he appears unassuming but is very clean, seems a natural half forward and continually finds and uses the ball to advantage. If you looked at him you wouldn’t think he was a footballer, but watching him for 5 minutes you’d say he’s a gem.
Retschko, almost a lock for round 1 if today’s showing is any guide. Runs hard, has no problem finding the footy, generally his kicking was good in blustery conditions and he’s got a bit of size to him.
Cumming, a smart footballer who is good with the ball either on the deck or in the air. Involved in a lot of passages of play and even with the “green cap” wanted contact and worked hard if the ball was in dispute. We’ve got a blue chip footballer in this lad and he’s got some size for an 18 year old
Lalor, so impressive and already a leader. Continually made good decisions whether collecting the footy or distributing it to others. There was one passage where he ran 50 meters chasing an opponent who was streaming in on goal. There was another occasion, where he body checked Grlj to stop his overlap run.
Tom Brown, this boy is so athletically gifted and is such a classy kick. Every time he has the ball he uses it to advantage, would be wasted as a midsized lock down defender. Hit target after target. Executed a great defensive spoil on the wing.
Campbell Grey performed really well today and it was a step up from Monday. There’s an argument to say he would be best 23, and he would be an automatic selection if any of Balta, Miller or Gibcus went down with injury.
Grlj, ran all day and was involved in a nice one-two with Cumming off the half backline. The only knock is he try’s to take on too much and plays teammates into trouble which either stopped forward momentum or caused a turnover.

Rehab Group were doing general running under Supervision and included: Vlastuin, Banks, Trainor, Hopper, Ralphsmith and Hotton. Hotton finished early feeling his upper quad and talking to one of the Physio’s. Later in the session he had changed over to runners and was walking laps with Seth who had also finished up early, and wasn’t involved in the partial match simulation.

Judson Clarke came out late to do running, lasted 10 minutes, felt the back of his knee and heard him say it wasn’t feeling any better and then left the track.

Some general observations:

Ruck, we are carrying some risk with Nank as our only established Ruck. Ryan & Hayes-Brown still need a bit of development.
Small Forwards, an area of the ground where we have had a great deal of success in identifying and developing players in recent times, seems to be a little bit thin at the moment. I don’t view Mansell, Alger or Seth as small forwards, I view them more as mid size forwards who push up and play the more half forward position. We’ve just got to get games into Hotton.
Defence, based on what I’ve seen at training and this last year, our defence is going to be our strongest line.

 

[RoaringTiger]

I was there for about 30 mins today. Grlj is super quick and evasive, he was taking opponents on at every opportunity. Looked exciting, was coming off half back flank. Ristezcho (sp?) (the new bloke from Geelong) is hardened and tough and fast. Also coming off back flank, looked pretty good. Jonty has a real crack, great when ball in air and on ground. Came away feeling super pumped about our future so went and loaded up on merch for Xmas!

 

[Boxo004]

Noone said that, no way?

150% true

 

[Meteoric Rise]

Agree ... But

Dimma dwelt on past glories too much in the end.

He thought another shot was there, when we'd slipped off the peak. TT and Hopper were solid pick ups, but 2 years too late.

However, last year we carefully gutted the squad for picks in a super deep draft, whilst still having a good leadership group. That the list was strong enough to do that is partly to do with Dimma. He instilled fantastic leadership in the group which helped our trades being advantageous (compare with North & Carlton).

So, Dimma was a magician - with his about third game plan. He had to fail and learn. that he did this is evidence of him being smart and self aware (compare to Voss, Lyon etc). But he also got arrogant and self deluded.

Still gave us 3 premierships with a very good, but not great list. So an amazing coach, but with some issues.


Saying al that his arrogance and delusion led directly to last year's wooden spoon and trades, and so possibly the best draft haul of all time. Indirectly he may have set up another dynasty - here's hoping. > Thanks Dimma.

I am probably a bit more forgiving of Hardwick if he misread where our list was after the 2022 season.

What he absolutely never did was unduly sell the future to try to get instant improvement on our list. I don't think the club could have recruited Taranto and Hopper or any equivalents two years earlier. Our salary cap would have been bursting at the seams after the 3 flags, with big back ended lumps due to at least Lynch and Dusty right up until 2025.

You could also forgive Dimma for thinking he had a half decent list when the club's worst result in the last 17 games of 2022 was a 6 point loss. And we came within a kick of winning and away final with novices Gibcus, M Rioli, Cumberland, Sonsie in the finals team with Banks, Brown, Clarke from the 2021 draft to come. And other still young players D Rioli, Balta, Miller, Ross, Baker, Bolton in the team who had peak years ahead.

I do think Dimma may have become a bit arrogant in a way, but not self deluded as you say. It would be extremely difficult not to over-rate yourself after the type of success he had. It was absolutely outrageous level success when you think about a first time coach taking on a laughing stock club.

He left the list in quite healthy shape for a post-dynasty list. To be able to convert Baker, D Rioli and Bolton into all of Smillie, Hotton, Faull, Trainor and part of Grlj was a seriously uncommon luxury. It has meant year one of the rebuild was about the second last year of an almost total rebuild. Without that our rebuild so far would be about Lalor, Sims, Armstrong, Cumming.

The strategy to start collecting surplus speculative key position players also started under Dimma. Tylar Young just netted us pick 31 and Peucker to add to our draft haul. Plenty of other coaches would have demanded from their list manager get me ready made mids at any cost. And so you lose some of these players earlier and you could end up with a Dylan Shiel, Treloar, Tom Mitchell, or O'Meara on the list now but several of those potential guns of the future missing from our list.

I just think a lot of people are looking at Dimma's later years at Richmond completely wrongly and unfairly to him. If he made any errors they were 1-2 in number and not diabolical in nature. You have to focus fully on those things and totally overlook the benefits Richmond is reaping now from not having had a demanding & near-sighted coach prior to the current era, in order to be scornful of Dimma.

 

[Meteoric Rise]

I was there for about 30 mins today. Grlj is super quick and evasive, he was taking opponents on at every opportunity. Looked exciting, was coming off half back flank. Ristezcho (sp?) (the new bloke from Geelong) is hardened and tough and fast. Also coming off back flank, looked pretty good. Jonty has a real crack, great when ball in air and on ground. Came away feeling super pumped about our future so went and loaded up on merch for Xmas!

I see what you did there. Basically inserted "stez" into Richo. It is probably more along the lines of Retschko.

 

[richard parker]

dimma betrayed us when the going got touch. thanks for the 3 prems but he had a team around him. I am not sold on Yze but dont forget what he did, lined up the job well in advance. we move on.

I'm going to focus on the flags

 

[RoaringTiger]

One other thing. Gibcus looked really good. So strong and athletic. Had him, balta and grey in backline. Brown looked fast and good, foot skills very good. Was impressed by Mansell too, hard worker, physical, I can see why he’s picked

 

[captain cotch 9]

How’s Armstrong going? Haven’t heard to much about him

 

[Groupie_]

How’s Armstrong going? Haven’t heard to much about him

hes over the moon