Training 2026 Pre-Season Training - reports, pics etc

[FitzroyBlueBagger]

Centre bounces will only enhance athletic & clever ruckman somewhat, particularly when direct clearances are impacted through tap work…
Stoppage all round the ground it’s all very much same same…

 

[JJBagger]

Back on topic TRAINING …

"No excuses": Carlton coach weighs in on woeful training vision

“Blues supporters, put the cameras down! Let them train!”

www.sen.com.au

Interesting hearing Simpson talk about this through the lens of a head coach. Pretty eye opening in my opinion

 

[Benaly28]

especially when it's your superstars and line leaders. (TDK, Curnow)

Merrett and the * will be an interesting watch in 2026.

TDK ain’t a superstar.

 

[Benaly28]

Interesting hearing Simpson talk about this through the lens of a head coach. Pretty eye opening in my opinion

Agree.

How bout we don’t post training videos for every man and his dog to see.

 

[Just Kreuzing]

Interesting hearing Simpson talk about this through the lens of a head coach. Pretty eye opening in my opinion

Yep, heard that and must say I agree with Simmo.

 

[gbatman]

With he 6-6-6 rule a dominant centre square tap ruckman is worth a lot

It is worth a lot. It's been a massive part of Brisbane's success. The long arms of McInerney put the ball where it has advantaged them both offensively and defensively. That sort of influence would cover for our lack of pace and agility and make our midfield generally stronger. You put the ball in a position where you can attack and defend better, that would be big for us.

The new boundary rules will reduce the times a ruck is used I would imagine so they need to be a good footballer. No tap only types. Which has actually been the case for quite some time.

I actually have a concern this year with our rucks and the possibility that the odd ruck may dominate them. A while back I pulled apart our 2023 prelim loss to brisbane and showed how McInerney's domination of Pittonet was a main driving factor in that loss. We were trying to keep the ball in close to cover for our deficiencies in pace and agility but weren't able to. McInerney started dominating the tap and putting length on it making it a game for the quicker more agile types as well as putting the ball where we would struggle to defend, attack and gain possession.

I was hoping Flynn Riley from our VFL may have stepped up and dominated our match sim but I am not sure he is a dominant ruck.

 

[marcmurphy3]

Yep, heard that and must say I agree with Simmo.

Disagree. Other clubs post much more comprehensive match sim footage then us. We are lucky for a 5 minute highlight clip.

Other clubs supporters film sessions too. Aside from my blue heaven no other no blues supporter posts much footage and even his is pretty limited in what you can see.

You couldnt take much from it tactically, not that our tactics are much of a secret.

If the clubs concern is supporters filming off the back of that footage, its pretty pathetic.

We already have less open training sessions then other clubs. Supporters like Bucky who film are doing a service and dont deserve a jab.

 

[JJBagger]

Disagree. Other clubs post much more comprehensive match sim footage then us. We are lucky for a 5 minute highlight clip.

Other clubs supporters film sessions too. Aside from my blue heaven no other no blues supporter posts much footage and even his is pretty limited in what you can see.

If the clubs concern is supporters filming off the back of that footage, its pretty pathetic.

We already have less open training sessions then any other club. Supporters who film are doing a service and dont deserve a jab.

Absolutely patently false. Geelong and both Perth clubs do far less open trainings than we do

 

[Tjblues]

Absolutely patently false. Geelong and both Perth clubs do far less open trainings than we do

While we clearly don’t do the absolute least, Collingwood (yuck) won the flag 2 years ago and they don’t have a fence around their ground. Anybody can watch/film every session they do on their main oval.

The notion that secrecy is a big deal in the AFL is ludicrous. Any secrets will be out of the bag by the end of round 1 if they don’t come out in the preseason.

It’s not the NFL where they can move their players around like chess pieces and draw up extremely specific and nuanced set plays every 30 seconds. Good teams worry about being good, the other team knows what’s coming, doesn’t mean they can stop it

 

[JJBagger]

While we clearly don’t do the absolute least, Collingwood (yuck) won the flag 2 years ago and they don’t have a fence around their ground. Anybody can watch/film every session they do on their main oval.

The notion that secrecy is a big deal in the AFL is ludicrous. Any secrets will be out of the bag by the end of round 1 if they don’t come out in the preseason.

It’s not the NFL where they can move their players around like chess pieces and draw up extremely specific and nuanced set plays every 30 seconds. Good teams worry about being good, the other team knows what’s coming, doesn’t mean they can stop it

Collingwood don’t have a fanbase that microanalyses every movement that goes on within the club. They clearly trust their fanbase to do the right thing and not upload their full training sessions on the internet. And from what I can find - their training footage is posted sparingly.

It’s definitely interesting. The fanbase clearly has to stop being so outraged and precious about everything the club says and does, but the club also needs to be a bit more mature in the way they deal with these things. Both are as stubborn as the other, and almost refuse to meet in the middle. Therefore, we will keep having these disagreements

 

[ETET]

Talking about tactics. I don't believe that Williams going back (again) will work.

Don't the coaches remember that Williams was moved out of defense the first time, not because he could not kick well enough, but because he kept getting exposed by the small forwards he was playing on. He could not defend them so we moved him. He could not run with them, could not handle them in the air and was brushed in the contest. And that was 3 seasons ago.

With the new recruits coming in, Williams is not best 23, for me (barring injury).

Its going to be an interesting watch to see if Voss can select a team without being influenced by the former reputations of quite few players.

 

[marcmurphy3]

Collingwood don’t have a fanbase that microanalyses every movement that goes on within the club. They clearly trust their fanbase to do the right thing and not upload their full training sessions on the internet. And from what I can find - their training footage is posted sparingly.

It’s definitely interesting. The fanbase clearly has to stop being so outraged and precious about everything the club says and does, but the club also needs to be a bit more mature in the way they deal with these things. Both are as stubborn as the other, and almost refuse to meet in the middle. Therefore, we will keep having these disagreements

I think you're clutching at straws here.

We literally have one supporter (Bucky) who posts long training clips and he only takes them at the occasional open session. Probably done it 3-4 times over the whole preseason.

And even then they are usually 20-30 minute clips from 2-3 hour sessions.

 

[The_BigFella]

Don't the coaches remember that Williams was moved out of defense the first time, not because he could not kick well enough, but because he kept getting exposed by the small forwards he was playing on. He could not defend them so we moved him. He could not run with them, could not handle them in the air and was brushed in the contest. And that was 3 seasons ago.

With the new recruits coming in, Williams is not best 23, for me (barring injury).

Its going to be an interesting watch to see if Voss can select a team without being influenced by the former reputations of quite few players.

Williams is definitely still best 23. His output last year was actually very good when fit. I'd be very surprised if he is consistently at HB this seasons. I think he will be used across the field very simliar to how we used Doc, I don't think it is a bad thing at all to have versatility and keep opposition guessing.

 

[The Bighouse]

Talking about tactics. I don't believe that Williams going back (again) will work.

Don't the coaches remember that Williams was moved out of defense the first time, not because he could not kick well enough, but because he kept getting exposed by the small forwards he was playing on. He could not defend them so we moved him. He could not run with them, could not handle them in the air and was brushed in the contest. And that was 3 seasons ago.

With the new recruits coming in, Williams is not best 23, for me (barring injury).

Its going to be an interesting watch to see if Voss can select a team without being influenced by the former reputations of quite few players.

Think ZW is B23 but only as a forward.

You’re right, he was exposed as a defender.

 

[RAPPA]

I’m all for the shrouded mystery. Can’t wait to unearth our new age tactic in the opening round of the bomb it long dump kick.

 

[GoBlues!]

Agree.

How bout we don’t post training videos for every man and his dog to see.

Unfortunately some of these supporters love to hear the sound of their voice commentating on training sessions. Personally, I find them irritating.

 

[JJBagger]

I think you're clutching at straws here.

We literally have one supporter (Bucky) who posts long training clips and he only takes them at the occasional open session. Probably done it 3-4 times over the whole preseason.

And even then they are usually 20-30 minute clips from 2-3 hour sessions.

There’s at least 4 that film every open training session - which is fine. It’s the ones/viewers that feel the need to criticise every bit of footage and then create narratives around how bad the players and team are based on said footage. This is rife on YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Go onto any training video, and you’ll see 75% of the comments being negative unless everything is absolutely perfect

 

[OnceWeWereKings]

There’s most likely a way to stop the negative feedback of filmed training sessions, wouldn’t involve banning cameras either….

 

[Treesloth]

While we clearly don’t do the absolute least, Collingwood (yuck) won the flag 2 years ago and they don’t have a fence around their ground. Anybody can watch/film every session they do on their main oval.

The notion that secrecy is a big deal in the AFL is ludicrous. Any secrets will be out of the bag by the end of round 1 if they don’t come out in the preseason.

It’s not the NFL where they can move their players around like chess pieces and draw up extremely specific and nuanced set plays every 30 seconds. Good teams worry about being good, the other team knows what’s coming, doesn’t mean they can stop it

We are also just likely to be so different this season.

Expect our week to week b23 will feature 5-6 new faces from 2025 and you would think we would be trying to play a more modern, small-centric running game this year without the aerial threats.

Doubt even the players or coaches fully know how it will look and work until we’re into the season (and have have multiple times referred to the “unknown” in pre season interviews).

 

[Red_man2008]

I think you're clutching at straws here.

We literally have one supporter (Bucky) who posts long training clips and he only takes them at the occasional open session. Probably done it 3-4 times over the whole preseason.

And even then they are usually 20-30 minute clips from 2-3 hour sessions.

Buck also didn’t this the last 4-5 years with no issues. Hes even had similar comments about poor ball use with vision attached. It just never went viral.

 

[Coona Blues]

Unfortunately some of these supporters love to hear the sound of their voice commentating on training sessions. Personally, I find them irritating.

There is certainly a degree of that.

Unfortunately I hang out for every snippet I can get, so I watch/listen to most of them discounting much of the waffle to form my own opinions based on what is offered. Knowing that each and every one of us has biases and favourites and some players get a permanent pass while others are perennial targets for some.

Some podcasters who are loved on here, even lauded for their depth of knowledge are little more than talking heads who do their homework and put their spin on certain players and issues, often way off base. One certain prolific accented podcaster who speaks with authority gets a great deal wrong, but often baffles his uninformed followers with the courage of his convictions. Sorry, I am getting more to draft content here. (Well researched “Old fart” who has too much time on his hands)

 

[JJBagger]

There is certainly a degree of that.

Unfortunately I hang out for every snippet I can get, so I watch/listen to most of them discounting much of the waffle to form my own opinions based on what is offered. Knowing that each and every one of us has biases and favourites and some players get a permanent pass while others are perennial targets for some.

Some podcasters who are loved on here, even lauded for their depth of knowledge are little more than talking heads who do their homework and put their spin on certain players and issues, often way off base. One certain prolific accented podcaster who speaks with authority gets a great deal wrong, but often baffles his uninformed followers with the courage of his convictions. Sorry, I am getting more to draft content here. (Well researched “Old fart” who has too much time on his hands)

I’m very similar. I consume just about every bit of Carlton content I can, and I find that Terry from Blue Abroad is the only one that speaks completely with a sense of self awareness and without a self righteous attitude. He allows space in the conversation for himself to be wrong, which is a pretty rare trait in humans, let alone content creators. The Prendercast boys and Rocco from the Jumper Punch are similar, even though they still go off the deep end every now and then.

(I also think I know which content creator you are talking about)

 

[marcmurphy3]

There’s at least 4 that film every open training session - which is fine. It’s the ones/viewers that feel the need to criticise every bit of footage and then create narratives around how bad the players and team are based on said footage. This is rife on YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Go onto any training video, and you’ll see 75% of the comments being negative unless everything is absolutely perfect

Thats not true and I follow them all. Aside from Bucky the others rarely have more then 5 minutes or so worth of footage. Its more just them speaking.

The narrative you speak about is called a training report. I wouldnt say theyre mostly negative. You get a mix. While they might not all be that insightful (agree Terry from BA is the best) I appreciate the effort they put in and am greatful for what I can get at this time of year .

 

[JJBagger]

Thats not true and I follow them all. Aside from Bucky the others rarely have more then 5 minutes or so worth of footage. Its more just them speaking.

The narrative you speak about is called a training report. I wouldnt say theyre mostly negative. You get a mix.

Terry and Bluebaggers Edge just have training footage, with a description of what is going on. Not necessarily opinions, but a discussion, often with someone else. But then you get people like Paul Sebastiani who make it their duty to create soundbites by commenting on and critiquing every little detail of the session in a self righteous “I know football more than you” way

 

[Coona Blues]

I’m very similar. I consume just about every bit of Carlton content I can, and I find that Terry from Blue Abroad is the only one that speaks completely with a sense of self awareness and without a self righteous attitude. He allows space in the conversation for himself to be wrong, which is a pretty rare trait in humans, let alone content creators. The Prendercast boys and Rocco from the Jumper Punch are similar, even though they still go off the deep end every now and then.

(I also think I know which content creator you are talking about)

Yeah, some of Terry’s offerings are a little hard as he strives for content in a “slow news week” but I share your opinion that he is absolutely inoffensive and unassuming. He doesn’t profess to know things he doesn’t and represents himself honestly. He is a fan boy and a podcaster, a reporter, not a self professed expert. Some of his guests are relied upon to fill in the gaps, which can revert to, let’s say, a little licence from time to time.

One of the more watchable, most of the time.