Training The 2019 preseason training REPORTS thread

Any of the WAFL guys stand out in anyway? Or simply outclassed?

Brady Grey held his own and was a solid contributor in both halves. Not familiar with the other top up players but a few of them had a crack especially when it was even split. Just outclassed in the second half as you’d expect with such a lopsided distribution


A player I think they were calling “fish” had a good first half

What was Oscars role and how did he go?

Forward with an occasional run in the ruck. Solid hitout.

Cheers Keys

Was Riach out there?

He was but struggled tbh

Brander just has bruising of the hip pointer it appears.

He was walking out of the ground as I left and didn’t look in too much discomfort. Just a slight limp

Probably enough for the club to put in cottonwool for a week or two and wil most likely miss JLT1 which is only a week away
 

ROYAL EAGLE

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 21, 2008
6,709
7,572
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Perth
Was there as well Keys as gone over most stuff
Petch outstanding so was Francis Watson he as truly turned a corner in his game now,
i dont hold my breathe when he has the footy as now i feel he will do the right thing with it.

Someone mentioned Riach above was very quite, but like the way he moves, give him time and I think he will develope nicely

Matty Allen didnt get a lot of footy was used of the bench.

There was this reserves player with manbun seen a few times at training impressed me again dont know his name

Josh Smith was racking up the footy

Jack Darling looked in great touch. Nelson look good as well, and good news Yeo was playing.
 
Time to do a more detailed report on the clubs intraclub scratch match at Lathlain

Firstly a thanks to ROYAL EAGLE and his eavesdropping skills for the information that the intraclub would be held at Lathlain on Friday morning. I wouldn’t have made the journey without that

The game was played across 4 x 20 minute quarters with nothing time on although the first quarter was split into two 10 minute halves for some reason

There were 13 players unavailable through AFLX commitments or injury (see list below) so the club drew on the WAFL side top up players to fill two full teams. For the first half, the sides were split evenly and as a result it was a good contest with scores tied at 6.5 apiece

For the second half however the sides were split between those closest to selection vs the unlikely starters and top up players. Unsurprisingly the established players dominated and kicked 10 unanswered goals for the half

Absentees :
Gaff, Rioli and Jetta (AFLX)
Naitanui, Kennedy, McGovern, Shuey, Cripps, Masten, Ainsworth, Brayshaw, O’Neill and Foley (injured/rehab)

Fringe players in the probable side :
Achee, Oallen, Waterman, Petruccelle, Smith, Hickey, Watson and Nelson (Brander would have been in this group but left the field just before half time after copping a knock to the hip and didn’t return)

Fringe players in the possible side :
Mutimer, Rotham, Brooksby, Bines, Williams, Edwards, Mallen, Riach, McInnes and Cameron

Hurn, Schofield, Sheppard, Barrass, Duggan, Cole, Vardy, Sheed, Hutchings, Yeo, Darling, Venables, Ryan and Redden all played

Ex-docker Brady Grey was the only top up player I recognised

In their wisdom the club has neglected to put numbers on the players jumpers so identifying individuals wasn’t always easy

Notes as I watched :
• Masten out on the ground early kicking a footy 15m to a coach. None of the strapping he had yesterday. Now walking laps with Brayshaw as company with sporadic bursts of light jogging
• Looks like Exxon in civvies and Foley with strapping on his right calf - explains why he left training early yesterday. Hopefully nothing too serious
• Players our on the ground and doing their usual warm up routine
• Barrass wins the toss for gold and kicks to the new facility end. Hutch captain for blue
• Oallen with some good body work against Hurn allowing McInnes to mark and kick the first goal for blue
• Hutchings with the centre clearance, making it 2 from 2 after he got the first one as well
• Watson 2 from 2 intercept marks. Looks composed
• Smith misses what he should have kicked after Oallen did some good work to gather a loose ball in the pocket and pass it inboard
• Vardy with a big defensive mark
• Blue 1.2 leads gold 0.3 after first 10
• Brander slots the first for gold after the restart 40m out after a good mark on the lead
• JD out muscles one of the top up players and goals for blue
• Soft free kick to Vardy in the ruck and he slots golds second
• Oallen in the centre for the ruck contest
• Grey been lively but disposal still questionable
• Hutch gets a 50 after an out on the full and kicks blues third on the siren to end first quarter
• Blue leads 3.4 to 2.4
• Good work by Nelson setups Brander for golds 3rd
• Brander gets a free for holding in a marling contest and kicks his 3rd. Someone calls him pigshit
• Brander marks on 50 and passes to Bines who kicks the goal
• Venners with a nice centre clearance
• Brander limping off as blue kick their 4th. Didn’t see who kicked it
• JD wins a htb and slots blues 5th
• Grey kicks golds 6th after Yeo bulldozed it forward from the bounce and Achee with some clean hands across HF to set up the ex docker who side steps nicely and pots it from 50
• Hickey roves a forward marking contest and snaps blues 6th
• Nice bit of play : Nelson to bines to Achee sets up a shot on goal but he misses
• No break during that 20 minute stanza and scores are tied at 6.5
• Players back out after a stint in the change rooms. Looks like some players have swapped teams
• Scoreboard has been reset to 0.0
• Ryan gets the first goal for blue
• Oallen with blues 2nd from a tight angle 40 out
• Petch takes a good mark 30 out and kicks blues 3rd
• Errant kick in defence by a gold player ends up on the chest of petch and he kicks his second from just inside 50
• Good contest mark by hickey on the wing
• Petch gets his third from a joe the goose
• Big hit from rotham on Smith after a bit of a hospital pass from venners
• Blue team noticeably stronger. Top ups all gold. It took me this long to notice how the teams had been split after the break - gold team were definitely having a crack despite the gulf in class
• Great work from Rotham
• JD goals after the siren to give blue a 6.0 to 0.2 lead
• Ryan misses a snap much to his audible displeasure
• Nice pass from Duggan to JD. Marks in front of Edwards but misses. I like that Edwards was cross with himself for not spoiling even though the pass gave him no hope of doing so
• Another strong mark from JD who converts this time
• Petch with a strong burst through half forward. Rotham with a good contest to bring the ball to ground. Then Oallen smothers the would be clearing kick and the ball goes through for a behind. Good signs from the youngsters all round
• Good strong work in a marking contest from JD who handballs to Sheed then to Vardy for a goal
• Great mark from petch running with the flight of the ball being pressured by his opponent and he kicks his 4th
• Another mark to Jd who goals on full time giving blue a 10.4 to 0.3 victory
• Waterman had his boots off early and was iced up on his left quad after the game
• Williams and Edwards both over on the MCG doing some running- neither had a lot of game time

My takeaways :
• Brander took over the game in the 2nd quarter and was impressive. Shame about the knock to the hip but fingers crossed there’s not much to it
• Petruccelle getting a fair bit of love in the press for his 4 goals and whilst he was good any excitement should be tempered by the fact his best work was done against the B team. He wasn’t as prolific in the first half
• Watson shone. Really liked his game in the first half and he looked assured with the ball in hand. Not sure where he fits in to a strong backline though
• Liked Nelson’s game through the midfield - something there to work with
• Darling was very strong. Looks primed for a big year
• Oallen needs to be playing AFL - he’ll rise to the level. Super competitive and wasn’t embarrassed pinch hitting in the ruck
• Hickey and Vardy had a good battle in the first half. We’ll be competitive in the ruck at least whilst we wait for nicnat’s return
• After having real concerns about Venables fitness and readiness for round 1 his game was super encouraging. Pushed further up the ground and covered a lot of territory. Had his fair share of possessions too
• Yeo ran the game out just fine racing doubts over his availability for round 1
• Ryan was disappointing on the whole. Didn’t have much impact
• Aside from Ryan all the premiership players had solid hit outs. Sheed was clean with the ball as was Duggan
• Unfortunately Mallen struggled to have a significant impact. Still showed there’s something to work with though
• Given that Achee has spent the summer with the midfield group I was surprised to see him spend most of the game as a permanent half forward
• Smith didn’t do any harm to his chances of a debut with his new club
• From a WAFL side viewpoint I think Brady Grey will prove a very good acquisition. Held his own and his mature body will be handy
• Competition for the three vacant spots (Lycett, lecras and Cripps) for round one is going to be fierce - Brander, Oallen, Waterman, Petruccelle, Smith, Watson, Nelson, Hickey and Achee to a lesser extent are all putting their hands up
• Thought Mutimer worked hard and it looks like he’ll be the designated kick in player for the stand alone side. Needs to shelve the torp from the goal square though - tried it once and it barely made the 50
• New rules had limited impact
• The new lads Williams and Edwards struggled to have an impact
• Bines was the more productive of the two basketballers.
• Rotham showed a good capacity to marshal the defence as he was one of the most experienced players in the B team.

That’s all I can think of for now. Will add anything else that comes to mind or try to answer any questions
 
How did we seem to handle kick-ins with the new rules? (Both offensively and defensively)


Maybe I wasn’t observant enough but can’t say I noticed any significant difference. Hurn was content to spot up targets anywhere from 25-50 away and rarely, if at all, left the goal square

Mutimer was more likely to kick for distance but that is probably as much to do with a lower skill level than a tactic. Teammates less inclined to move to the right spot to provide a target as well. Can’t remember him leaving the square on a kick in either
 
May 14, 2008
1,757
2,116
Canberra
AFL Club
West Coast
Great write up Keys. Thank you.

I am a little concerned at the number of our best 25 that have had interrupted pre-seasons. While they may look ok now I wonder what sort of impact it'll have towards the end of the year. Particularly for those with midfield roles. Hasn't been ideal particularly given the shorter timeframe too. 2k PBs are hardly a proxy for match fitness and touch.

You'd think after a Premiership the negative Nancy in me would take a holiday....but alas...

Your excellent write up has inspired me to give my 2c on last Friday's (Feb 15th) main session.

I was late (was told it'd kick off around 9.40, should've listened to Royal Eagle who suggested I get there at 8).

I watched from the road through the construction fences. Watson, Sheed, OAllen, Darling, Vardy, Sheppard, Nelson, Hurn stood out. Grey did some nice things too. That 'Fish' guy (man bun, tattoo sleeves) got a bit of it, but burned a few of his teammates going for goal. Rotham I thought did pretty well. Made some good spoils against Darling. Petch was lively. Good forward pressure.

Gaff and Ryan disappointing. Gaff couldn't get his hands on it and when he did turned it over. Ryan just looked totally gassed and had few repeat efforts and was constantly being 'encouraged' to run drills out. Was the only one after a 20 minute 6 aside full field attack and then defend drill that collapsed to the ground for a couple of mins. Gray came over and helped him up and got him back to the tents.

MAllen disappointing I thought. Just couldn't get his hands on it enough. Does have a nice kick.

Sent from my CPH1707 using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

ROYAL EAGLE

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 21, 2008
6,709
7,572
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Perth
Very happy to hear Watson and composed in the same sentence. If he can add composure to his game, he'll be a gun.

It started in the last 4 games for east perth last year.
His decision making got better and looked more composed.
Then he has shown that all preseason and again in the intraclub.
He has gone to a new level.
 
ABBA8E4A-5F08-4CEE-A058-E8B90B0B620F.png



Nice weather for a training run
 
Back