Training 2017 Preseason Thread

[ant555]

Had a look at the VFL scratch match this morning that contained a number of players not in this weeks squad. Lots of players in different numbers or with no numbers so i can not give a comprehensive report.
Hartley played the first half, ran a couple of laps then went inside. Not 100% sure but he may have some minor issue.

Redman did not even get going, did a bit of running and went inside.

Bird . Myers. Morgan and Green doing running in the rehab group.

Francis, quiet game, copped an ankle injury and had to come off. Came back on but was dumped in a solid tackle and that was it. Left the ground and hobbled away at the finish.At the moment he looks a fair way of senior selection.

Hocking - played 80% midfield and 20% half back. Good game, kicked a goal and was one of the few blocking and helping team mates. Problem he may have getting in the side is he struggles a little to get to the outside when the run out of the back line starts. He is great in the center role finding space for the short kicks and his disposal was really good but the issue he has is our top mids are slow so if we are not going to go with dedicated run with role the he has to be better than Heppell, Watson, Goddard etc to get in. His lack of speed to get to the outside and give him something different is hurting his chances of getting into the line up. Could have had 30 plus today but at least 5 times he was well in the clear but players sprayed the kick.

Howlett. Very quiet early but got going in the second half. Was not terrible but not great either.

Long . Good and bad. When he was involved he was good but drifts out of the game too often at this stage.

J Merritt . Played half back but did not really catch my attention.

McKenna . did a few nice things but is still dropping a few marks. Needs to start tiding up his weaker points if he is to make it.

Dea good game but have seen him in better form.

Much . Was in and around a lot of contests but struggled to have an impact or a lot of possessions.

Have to say the total lack of blocking or protection of the ball carrier was annoying. Skill level was scrappy. Zone set up was horrible. Some of the run and carry was very good but often let down with a very poor turnover.

Did not watch the senior group train as they where only having a light run.

Hooker had better be ready to play this weeks VFL practice match against Geelong or he will be zero chance of being effective in round 1.

Will say this, the make and break this year will be "mental attitude ". If Zaka, Watson, Heppell, Z Merritt, Stanton, Goddard and co can not get their heads around better defensive attitudes then we will be toast. We are not going with run with roles so our premium midfielders will need to find a way to tighten up when they have to. It makes me very nervous. We can and will get cut up badly by a number of midfield's if these blokes do not add this extra level to their game.

 

[Capt Hindsight]

Had a look at the VFL scratch match this morning that contained a number of players not in this weeks squad. Lots of players in different numbers or with no numbers so i can not give a comprehensive report.

Hartley played the first half, ran a couple of laps then went inside. Not 100% sure but he may have some minor issue.

Francis, quiet game, copped an ankle injury and had to come off. Came back on but was dumped in a solid tackle and that was it. Left the ground and hobbled away at the finish.At the moment he looks a fair way of senior selection.

Surprised to hear Hartley played a scratch VFL match he was named in the extended squad for the Bendigo game. Maybe just played a half for load management.
In regards to Francis seeing as he has been struggling with his ankle recently its probably fair to say we aren't going to see him much in the first 4-6 weeks of the season.

 

[ezard15]

A few concerns

1. Francis ankle is still buggered;
2. He hurt it again today'
3. We played him despite him being injured.
etc etc

 

[eDPS]

One of the positives to come from the pre-season games has been our goalkicking, we may not have won any games but our total score for the JLT series was equal 6th

 

[carnthedons]

I still have no idea what we're gonna see this year, the preseason hasn't helped me in the slightest. All I can work out is we have the potential to be amazing and terrible and that can be confined to the same game.

Positives:
- small forwards (walla and Raz)
- Darcy Parish doing Darcy Parish things
- Zach, nuff said
- Colyer in JLT3
- Marty Gleeson
- not being able to see a locked in best 22 (I'm choosing to see this as a positive)
- glimpses from Ridley, Begley and McGrath
- Langford

Negatives:
- allowing opposition midfields to control the game for long periods, we seem to have no answer to arrest momentum
- Bags' form
- injuries (rucks, Hooksy, Ridley, Laverde and Francis)
- questionable mental application (although not sure if this was engineered by coaching staff)

 

[JayJ20]

Positives:

- I think the biggest positive of the preseason has to be our forwardline. Not only how much we score, but also how accurate we have been and our conversion rate when going inside 50s. I think they may have said that we averaged the most goals per inside 50s in the whole competition this JLT series. We must've been the worst team for inside 50s conversion the last couple of years.

- It's so nice to see that we've turned it around in just one preseason. What was our biggest weakness is now one of our biggest strengths.

- Also like the attacking style of football we are playing and the consequent defensive zone that we set up if we don't end up scoring. That defensive pressure in our forward half really made it hard for Collingwood, Gold Coast and Geelong to score when we applied it. It reduces the amount of counterattack "slingshot" goals that we've conceded so much in the past few years. It's funny seeing the exact same team in Geelong struggle doing what they were doing so well against us the last time we played.

Negatives:

- Our biggest weakness still remains our clearance work. When good midfields get on top, we will struggle. Just shows how important Myers and Hocking are to our midfield to tighten our midfield up defensively. This is where our mental "lapses" come from. Conceding clearance after clearance.

- Our ruck stock are injury prone. It'll be hard giving our opposition first possession, especially teams with a dominant midfield. It will work well against teams that turn the ball over at half forward a lot as our strength is kicking goals from a chain starting at half back. But it won't against the good sides.

- Our kick ins need improving. Don't like seeing the repeated inside 50s because we struggle with kick ins.

- We're also going to struggle against small forwards with a lack of small defenders to run with them. Baguley's form is really bad.


Although considering how much we've turned around our forwardline, I'm backing Woosha to address what can be addressed. I'm sure that we won't concede so many goals in a row as the season goes on and our consistency increases.

 

[eth-dog]

DL, the conversion rate last year was under 20%. The average was 25%

 

[eDPS]

 

[revival_mode]

Do we actually know what has happened with big Luey? Has he actually done his hammy? Was it just soreness & precautionary?

 

[Beerfish]

Do we actually know what has happened with big Luey? Has he actually done his hammy? Was it just soreness & precautionary?

I don't think we actually know yet. Some reporter tweeted 3-4 weeks yesterday then deleted their tweet. I guess we have to wait for Crow's injury update.

 

[eth-dog]

I don't think we actually know yet. Some reporter tweeted 3-4 weeks yesterday then deleted their tweet. I guess we have to wait for Crow's injury update.

They were reporting 3-4 on 9 news last night in Melbourne.

 

[Beerfish]

They were reporting 3-4 on 9 news last night in Melbourne.

Hopefully they were getting their info from Mitch Cleary then.

 

[citizen-erased]

following the standard of the main board thread-

Liked
Midfield depth - Watson, Heppell, Merrett, Parish, Langford, Colyer, Laverde, Tippa getting through there.
Forward line goal kicking. It's really looking good. Stewart, while not a world beater, looks to be doing the job we need.
Without Hartley and Hooker, we had patches where the midfield protected the defence.
Langford's game has stepped up. Imagine, a Fyfe that can kick to a target.
Parish too has not lost pace from his 2016 form.

Learnt
Goddard is a must for our midfield. I don't like him in defence. Kelly/Stanton rotating through middle/HBF, Watson/Goddard rotating through the middle/FP looks to be the balance we should strike. Keeps 4 quality footballers on the pitch, but only 2 in the middle to ensure we don't lose too much pace.
Hocking and Howlett/Bird need to play early. McGrath, Laverde and Begley may turn into our class bull mids eventually, but neither new recruit is ready for AFL yet and Laverde is still developing. We give up too much around the contest without some stronger bodies coming in and tagging the stars. Hocking and Howlett on the likes of Danger/Selwood, Jaeger/Mitchell, Treloar/Pendles, etc. will keep us in games.

Hated
Berger injury seriously stretches our ruck division.
Lack of Francis. We need this kid out there. I was hoping he'd have a cracking JLT and be ready for Rd.1
Drop offs. Hoping it was through a conservative approach and for the sake of conserving the bodies as best we can. Need to start playing our best for more than a half and a bit of footy.

 

[Beerfish]

 

[revival_mode]

well shit

 

[Beerfish]