Training 2025 Pre Season Thread

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Old_Dog said:
A few shots from the open training session in Ballarat on Wednesday. A few of the boys were still in Horsham. Pretty low key training at this stage with quite a few doing laps, e.g. Naughton, O'Donnell and Mcneil. One takeaway - Busslinger is a big unit! Hopefully we will see him in action this year.
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We really need a better bucket hat!
 

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cecil said:
Having Bont/Libba/Treloar/Richards take the bulk of the minutes means he may only play 30% TOG as a mid. That means the most important thing is that Kennedy can impact forward. Macrae and Daniel couldn't and it hampered team balance. Him being strong defensively in the contest is a nice bonus too.
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I would be trying to rotate Bont forward more for his seasons longevity. He had Brownlow worthy games last year but also games where stats were better than impact. He’s one of the few that can genuinely add anywhere in the ground and I’d like to see Kennedy and Sanders get more opportunities in the guts so we are less predictable in games. Bont/Libba/Treloar sounds awesome - the kind of thing Kane Cornes jerks over when goes off on a rant if we lose a game. They are awesome but we’ve been doing it so long it’s also predicable and coaches like Chris Scott love planning against it. Outside his added speed, Richards in the guts was a game changer because it changed the dynamic. Using Sanders/Kennedy more has the potential to do likewise. We didn’t trade all that capital to get Sanders without a plan to use his skill set.
 
Bulldog Ben said:
Can I ask if anyone has information on any open training sessions while the club is in QLD at the start of the new year?
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I’m waiting on this too….seems they’ve moved the dates this year which indicates there might be the possibility of a Saturday or Sunday session with meet and greet etc.

Last year the main sessions were Tuesday and Thursday with beach and other activities scattered through the week and no real fan engagement. Hopefully they’ve listened to the feedback as last year the kids had just gone back to school and it was impossible to take them out in week 1

Don’t get me wrong, standing in the pouring rain with about 10 other diehards was still fun, but would like to see some more engagement given games have been distinctly lacking up here last few years

Still can’t believe we have to go to Darwin for GC, so still only one game in Qld
 

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grassman75 said:
I’m waiting on this too….seems they’ve moved the dates this year which indicates there might be the possibility of a Saturday or Sunday session with meet and greet etc.

Last year the main sessions were Tuesday and Thursday with beach and other activities scattered through the week and no real fan engagement. Hopefully they’ve listened to the feedback as last year the kids had just gone back to school and it was impossible to take them out in week 1

Don’t get me wrong, standing in the pouring rain with about 10 other diehards was still fun, but would like to see some more engagement given games have been distinctly lacking up here last few years

Still can’t believe we have to go to Darwin for GC, so still only one game in Qld
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I'd expect we will rotate between Darwin and Ballarat with the Suns every other year.
 
Deadly Darcy said:
I would be trying to rotate Bont forward more for his seasons longevity. He had Brownlow worthy games last year but also games where stats were better than impact. He’s one of the few that can genuinely add anywhere in the ground and I’d like to see Kennedy and Sanders get more opportunities in the guts so we are less predictable in games. Bont/Libba/Treloar sounds awesome - the kind of thing Kane Cornes jerks over when goes off on a rant if we lose a game. They are awesome but we’ve been doing it so long it’s also predicable and coaches like Chris Scott love planning against it. Outside his added speed, Richards in the guts was a game changer because it changed the dynamic. Using Sanders/Kennedy more has the potential to do likewise. We didn’t trade all that capital to get Sanders without a plan to use his skill set.
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Whilst I agree, in order to progress next year Kennedy and Sanders should be taking Libba spot more than the Bont. I think Bonts spilt forward/middle will be similar to this year. Libba should be managed, maybe 15 games, sub and never 100% on-ball, has to change his role to middle/forward. He is good enough to do this on smaller Marvel sized grounds.
 
LondonBulldog said:
Whilst I agree, in order to progress next year Kennedy and Sanders should be taking Libba spot more than the Bont. I think Bonts spilt forward/middle will be similar to this year. Libba should be managed, maybe 15 games, sub and never 100% on-ball, has to change his role to middle/forward. He is good enough to do this on smaller Marvel sized grounds.
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Wish our improved depth, and skill sets in the middle. I'm predicting a lot more rotations in the middle next year in general in all positions. Both match up based, and with the aim of preserving the likes of Bont, Treloar and Libba, so they can finish games strong. Kennedy, Sanders, and Richards will see a bit of time in the middle.
 
Good to hear Davidson and Arty were on the wings. Hopefully that continues, with rotation through half forward.

Davidson in particular just screams modern day winger. Dangerous in the air, can kick goals, great running power. Hopefully makes the spot his own.

Arty I like in the forward line as we need that speed but I think he needs to be able to work up field to get more involved in the play.
 
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Davidson on the wing? interesting. I thought with his goal kicking ability, half forward would be where we would play him.

Where did Freijah play? still in defence :( or on the other wing :)
 
Haven't posted in ages but was in the area and decided to grab a coffee from Barkers for the first time and luckily it turned out to be a match sim so I stuck around and watched some bits and pieces. Didn't take notes so can't give a lot of detail and my memory is a little hazy but can report on what I remember.

It was Team Blue vs Team Green, 4 x 12min quarters. Seemed like Blue was the more stacked team, Bont, Libba, English, Lobb were in that team. Blue were ahead for most of the game but Green came back hard in the last to almost catch them. Blue won by a point (I think it was 47 to 46). As a general observation, goal kicking was inaccurate as usual in the first half (combined score of something like 4 goals 12 behinds). Second half much more accurate.

Noticed Jamarra, Brew and Coffield doing a fair bit of running around the boundary, so I assume they're injured (we know Brew is). Not sure what injury Jamarra had but he was doing a lot of running and was running beautifully when running at mid to high pace, so it can't be serious.

Hard to notice everyone when watching the match sim, but a few that I noticed:

  • Weightman - I think he only played at the start but looked impressive. Took a great mark and kicked a goal on a tight angle.
  • Garcia - looked very good in the last quarter. Super agile and had a moment where he zigzagged through multiple people, broke a few tackles then kicked a goal across the body.
  • Sanders - probably the mid that I noticed the most. Seemed to get a fair bit of the ball. Looks like he's lost a lot of puppy fat and was lean and actually looking pretty quick. Must be an area he is working on.
  • Buss - looked reliable, noticed him take a few intercepts and was running and kicking well.
  • Darcy - he only came on towards the end. Was leading well, demanding the ball and was getting first hands on the ball a lot but wasn't able to stick them. Impressive at ground level though.
  • Davidson - noticed him a bit at the start and was regularly getting to good positions. Looked like he was playing half back and wing to me. Saw he kick an absolute stinker though that went about 5m.
 
Aldo said:
Haven't posted in ages but was in the area and decided to grab a coffee from Barkers for the first time and luckily it turned out to be a match sim so I stuck around and watched some bits and pieces. Didn't take notes so can't give a lot of detail and my memory is a little hazy but can report on what I remember.

It was Team Blue vs Team Green, 4 x 12min quarters. Seemed like Blue was the more stacked team, Bont, Libba, English, Lobb were in that team. Blue were ahead for most of the game but Green came back hard in the last to almost catch them. Blue won by a point (I think it was 47 to 46). As a general observation, goal kicking was inaccurate as usual in the first half (combined score of something like 4 goals 12 behinds). Second half much more accurate.

Noticed Jamarra, Brew and Coffield doing a fair bit of running around the boundary, so I assume they're injured (we know Brew is). Not sure what injury Jamarra had but he was doing a lot of running and was running beautifully when running at mid to high pace, so it can't be serious.

Hard to notice everyone when watching the match sim, but a few that I noticed:

  • Weightman - I think he only played at the start but looked impressive. Took a great mark and kicked a goal on a tight angle.
  • Garcia - looked very good in the last quarter. Super agile and had a moment where he zigzagged through multiple people, broke a few tackles then kicked a goal across the body.
  • Sanders - probably the mid that I noticed the most. Seemed to get a fair bit of the ball. Looks like he's lost a lot of puppy fat and was lean and actually looking pretty quick. Must be an area he is working on.
  • Buss - looked reliable, noticed him take a few intercepts and was running and kicking well.
  • Darcy - he only came on towards the end. Was leading well, demanding the ball and was getting first hands on the ball a lot but wasn't able to stick them. Impressive at ground level though.
  • Davidson - noticed him a bit at the start and was regularly getting to good positions. Looked like he was playing half back and wing to me. Saw he kick an absolute stinker though that went about 5m.
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Thanks for the report 👍
 
Foxman98 said:
Is it?

Last year all we heard about was him overhyped the kid and put way to much pressure on him,

Let him fly under the radar
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I don't think he was overhyped, just that he was doing well enough in pre-season to be picked in R1 on merit, which proved to be the case.

He would have played far more games in a team with shallower inside midfielder depth, or weaker generally, or if we were managing his workloads.
 
threenewpadlocks said:
I don't think he was overhyped, just that he was doing well enough in pre-season to be picked in R1 on merit, which proved to be the case.

He would have played far more games in a team with shallower inside midfielder depth, or weaker generally, or if we were managing his workloads.
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"Best first year player i've seen"
-Luke Beveridge

Was picked on merit for sure but was overhyped
 

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Training 2025 Pre Season Thread

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