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

 

[eaglevision]

Lol @ BSD giving this a

Someone asked who was the second year bolter referred to in the article by Eliza Reilly

Hamish Davis was the player she was talking about which stemmed from an answer Tom McCarthy gave in his press conference



So yeah Davis has been drawing attention to himself so far this preseason and whether you agree with that or not, it’s objectively true

Hammer has looked good. He’s essentially a free hit and has put on size and improved his running power (which was already at a high level) and ball drop over summer.

On a seperate note Keys is there a link to the contracts thread in one of the main threads that I just can’t see?

 

[Boohemian]

Surprised to read that Davis has played 8 games. Pretty good return for a first-year player. Pretty hard to crack the seniors (even as bad as we've been). It's encouraging to hear that he's been putting in the work and has had a good preseason to date. Hope he can build on it.

 

[Keys]

On a seperate note Keys is there a link to the contracts thread in one of the main threads that I just can’t see?

Not yet

I’ve got some housekeeping to do on a couple of threads that I haven’t got around to - that’s one of them

 

[Barrybran]

Not yet

I’ve got some housekeeping to do on a couple of threads that I haven’t got around to - that’s one of them

I hope you're charging Chief for your time

 

[flyinghi64]

I was on the trade down for Sharp bandwagon, rather than taking CDT. (noting was holding out for 5 and 6 for pick 2 and ?, so not straight apples to apples comparison)

Reports on the Essendon board (in the 2 minutes i looked at it just now) are that Sharp is going well BUT everything I'm hearing about CDT makes me think we might have some gold on our hands. The big question was whether he was a number 1 ruck and if not, what is he? The answer seems to be that he's going to be a gun forward, but not just that, a gun in general wherever he plays.

Unfortunately it's not pokemon and you can't get them all, so good luck to Sharp, may he maybe win a final once he leaves Essendon as a free agent in 7 years, but lets go CDT.

So could CDT be more of a Darcy than a Jackson. If he does grow another couple of centimeters and put some Kg's on he could very well be that tall beast everyone is looking for.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

So could CDT be more of a Darcy than a Jackson. If he does grow another couple of centimeters and put some Kg's on he could very well be that tall beast everyone is looking for.

Less fatty Darcy maybe more machine Xerri?

 

[flyinghi64]

Less fatty Darcy maybe more machine Xerri?

Wrong Darcy

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Wrong Darcy

Oh you meant the string bean not the hippo?

 

[flyinghi64]

Oh you meant the string bean not the hippo?

Yes, but entering his 3rd season he will add a little more bulk and be an absolute handful for teams.

 

[kane249]

Yes, but entering his 3rd season he will add a little more bulk and be an absolute handful for teams.

5th for Sam Darcy, started in 2022

 

[Boohemian]

Oh you meant the string bean not the hippo?

String bean? If you believe Vic media, he's the second coming of Jesus.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

String bean? If you believe Vic media, he's the second coming of Jesus.

To be fair he’s pretty bloody awesome

 

[Shueygod]

If CDT worked on his contested marking/hands I could see the Darcy comparison.

Would be a huge result.

 

[flyinghi64]

5th for Sam Darcy, started in 2022

Oh yeah forgot he had a season and a bit ruined by injury. I just keep thinking him and Reid are the same as they were both top picks for the Rising star in the same year if not for suspension.

 

[JoshWoodenSpoon]

If CDT worked on his contested marking/hands I could see the Darcy comparison.

Would be a huge result.

Agreed, I had Darcy in my top 5.

 

[Cuzz09]

Definitely not leather poisoning...

Pay that

 

[Byron_Clanger]

If CDT worked on his contested marking/hands I could see the Darcy comparison.

Would be a huge result.

Darcy comparisons? That's a new one. Pre draft it was all TDK, Luke Jackson and Tim English comparisons.

 

[Shueygod]

Darcy comparisons? That's a new one. Pre draft it was all TDK, Luke Jackson and Tim English comparisons.

I think his disposal/skill is superior to all of those and more akin to Darcy. He definitely doesn’t have the contested marking (or height) of Darcy though.

 

[bzparkes]

I think his disposal/skill is superior to all of those and more akin to Darcy. He definitely doesn’t have the contested marking (or height) of Darcy though.

Closer to Grundy than Darcy, IMO.

 

[Balls In]

There was an interesting little drill they run right on the boundary with the young mids that I reckon is a huge tell on the overall game plan. From a lineup perspective McCarthy was in there with the mids as well fwiw.

Drill involved four staggered set points, with the ball rolled initially to the first station, the player recovering it, then starting a handball chain through the other stations under pressure before the final player gets free and hits a relieving kick to a player upfield.

The drill coach was absolutely hammering speed, yelling - "no time", "no time" at each touch point, or "gone!" if there was a fumble. There is "NO TIME" at this level!!! At one point he stopped the drill "you CANNOT take a footy to your chest!!! Too slow, take it hands out, your hands must be free" then (when a handball dropped short) "how do you generate power out of that!!, you have to work it out, drive it using your whole body...

Just a little thing and probably a standard drill but I got a sense it's a real focus of the footy club to move the footy on quickly at all costs. Our squad is physically clearly not at AFL level yet which is understandable with such a young group, however you can see the club trying to cement a free flowing playing style into the group.

The other thing that sprung to mind is that senior mids don't get taught to "one touch" footy at all costs, thats a product of a young team, those bigger balanced guys distinguish themselves by taking that extra fraction of a second and hitting the right option. Everything I saw on Wednesday pointed to a club looking 2-5 seasons down the track - pure development coaching at this point of the curve and I agree with that.

 

[bombard]

There was an interesting little drill they run right on the boundary with the young mids that I reckon is a huge tell on the overall game plan. From a lineup perspective McCarthy was in there with the mids as well fwiw.

Drill involved four staggered set points, with the ball rolled initially to the first station, the player recovering it, then starting a handball chain through the other stations under pressure before the final player gets free and hits a relieving kick to a player upfield.

The drill coach was absolutely hammering speed, yelling - "no time", "no time" at each touch point, or "gone!" if there was a fumble. There is "NO TIME" at this level!!! At one point he stopped the drill "you CANNOT take a footy to your chest!!! Too slow, take it hands out, your hands must be free" then (when a handball dropped short) "how do you generate power out of that!!, you have to work it out, drive it using your whole body...

Just a little thing and probably a standard drill but I got a sense it's a real focus of the footy club to move the footy on quickly at all costs. Our squad is physically clearly not at AFL level yet which is understandable with such a young group, however you can see the club trying to cement a free flowing playing style into the group.

The other thing that sprung to mind is that senior mids don't get taught to "one touch" footy at all costs, thats a product of a young team, those bigger balanced guys distinguish themselves by taking that extra fraction of a second and hitting the right option. Everything I saw on Wednesday pointed to a club looking 2-5 seasons down the track - pure development coaching at this point of the curve and I agree with that.

Great little anecdote mate for those of us who can't make it down - appreciate the post.

 

[garlic munchers]

I think his disposal/skill is superior to all of those and more akin to Darcy. He definitely doesn’t have the contested marking (or height) of Darcy though.

We have had a massive hole in our side in dealing with the likes of the athletic super talls in Sam Darcy's & Ben Kings.

Now think we at least have some other 200cm plus chess pieces (i.e. Archer Reid) to throw at them if they get off Harry's leash at F/B or if Darcy is roaming higher up.

 

[WCE777]

We have had a massive hole in our side in dealing with the likes of the athletic super talls in Sam Darcy's & Ben Kings.

Now think we at least have some other 200cm plus chess pieces (i.e. Archer Reid) to throw at them if they get off Harry's leash at F/B or if Darcy is roaming higher up.

Tend to agree.
I think Young might surprise a few on how well he could play on these types.

I think with the drafting of CDT its a push from where this list of talls end up.
A Reid I believe has shown a massive amount of talent in the ruck already and deserves to be 2IC to Flynn but 2026 will hold lots of discovery for this list and if WC feel A Walsh 2027 draft is the GOAT ruckman that he projects this far out then drafting him and moving A Reid to a KPD would be more than exciting.

Very tall, very mobile and very talented and could lock down that mobile 200cm KPD spot for 10 years.
Just need another elite KPD drafted this year.

All though this goes against my thoughts on drafting elite talls in the 1st round it could be feasible.
Solves 1 part of the KPD hole.
2 top 5 picks on ruckman in CDT & Walsh seems excessive imo.

I still think that we should be adding to our midfield with the top 5 picks that we will have the next 2 years as a priority as 2nd round talls can fill many spots on the list, there are many many KPD's/Rucks/KPF's who are elite in the 2nd round.

 

[Rivoroo17]

Is training on this morning?

 

[JoshWoodenSpoon]

Is training on this morning?

Yeah mate. Looking to be a good session.