-
Guest - BigFooty Tipping 2026 - Get on! - $500 first prize - Weekly Prizes - Click to Join
PLUS Your club board comp is now up!
-
Weekly Prize - Join Any Time - Tip Opening Round
The Golden Ticket - Official AFL on-seller of MCG and Marvel Medallion Club tickets and Corporate Box tickets at the Gabba, MCG and Marvel.
Bigman’s Training Reports (Update: 9th Feb)
- Thread starter bigman
- Start date
- Tagged users None
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2007
- Posts
- 10,734
- Reaction score
- 18,516
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
Full schedule: All the details for every pre-season game
See the full details of all the pre-season games ahead of the start of the 2026 premiership season
www.afl.com.au
Thank you for not using the wanky term, 'match simulation'.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2022
- Posts
- 1,215
- Reaction score
- 3,982
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
List management quote was on rucks only where we have been negligent not developing.
FWIW in today’s match sim report trialling the new rules Taylor Goad “broke even” in a ruck dual with Xerri
and Cooper Trembath pantsed Jack Darling showing his “deceptive leap” . @ NMFC.
We have Rob who can not jump and I am happy to say is in absolute trouble , McAndrew who hasn’t played a game for us
and Moose who they let go.
Reckon I know who I would prefer but am hoping like hell I am surprised
Log in to remove this Banner Ad
Brenton Davy
Premium Gold
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2007
- Posts
- 19,439
- Reaction score
- 22,432
- Location
- Athelstone
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- North Adelaide, The EXERS!
Take your time man. We can wait.
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2019
- Posts
- 45,241
- Reaction score
- 76,157
- Location
- Victorian Central Highlands
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Panthers, GWV Rebels, Central Augusta
I don't know how close you've watched McAndrew in the SANFL but he's not exactly a spring-heeled Jack either, his asset is his 210cm not his leap. One things almost certain his endurance won't match that of ROB.
It's still concerning ROB is losing to a SANFL level ruck.
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2022
- Posts
- 1,215
- Reaction score
- 3,982
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
Then we are in deeper s#it than I thought.
edit : My comments are not a personal attack on ROB at all and it’s not a competition between him and anyone else on
our current list. It’s just how I see the entire game going this year and have him and Witts being the most affected .
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2019
- Posts
- 45,241
- Reaction score
- 76,157
- Location
- Victorian Central Highlands
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Panthers, GWV Rebels, Central Augusta
Hey don't take it up with me, take it up with list management, I don't think there's been a draft in the last decade that I didn't put forward young rucks we should be developing, you know like local lads Rohan Marshall, Lloyd Meek etc...
My view is we should have put the Edwards and Ryan picks together to make sure we got Goad.
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2019
- Posts
- 45,241
- Reaction score
- 76,157
- Location
- Victorian Central Highlands
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Panthers, GWV Rebels, Central Augusta
Still had to find a buyer, there's no guarantees.
This next draft has 3 outstanding prospects at least, SA lad Ethan Herbert is a gun in waiting IMO (and he has excellent hops), then there's WA Benji Van Rooyen and Victorian Harry Van Hattum.
- Joined
- May 31, 2023
- Posts
- 744
- Reaction score
- 1,578
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Tasmania
Training 30/01/26
New
- Thread starter
- #8,638
Three quarters of a scratch match today, so things are getting real. I’ll post a detailed summary soon, but firstly I’ll list who trained and who didn’t.
Thilthorpe went off in the second quarter of match sim after copping a knee to the lower back. Hopefully nothing serious like rib or organ damage. He ran off reasonably quickly which should be a good sign. Been a bit in the wars lately has Filthy.
Nankervis played the match sim, alleviating concerns about his back tightness. However, Soligo spent his entire session running and nothing else. It’s a lot more than he did Wednesday, when he just walked, but I hope it’s something small and not a groin issue like he’s had in the past. He didn’t seem to be in much discomfort though.
Milera and Ludowyke did a heap of running on the sidelines. Ludo actually ended up playing two quarters of match sim, but Milera did not participate. Gonna assume he’s just a bit sore.
Draper stepped it up a little with his rehab. Not only was he out there for a fair while, but they were pushing him pretty hard - he looked pretty knackered at times with all the running. It was also good to see him do the warm-up skills drills with the boys. Very simplistic stuff (handballs in tight, stoppage positioning) but it’s far and above what I was seeing pre-Christmas. Fingers crossed he keeps improving.
Ryan was a complete no-show, but so was Worrell last session and he was back today. I’ve learnt to only worry when the player is actually there but not training at all.
Curtin was there to watch the boys. As was Balmey.
Ok, so the match sim. Three quarters, 20 minutes each (plus time on). Worth noting there were field and (for the first time) boundary umpires present.
Q1 was basically A’s vs B’s. Q2 was almost identical save for a couple of positional swaps. Q3 saw a lot more changes, all of which I’ll detail below. Note - the club didn’t show the Q1 team on the big screen, so I’ll give my version of what it looked like (the names are all correct I can assure you).
Q1 - Teams
Blue
FB: Bond Keane Worrell
HB: Laird Butts Hinge
_C: Jones Dawson Cumming
HF: Ah Chee Walker Rankine
FF: N-Bullen Fogarty Thilthorpe
_R: O’Brien Berry Rachele
IN: Keays Pedlar Peatling Cook
Yellow
FB: Michalanney Borlase Bell
HB: Nankervis Murray Drury
_C: Sholl Dowling Marsh
HF: Cotton Welsh Foot
FF: Murray Maley Strachan
_R: McAndrew Edwards Taylor
IN: McGuane Atkinson Crane McDonald Taheny
Q1 - Goals
Blue: Dawson, Walker, Jones, Rachele, Pedlar
Yellow: None
Q1 - CBAs (out of six)
O’Brien, Dawson, Taylor - 6
McAndrew, Dowling - 5
Berry, Foot - 4
Rachele, Peatling, Edwards - 3
Rankine - 2
T. Murray - 1
Q2 - Teams
Blue
FB: Bond Keane Worrell
HB: Laird Butts Hinge
_C: Jones Rachele Cumming
HF: N-Bullen Walker Rankine
FF: Keays Fogarty Thilthorpe
_R: O’Brien Berry Peatling
IN: Ah Chee Pedlar Dawson Cook
Yellow
FB: Michalanney Borlase Bell
HB: Nankervis Murray Drury
_C: Sholl Dowling Marsh
HF: Cotton Welsh Taylor
FF: Murray Maley Strachan
_R: McAndrew Edwards Foot
IN: Ludowyke McGuane Atkinson Taheny McDonald Crane
Q2 - Goals
Blue: Walker, Keays, Rachele
Yellow: Nankervis, Strachan
Q2 - CBAs (out of six)
O’Brien, McAndrew, Edwards - 6
Peatling, Foot - 5
Rachele, Berry, Rankine, Dowling - 4
Taylor - 3
Dawson - 1
Q3 - Teams
Blue
FB: Michalanney Butts Bell
HB: Drury Murray Hinge
_C: Cumming Dawson N-Bullen
HF: Ah Chee Walker Rankine
FF: Pedlar Fogarty T.Murray
_R: McAndrew Berry Rachele
IN: Keays Atkinson Peatling Crane
Yellow
FB: Nankervis Keane Worrell
HB: Laird Borlase Cook
_C: Jones Dowling Sholl
HF: Cotton Welsh Foot
FF: Marsh Maley Strachan
_R: O’Brien Edwards Taylor
IN: Bond Ludowyke McGuane Taheny McDonald
(This ended up changing, as Cotton and Ludowyke ended up switching to the Blue side during the quarter. Hard to tell who exactly for).
Q3 - Goals
Blue: Rachele 2, Dawson 2, Rankine, Neal-Bullen, Ludowyke, Keays, Pedlar
Yellow: Maley 2, Taylor
Q3 - CBAs (out of 12)
O’Brien, Dowling - 11
McAndrew, Peatling, Edwards, Foot - 10
Rachele - 9
Dawson - 8
Berry - 7
Taylor - 5
T.Murray, Rankine - 2
Maley - 1
Alright, there’s the numbers out of the way. Now on to the match itself.
My takeaway at this stage is that we are moving the ball shorter and more precise out of defence compared to last year. There seems to be considerably less long kicks to contests. We are backing in our defenders to hit targets with precision, and if an option doesn’t present, we definitely tend to shift sideways to open up the field and find another way through. At times I thought it was a bit overboard to be honest.
Comparatively, once we hit the middle third of the ground we seem to switch gears and become more dynamic. Not to say it’s gung-ho through the corridor each time, but there’s more dash, handball receives, cutting angles and getting it in quick to our forwards.
Did the rules make much difference? Well, there were at least two 50m penalties for the stand rule. I’ll also note that the lasso rule does change things slightly but there is a unique by-product: players become desperate to touch an errant ball before it goes out of bounds, so as not to concede a free. There were a few times it was borderline deliberate, and I think the AFL may need to crack down on this.
As for the ruck, McAndrew beat ROB again. At centre bounce, I counted 16 hit-outs to McAndrew versus ROB’s five, and three of O’Brien’s were against the relief ruck in Toby Murray.
Around the ground it was a bit different. McAndrew appeared to have a slight edge at boundary throw-ins, while ROB seemed slightly superior at ball-ups.
Overall it’s a significant concern and I wonder whether the coaches have it in them to acknowledge reality and make a switch. It would be a bit different if ROB was monstering him around the ground, but McAndrew found more of the pill today and his follow up work was better.
How will McAndrew go against the best rucks? He may struggle, particularly with the running side of things, but ROB is basically conceding centre bounce each time at the moment. Is that what we really want?
As for the standout, it was Rachele as I’m sure many of you have already heard. Four goals from the midfield is no small feat. I will note however that his actual inside work was just decent - Berry was definitely superior in this regard. But in terms of around the ground work and overall impact, it was Rash’s day.
I’ll discuss a bunch more players:
1. Jones - very tidy first term, kicking a snap goal and using the ball well on the wing. Fell out of it a bit as the game wore on. Personally I prefer others, but he seems to be in round one contention based on his continual selection in the A team.
2. Keays - bit better today, kicking two snags in relatively limited game time. Laid a great tackle on Dowling which was paid holding the ball. Still looks slightly short of a gallop, but thankfully has a bit more time to sharpen up.
3. Berry - I know he has his detractors, but he was great today in the absence of Soligo. I thought he was the most dominant inside midfielder on the ground. Also set up several goals with good ball use (there were still one or two shanks in the bunch) and broke the lines several times. It’s worth remembering he was not exactly up against the cream of the crop. He needs to do it against the best in the league.
4. Ah Chee - quiet today but whenever he gets it he rarely coughs it up, even under immense pressure. Game time seemed quite limited.
7. Thilthorpe - won’t lie, prior to the injury he was having a mare with his ball judgement. Just kept running under it like he used to in his early days. That said, he did have one great moment where he took a half-volley super clean, immediately turned and speared a perfect left-foot kick inside 50 to Pedlar. Otherwise a day to forget.
9. Murray - was up against the big boys and did pretty well. It’s always a bit harder to judge key defenders at training unless they’re getting slaughtered, but he looked pretty agile and was typically competitive.
10. Pedlar - pretty quiet for the most part but did manage to nab two goals. The latter was from a great moment where Keane tried to step around him only to get absolutely nailed holding the ball, to much applause from the boys. Seems to be low numbers/high impact at the moment, very much a pressure forward.
11. Edwards - first two quarters I was disappointed. He was getting bulk midfield minutes but the large majority of his possessions were easy outside ball. If that’s going to be the case, he might as well just play half back. Thankfully, however, he found his groove in the third term and won some genuine hard ball including multiple centre clearances. He does slam the ball on the boot a bit much at stoppage - he looks much better using his size to feed players by hand. In transition he was typically good, aside from a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers. Encouraging, but there’s a way to go yet.
12. Dawson - played mostly forward in the second term, but actually kicked his three goals from the midfield. Inside work was a bit down on what we saw last year, but the rest was typical Dawson.
13. Walker - occasionally just doesn’t have quite the pace to get to a ball that’s falling short, and doesn’t seem keen on testing his strings with a diving mark either. Still kicked the two goals despite resting up a lot in the third term. Ok without being great.
15. Cook - bit more prolific than last week. Found some easy ball and you want the pill in his hands, such is his ability to hit targets (and not just easy ones). Floated in for a nice intercept grab. Still feeling his way into the role but I like what I’m seeing. And I think the coaches are too.
16. Michalanney - finally looked more like himself today. Worked hard up the ground and used his pace more. He’s not a vanilla player so it was good to see him show some pizzazz again. Still a few weeks away from hitting his stride I reckon.
17. Welsh - got most of his limited ball pushing up the ground to half back. I liked his energy and newfound work rate, though it was a pretty lean day overall. Tough for forwards in the B side.
19. Taylor - played a lot of midfield despite barely training there, and I thought he mostly took his chance. Won a number of clearances both in the middle and around the ground, plus also kicked a goal and set up Maley’s first. His hands were typically clean and his movement in traffic was all class. Just needs to get more ball as he’s more of a highlights man at present.
20. Hinge -seriously strong lad these days, very hard to bring down especially for the younger players. Overall though I wasn’t particularly impressed - I thought Cook was the better of the two today.
21. Bond - had a fair bit of ball early but ball use was a bit iffy. Fell out of it a bit and I didn’t really sight him in the last term, but thankfully he wasn’t injured. Needs to do a bit more as there are many vying for limited spots.
23. Rankine - just seems a touch off and I’m putting it down to his recent knee injury. He still had strapping on it and just wasn’t quite as quick or dynamic as usual. Wasn’t bad, just not typical Izak.
24. Worrell - solid today, particularly in the first term where he found a heap of it roaming around the backline. Intercept work was a bit down - most of his touches were uncontested. Seems to be (alongside Keane) taking most kick-outs.
25. Peatling - ok without being outstanding. Ball use was good and won some hard ball, but Berry was definitely the better of the two today.
26. Marsh - super quiet and I thought he just looked a bit flat. Might need a small rest.
27. Nankervis - good to see him back (no pun intended) from injury, albeit in the B side. Had a couple of nice intercept marks but you could tell he wasn’t quite at his best; not many bursts of speed and got caught by Nibbler on one occasion. Hopefully better for the run.
31. Dowling - good again today. Won the very first centre clearance where he took the ball at speed (courtesy of a perfect McAndrew tap) and delivered beautifully to Strachan inside 50. Continued to get plenty of it, including a number of clearances, though some of his use by foot was ordinary. Liking his evolution at present even if he doesn’t seem to be in favour with the coaches.
32. Fogarty - played very deep. Personally I prefer when he gets on his bike up the ground. I suspect his conditioning is still a bit under his usual level. Hopefully he can bridge that gap before the season starts, as he’s just not quite getting involved enough.
33. Cotton - think he touched it once. Was interesting seeing him move into defence late. I think that (or wing) would be the best way to go. Get him into it and feeling good about himself.
34. Ludowyke - dropped an absolute sitter at half forward in the second term, but had some nice moments in the third including a long range goal. His hands (and confidence in them) are his main weakness. Fix that and we have a player. Easier said than done, of course.
35. Borlase - much better today after having a mare last week. Took multiple intercept grabs and 1v1 work was good. Still pure depth but good to see him respond.
36. Maley - it’s hard not to like this guy. His commitment to the ball in the air is truly excellent. Even though his hands were a bit off early on, I still enjoyed his willingness to jump and compete. It’s something we’ve barely had in recent decades. He started clunking them after quarter time and actually converted his two shots on goal, one of which was near the boundary from 50m out. You won’t get polish but you will get a genuine marking option.
39. Murray - only ok but was interesting to see him do a bit of ruck work. Got beaten in the centre but tapped nicely to Keays for a goal from a boundary throw-in. As a key forward it does feel like Maley has taken some of his shine compared to last pre-season, however.
40. McGuane - had a couple of nice kicks but otherwise failed to have much of an impact. Is getting no midfield time which is interesting (and makes it tough for him to impress).
44. Cumming - liked his game. Floated into defence quite often which is where he does his best work. Not prominent, but was pretty sharp today.
47. Foot - got a lot of midfield time and was decent enough. Didn’t see as much burst speed from him as I would’ve liked, but he often got involved as a link in the chain out of stoppage. Had one sublime kick inside 50 which set up Taylor’s goal. I’ll give him a tick but I still want more.
48. Keane - despite a couple of poor errors (including the aforementioned tackle by Pedlar) he was our best defender today. Took multiple intercept marks, two of which were in packs where everyone collapsed but him. Just has such soft hands.
The lads finished off with the session with about 20 minutes of repeat running. At this point the temperature was getting to the mid 30s, so safe to say the new Irish fellow is not coddling our lads.
Having some difficulties with bigfooty at the moment so I haven’t been able to answer some questions. Apologies for that, hopefully today’s report provided some clarity.
Thilthorpe went off in the second quarter of match sim after copping a knee to the lower back. Hopefully nothing serious like rib or organ damage. He ran off reasonably quickly which should be a good sign. Been a bit in the wars lately has Filthy.
Nankervis played the match sim, alleviating concerns about his back tightness. However, Soligo spent his entire session running and nothing else. It’s a lot more than he did Wednesday, when he just walked, but I hope it’s something small and not a groin issue like he’s had in the past. He didn’t seem to be in much discomfort though.
Milera and Ludowyke did a heap of running on the sidelines. Ludo actually ended up playing two quarters of match sim, but Milera did not participate. Gonna assume he’s just a bit sore.
Draper stepped it up a little with his rehab. Not only was he out there for a fair while, but they were pushing him pretty hard - he looked pretty knackered at times with all the running. It was also good to see him do the warm-up skills drills with the boys. Very simplistic stuff (handballs in tight, stoppage positioning) but it’s far and above what I was seeing pre-Christmas. Fingers crossed he keeps improving.
Ryan was a complete no-show, but so was Worrell last session and he was back today. I’ve learnt to only worry when the player is actually there but not training at all.
Curtin was there to watch the boys. As was Balmey.
Ok, so the match sim. Three quarters, 20 minutes each (plus time on). Worth noting there were field and (for the first time) boundary umpires present.
Q1 was basically A’s vs B’s. Q2 was almost identical save for a couple of positional swaps. Q3 saw a lot more changes, all of which I’ll detail below. Note - the club didn’t show the Q1 team on the big screen, so I’ll give my version of what it looked like (the names are all correct I can assure you).
Q1 - Teams
Blue
FB: Bond Keane Worrell
HB: Laird Butts Hinge
_C: Jones Dawson Cumming
HF: Ah Chee Walker Rankine
FF: N-Bullen Fogarty Thilthorpe
_R: O’Brien Berry Rachele
IN: Keays Pedlar Peatling Cook
Yellow
FB: Michalanney Borlase Bell
HB: Nankervis Murray Drury
_C: Sholl Dowling Marsh
HF: Cotton Welsh Foot
FF: Murray Maley Strachan
_R: McAndrew Edwards Taylor
IN: McGuane Atkinson Crane McDonald Taheny
Q1 - Goals
Blue: Dawson, Walker, Jones, Rachele, Pedlar
Yellow: None
Q1 - CBAs (out of six)
O’Brien, Dawson, Taylor - 6
McAndrew, Dowling - 5
Berry, Foot - 4
Rachele, Peatling, Edwards - 3
Rankine - 2
T. Murray - 1
Q2 - Teams
Blue
FB: Bond Keane Worrell
HB: Laird Butts Hinge
_C: Jones Rachele Cumming
HF: N-Bullen Walker Rankine
FF: Keays Fogarty Thilthorpe
_R: O’Brien Berry Peatling
IN: Ah Chee Pedlar Dawson Cook
Yellow
FB: Michalanney Borlase Bell
HB: Nankervis Murray Drury
_C: Sholl Dowling Marsh
HF: Cotton Welsh Taylor
FF: Murray Maley Strachan
_R: McAndrew Edwards Foot
IN: Ludowyke McGuane Atkinson Taheny McDonald Crane
Q2 - Goals
Blue: Walker, Keays, Rachele
Yellow: Nankervis, Strachan
Q2 - CBAs (out of six)
O’Brien, McAndrew, Edwards - 6
Peatling, Foot - 5
Rachele, Berry, Rankine, Dowling - 4
Taylor - 3
Dawson - 1
Q3 - Teams
Blue
FB: Michalanney Butts Bell
HB: Drury Murray Hinge
_C: Cumming Dawson N-Bullen
HF: Ah Chee Walker Rankine
FF: Pedlar Fogarty T.Murray
_R: McAndrew Berry Rachele
IN: Keays Atkinson Peatling Crane
Yellow
FB: Nankervis Keane Worrell
HB: Laird Borlase Cook
_C: Jones Dowling Sholl
HF: Cotton Welsh Foot
FF: Marsh Maley Strachan
_R: O’Brien Edwards Taylor
IN: Bond Ludowyke McGuane Taheny McDonald
(This ended up changing, as Cotton and Ludowyke ended up switching to the Blue side during the quarter. Hard to tell who exactly for).
Q3 - Goals
Blue: Rachele 2, Dawson 2, Rankine, Neal-Bullen, Ludowyke, Keays, Pedlar
Yellow: Maley 2, Taylor
Q3 - CBAs (out of 12)
O’Brien, Dowling - 11
McAndrew, Peatling, Edwards, Foot - 10
Rachele - 9
Dawson - 8
Berry - 7
Taylor - 5
T.Murray, Rankine - 2
Maley - 1
Alright, there’s the numbers out of the way. Now on to the match itself.
My takeaway at this stage is that we are moving the ball shorter and more precise out of defence compared to last year. There seems to be considerably less long kicks to contests. We are backing in our defenders to hit targets with precision, and if an option doesn’t present, we definitely tend to shift sideways to open up the field and find another way through. At times I thought it was a bit overboard to be honest.
Comparatively, once we hit the middle third of the ground we seem to switch gears and become more dynamic. Not to say it’s gung-ho through the corridor each time, but there’s more dash, handball receives, cutting angles and getting it in quick to our forwards.
Did the rules make much difference? Well, there were at least two 50m penalties for the stand rule. I’ll also note that the lasso rule does change things slightly but there is a unique by-product: players become desperate to touch an errant ball before it goes out of bounds, so as not to concede a free. There were a few times it was borderline deliberate, and I think the AFL may need to crack down on this.
As for the ruck, McAndrew beat ROB again. At centre bounce, I counted 16 hit-outs to McAndrew versus ROB’s five, and three of O’Brien’s were against the relief ruck in Toby Murray.
Around the ground it was a bit different. McAndrew appeared to have a slight edge at boundary throw-ins, while ROB seemed slightly superior at ball-ups.
Overall it’s a significant concern and I wonder whether the coaches have it in them to acknowledge reality and make a switch. It would be a bit different if ROB was monstering him around the ground, but McAndrew found more of the pill today and his follow up work was better.
How will McAndrew go against the best rucks? He may struggle, particularly with the running side of things, but ROB is basically conceding centre bounce each time at the moment. Is that what we really want?
As for the standout, it was Rachele as I’m sure many of you have already heard. Four goals from the midfield is no small feat. I will note however that his actual inside work was just decent - Berry was definitely superior in this regard. But in terms of around the ground work and overall impact, it was Rash’s day.
I’ll discuss a bunch more players:
1. Jones - very tidy first term, kicking a snap goal and using the ball well on the wing. Fell out of it a bit as the game wore on. Personally I prefer others, but he seems to be in round one contention based on his continual selection in the A team.
2. Keays - bit better today, kicking two snags in relatively limited game time. Laid a great tackle on Dowling which was paid holding the ball. Still looks slightly short of a gallop, but thankfully has a bit more time to sharpen up.
3. Berry - I know he has his detractors, but he was great today in the absence of Soligo. I thought he was the most dominant inside midfielder on the ground. Also set up several goals with good ball use (there were still one or two shanks in the bunch) and broke the lines several times. It’s worth remembering he was not exactly up against the cream of the crop. He needs to do it against the best in the league.
4. Ah Chee - quiet today but whenever he gets it he rarely coughs it up, even under immense pressure. Game time seemed quite limited.
7. Thilthorpe - won’t lie, prior to the injury he was having a mare with his ball judgement. Just kept running under it like he used to in his early days. That said, he did have one great moment where he took a half-volley super clean, immediately turned and speared a perfect left-foot kick inside 50 to Pedlar. Otherwise a day to forget.
9. Murray - was up against the big boys and did pretty well. It’s always a bit harder to judge key defenders at training unless they’re getting slaughtered, but he looked pretty agile and was typically competitive.
10. Pedlar - pretty quiet for the most part but did manage to nab two goals. The latter was from a great moment where Keane tried to step around him only to get absolutely nailed holding the ball, to much applause from the boys. Seems to be low numbers/high impact at the moment, very much a pressure forward.
11. Edwards - first two quarters I was disappointed. He was getting bulk midfield minutes but the large majority of his possessions were easy outside ball. If that’s going to be the case, he might as well just play half back. Thankfully, however, he found his groove in the third term and won some genuine hard ball including multiple centre clearances. He does slam the ball on the boot a bit much at stoppage - he looks much better using his size to feed players by hand. In transition he was typically good, aside from a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers. Encouraging, but there’s a way to go yet.
12. Dawson - played mostly forward in the second term, but actually kicked his three goals from the midfield. Inside work was a bit down on what we saw last year, but the rest was typical Dawson.
13. Walker - occasionally just doesn’t have quite the pace to get to a ball that’s falling short, and doesn’t seem keen on testing his strings with a diving mark either. Still kicked the two goals despite resting up a lot in the third term. Ok without being great.
15. Cook - bit more prolific than last week. Found some easy ball and you want the pill in his hands, such is his ability to hit targets (and not just easy ones). Floated in for a nice intercept grab. Still feeling his way into the role but I like what I’m seeing. And I think the coaches are too.
16. Michalanney - finally looked more like himself today. Worked hard up the ground and used his pace more. He’s not a vanilla player so it was good to see him show some pizzazz again. Still a few weeks away from hitting his stride I reckon.
17. Welsh - got most of his limited ball pushing up the ground to half back. I liked his energy and newfound work rate, though it was a pretty lean day overall. Tough for forwards in the B side.
19. Taylor - played a lot of midfield despite barely training there, and I thought he mostly took his chance. Won a number of clearances both in the middle and around the ground, plus also kicked a goal and set up Maley’s first. His hands were typically clean and his movement in traffic was all class. Just needs to get more ball as he’s more of a highlights man at present.
20. Hinge -seriously strong lad these days, very hard to bring down especially for the younger players. Overall though I wasn’t particularly impressed - I thought Cook was the better of the two today.
21. Bond - had a fair bit of ball early but ball use was a bit iffy. Fell out of it a bit and I didn’t really sight him in the last term, but thankfully he wasn’t injured. Needs to do a bit more as there are many vying for limited spots.
23. Rankine - just seems a touch off and I’m putting it down to his recent knee injury. He still had strapping on it and just wasn’t quite as quick or dynamic as usual. Wasn’t bad, just not typical Izak.
24. Worrell - solid today, particularly in the first term where he found a heap of it roaming around the backline. Intercept work was a bit down - most of his touches were uncontested. Seems to be (alongside Keane) taking most kick-outs.
25. Peatling - ok without being outstanding. Ball use was good and won some hard ball, but Berry was definitely the better of the two today.
26. Marsh - super quiet and I thought he just looked a bit flat. Might need a small rest.
27. Nankervis - good to see him back (no pun intended) from injury, albeit in the B side. Had a couple of nice intercept marks but you could tell he wasn’t quite at his best; not many bursts of speed and got caught by Nibbler on one occasion. Hopefully better for the run.
31. Dowling - good again today. Won the very first centre clearance where he took the ball at speed (courtesy of a perfect McAndrew tap) and delivered beautifully to Strachan inside 50. Continued to get plenty of it, including a number of clearances, though some of his use by foot was ordinary. Liking his evolution at present even if he doesn’t seem to be in favour with the coaches.
32. Fogarty - played very deep. Personally I prefer when he gets on his bike up the ground. I suspect his conditioning is still a bit under his usual level. Hopefully he can bridge that gap before the season starts, as he’s just not quite getting involved enough.
33. Cotton - think he touched it once. Was interesting seeing him move into defence late. I think that (or wing) would be the best way to go. Get him into it and feeling good about himself.
34. Ludowyke - dropped an absolute sitter at half forward in the second term, but had some nice moments in the third including a long range goal. His hands (and confidence in them) are his main weakness. Fix that and we have a player. Easier said than done, of course.
35. Borlase - much better today after having a mare last week. Took multiple intercept grabs and 1v1 work was good. Still pure depth but good to see him respond.
36. Maley - it’s hard not to like this guy. His commitment to the ball in the air is truly excellent. Even though his hands were a bit off early on, I still enjoyed his willingness to jump and compete. It’s something we’ve barely had in recent decades. He started clunking them after quarter time and actually converted his two shots on goal, one of which was near the boundary from 50m out. You won’t get polish but you will get a genuine marking option.
39. Murray - only ok but was interesting to see him do a bit of ruck work. Got beaten in the centre but tapped nicely to Keays for a goal from a boundary throw-in. As a key forward it does feel like Maley has taken some of his shine compared to last pre-season, however.
40. McGuane - had a couple of nice kicks but otherwise failed to have much of an impact. Is getting no midfield time which is interesting (and makes it tough for him to impress).
44. Cumming - liked his game. Floated into defence quite often which is where he does his best work. Not prominent, but was pretty sharp today.
47. Foot - got a lot of midfield time and was decent enough. Didn’t see as much burst speed from him as I would’ve liked, but he often got involved as a link in the chain out of stoppage. Had one sublime kick inside 50 which set up Taylor’s goal. I’ll give him a tick but I still want more.
48. Keane - despite a couple of poor errors (including the aforementioned tackle by Pedlar) he was our best defender today. Took multiple intercept marks, two of which were in packs where everyone collapsed but him. Just has such soft hands.
The lads finished off with the session with about 20 minutes of repeat running. At this point the temperature was getting to the mid 30s, so safe to say the new Irish fellow is not coddling our lads.
Having some difficulties with bigfooty at the moment so I haven’t been able to answer some questions. Apologies for that, hopefully today’s report provided some clarity.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2005
- Posts
- 10,909
- Reaction score
- 9,249
- Location
- adelaide
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Norwood
Our game v port is always live streamed from our two websites
I tend to agree. Unless he gives away regular free kicks at centre bounces, the impact is negligible at best. And even then, a free kick is a less dangerous entry than losing the CBA IN real time.
It’s not the ruck rules that will make him shit, it’s that he phones in his performances outside of near being dropped or negotiating a contract. I don’t think he’s geared to team performance, he sacrifices nothing, it’s all about him.
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2003
- Posts
- 6,361
- Reaction score
- 6,794
- Location
- Brisbane
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Adelaide Crows
Look, I desperately want a better midfield and I reckon Rash is a part of the solution. But only 2 or 3 preseasons ago ROB kicked 5 while resting ahead of the ball and we spruiked his goal kicking potential.
What happens in match sim is meaningless, except positioning, this does tell us what the coaches are thinking I terms of how we are going to select and structure up. .
SugarShane
C12 H22 O11
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2007
- Posts
- 23,399
- Reaction score
- 40,532
- Location
- SA
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Strikers, BMS Goats
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Posts
- 9,157
- Reaction score
- 7,557
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
Thanks as always for the reports!
While Berry certainly didn't have his best games during the finals (rough going against Newcombe), do feel he had a couple of strong clearances against Collingwood that was about as exciting as we got for a center clearance - at least from what I can remember.
I feel one of the issues is his ability to find enough of the ball for his position. At times I wonder if it's because he's having to play a 'safety' kind of position in the midfield compared to the others and then it takes away from his natural ability to just go after the ball. No idea if he was a ball magnet. Just wondering if he's been able to accumulate more than typical or if it seems about the same?
Dirty Bird
Pokémon Master
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2010
- Posts
- 36,266
- Reaction score
- 23,757
- Location
- Adelaide
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- #BostonStrong #RiseUp
I mean - I did think he looked amazing in the midfield the year he trialled it.................For 2 games.
Each year he has grown on the previous. Building his tank has let him do more and more each year. He has the talent for midfield, and he showed his best is amazing. But he couldn't maintain it for long
Hopefully Soligo gets back in there, 2024 he started great and then died.
2025 he started great then died..........badly
Hopefully his 2026 he can maintain an amazing season throughout.
Dirty Bird
Pokémon Master
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2010
- Posts
- 36,266
- Reaction score
- 23,757
- Location
- Adelaide
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- #BostonStrong #RiseUp
Why not both?
What Berry brings might get the best out of Rachele/Rankine (Similar to how Crouch opened up Rankine and made him better.)
Though, I do wonder whether Pedlar/Soligo could do it better.
And Curtin could do it all (similar to Dawson)
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2009
- Posts
- 14,034
- Reaction score
- 15,715
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
This is just hilarious. What options do North have?
North have their starting Ruckman - Xerri. We have a starting #1 ruckman in ROB.
North have a developing backup with zero games (Goad). We have a developing backup with 2 games (McAndrew).
North then have a couple of players that could help out in the ruck (Coleman Jones, Comben). We have a bunch of tall players that could help out in the ruck (TT, Murray).
Rucks are becoming less important. This has been going on for years. Look through the other teams lists - majority have 2-3 options at Ruck just like the Crows.
And if ROB goes down? Well we can always go to the midseason draft and pick up Harry Boyd (remember our resident expert Bicks said last year that it was embarrassing for the Crows list management when the Saints picked him up - https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2025-adelaide-crows-sanfl-thread.1391234/page-6#post-86736463 is some fun reading). If we need to replace ROB next year - just use a 3rd, 4th or 5th to steal a ruckman from another club. Happens all the time.
I think it's a smart move not drafting a ruckman - especially when it's so bloody easy to just grab someone else's. You are seeing AFL teams catch on to this. How many Ruckman have been taking with high picks recently? It's pretty few. Last year I think 3 ruckman were taken and they were all after pick 50 (IIRC). This year who was the highest ruckman taken?
Remember 18 months ago posters bemoaning that we wasted pick #28 on ANB when we should have grabbed Dodson (who went in the 50's?).
