Training Preseason Training Thread - 2026

[Keys]

The below is the OG faux training report from nearly 9 years ago - often imitated but never surpassed

In the absence of Keys I went down for a trundle this morning to check them out on return. Just a few random notes I took down...

• A lot of running work again, clearly a focus even in the heat.
• Duggan looked on and was hitting targets left and right. Set for a huge 2017.
• Giles went up against Vardy in the ruck contests and I'd say that Giles has the inside running at the moment.
• Mitchell looked a class above the other midfielders bar Priddis. Just knew how to find the footy and wouldn't miss a target all session. Shuey was very quiet and seemed to be taking direction from Mitchell. Doesn't bode well for his captaincy credentials, maybe he doesn't want the gig?
• Won't say too much about it in case I was just reading too much into it, but Rioli looked as though he'd enjoyed the Christmas break a bit too much. A few of the coaches pulled him aside and they were having quite an animated conversation before Rioli was sent to do laps for the rest of the session. Good news for Le Cras, I suppose.
• Sheed kicked on his right foot for 80% of the session, I reckon. Nice to see players working on their non-preferred so readily.
• Petrie looked like he was doing a great job 'coaching' the younger forwards in between the drills. Darling in particular seemed to be following him around.
• Gee Venables has some skills. He mainly jogged laps before spending the last half hour or so on set shots - curled a few beauties from behind the boundary line at the end for a bit of fun. Hardly saw him miss a kick.
• What interested me the most was that McGovern split his time between the defenders and the forwards, could be seeing a swingman role in 2017. He was his usual dominant self down back in some match simulation drills before going head-to-head with Mackenzie in a forward role.
• Bayok is very fast - Cripps was in most of the drills with him and couldn't keep up.
• Nelson is pale as buggery and still doesn't really have the body shape you'd expect of an AFL player.
• There was a big bloke who pulled up next to me and I could have sworn it was Suma, but I'm sure I was wrong...
• Masto was the player picked to kick the goal at the end today and nailed it. Celebrations were huge.
• No sign of Cole, Parto or Hill. Couldn't tell you why.

Will upload pics later if I have time. Let me know if you have any questions!

You might wonder why I’ve put this up and stickied it

Because this is the standard all copies should be measured against and it’s a reminder of how high the bar was set

And to hopefully discourage sequels.

If you want to have a crack in my absence, go ahead but if it doesn’t equal the standard set (as judged by me), then expect

• A one week threadban for a first offence
• A two week threadban for a second offence
• A one year threadban for a third offence

Actual training reports, minus discussion, can become found here:

Training - Preseason Training Reports -2025/26

This thread has been setup for training reports only and won’t be open for replies Informative reports from the preseason thread will be copied into this thread so posters have access to the quality work from the likes of LittleFires without wading through pages of general posts

www.bigfooty.com

 

[RustyShacklefordFalcon]

Remarkable isn’t it, like a sentient brick.

We now have two Harry's on the list with enormous melons.

 

[Bender_]

Dev clearly doing bicep curls in his car so he could walk into his first day at MRP with a pump. Brilliant psychological strategy.

 

[Byron_Clanger]

Either Duursma is shorter than I expected or everyone besides CDT is taller than I envisioned...probably the latter

 

[stallon]

Either Duursma is shorter than I expected or everyone else is taller than I envisioned...probably the latter

The gap between CDT and Duursma looks about the same as the gap between Duursma and Rodriguez tbh, which checks out

 

[Jootube]

If I just saw Schoenbergs' head I'd assume he was obese

Fair play.

 

[WCE_2007]

Draftee Press Conferences have dropped and it's official...Duursma taking on the number 1.

 

[ziad]

Either Duursma is shorter than I expected or everyone besides CDT is taller than I envisioned...probably the latter

yep, the days of teh 6' ruckman have passed us

 

[LittleFires]

Great to see all the new faces at training this morning and the senior players back out there as well for a two-hour session to start the week. There were nearly 50 players on track today, though many of them were on separate programs and were in and out of the main session which made it a little hard to keep track of everything.

I arrived just after 9:00 and to my delight they were setting up to train on Jamieson Oval, making these "closed" sessions much easier to watch. The main oval which they've trained on for the past two weeks is having some work done to it.

The senior players came out at 9:20 for their MAS running test - it struck me how small this cohort is now, with only 15-odd players warming up, 12 of which did the running test. The rest of the playing group, including the draftees, came out 10 minutes later to do their warmup while the running test was ongoing.

The first 30 minutes of the session consisted of some kicking and handball work, before moving onto a drill where they moved the ball out of congestion using forward handballs and eventually kicking to a leading target. They then completed some handball work in tight, before splitting into rough line groups for some more skill work.

After this came a full-ground ball movement drill where they practised rebounding with speed off a turnover, and another drill where they looked to be working on team defence. They did some run throughs after this, including a strange exercise where they ran in groups of three around the field in seemingly random running patterns, following the leader up the front. To finish, the players split into smaller groups to work on more specific craft and the main group went inside around 11:30.

Details on who did/didn't train:

• Bailey Williams was the only listed player I definitely didn't see
• All six of our draftees - Duursma, Duff-Tytler, Lindsay, Allen, Tylah Williams and Rodriguez - were out there for the first time today.
  • Allen was naturally on light duties as he continues his ACL recovery, spending about 30 minutes doing run throughs and some kicking before spending the rest of the session spectating
  • The rest of them probably completed around 70% of the session, sitting out occasionally to either watch or do some work off to the side - at one point they were doing some contested marking and at another stage Nic Nat was taking them through some light stoppage work
• Robertson, Macrae and Schoenberg also made their first appearances. Robertson had his right shoulder strapped and was in and out of the main session, while Macrae and Schoenberg did most but not all of the full session
• Watt and Johnson were out there, making it a total of 48 players on track today
• I wasn't sure if it was Gross I saw on the exercise bike, but it seems it was indeed him off the photo from The West. Either way, he didn't do much, if any on-ground training from what I saw
• Starcevich I only spotted about an hour into the session and spent about 15-20 minutes running laps. I don't think he did any of the main session
• Barnett did his usual 30-40 minutes of run throughs as well as some kicking away from the main group, before finishing up with some tap work with Nic Nat. Still sporting a significant left leg brace
• Young continues to ease into life as an Eagle, spending most of his time away from the main group doing some run throughs and kicking with Allen, and finishing with some laps alongside Harry Taylor (who incidentally actually looks quite similar to Young up close)
• Kelly and Owies spent almost the entire session running laps together after their MAS test. Did some kicking work too occasionally but a heavy running session for these two
• Dewar and Jack Williams began the session with a good 45 minutes of run throughs and kicking away from the main group before briefly joining in with the group for the line group drills. They finished with some laps together and I didn't see them again after about 10:45
• Yeo and Brockman didn't participate in the MAS test, instead completing run throughs by themselves, some of which they got to quite high speed in. Yeo joined in with the main group when they split into line groups and finished with some light agility work with a trainer.
• Duggan and Cripps also skipped the MAS test but did their fair share of running along the boundary together, also doing some sprints and agility work. They joined in for a couple of drills but more often than not they were training away from the main group
• Waterman started the session in full training but as I said unfortunately appears to have injured his hamstring. He was chasing a loose ball at pretty decent pace in one of the drills later in the session and suddenly pulled up quite proppy, swearing loudly and taking no further part in the drill. As he was walking over to the sidelines he was feeling at his right hammy, and spent about 5 minutes on the massage table with a trainer trying to stretch it out. He took no further part in the session though and after chatting to some players, went inside at 11:00. Gut feel is it's not a bad one - he was able to walk around without any visible limp and didn't look too downbeat when having a chat to some of the players afterwards. We'll see though
• Champion had his right elbow strapped but trained fully today

Some other notes/things that caught my eye:

• Some of the draftees, particularly Rodriquez, Allen and Lindsay, look quite well-built already, and Duff-Tytler doesn't look as skinny as I'd expected. Duursma is still quite wiry but has a solid frame to fill out.
• I didn't get a super long look at him but Starcevich is an absolute specimen. Can tell he'll help set the standards on the track once he's fully up and going
• When they split into line groups, Baker, Dewar and Lindsay spent time with the backs.
• Interestingly Johnston trained with the forwards. He spent quite a bit of time during one of last week's sessions on his goalkicking so perhaps he's looking to play up forward this season
• Dewar whilst still a bit skinny looks like he's added some more size, a huge difference from when he first arrived at the club
• Didn't see Lindsay miss a kick today, going to be a fun watch next year I reckon.
• Flynn spent about 20 minutes at the end of the session having a long conversation with Nic Nat.
• Ginbey, Hutchinson, Newton and Hough were the last to leave the track, staying for an extra 5-10 minutes to get some more kicking work in.

Like I have previously, I tried to keep track of who finished in what order for the MAS running test. With only 12 doing the test it was easier to keep track, so the following order can be taken as fairly accurate:

• Kelly was the first to finish, on 17 km/h (as a reminder, the speed increases every minute or two and is announced over the loudspeakers)
• Edwards was the next, followed by Owies, Hough, Schoenberg, Flynn and Macrae (in that order) on 18 km/h.
• Baker was the 4th-last to finish on 19km/h
• Waterman and Cole finished at roughly the same time on 19 km/h
• Graham finished a good 30-45 seconds after the others on 19km/h, and was a few seconds short of reaching the 20 km/h speed
• Robertson finished somewhere on 18km/h but I didn't note what position he was in

 

[Byron_Clanger]

Draftee Press Conferences have dropped and it's official...Duursma taking on the number 1.

So that's why there was no airport pics. Lindsay said they had 9am flights that got delayed until 6...God damn

 

[Dark Sharks]

Young has got to be the most inconspicuous recruit we've had in a while I reckon. Up there with Burrows.

Did he even do a dumb "Hey Eagles fans... " video?

 

[eaglespremiers]

The WAFL top up player from Vic Archie Watt

Archie's an Ex-Pioneer from 2024.

 

[JoshWoodenSpoon]

Young continues to ease into life as an Eagle, spending most of his time away from the main group

Doesn't sound like he's easing in to me - that's full West Coast compliance!

 

[Coasters7]

Great to see all the new faces at training this morning and the senior players back out there as well for a two-hour session to start the week. There were nearly 50 players on track today, though many of them were on separate programs and were in and out of the main session which made it a little hard to keep track of everything.

I arrived just after 9:00 and to my delight they were setting up to train on Jamieson Oval, making these "closed" sessions much easier to watch. The main oval which they've trained on for the past two weeks is having some work done to it.

The senior players came out at 9:20 for their MAS running test - it struck me how small this cohort is now, with only 15-odd players warming up, 12 of which did the running test. The rest of the playing group, including the draftees, came out 10 minutes later to do their warmup while the running test was ongoing.

The first 30 minutes of the session consisted of some kicking and handball work, before moving onto a drill where they moved the ball out of congestion using forward handballs and eventually kicking to a leading target. They then completed some handball work in tight, before splitting into rough line groups for some more skill work.

After this came a full-ground ball movement drill where they practised rebounding with speed off a turnover, and another drill where they looked to be working on team defence. They did some run throughs after this, including a strange exercise where they ran in groups of three around the field in seemingly random running patterns, following the leader up the front. To finish, the players split into smaller groups to work on more specific craft and the main group went inside around 11:30.

Details on who did/didn't train:

• Bailey Williams was the only listed player I definitely didn't see
• All six of our draftees - Duursma, Duff-Tytler, Lindsay, Allen, Tylah Williams and Rodriguez - were out there for the first time today.
  • Allen was naturally on light duties as he continues his ACL recovery, spending about 30 minutes doing run throughs and some kicking before spending the rest of the session spectating
  • The rest of them probably completed around 70% of the session, sitting out occasionally to either watch or do some work off to the side - at one point they were doing some contested marking and at another stage Nic Nat was taking them through some light stoppage work
• Robertson, Macrae and Schoenberg also made their first appearances. Robertson had his right shoulder strapped and was in and out of the main session, while Macrae and Schoenberg did most but not all of the full session
• Watt and Johnson were out there, making it a total of 48 players on track today
• I wasn't sure if it was Gross I saw on the exercise bike, but it seems it was indeed him off the photo from The West. Either way, he didn't do much, if any on-ground training from what I saw
• Starcevich I only spotted about an hour into the session and spent about 15-20 minutes running laps. I don't think he did any of the main session
• Barnett did his usual 30-40 minutes of run throughs as well as some kicking away from the main group, before finishing up with some tap work with Nic Nat. Still sporting a significant left leg brace
• Young continues to ease into life as an Eagle, spending most of his time away from the main group doing some run throughs and kicking with Allen, and finishing with some laps alongside Harry Taylor (who incidentally actually looks quite similar to Young up close)
• Kelly and Owies spent almost the entire session running laps together after their MAS test. Did some kicking work too occasionally but a heavy running session for these two
• Dewar and Jack Williams began the session with a good 45 minutes of run throughs and kicking away from the main group before briefly joining in with the group for the line group drills. They finished with some laps together and I didn't see them again after about 10:45
• Yeo and Brockman didn't participate in the MAS test, instead completing run throughs by themselves, some of which they got to quite high speed in. Yeo joined in with the main group when they split into line groups and finished with some light agility work with a trainer.
• Duggan and Cripps also skipped the MAS test but did their fair share of running along the boundary together, also doing some sprints and agility work. They joined in for a couple of drills but more often than not they were training away from the main group
• Waterman started the session in full training but as I said unfortunately appears to have injured his hamstring. He was chasing a loose ball at pretty decent pace in one of the drills later in the session and suddenly pulled up quite proppy, swearing loudly and taking no further part in the drill. As he was walking over to the sidelines he was feeling at his right hammy, and spent about 5 minutes on the massage table with a trainer trying to stretch it out. He took no further part in the session though and after chatting to some players, went inside at 11:00. Gut feel is it's not a bad one - he was able to walk around without any visible limp and didn't look too downbeat when having a chat to some of the players afterwards. We'll see though
• Champion had his right elbow strapped but trained fully today

Some other notes/things that caught my eye:

• Some of the draftees, particularly Rodriquez, Allen and Lindsay, look quite well-built already, and Duff-Tytler doesn't look as skinny as I'd expected. Duursma is still quite wiry but has a solid frame to fill out.
• I didn't get a super long look at him but Starcevich is an absolute specimen. Can tell he'll help set the standards on the track once he's fully up and going
• When they split into line groups, Baker, Dewar and Lindsay spent time with the backs.
• Interestingly Johnston trained with the forwards. He spent quite a bit of time during one of last week's sessions on his goalkicking so perhaps he's looking to play up forward this season
• Dewar whilst still a bit skinny looks like he's added some more size, a huge difference from when he first arrived at the club
• Didn't see Lindsay miss a kick today, going to be a fun watch next year I reckon.
• Flynn spent about 20 minutes at the end of the session having a long conversation with Nic Nat.
• Ginbey, Hutchinson, Newton and Hough were the last to leave the track, staying for an extra 5-10 minutes to get some more kicking work in.

Like I have previously, I tried to keep track of who finished in what order for the MAS running test. With only 12 doing the test it was easier to keep track, so the following order can be taken as fairly accurate:

• Kelly was the first to finish, on 17 km/h (as a reminder, the speed increases every minute or two and is announced over the loudspeakers)
• Edwards was the next, followed by Owies, Hough, Schoenberg, Flynn and Macrae (in that order) on 18 km/h.
• Baker was the 4th-last to finish on 19km/h
• Waterman and Cole finished at roughly the same time on 19 km/h
• Graham finished a good 30-45 seconds after the others on 19km/h, and was a few seconds short of reaching the 20 km/h speed
• Robertson finished somewhere on 18km/h but I didn't note what position he was in

The main oval which they've trained on for the past two weeks is having some work done to it.

 

[Jootube]

• Kelly was the first to finish, on 17 km/h

Not much to be annoyed about at this time of year, but this is disappointing.
Senior midfielder the first to stop? SMH

 

[Schtinker]

Where's McCarthy?

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Damn Waterman hammy is deflating...

 

[juice568]

Young has got to be the most inconspicuous recruit we've had in a while I reckon. Up there with Burrows.

Did he even do a dumb "Hey Eagles fans... " video?

Kick it foward did a reenactment of his video. The most unenthusiastic hey fans video ever.

 

[TY24]

If I just saw Schoenbergs' head I'd assume he was obese

I think he's best described as if Rowley from Diary of a Whimpy Kid played footy

 

[WCEswift]

• Kelly was the first to finish, on 17 km/h (as a reminder, the speed increases every minute or two and is announced over the loudspeakers)
• Edwards was the next

Midfielder outrun by a kpd? oh boy

 

[jdisc]

Kelly was the first to finish, on 17 km/h

dont panic gents, maybe he's just starting his McGovern redemption arc

 

[PremiershipNo4]

dont panic gents, maybe he's just starting his McGovern redemption arc

It’s not panic, just disgust at the length of contract he received. I wonder if he’s lost his love for game again? Cos I certainly lost my love for the contract he’s on.

 

[KERRPOW]

• Kelly was the first to finish, on 17 km/h (as a reminder, the speed increases every minute or two and is announced over the loudspeakers)

first session and all but, Gee.

 

[Cuzz09]

View attachment 2484712
Fair play.

Norm from cheers

 

[Cuzz09]

Waterman: Indefinite (eg 3-4 weeks all season)

 

[Astro7]

A two time premiership player, club champion who was a rookie draftee who's worked to get every last bit of talent and potential out of himself. Doesn't sound too bad to me.

Sounds good to me