Training Preseason Training Thread - 2026

[Keys]

The below is the OG faux training report from nearly 9 years ago - often imitated but never surpassed

In the absence of Keys I went down for a trundle this morning to check them out on return. Just a few random notes I took down...

• A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat.
• Duggan looked on and was hitting targets left and right. Set for a huge 2017.
• Giles went up against Vardy in the ruck contests and I'd say that Giles has the inside running at the moment.
• Mitchell looked a class above the other midfielders bar Priddis. Just knew how to find the footy and wouldn't miss a target all session. Shuey was very quiet and seemed to be taking direction from Mitchell. Doesn't bode well for his captaincy credentials, maybe he doesn't want the gig?
• Won't say too much about it in case I was just reading too much into it, but Rioli looked as though he'd enjoyed the Christmas break a bit too much. A few of the coaches pulled him aside and they were having quite an animated conversation before Rioli was sent to do laps for the rest of the session. Good news for Le Cras, I suppose.
• Sheed kicked on his right foot for 80% of the session, I reckon. Nice to see players working on their non-preferred so readily.
• Petrie looked like he was doing a great job 'coaching' the younger forwards in between the drills. Darling in particular seemed to be following him around.
• Gee Venables has some skills. He mainly jogged laps before spending the last half hour or so on set shots - curled a few beauties from behind the boundary line at the end for a bit of fun. Hardly saw him miss a kick.
• What interested me the most was that McGovern split his time between the defenders and the forwards, could be seeing a swingman role in 2017. He was his usual dominant self down back in some match simulation drills before going head-to-head with Mackenzie in a forward role.
• Bayok is very fast - Cripps was in most of the drills with him and couldn't keep up.
• Nelson is pale as buggery and still doesn't really have the body shape you'd expect of an AFL player.
• There was a big bloke who pulled up next to me and I could have sworn it was Suma, but I'm sure I was wrong...
• Masto was the player picked to kick the goal at the end today and nailed it. Celebrations were huge.
• No sign of Cole, Parto or Hill. Couldn't tell you why.

Will upload pics later if I have time. Let me know if you have any questions!

You might wonder why I’ve put this up and stickied it

Because this is the standard all copies should be measured against and it’s a reminder of how high the bar was set

And to hopefully discourage sequels.

If you want to have a crack in my absence, go ahead but if it doesn’t equal the standard set (as judged by me), then expect

• A one week threadban for a first offence
• A two week threadban for a second offence
• A one year threadban for a third offence

Actual training reports, minus discussion, can become found here:

Training - Preseason Training Reports -2025/26

This thread has been setup for training reports only and won’t be open for replies Informative reports from the preseason thread will be copied into this thread so posters have access to the quality work from the likes of LittleFires without wading through pages of general posts

www.bigfooty.com

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Cripps, Owies and Graham look to be our first choice small forward setup.

That's pretty dire. Would have to be the worst in the league?

The big issue with it is lack of ground ball prowess/sharking ability and also lack of pace to be able to put pressure on the ball carrier when the ball is coming out of our forward line. And it has been a pretty big issue for us. I would like to see somebody better in those areas in place of either Cripps or Owies.

 

[eaglevision]

The big issue with it is lack of ground ball prowess/sharking ability and also lack of pace to be able to put pressure on the ball carrier when the ball is coming out of our forward line. And it has been a pretty big issue for us. I would like to see somebody better in those areas in place of either Cripps or Owies.

Good observations there. A tall but historically well functioning forward line has meant we’ve put scores up but with teams waltzing the ball out of the backline.

With a shift to scoring chains from defensive half it’s a huge issue, especially when we’re not putting scores on the board.

Williams will help once he develops, as will Champion if he makes it. Really missed a trick not taking Jack Dalton with 34 and trading it to the Hawks instead due to list spots. Runs all day, very good on the ground ball and could have spent time between HFF and bursts in the midfield.

 

[JohnW]

I

Don’t take kindly to my time being wasted through repeated doubling down of incorrect takes and misread posts, then being told I twisted the narrative and the initial claim was never mentioned despite it being in plain sight.

Ironic that you don't like your time wasted lol

 

[WCE777]

Good observations there. A tall but historically well functioning forward line has meant we’ve put scores up but with teams waltzing the ball out of the backline.

With a shift to scoring chains from defensive half it’s a huge issue, especially when we’re not putting scores on the board.

Williams will help once he develops, as will Champion if he makes it. Really missed a trick not taking Jack Dalton with 34 and trading it to the Hawks instead due to list spots. Runs all day, very good on the ground ball and could have spent time between HFF and bursts in the midfield.

Agree its a list need.
I think between T Williams/Champion/Newton/Gross and this years X factor SF NGA's McGlade/Farmer if they make it we will have a decent group to develop and find the best.

Also think S Allen could be another but him and Gross are probably pressure HF's.
If we draft a top 5 mid this year than I see it forcing a few into that HHF role with the likes of Gross/Allen/Newton all being decent through that role.

 

[Wce17]

Bakers little niggles becoming an issue. Might have to miss State of origin game.

Newton mid minutes already is a bit of a surprise

Mentioned in anther post a few days ago that I was expecting to see Newton used in the midfield rotations at some point this season so not surprised. Got a few runs in there in the WAFL games last year & looked good

 

[eaglevision]

Agree its a list need.
I think between T Williams/Champion/Newton/Gross and this years X factor SF NGA's McGlade/Farmer if they make it we will have a decent group to develop and find the best.

Also think S Allen could be another but him and Gross are probably pressure HF's.
If we draft a top 5 mid this year than I see it forcing a few into that HHF role with the likes of Gross/Allen/Newton all being decent through that role.

Dangerous to assume that the decision makers are going to leave list spots for McGlade and Farmer…

Will be interesting to follow the careers of Allen, Dalton and Pou. All athletes and exceptional value in this draft (along with Emmett and Thredgold). We had first pick of the trio, let’s hope we got it right.

 

[RustyShacklefordFalcon]

Mentioned in anther post a few days ago that I was expecting to see Newton used in the midfield rotations at some point this season so not surprised. Got a few runs in there in the WAFL games last year & looked good

Could be the in & under mid we're looking for with the added benefit of having some good goal sense. He's a nuggety liitle f***er.

 

[Deplorable trumpster]

Agree its a list need.
I think between T Williams/Champion/Newton/Gross and this years X factor SF NGA's McGlade/Farmer if they make it we will have a decent group to develop and find the best.

Also think S Allen could be another but him and Gross are probably pressure HF's.
If we draft a top 5 mid this year than I see it forcing a few into that HHF role with the likes of Gross/Allen/Newton all being decent through that role.

Given how little Owies contribrutes defensively in general and offensively at ground level i think he needs to generate 3 goals a game with a combination of direct goals and goal assists to earn his keep. As somebody else mentioned, at least Cripps runs all day up and down the ground which is a way of making a contribution without kicking a goal. I don't have anything against Owies but i just don't think he brings enough to the table to justify being in the 22, especially since he has already hit his ceiling and extra games invested won't yield improvement in output like it might with a 21 year old.

 

[Rowan18]

Today was all about matchsim with three separate blocks of ~20 minute periods interspersed with some skill/ball movement drills capped off by some additional ball movement work in their line groups.

For about 30 players their day was only completed after 15-20 minutes of repeat sprints ranging from 60-85% of full pace under the commands of Phil Merriman

I arrived at 9.40 with the first match sim having already started so don’t know how long they’d been going overall but the session didn’t finish until near on 11.45 - so it was well over 2 hours overall

All of the matchsim work was umpired by two AFL umpires- it’s their preseason as well I guess so it becomes mutually beneficial

The first match sim stanza had teams split into A vs B as has already been noted but was split more evenly for the other two. As far as I could tell these were the AvB splits:

Backs:

A team - Edwards, Young, Ginbey, Hough, Starcevich, Duggan and Baker

B team - Brock, Bazzo, Maric, Dewar, Grego, Lindsay

Mids:

A team - Flynn, Reid, Hewett, McCarthy with Davis and Duursma on the wings

B team - Reid, Kelly, Schoenberg, Robertson with Allan and Hall on the wings

Forwards:

A team - Waterman, Shanahan, Duff-Tytler, Graham, Cripps, Owies and Newton

B team - J Williams, Long, Brockman, Johnston, Macrae, Gross and T Williams

(There were some limited bench rotations as 39 players suited up by my count)

Didn’t play:
• Yeo, Barnett - they did participate in the non-contact drills though
• Allen, B Williams, Rodriguez, Hutchinson all presumably doing their rehab work
• Cole jogged laps with Baker as company for a short period after he left the matchsim early with a possible lower leg injury
• Champion I only noticed for the first time doing the repeat sprints at the end of the session. Don’t recall seeing him during the matchsim or in any of the other drills so he either didn’t do them, was out of my vision if he did or was particularly quiet but I have no idea which

My observations from by limited vantage point:

• Duursma I didn’t notice being quite as prolific as a couple of other reports have suggested but still liked what he did
• Waterman was dominant early with 4 goals opposed to Maric and Brock. The first three were from either contested marks or on the lead. The fourth was from a free kick in a marking contest near the goal square
• Lindsay’s kicking remains a weapon and he’d be a good chance to fill any vacancy that opens up in our preferred defensive 7
• Hewett was busy at the coal face and seems to be playing a more inside focused role
• Reid is playing as the deepest forward quite regularly - unsure if that’s a deliberate strategy going forward or just a mechanism to manage his training loads. Perhaps both
• Kelly, had some good moments including a nice centre clearance that set up Schoenberg for a running shot at goal from the 50 which hit the post
• Duggan looked like pushing up from HB into the midfield and might have attended a least one centre bounce but I’m not certain of that
• Cripps, Owies and Graham look to be our first choice small forward setup. Owies, in particular has had a good first week back whilst Graham was used as part of the midfield rotation
• McCarthy loves a run and bounce and also has a somewhat unpredictable change of direction which should be a useful addition to our midfield ball movement
• Hough continues to just get shit done with a minimum of fuss. Seems like for now they’re going to keep him as a permanent defender. Happy with that
• Young played with a pink fluorescent hat which I presume meant no contact
• CDT is playing as a 3rd tall but wasn’t as impactful today as previous
• Archer played ruck in the first period opposed to Flynn before being used as a KPF later on. Was shaded by Flynn in the ruck but had a good presence playing up forward. Would be the favourite for the backup ruck position at the moment
• Flynn had a pretty decent hitout overall including a couple of nice marks around the ground
• Jack Williams went into the ruck after the first period and is looking fitter but remains a depth player for now
• Shanahan had a couple of nice involvements early but was relatively quiet thereafter albeit he was at the far end from my position for the second and third periods so was difficult to spot
• Tylah Williams has a nice left foot on him and moves well. Won’t be R1 but he’ll get some game time later in the year
• Newton was lively up forward and didn’t look out of place when shifted into the middle at stages. Would be leading the race for the final small forward spot behind the Cripps, Owies, Graham trio

Noted that the final period of matchsim ended with a 2 minutes left scenario with one team leading by 3 points followed by another 5 minutes left with the other team leading by 9 points as they practiced chasing/defending a win late in the game. Both periods had the clock stopped for time on as a normal game would - usually the clock just continues to count down

McQualter was again pretty vocal during the session and there was quite a bit of players yelling out code words for a particular play depending on the situation

Best play of the day was from the B team taking the ball from D50 down the wing for a goal. Started with Dewar making a nice 50m pass to Schoenberg who dropped a mark he probably should’ve taken but had Allan running in support who gathered before another long pass to a leading Jack Williams who played on quickly to hit up Tylah Williams who ran into an open goal. It was the highlight of a day where the ball movement was a bit cleaner than it had been on Monday

Now all of the above said, and as an antidote to my somewhat rose coloured view, there were a couple of other older gents watching nearby who were audibly unimpressed at regular intervals during matchsim- to the point that as they departed asked if I was putting money on us for the spoon.

(If either of that pair post here, I’d love to hear your thoughts)

Thanks mate, I really appreciate you documenting the sessions!

How is Dev Rob going? I'm really hoping he will be useful mid depth (like Hutchings was when he played) - did he do anything noticeable?

 

[RanaNaved]

Hewett, Duursma & Reid, all capable of hitting the scoreboard from the middle is going to be quite fun to watch in the coming years. McCarthy also seems very offensively driven too. Such a contrast to our midfield of the last decade or so, albeit we had a better forward line to kick to then.

Nice to hear that Newton played well. I’d heard that Norwood were quite upset to lose him mid year and I think you can see why. Think he will surprise a few this year.

Dangerous to assume that the decision makers are going to leave list spots for McGlade and Farmer…

Will be interesting to follow the careers of Allen, Dalton and Pou. All athletes and exceptional value in this draft (along with Emmett and Thredgold). We had first pick of the trio, let’s hope we got it right.

If they rate them highly enough they will....don't think they'll be as good as people are hoping though

 

[eaglevision]

If they rate them highly enough they will....don't think they'll be as good as people are hoping though

Here’s the issue. At least one other club rated one of our NGAs as the 38th best player in the draft, another was rated 41st. 28th and 30th when you narrow that to the open pool. We rated them as rookie selections at best even when Cripps and Cole gave us an easy avenue to select either or both of them in the draft. We’ll only know who is right in several years time but Geelong and Lawson Humphries have already pulled out pants down.

In saying that I do agree that we tend to over rate our NGAs.

 

[bzparkes]

Here’s the issue. At least one other club rated one of our NGAs as the 38th best player in the draft, another was rated 41st. 28th and 30th when you narrow that to the open pool. We rated them as rookie selections at best even when Cripps and Cole gave us an easy avenue to select either or both of them in the draft. We’ll only know who is right in several years time but Geelong and Lawson Humphries have already pulled out pants down.

In saying that I do agree that we tend to over rate our NGAs.

Not sure the Humphries comparison is entirely relevant, tbh.

He went undrafted then missed the next 2(?)

The new rules around retaining NGA player until they're 21 will help prevent late bloomers going to other sides, hopefully.

 

[eaglevision]

Not sure the Humphries comparison is entirely relevant, tbh.

He went undrafted then missed the next 2(?)

The new rules around retaining NGA player until they're 21 will help prevent late bloomers going to other sides, hopefully.

He did, but still under our noses more than any other club with far more insight than any other club yet Geelong saw something that we couldn’t see.

I expect St Kilda to do the same from the last draft with Banfield. Evans will either be delisted in two years or be a very good player, I don’t think there’s any middle ground with him.

 

[Wce17]

Here’s the issue. At least one other club rated one of our NGAs as the 38th best player in the draft, another was rated 41st. 28th and 30th when you narrow that to the open pool. We rated them as rookie selections at best even when Cripps and Cole gave us an easy avenue to select either or both of them in the draft. We’ll only know who is right in several years time but Geelong and Lawson Humphries have already pulled out pants down.

In saying that I do agree that we tend to over rate our NGAs.

Humpries has come out and said eagles where right not to draft him at the time as he wasn't taking footy seriously so you can hardly call that a miss & blame it on the club.

https://thewest.com.au/stories/i-didnt-deserve-to-be-drafted-by-eagles-says-breakout-cat/

 

[WCE777]

Not sure the Humphries comparison is entirely relevant, tbh.

He went undrafted then missed the next 2(?)

The new rules around retaining NGA player until they're 21 will help prevent late bloomers going to other sides, hopefully.

agree, the Humphries comparison in real terms is like you mentioned.
Went undrafted for 3 years, said himself he wasn't ready to be drafted and wasn't professional enough.
The new NGA rules will make a massive difference to NGA players who have high upside and later maturing, best move by the AFL in years for clubs to retain talent they have developed.

 

[eaglevision]

Humpries has come out and said eagles where right not to draft him at the time as he wasn't taking footy seriously so you can hardly call that a miss & blame it on the club.

https://thewest.com.au/stories/i-didnt-deserve-to-be-drafted-by-eagles-says-breakout-cat/

Right so that accounts for 2021 if we take Lawson’s appraisal of his own ability as gospel.

We still didn’t draft him in 2023 when he was taken at pick 63. Club could have easily made that happen even though he was no longer tied to us. As I said, Geelong saw something we didn’t. They have benefited and we missed out despite having the benefit of him being a previous member of our NGA and playing under our noses the whole time.

 

[Astro7]

'Newton played the final two games of last season as a small forward and while he started out of the goalsquare( at training), he was part of a rotation with superstar Harley Reid that could be part of a new role for the 19-year-old...'

This preseason and boosted player list promised to deliver some surprises. The above is an early one (realising it's early days and nothing set in stone). Was hoping Newton might liven up the forward line, but good to see we have options. The choice of Cripps, Owies and Graham is a little underwhelming, although Owies may yet improve on last year. Still have options to rotate others through there.

Duursma and Davis on wings sounds good with CDT down front.
Twilliams and Lindsey impressing early.
If Hall slides to Beagles, it's a good thing for depth and pressure.
Interesting to see Gross as forward in the B's, a good spot for him in the A-team (when he makes it), would suit him.
Kelly might look an improved player this season, with better players around him?

 

[PepperTom32]

Given how little Owies contribrutes defensively in general and offensively at ground level i think he needs to generate 3 goals a game with a combination of direct goals and goal assists to earn his keep. As somebody else mentioned, at least Cripps runs all day up and down the ground which is a way of making a contribution without kicking a goal. I don't have anything against Owies but i just don't think he brings enough to the table to justify being in the 22, especially since he has already hit his ceiling and extra games invested won't yield improvement in output like it might with a 21 year old.

It was such an energy sapper when he continuously missed his set shots.

 

[bzparkes]

Be nice if WCE gave us some tidbits like this.

Culley dominating also

 

[squashface]

Be nice if WCE gave us some tidbits like this.

Culley dominating also

Culley has always been good on the track.

I remember one preseason here he was the second coming of Judd in some of the training reports. Season hits and he’s just a slow midfielder or decent third tall at the end of the day.

 

[bzparkes]

Culley has always been good on the track.

I remember one preseason here he was the second coming of Judd in some of the training reports. Season hits and he’s just a slow midfielder or decent third tall at the end of the day.

Yeah, I was thinking about that while watching. Amazing trainer but a bit slow.

Hope he does well though. Always liked him.

 

[Matera92]

The big issue is they are all kinda shit.

EFA.

 

[bzparkes]

He did, but still under our noses more than any other club with far more insight than any other club yet Geelong saw something that we couldn’t see.

I expect St Kilda to do the same from the last draft with Banfield. Evans will either be delisted in two years or be a very good player, I don’t think there’s any middle ground with him.

i think it's more Geelong's ability to identify mature players who fit into their system more than anything.

Something all clubs should aspire to but certainly something Geelong, and especially Stephen Wells, have seem to have come close to perfecting.

Funny thing is it seems simple to draft really good state level players but rarely does it happen.

I hope McCarthy's form once he entered the AFL makes WCE seriously take note.

 

[juice568]

i think it's more Geelong's ability to identify mature players who fit into their system more than anything.

Something all clubs should aspire to but certainly something Geelong, and especially Stephen Wells, have seem to have come close to perfecting.

Funny thing is it seems simple to draft really good state level players but rarely does it happen.

I hope McCarthy's form once he entered the AFL makes WCE seriously take note.

It rarely happens because most state league players are there for a reason. Connor west and greg clarke

 

[Elite Pete]

Culley has always been good on the track.

I remember one preseason here he was the second coming of Judd in some of the training reports. Season hits and he’s just a slow midfielder or decent third tall at the end of the day.

He also ‘dominated’ last off-season as a train on where Ox said he’d did the Eagles let him go. Melbourne then opened up a list spot and went Henderson instead it wasn’t until they got another injury and the AFL bent the rules for them and Carlton they added him to the list.

Had an injury early last year from memory but was only ok at VFL level and looked ok at afl level. Hopefully for him it clicks. (Even if Eagles BF blows up while he does it)

Agreed our SM content has gone backwards this pre season. We at least got Mini snippets last off-season season ect