Training 2026 Training Blog - Training Reports only - *NO DISCUSSION*

[Aphrodite]

Same principle as the Bluemour File - this thread is for TRAINING REPORTS ONLY

No discussion is to take place in this thread!


All discussion belongs over here:

Training - 2026 Pre-Season Training - reports, pics etc

Begins tomorrow …

www.bigfooty.com

It's an easy reference point for training reports without having to sift through pages & pages of posts.

By all means copy and paste training reports from this thread using #TrackTalk hashtag which can be referenced back for discussion in the 'Pre-Season 2025 - Training reports, pics etc' thread & vice versa:-

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Training - 2026 Pre-Season Training - reports, pics etc

Begins tomorrow …

www.bigfooty.com

This has been found to be a valuable reference tool for those of us that love reading training reports and can't make it to training sessions whether it be to due to work commitments, living interstate etc.

The time and effort our posters put in attending training sessions and keep us up to date on how our players/new recruits are tracking is invaluable and we all love reading their informative training reports and we thank you.

 

[Aphrodite]

Went along this morning to take a look at training. The Women were out first bit of running and even some dancing on the far side of the ground. With the match tomorrow they weren't going to do too much, couple running laps, Abby McKay, Lily Goss and Harriet Cordner. The group were in fine spirits and were really enjoying themselves, gave away some small footballs and signed stuff to finish up.

As the women were doing their signing session the first to fourth year players came out to begin their session. There was quite a large group training, including Lucas and Ben Camporeale, Charelson, Carroll, Wilson, Cowen, Motlop, Flynn Young, Evans, Moir, Lord, Boyd, O'Keeffe, Monahan and Duffy. Jagger Smith and Ollie Hollands were wearing the Yellow don't tackle me caps for some of the contact parts of the session. In addition there were senior players in Walsh, Cerra, Saad, Kemp, Newman, Pittonet and Lewis Young. Jacob Weitering was doing his own thing, not training with the main group, kicking with a trainer and running laps on his own, not sure why as he didn't look injured or anything.

In addition recently traded players Chesser, Reidy, Hayward and Florent joined in with the main group. Plus some others including Ethan Phillips, Flynn Riley and Sam Paea from the VFL team this year. There was a bloke I couldn't ID looked a little like Harry Charelson, similar size and build wearing No. 39, didn't recognise him and thought it was Harry in the wrong number to start with. No sign of Elijah Hollands or Will White despite the talk about them being invited to train on.

They trained for a couple of hours. Drills varied from handball competition in small groups, to kicking and running to support and get the ball back. Even some limited match sim drills through the middle of the ground. Quite a few drills worked on outnumbering the opposition and moving the ball quickly. Heard the coaches telling them to move forward (not sideways or backward), which hopefully reflects a change in the game plan. Finished with some running, about half a lap at a time, to be completed within a time limit and then repeated with limited rest.

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[Aphrodite]

Training was held between 09:45am and 12:15pm


Senior players that were not present included:
Williams, Fogarty, Cripps, McKay, McGovern, Haynes, Hewett and Cottrell.

All the young players were at training

Please correct me if I am mistaken but Some train on players I identified were
45 Mirkov, 12 Paea, 31 Phillips and a red haired small forward wearing 39

All players took part in the training drills, which included:

Press formations
Fundamentals
Outnumber the evens
Attacking formations

In my view, the players that stood out were
Evans, Charleson ad their kicking and decision making skills were the highlight


The players that shifted in and out of rehab depending on the hardness of the drills included
Florent, Smith, Kemp, Cerra, Walsh and Newman.

A very slight concern when Motlop went away from the drills for a few minutes to address a finger injury

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[WildmanOfCarlton]

Attended training again this morning, quite a nice day. As others have said both Harry Dean and Jack Ison ran out with the team and did the warm up and Dean in particular did quite a few drills. Cody Walker was also did some of the early drills, wearing his fathers old number and a hat, saw Andrew (also wearing a hat) and Arli down on the fence talking to Davies and one of the recruitment guys.

The bulk of the trainers were the first to fourth year players, can't recall seeing Cowen, the new recruits: Chesser, Florent, Hayward and Reidy. Plus Walshy, Pitonett, Hewett and Acres, and the same three from the VFL - Ethan Phillips, Flynn Riley, Sam Paea and Taj Logan. At different times noticed Cortrell walking and bouncing a ball near the goals, Kemp running laps and Weitering was out with a trainer doing his own thing again like last week.

Training was a lot like last week, warm up with running in a straight line, some agility stuff running to different coloured cones and kicking with a partner. They completed a number of different drills, usually with some playing defender in a coloured bib, to work the ball past the defence. Some of the drills were in tighter space with more defenders, while others had the defenders out numbered and covered half the ground. Right in the middle of everything they did some multilpe timed running drills around the boundary, with one group doing a shuttle run.

Then they completed a drill in pairs with one standing the mark, moving the ball backward and forwards the length of one side of the ground. Finally then played some match sim across the whole ground blue against orange (training tops turned inside out). The ball is usually rolled or given to a defender at one end and they attempt to move the ball the length of the field, Hollands and Jagga were wearing yellow don't tackle me hats, which didn't stop someone from tackling Oli at one stage.

I know some people are interested in who is "training the house down". Not sure I feel qualified to make those judgements. I will say I liked a few times Chesser got going, he moves very well. I also like a few things I've seen from Reidy and Flynn Riley who both are more agile than you'd expect. Jagga Smith is eye catching when he's got the ball and as usual the likes of Walshy and Hollands run hard at training like they do in games.




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[David Sylvian]

Great day down in Lorne, boys were just rolling through the drills, ison and jagga smith impressed me with their burst, overlap running and skills.
Reidy is a unit, keen to impose his strength.
Elijah looked ok some nice foot skills.
Rehab unit with cotts fog, Kempy, Charleson. Boyd a shoulder issue, nothing to serious.
Crippa, wow!
The absence of taping, strapping among the group, all looked in great nick. Better half says the boys should just play as skins for some reason.
Overall an encouraging hit out.
Burgers and coke at the milk bottle went down a treat. As did the stroll along on the beach.







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[BlueAbroad]

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[Bamboo Harvester]

The session went for about 2 and a half hours - fair bit of match sim and skills work, ie kicking drills. It's something which has been discussed on here a fair bit, but there was a definite focus on kicking.

It was kind of weird though not seeing Curnow or Silvagni or TDK out there, and a whole bunch of fresh faces. Overall, we do look fairly short even with Phillips, Riley and Paea out there from our VFL.

Just a few random observations for this time of year:

• Reidy is one massive unit. Our ruck is a different look without TDK there -we now have 3 bash and crash brothers with him, Pitto and HOK. No doubt the focus for them this year will be to provide the contest - whether in ruck or up forward.
• Saad and Florent looked good across half back in the match sim...and keep a lookout for Billy, reckon he's found another gear and now looks more comfortable at this level. Think he'll be the successor to Saad, fingers crossed. Special mention to Gov who was also playing back in defence.
• Elijah was the clear standout today - maybe partially because I was looking for him, but his kicking on either side is outstanding, and has uncanny spatial awareness. Stood out in the match sim, and dominated the repeat running drills.
• I agree with Chloe - Cow has got a bit of presence to him, could be the new tatts, but he's a bit of a beast.
• We have to re-sign Walsh as a priority. Good to see him in full pre-season training rather than running laps. Outstanding today in the match sim and looked to be moving freely.
• Campo boys looked much better in the kicking drills than this time last year. The 2 Irish boys do seem to struggle just a little though - still doesn't look natural for them with the oval ball. You feel it's make or break for them this year.
• Reckon Harry D's gonna be a beauty when he's fully matured - loved his aggression at the ball, and composed by foot. I also liked the look of Chesser on a wing - if he can stay fit, we may have got ourselves a bit of a bargain there.
• Jagga took part in most of the drills/match sim. He's still incredibly light, and noticed he got easily pushed away from the contest on a few occassions. I could see his role more as the first receiver than on the inside.
• George is gonna have another cracking season.

Like I said in an earlier post, it's hard to take it all in with separate groups simultaneously undertaking drills all over the ground - your eyes are darting in every direction like Marty Feldman trying to take everything in.

Similarly in the match sim, you're trying to watch both sides at the same time - as opposed to when you're watch a proper H&A game, where you're concentrating on your own side and couldn't give a flying fornication about the other mob.




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[AT97]

Random observations, so I’ll be a bit all over the shop.

We have a lot more noticeably good kicks in this squad. There were passages of play where the ball didn’t hit the ground (let’s see if this transfers to an actual game). Sizzling kicks to leading forwards too — I’m looking at Boyd and Wilson amongst a heap of others.

I’ve joined others in thinking Florent will be very valuable for us in ’26.

Byrne is a ripper. What you see in the draft-day highlights video is what I saw on the track.

Kemp and Newman joined in everything other than drills where tackling was in play.

Carroll and Fog were in rehab for the whole session, I think.

A game-simulation drill was played in a very tight, narrow area on one side of the ground — a 3/4-length field with the wings brought in tight. They went into the corridor as often as possible, with outlet kicks only seemingly at the minimum legally allowed kicking distance. They moved the ball quickly, but to me it wasn’t manic — it was more controlled — and the outlet was taken if the corridor was covered.

There was a drill in the forward line where players worked on blocking or creating paths for leading players, and bringing the ball to ground if there was no chance to mark. Harry, HOK and Kemp were all part of the same team. This was my favorite viewing of the session.

Still no idea who No. 50 was.

Not sure if Frank can recapture the form of late last year, but in the last couple of sessions I’ve seen he is certainly eye-catching. He just seems to be in positions where the ball ends up.

Speaking of eye-catching, Moir is another.

Lots of tight handball drills where the objective is to get it moving to the outside to run with it, or kick with less pressure.

Umpires were involved in quite a few drills.

I’ll leave the more nuanced commentary on drills to those who have more understanding than me.





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[BlueAbroad]

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[Tjblues]

Didn’t see Ainsworth, Cottrell, Duffy, Saad, HOF on the track at all (hard to keep track so not impossible one was there)

Fog, Kemp, Newman, Carroll involved in 1 or 2 drills but largely rehab. Carroll outmarked Flynn Riley 4 consecutive times during a drill at one point, looks a bit stronger.

Haynes ran a stack of laps but didn’t see a footy in his hands.

Clear standout for the day was Walsh for me. He’s moving at serious speed whenever he has the ball and his ability to follow up and dispose effectively without slowing is a serious weapon.

Others who look the goods:

Frank’s kicking is seriously good. Long penetrating and very rarely off target. Kicked 2 in 20 mins of full ground match sim

Florent just looks a plug and play every week guy. Wants the ball, uses it well and with purpose, always talking.

Didn’t see a heap of him but Billy Wilson was quick and clean. Wasn’t sure if he had AFL traits but he’s tracking better.

Honourable mentions:

Boyd looks to be taking his kicking on again.

Lucas Campo ran well and did a few nice things.

Acres ran his guts out all day and got a stack of it during the match sim.

Lord was busy, as was Motlop who proved a valuable link in the chain higher up the ground

Young players:

Jagga slowly ramping up

Didn’t see a heap of Dean/Byrne/Ison. All had a couple of moments.

Ison seemed to be splitting minutes on one wing with Chesser. Maybe both on a managed load?

SSP:

Lij showed he has all the talent. White worked hard.

Phillips is a nice size, competes in the air but his kicking is a bit untidy.

Riley got monstered in a drill by Carroll and looks a raw, skinny prospect.


Overall a long session. Out before 10 and finished running just after 1. Tough going given the heat but good to see the vast majority involved in almost all of it.





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