Training Preseason Training Thread - 2024/25

[Keys]

And that’s me done for preseason

Probably the best conditioning I’ve seen the squad in since I’ve been attending training.

There’s a bit to look forward to this season albeit we’ll lose more than we win and there’ll be the occasional shellacking when things come completely unstuck

Stay positive, take the good with the bad as the players learn the new game plan and Mini identifies what he has to work with. Some will thrive, others will fall away but one thing I’m sure of is that the effort and desire to compete and improve will be there

Onwards and upwards, enjoy the season

 

[mattyc75]

Really looking forward to our recent draftees developing ,actually looks like everyone drafted in the last 2 years has a good shot at making it!


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[WestCoast05]

Cuzz could back it up , Ryan not so much

 

[Bender_]

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Don't bother, he's a massive Ryan hater and will reply with either something completely made up or equally outlandish and when you call him out on it he'll just ignore it.

 

[Yeahnahmate]

We would have no 4th without Flyin so not about to throw him under the bus without knowing the story here.

And yes he is one of ours, so personally hoping he didn’t call for the dust up and was targeted and needed to get to work so as not to end up on the floor

 

[Goroyals22]

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Two photos from last decade probably proved my point. For all his faults Cuzz played top level seasons year on year, Ryan has done it once.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Pissing, fighting and obesity.

And there's still a good couple of months of the off-season left!

Sounds like we got our mojo back

 

[We_The_West]

Made it down at about 9am. Was there for about 2 hours. Very solid session.
Started off with an extensive warm up, into some tackling drills, a ball movement drill, 30 mins of match sim, into 3 competitive game sense rotations. There was about 5 or 6, 400m efforts in between every transition from drill to drill.

As mentioned in previous post - no sign of Hunt, Hough, Sheed, Bazzo.

Duggan did limited work at the start before going inside.

Chesser, Jamo, Petch, Yeo and HEdwards looked all but ready to go. Were held out of match sim, but did ball movement etc. went over to the other oval and did a power of work. Would think they will be reintroduced in the next week or so to full training.

5 x wafl players topped up the squad.

Teams were split into blue and yellow for match sim.

Blue
Fwd - Waterman, Brockman, JWill, Ryan, Rawlinson, Cripps

Mid - Harley, TK, Graham, BWill

Wing - wafl player, Davis

Back - Baker, Cole, Allan, Ginbey, gov, van Es


Yellow

Back - Grego, Brock, Maric, Barnett, wafl x 2

Mid - Hutch, Hewett, Gross, Flynn
Wing - Hall and Dewar

Fwd - Owies, Allen, Shanahan, long, Malakai

Some individual player notes - mainly the younger player.

Greggo - impressed me the most of all out on the track. Tough, composed and no nonsense. Plays with serious swagger. Bought Harley down in a big tackle. Skills were good. Early debut on the cards in my opinion.

Hall - trained really well. Rotated with Hutch inside and outside. Was strong inside and spread really well from contest. Won a lot of the ball.

Dewar - will be very surprised if he doesn’t play round 1 on the wing. Covers the ground well, skills are as good as we have and a big chase down tackle on Harley.

Hutch - as above with Dewar, can’t see him not playing. A real athlete that has serious mongrel about him. Disposal and decision making questionable, but has a unique skill set. Very good.

Allen - didn’t do a whole lot, but composed when he had the ball and didn’t look out of place.

Gross - Had one really good moment, where he gathered a ground ball at a stoppage. Bounced off Bailey Williams tackle, broke another tackle and fed out to a runner. Slight, but looks a player.

Shanahan - wasn’t involved a heap, matched up mainly with Gov and Reuben. Athletically gifted and one intercept in the forward half was impressive.

Davis - looked at home on the wing. Won plenty of the ball. Trained well.

Malakai - very slight, but got involved. Will excite.

Brock and Van Es - both weren’t involved a heap. Didn’t do much wrong. Brock had a good one on one win against waterman.

Barnett - looks far more confortable down back. Lost some one on ones, but got involved offensively and looked confident.

Brockman - was involved and lively. Trained well.

Ginbey - really excited to watch him grow this year. Was really confident across half back. Flying as 3rd up plenty of times, and looked to get involved on offence.

Maric - matched up on Ryan, was towed around abit, but was confident in flying for marks and chopping off balls to the forwards.

Harley - certainly not his best session. Caught twice and hardly touched it in match sim. Wasn’t covering the ground that well, but not a huge concern. We know he can play.

Hewett - wasn’t involved a heap, but looks fit.

Kelly - rotated between inside and wing.

Long - rarely sighted in match sim, but back to full training is a positive.

Archer - didn’t get a massive look, but moves so well.

JWill - was the best of the forwards. That 2nd ruck/forward spot is his, I’ve got no doubt.

BWill and Flynn - good contest. Neutralised each other. Baz with a nice contested mark, but not much to speak of other than that.

Overall, lots to like. The young kids are bringing the energy and competing really well against senior players. It appears as of the next week we should have all but Bazzo available, unless Hunt, Hough and Sheed have concerns we haven’t heard about.

Bring on the next month.

Well done - this is bloody amazing!

Thanks for your thorough report, it is greatly appreciated.

Grego is going to be a gem, really happy to read that Davis and Gross are cracking in as well.

Hall, Hutch, Dewar, Barnett and Jilliams.... bloody great news.

Really happy to read that Brockman is getting involved, he's one that I'm hoping will reach his potential and has a lot of talent.

 

[WCE777]

Really looking forward to our recent draftees developing ,actually looks like everyone drafted in the last 2 years has a good shot at making it!


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gotta be happy with Ginbey, Hewett, Long, Maric, Harley, Hall, Johnston, Dewar.
Looking forward to the development of Barnett, Archer, Hutch, Allan, Shanahan, Gross, Grego, Davis, Champion.
Got some serious talent among this group and a few gems too imo.

 

[Fatty rules]

https://archive.is/R5S4F

Not much in this, particularly in comparison to Toastie’s comprehensive rundown above

Andrew Embley has two sons.

 

[Avalor]

Andrew Embley has two sons.

Juicy! More F/S on the way. Anyone know anything about their junior development. Following in their father's footsteps???

 

[We_The_West]

Good to see Chess hasn't missed any weights sessions... hoping he becomes the inside battering ram mid we need.

 

[Tugga27]

Don't bother, he's a massive Ryan hater and will reply with either something completely made up or equally outlandish and when you call him out on it he'll just ignore it.

 

[ArdentEagle]

WITH 4 nga's available this year and 3 of them showing so much at training
will be interesting to see what happens with drafting
Kobe, Jake and Wes all look quality training better than some senior listed players

If you can be bothered, I'd really love a quick run down on each player...Strengths/weaknesses/ceiling and maybe player style comparison.

 

[ArdentEagle]

Given we're now looking to be a high pressure, high tackle count side. Players who have fast/creative hands and players who have the ability to create their own space, have a great first 3 steps or side step, and players who can execute uncanny skills will be extra important to our set-up now.

(Players who can actually apply pressure/tackle is a non negotiable so I'm not including them)

With all of this in mind, who are these key players, the ones that fit into the categories above? These are the people I think that'll go a long way to determining our success this season and perhaps, yes perhaps, even make the 8 if they perform well.


Some are obvious like Harley but I'm keen to hear your thoughts on who these players could be and how they could not only fit into our new system but help us take best advantage and make us grow.

For mine;

Noah Long - Has great vision and hands, could really open the play up in tight situations.
Elijah Hewett - Coming from a long time off but he really can do it all.
Liam Ryan - Best/most creative field kick in the side for mine, let's use him more in a role to take advantage of this.
Harley Johnston - Looks to be a good decision maker, good kick and pretty damn evasive. Would be great on the outside.
Tyrell Dewar - Great side step, pretty damn quick and has some x-factor.
Jobe Shanahan - Could be our best tackling/high pressure, add in his vice like hands and versatility, not only will he be a handful, he may help others get off the chain.

 

[Dom sheed pocket]

Given we're now looking to be a high pressure, high tackle count side. Players who have fast/creative hands and players who have the ability to create their own space, have a great first 3 steps or side step, and players who can execute uncanny skills will be extra important too our set-up now.

(Players who can actually apply pressure/tackle is a non negotiable so I'm not including them)

With all of this in mind, who are these key players, the ones that fit into the categories above? These are the people I think that'll go a long way to determining our success this season and perhaps, yes perhaps, even make the 8 if they perform well.


Some are obvious like Harley but I'm keen to hear your thoughts on who these players could be and how they could not only fit into our new system but help us take best advantage and make us grow.

For mine;

Noah Long - Has great vision and hands, could really open the play up in tight situations.
Elijah Hewett - Coming from a long time off but he really can do it all.
Liam Ryan - Best/most creative field kick in the side for mine, let's use him more in a role to take advantage of this.
Harley Johnston - Looks to be a good decision maker, good kick and pretty damn evasive. Would be great on the outside.
Tyrell Dewar - Great side step, pretty damn quick and has some x-factor.
Jobe Shanahan - Could be our best tackling/high pressure, add in his vice like hands and versatility, not only will he be a handful, he may help others get off the chain.

Chesser has quite a good and creative handball. With his athleticism there’s no one on our list who could benefit more from a change in coach/role and a change in game style.

Long is super clean and can nail some good handballs. I remember a lot of his work teaming up with Cripps before he hurt his knee.

Might sound counter intuitive but I think a new coach could reinvigorate Kelly as well. More time as a half forward could see him rediscover his ability to impact scoreboard.

Brockman is clean and a good athlete, has a good leap. Could see him spend a bit more time in the midfield. That was the plan for him at hawks.

As you mentioned Johnston and Dewar also showed a bit and could take a big step forward, not sure how much would be put down to natural development v game style change.

Yeo is another. I always felt if there was one player on our list who would thrive at the Tiges 2017-2021 it would be Yeo.

 

[Wild Kelly]

Juicy! More F/S on the way. Anyone know anything about their junior development. Following in their father's footsteps???

Being a mighty Royals fan you would be pleased to know that these boys' grandfather is ex-Royals and North Melbourne key backman Kevin Bryant. Some seriously good footy genes in these lads so let's keep our fingers crossed.

 

[RanaNaved]

Good to see Chess hasn't missed any weights sessions... hoping he becomes the inside battering ram mid we need.

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So many of our younger players look in fantastic shape, a lot different to the not too distant past. Our new S&C guys have really changed the look of the squad

 

[DorothyG]

No doubt the lads are looking in good shape, but those filters the media team are using this year are doing some heavy lifting aswell

 

[WCErevival]

No doubt the lads are looking in good shape, but those filters the media team are using this year are doing some heavy lifting aswell

We'll know they have gone too far when we see a tanned McGovern with a six pack.

 

[RanaNaved]

No doubt the lads are looking in good shape, but those filters the media team are using this year are doing some heavy lifting aswell

I've seen them at training, extremely fit looking group now, even Gov

 

[Cuzz09]

Meh, the last 2 years at this point we've been burning up the track looking fit AF.

GET THE FOOTYs OUT

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[Avalor]

Being a mighty Royals fan you would be pleased to know that these boys' grandfather is ex-Royals and North Melbourne key backman Kevin Bryant. Some seriously good footy genes in these lads so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Kevin Bryant - legend!

 

[Jumpoff Joey]

Nah ive been out and about whilst drunk or around drunk people and haven’t seen the need to box on. Most people don’t if you have at least half a brain


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I never said we all want to punch on. I meant we have been out enough times to know there is always one dickhead who just looks for it. I don't know how it is now, but ten years ago Lakers tavern on Friday night was a guarantee that it would happen.

 

[bzparkes]

I never said we all want to punch on.

Speak for yourself

 

[TheBudgies]

Meh, the last 2 years at this point we've been burning up the track looking fit AF.

GET THE FOOTYs OUT

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Think this year it looks more generalised. Ginbey has looked like a ****ing statue of David with a mullet for a couple of years but this year it seems there are more lads in top nick.