Training 2026 Training Reports

[go_the_dockers]

Not sure he's a good enough runner tbh.

A lot of wingers are freak runners even compared to other AFL footballers.

It's probably worth it as a change up during games but don't think it'd be a full time role.

I wonder if you don't need freak runners anymore on the wing, with one additional sub.

It will make it a lot easier to carry more explosive players with less fitness.

 

[DQ 4EVER]

Same. I like hair that stands out. I hat a rat tail in the 80’s, mullet late 80’s, long ass hair in the 90’s and 00’s (I even got the back permed once. That was f***in stupid. Looked lame as heck).

Sadly, I needed a real job so I felt like I needed to cut my hair. Got it cut a week before the interview. Went into the interview and one of the guys had a long ponytail. I was a bit salty…

Keep the rat tail, son. Don’t let these BF posters bully you!

Does that mean your "ass hair" isn't long any more?
Not that I'm asking for proof

 

[Superkoops]

I very much doubt Amiss will sit permanently on the wing. It will be a strategy to get him freed up in space. I reckon they will be training him to get on his bike and lead up to wing and why not mix things up on occasion with him starting centre bounce up on the wing and then run forward. I like it. Amiss wrestling with a strong KPD isn’t his go. Plus whilst he is behind play and out of umpire sight he is getting scragged and held. Get him on the move. His explosive initial speed is his strength - creating that separation. Defenders know this and try to inhibit his movement.

 

[King Huskii]

I very much doubt Amiss will sit permanently on the wing. It will be a strategy to get him freed up in space. I reckon they will be training him to get on his bike and lead up to wing and why not mix things up on occasion with him starting centre bounce up on the wing and then run forward. I like it. Amiss wrestling with a strong KPD isn’t his go. Plus whilst he is behind play and out of umpire sight he is getting scragged and held. Get him on the move. His explosive initial speed is his strength - creating that separation. Defenders know this and try to inhibit his movement.

He literally stayed there for 5 mins

 

[David Bubb]

Murphy....

 

[mattis117]

One thing I noticed is Reid and Switta are linking up very regularly, need both of them playing every game.

 

[serial_thrilla]

Hopefully Luke Ryan starts contact work soon. Can't afford to have him coming in underdone.

Tobyn Murray shrugging a Treacy tackle is impressive.

 

[King Huskii]

Training report
I thought Monday was my last.

I don't have a lot to add and may sound repetitive as some players stand out more. I doubt Sweid or Kickett start. They look terrific however they may not have the endurance yet for AFL. As the season goes a long definitely a big chance. Murray would be my choice however I don't see him Infront of our small forwards in Switta Bolton and Dudley so it will be a tight squeeze.

Darcy is so much fitter at this time than last year. I heard Ryan may be back next week but he's a way back and against the clock. He seems in good spirits though.

Chapman looks back to his best.

I shouldn't mention Banfield but he made 3 or 4 big blunders today. He also did a couple of good things. O'Driscoll ditto.

I'm not sure if Davies makes it past this season. Murphy is performing a little better than him. Macdonald even better and about on par with Draper.

If Warner is the first back to miss then we have depth as he is reading the structure and delivers really well.

Murphy Reid did some special things out there and turns half chances into goal assists.

Jye Amiss was looking great. If he's our 3rd best key forward then we are laughing as Voss and Tracey are beasts.

I'm done for the preseason and have no doubt if JLO picks our best 23 and doesn’t play it safe then Freo will develop into a top 4 team by the end of the season.

Stay blessed. Love always King H.

 

[David Bubb]

 

[anchor man]

The forties was the best decade by far.

40s!!!! Geez really!. 59s 60s for me

 

[freoextra]

Well it’s been a long time but I finally got down for a training session.

Rehab
Walker and O Murphy running laps freely but did not participate in the practice game. O Murphy finally at a body stage where he might be able to compete at AFL so really disappointed to not see him compete.
Luke Ryan is still very much rehabbing and not participating in match sim, surprised I was expecting him to be more involved by now.
Poor old Sam Sturt

1

Sam Sturt

Age

25

Ht

190cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

7.7

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.3

5star

D

7.7

2star

K

4.0

1star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.0

2star

G

1.3

5star

D

7.7

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.3

3star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.3

5star

is a long way from all these boys and is only doing very minor rehab in comparison ( seems like I report this every year) but on the positive no strapping and did slowly jog a lap or two.
A Riddle was on the sidelines and not participating at all, one shoe on and the affected ankle was heavily strapped but no moon boot.

Warmup
Lots of high knees running (rapid movement mainly on the spot) reminded me of the old gridiron training in movies. 14 blue shirts (coaching and strength) out there leading the team. This sure feels like quite a few more than previously.
Seems to be an issue emphasis on the team being loud whilst training (they are always enthusiastic at this time of year but this was different).
Sharp still missing targets in straightforward kicking drills.
Sweid (auto correct continues to change name to Swedish) making an impression in marking duals just very competitive and hates losing.

Match Sim
Firstly there are a number of Peel players here to make up the numbers and confuse this reporter with same numbers!
Purple team - Brayshaw, Johnson, Serong, Simpson (defender) Murphy, Pearce, Dogga, Davis, Banfield, Clark, Cox Large variety, Amiss, O’Driscoll, Switta, NcDonald, Luke, Whan, Nicholls.

Darcy, marks galore completed all training but looks a little “limpy to me”. Absolutely dominated by Dogga who had a massive session in the ruck and looks to love being able to fully incorporate his leap again. Big Cox mainly forward but rucked later against Darcy fairly even result, glad we recruited big Cox.

Some highlights of the young fellas
Great run down tackles by Kickett on unsuspecting opponents and taps to advantage
Whan nice skills on the wing and excellent kick
Sweid involved but still learning
Murray, not really noticed
Luke, really not noticed
Not sure if our train on was there
If I can include Nicholls in this group he was the most impressive and looks a talent when he gets the ball.
I am not expecting any of the newest players to debut early on what I observed.

Goals
Amiss 3 (mainly leading to the ball), Nicholls 2 (one from the boundary line), singles Voss (strong mark), JOM, Big Cox, Tracey, Serong, Dudds, Young (longest goal kicked), Darcy (from the boundary made him very excited), missed one possibly Johnson
Serong and Brayshaw missed easy shots as usual

TTHD
I thought Young, Erasmus and Dogga were the standouts and heavily involved in everything. Erasmus was far more prominent than Johnson which intrigued me, they are both really big units now it’s just that Ras seems to be coming on real quick now.

Final thoughts
At one stage I was writing how involved in play Banfield was and then he over possessed and was caught htb by Erasmus twice, so same same I guess
Bolton selling three lots of candy to O’Driscoll who ignored them all kept his vision on the hips and brought him down for a htb - that’s O’Driscolls value if he can remove his kicking concerns. Lots of players on the wings but Sharp and O’Driscoll played by far the most.
Judd was nice and clean but please don’t expect another Clark.
Twas a little disappointed that whenever a team went deep 50 the entire 36 was always in one half of the ground. Some effort was made to work the ball quick but didn’t appear to be massively different.
Two x Cox entwined, little Cox holding big Cox for far too long, didn’t know what to make of it!

That will do piggy.

 

[Dirty_banchez]

Some Training Notes:

Sturt: Looks a mile off it with his conditioning. He has put on some mass on the shoulders, which is encouraging. What is good to see is that he's not looking troubled by his knee. I just don't see how he breaks into the team this year; others are way ahead of him.


Nicholls: He has really improved his forward craft. He looks capable and will be good depth, and could push for selection if Voss gets suspended.


Voss: He is looking fit, and his contest work with Treacy is excellent (when they were doing the contest drill near the ant hill). He would look excellent swinging a sword as a Roman gladiator. Clodius could have seized power with a brute like Voss at his side, one of history’s greatest unknowns.


Amiss: As others have said, he started as a winger during the second hit-out. I thought he looked really good and was moving well around the ground.


Judd McVee: I watched his game quite closely to see how the club would use his rebound. Not well. His defensive positioning is very good, but the team could have used him more when rebounding out of D50.


Young: He is covering the ground extremely well. Some of his kicks were not up to his usual standard, but otherwise I thought he was pretty much the best player during the first hit-out.


Reid: No second-year blues here. He is so damaging when he gets out the front of stoppage.


Jackson / Darcy: Jackson played ruck the whole game, which was a bit annoying because I wanted to see him play as a midfielder. Darcy had the better of Jackson, in my opinion, with Darcy taking some good intercept marks.


Luke Ryan: He didn't play in either hit-out. No idea if the club is going to persist with Luke Ryan's long kicks down the wings.

Clark: Looks really good, possibly even better than this time last year.


Banfield: Does some things okay and other things pretty poorly.


Sweid / Kickett: Both are very good pickups. You can see the talent in both players, though they have different styles of game.


The team definitely looked to be moving the ball on from half-back much quicker. That being said, the skills weren't causing me to wet my knickers, so it was a bit chaotic. Also, there was no B team out there. The best 23 were split over both teams, so there was a lot of pressure applied across the ground.

Overall, I think the team is looking better than this time last year with respect to fitness. However, I did not see any real improvement in moving the football from D50. It felt quite chaotic with quite a few turnovers.

 

[serial_thrilla]

The duality of man:

Darcy, marks galore completed all training but looks a little “limpy to me”. Absolutely dominated by Dogga who had a massive session in the ruck and looks to love being able to fully incorporate his leap again.

Jackson / Darcy: Jackson played ruck the whole game, which was a bit annoying because I wanted to see him play as a midfielder. Darcy had the better of Jackson, in my opinion, with Darcy taking some good intercept marks.

 

[serial_thrilla]

I'm glad to see that the Nicholls hype has now replaced the Riddle hype that was unfortunately curtailed.

 

[freoextra]

The duality of man:

Haha, I was talking ruck work (Dogga dominated) but Darcy definitely marked better around the ground and got a goal.
So our comments make sense to me but possibly no one else!

 

[freo_leo29]

Sounds like we are giving amiss the jez treatment, runs on the wing throughout the game

 

[Cesoir]

40s!!!! Geez really!. 59s 60s for me

Sorry, meant my 40s, not THE 40s

 

[freo84]

Sorry, meant my 40s, not THE 40s

 

[OldGregg]

Any sign of Riddle on the sidelines?

Didn’t see him …

 

[freoextra]

Didn’t see him …

Hey see my report, he was on the sidelines, one shoe only but no moonboot just a strapped ankle.

 

[anchor man]

Sturt: Looks a mile off it with his conditioning. He has put on some mass on the shoulders, which is encouraging. What is good to see is that he's not looking troubled by his knee. I just don't see how he breaks into the team this year; others are way ahead of him.

I spoke to Sam on Monday. He hasn't even began running yet.
He siad it would be more than likely this coming Monday.
Said he should be in full training by the end of June or early July.
He knows he has a battle on hand ,but said he is prepared to do the hard work to scare those that are in the team.

 

[OldGregg]

Hey see my report, he was on the sidelines, one shoe only but no moonboot just a strapped ankle.

Sure he was and not doubting your report I just didn’t notice him … all good

 

[Daddoo]

Some Training Notes:

Sturt: Looks a mile off it with his conditioning. He has put on some mass on the shoulders, which is encouraging. What is good to see is that he's not looking troubled by his knee. I just don't see how he breaks into the team this year; others are way ahead of him.


Nicholls: He has really improved his forward craft. He looks capable and will be good depth, and could push for selection if Voss gets suspended.


Voss: He is looking fit, and his contest work with Treacy is excellent (when they were doing the contest drill near the ant hill). He would look excellent swinging a sword as a Roman gladiator. Clodius could have seized power with a brute like Voss at his side, one of history’s greatest unknowns.


Amiss: As others have said, he started as a winger during the second hit-out. I thought he looked really good and was moving well around the ground.


Judd McVee: I watched his game quite closely to see how the club would use his rebound. Not well. His defensive positioning is very good, but the team could have used him more when rebounding out of D50.


Young: He is covering the ground extremely well. Some of his kicks were not up to his usual standard, but otherwise I thought he was pretty much the best player during the first hit-out.


Reid: No second-year blues here. He is so damaging when he gets out the front of stoppage.


Jackson / Darcy: Jackson played ruck the whole game, which was a bit annoying because I wanted to see him play as a midfielder. Darcy had the better of Jackson, in my opinion, with Darcy taking some good intercept marks.


Luke Ryan: He didn't play in either hit-out. No idea if the club is going to persist with Luke Ryan's long kicks down the wings.

Clark: Looks really good, possibly even better than this time last year.


Banfield: Does some things okay and other things pretty poorly.


Sweid / Kickett: Both are very good pickups. You can see the talent in both players, though they have different styles of game.


The team definitely looked to be moving the ball on from half-back much quicker. That being said, the skills weren't causing me to wet my knickers, so it was a bit chaotic. Also, there was no B team out there. The best 23 were split over both teams, so there was a lot of pressure applied across the ground.

Overall, I think the team is looking better than this time last year with respect to fitness. However, I did not see any real improvement in moving the football from D50. It felt quite chaotic with quite a few turnovers.

Loving the training reports. Thanks to all.

I’m liking the new role they seem to have for Amiss. Putting him up forward to wrestle with a defender all game was never going to be his strength. We all know he’s got a butt load of talent, so JL just needs to unlock it.

Amiss is a confidence player. I could see him getting more involved around the ground and taking that momentum/ confidence to slot his shots. I think this shows JL is trying something new and not stuck in his ways.

As someone else said, if Amiss is our third banana, we got a lot of high quality bananas. Gonna be hard to cover them all.

 

[Daddoo]

These are NOT my training notes. I tried using my binoculars to watch training but apparently Australia is too far away from Chicago. Who knew? They come from OcelotSpleens on Reddit. I know some of you campaigners are on Reddit, but many of you aren’t, so here y'all go. I can’t go to training, so this is the best way I can contribute.


“Voss and JT are the alpha males. Watching these two hit each other in a tackling drill is something to behold. JT wraps the Pony up and The Pony throws him luck a croc turning a wildebeest. Brilliant to watch.

Mcvee is called Knuckles. Silky smooth mover and clean with the ball. Nice to watch.

Sweid is ready to go. Strong, switched on, good decisions, clever body use to earn a free kick from Raz.

Toby Whan spent time on a wing and has a lovely left foot. Mature body already. Didn’t see him tested tho.

Tobyn Murray is a solid unit who looks ready to go. Didn’t see him tested or any stand out play.

Kickett looks lively and got on the end of a pass for a set shot during genuine match play.

Dudley is not going to let his spot go easily. He looked excellent today.

Jye had 2 snags matched against BCox then spent some time on the wing. He’s not the alpha male but there were good signs from him today.

MCox isn’t just making up numbers. He has come to play and can play. Provides a great contest which has to be good for those matching up on him at training.

Young looked best afield. I will say no more, I just pray and cross fingers. Bruce probably next.

Dogga rucked 100% of the first two lots of full field match sim. Early reports of his ruck demise are exaggerated.

So many are going thru the middle and no one looks out of place there.

Nicholls still looks slight compared to JT and Voss and did not feature much.

I didn’t notice much of Ryda Luke and Scerri.

That’s all folks.

Edit:

Sam Sturt

1

Sam Sturt

Age

25

Ht

190cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

7.7

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.3

5star

D

7.7

2star

K

4.0

1star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.0

2star

G

1.3

5star

D

7.7

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

3.7

3star

M

2.3

3star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.3

5star

was doing running drills on the wing. He says he ‘feels good’ and is expecting to be back around mid year.

Luke Ryan was also doing running drills. He said he feels good but is sick to death of running drills.

Brandon Walker also doing running drills. Geez this guy looks like an out and out athlete. As well as like Brian Lara.”

 

[ignoramus]

Most of my observations have already been reported, but I will add to those by saying:

McDonald was doing very well in the contested marking drills and in the match sims. Didn’t win many but didn’t get beaten often. He’s not displacing Cox or Pearce, obvs, but those who are thinking he’s no chance to get another game for us may be in for a surprise. Regularly halved them against Mox (NB. I’ve landed on Mox aka Mocks aka Mock Cox as the name of our latest Cox).

Don’t disagree that Young looked great, but I reckon Jackson was looking better. He’s primed for a big year. He was moving very well in transition, and he blitzed Darcy at the centre bounces. I’d say Darcy pipped him 2/3 of the around the ground stoppages, but Jacko was finding ways to make it hard for Sean. Not that the latter wasn’t looking decent, too. He was marking everything early in the sim.

Swiedy did some sensational stuff in the drills, esp. the contested marking drills, on one occasion turning Carr inside out before grabbing him around the waste and flinging him aside micro seconds before taking the mark in his arms a few inches about the ground. He was less involved in the sim, but it feels like that was more due to the sim being dominated by the usual suspects, with the youngsters just playing their supporting roles. The youngster who was most involved was Nicholls, who had a great run. Whan did some nice stuff on the wing.

Brayshaw and Serong seemed telepathically connected. JOM also looking like he is not planning on stepping aside. Johnno and Erasmus both looking ready to lift on last year. Of course, they’re all just playing each other, but the intensity was there. Bolton, by contrast, took a long time to wake up. Gave away a 50 early on when he tossed the ball aside after getting caught holding.

Treacy was very vocal, particularly with the expletives when things didn’t go the way he’d have liked.

A couple of general observations about the sim: it felt like the majority of play was in one or the other of the 50s, with little play between the arcs. Also, no kick-ins at all, just throw-ins from the pocket to restart from behinds.