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Training 2026 Preseason

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Daddoo said:
Is there a rule that prohibits or regulates what protection a ruckman can wear on his lower extremities?

I wonder if we start to see more padding/protection as the year progresses. It's only a matter of time before a knee bruises another knee and they're out for three weeks.
Click to expand...
As I understand it, this is theoretically a reversion to the old ruck rules, and I don't recall any sort of knee padding from that era. Could be wrong on that—before my time.
 
The rucks can't run at each other from a fast bowler starting point and leap into each other knee first, popping their PCLs. They can hurt their knee now doing that off a short run, happened to Pittonett when he ran into Sean Darcy once.
 
Sherriff Incorporated said:
He has the Taberner training attitude with way, way, way more talent. His speed off the mark has improved an absolute ton since coming to the club and he bench presses the most at the club by a fair way. Two results of how hard he's worked. Looked fantastic in training before the break. Him, Reid and Wagner would be leading the training the house down competition so far this preseason.
Click to expand...

Taberner was lazy as hell. Ross Lyon wasn't impressed with him.
 

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mike91 said:
Anybody seen Reid's physique on insta?

Wowee
Click to expand...
Man Flexing GIF by Hollyoaks
 
Im waiting for another Doctor running massively late so I thought Id add a few extra points given the lack of info here. My friend who works with a Dockers Board Member also said two players who've impressed greatly with their training since last season ended are Jaeger O'Meara and Josh Draper. Essentially what he said his friend said was that O'Meara had impressed with his dramatically improved repeat sprinting and Draper had impressed with his commitment to adding muscle. My observations from the 5 sessions I saw before the break back up those claims.

My observations of Jaeger over his previous preseasons with Freo is that he's sat out a a fair amount of the more intense running as a way of managing his long term injured knee that I think still required maintenance by the club doctor. However this preseason he's joining in all running and has excelled at some of the repeat sprinting work while constantly finishing in the top half a dozen at the end of running sessions and looking significantly quicker. While it may not be the case as I can't confirm the info my belief is that considering this year could be his last Jaeger's taken a chance and pushed his body over the off season due to how his career would be over anyway if he didn't improve his sprint work running. I don't have him in my 23 but I do think he could potentially be a big surprise packet now.

Josh Draper really has looked terrific in match sim play so far this preseason. He's put on significant muscle and looked every bit a key position player. In match sims he's being playing solely on key position players and holding his own in marking contests. That is unlike last preseason and the season proper where he spent time rotating on smalls and talls. In my opinion he played much better on 2nd and third talls last year then when he was matched on smaller players often deep in attack. I'm confident he'll be a long term replacement for Alex Pearce if we play him in a variety of roles until Alex Pearce retires and then allow him to play as a key defender when Alex or Cox are out but then full time defender once one of them retires. He also spent a quarter of one of the match sims playing forward so having him as a depth forward would also give him some afl games in the years before he takes over from Alex. In one off the match sims Draper played on Treacy for a half where he looked fantastic unlike Davies who couldn't keep up with Cyclone on the lead in the first half of the same match sim.

In summary of the five sessions Ive seen Vossy, Wagner and Reid lead the pack in the training the house down award.
Riddle is looking promising after adding a decent amount of muscle. Cooper Simpson is also looking bigger and doing really well in match sims. Ryda Luke has also taken a couple of impressive high flying marks and looks super athletic.Dudley is looking lighter and much fitter too.
Luke Jackson and Young are both looking back to full fitness. LJ has played ruck or midfield with very small amount of time training as a forward while Youngy has played solely midfield too while looking to be covering the ground really well.
Draftees all look good so far. Kicket could be a massive surprise. The highlight of the preseason so far was an amazing run down tackle where he caught Cooper Simpson from behind running at full pace. I wouldn't worry about a mid range 20metre sprint time. The 20 metre sprint measures reaction time as much as anything. Kicket has terrific pace as he's shown in match sim play.
As far as positional changes the most likely would appear to be Luke Jackson and Murphy Reid playing more midfield time than last year. Erasmus seems to be training mostly on a wing and not on ball.
Our injury list would appear small. Ryan and Switta have pretty much only run laps but appear to be over injuries. Bolton, Brayshaw and Cox have also been powering through extra laps and not participating in every match sim drill. I think Sturt is the only real long term issue.
 
Sherriff Incorporated said:
Im waiting for another Doctor running massively late so I thought Id add a few extra points given the lack of info here. My friend who works with a Dockers Board Member also said two players who've impressed greatly with their training since last season ended are Jaeger O'Meara and Josh Draper. Essentially what he said his friend said was that O'Meara had impressed with his dramatically improved repeat sprinting and Draper had impressed with his commitment to adding muscle. My observations from the 5 sessions I saw before the break back up those claims.

My observations of Jaeger over his previous preseasons with Freo is that he's sat out a a fair amount of the more intense running as a way of managing his long term injured knee that I think still required maintenance by the club doctor. However this preseason he's joining in all running and has excelled at some of the repeat sprinting work while constantly finishing in the top half a dozen at the end of running sessions and looking significantly quicker. While it may not be the case as I can't confirm the info my belief is that considering this year could be his last Jaeger's taken a chance and pushed his body over the off season due to how his career would be over anyway if he didn't improve his sprint work running. I don't have him in my 23 but I do think he could potentially be a big surprise packet now.

Josh Draper really has looked terrific in match sim play so far this preseason. He's put on significant muscle and looked every bit a key position player. In match sims he's being playing solely on key position players and holding his own in marking contests. That is unlike last preseason and the season proper where he spent time rotating on smalls and talls. In my opinion he played much better on 2nd and third talls last year then when he was matched on smaller players often deep in attack. I'm confident he'll be a long term replacement for Alex Pearce if we play him in a variety of roles until Alex Pearce retires and then allow him to play as a key defender when Alex or Cox are out but then full time defender once one of them retires. He also spent a quarter of one of the match sims playing forward so having him as a depth forward would also give him some afl games in the years before he takes over from Alex. In one off the match sims Draper played on Treacy for a half where he looked fantastic unlike Davies who couldn't keep up with Cyclone on the lead in the first half of the same match sim.

In summary of the five sessions Ive seen Vossy, Wagner and Reid lead the pack in the training the house down award.
Riddle is looking promising after adding a decent amount of muscle. Cooper Simpson is also looking bigger and doing really well in match sims. Ryda Luke has also taken a couple of impressive high flying marks and looks super athletic.Dudley is looking lighter and much fitter too.
Luke Jackson and Young are both looking back to full fitness. LJ has played ruck or midfield with very small amount of time training as a forward while Youngy has played solely midfield too while looking to be covering the ground really well.
Draftees all look good so far. Kicket could be a massive surprise. The highlight of the preseason so far was an amazing run down tackle where he caught Cooper Simpson from behind running at full pace. I wouldn't worry about a mid range 20metre sprint time. The 20 metre sprint measures reaction time as much as anything. Kicket has terrific pace as he's shown in match sim play.
As far as positional changes the most likely would appear to be Luke Jackson and Murphy Reid playing more midfield time than last year. Erasmus seems to be training mostly on a wing and not on ball.
Our injury list would appear small. Ryan and Switta have pretty much only run laps but appear to be over injuries. Bolton, Brayshaw and Cox have also been powering through extra laps and not participating in every match sim drill. I think Sturt is the only real long term issue.
Click to expand...
A pre injury Jaeger would make a massive difference to our side.

Even if he only shows up in bursts, then I will be happy. Hopefully he has no injury issues this year, but is rested 5 plus times so he is fully fit for finals.
 
anchor man said:
Fair enough, but I read your post as an attack on the club for not telling supporters of a training session that is not club run. Can't be run by the club under rules.
And, the office staff as well as coaching staff would all still be on holidays.
Click to expand...
Yes, the club is closed and there should be no responses to calls or emails and nothing new going on the website. Need everyone to rest up ready for a big year :)
 
Sherriff Incorporated said:
Im waiting for another Doctor running massively late so I thought Id add a few extra points given the lack of info here. My friend who works with a Dockers Board Member also said two players who've impressed greatly with their training since last season ended are Jaeger O'Meara and Josh Draper. Essentially what he said his friend said was that O'Meara had impressed with his dramatically improved repeat sprinting and Draper had impressed with his commitment to adding muscle. My observations from the 5 sessions I saw before the break back up those claims.

My observations of Jaeger over his previous preseasons with Freo is that he's sat out a a fair amount of the more intense running as a way of managing his long term injured knee that I think still required maintenance by the club doctor. However this preseason he's joining in all running and has excelled at some of the repeat sprinting work while constantly finishing in the top half a dozen at the end of running sessions and looking significantly quicker. While it may not be the case as I can't confirm the info my belief is that considering this year could be his last Jaeger's taken a chance and pushed his body over the off season due to how his career would be over anyway if he didn't improve his sprint work running. I don't have him in my 23 but I do think he could potentially be a big surprise packet now.

Josh Draper really has looked terrific in match sim play so far this preseason. He's put on significant muscle and looked every bit a key position player. In match sims he's being playing solely on key position players and holding his own in marking contests. That is unlike last preseason and the season proper where he spent time rotating on smalls and talls. In my opinion he played much better on 2nd and third talls last year then when he was matched on smaller players often deep in attack. I'm confident he'll be a long term replacement for Alex Pearce if we play him in a variety of roles until Alex Pearce retires and then allow him to play as a key defender when Alex or Cox are out but then full time defender once one of them retires. He also spent a quarter of one of the match sims playing forward so having him as a depth forward would also give him some afl games in the years before he takes over from Alex. In one off the match sims Draper played on Treacy for a half where he looked fantastic unlike Davies who couldn't keep up with Cyclone on the lead in the first half of the same match sim.

In summary of the five sessions Ive seen Vossy, Wagner and Reid lead the pack in the training the house down award.
Riddle is looking promising after adding a decent amount of muscle. Cooper Simpson is also looking bigger and doing really well in match sims. Ryda Luke has also taken a couple of impressive high flying marks and looks super athletic.Dudley is looking lighter and much fitter too.
Luke Jackson and Young are both looking back to full fitness. LJ has played ruck or midfield with very small amount of time training as a forward while Youngy has played solely midfield too while looking to be covering the ground really well.
Draftees all look good so far. Kicket could be a massive surprise. The highlight of the preseason so far was an amazing run down tackle where he caught Cooper Simpson from behind running at full pace. I wouldn't worry about a mid range 20metre sprint time. The 20 metre sprint measures reaction time as much as anything. Kicket has terrific pace as he's shown in match sim play.
As far as positional changes the most likely would appear to be Luke Jackson and Murphy Reid playing more midfield time than last year. Erasmus seems to be training mostly on a wing and not on ball.
Our injury list would appear small. Ryan and Switta have pretty much only run laps but appear to be over injuries. Bolton, Brayshaw and Cox have also been powering through extra laps and not participating in every match sim drill. I think Sturt is the only real long term issue.
Click to expand...

Great training report, Sherriff.
 

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My mate who is a rusted on eagles fan has said that if Hayden Young has sticked to his running plan that he has set out for him will win a Brownlow

My mate has worked with Caleb Serong and Hayden Young exclusively

Plus puts a lot of work in with Pearce

All to do with injury minimization through running and muscle realignment.

He says Young is the best he's ever been and both he and Alex Pearce are finally injury free
 
King Huskii said:
My mate who is a rusted on eagles fan has said that if Hayden Young has sticked to his running plan that he has set out for him will win a Brownlow

My mate has worked with Caleb Serong and Hayden Young exclusively

Plus puts a lot of work in with Pearce

All to do with injury minimization through running and muscle realignment.

He says Young is the best he's ever been and both he and Alex Pearce are finally injury free
Click to expand...

Have said from the start that if Young can stay fit he has the highest ceiling out of anybody.

The similarities to Bontempelli are uncanny.
 
King Huskii said:
My mate who is a rusted on eagles fan has said that if Hayden Young has sticked to his running plan that he has set out for him will win a Brownlow

My mate has worked with Caleb Serong and Hayden Young exclusively

Plus puts a lot of work in with Pearce

All to do with injury minimization through running and muscle realignment.

He says Young is the best he's ever been and both he and Alex Pearce are finally injury free
Click to expand...
Bugger Brownlow; Norm Smith thanks!
 

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Training 2026 Preseason

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