Training 2015/16 preseason training (discussion)

[sherrif]

Mate, I have to agree with everything you say there. Myself and mightydockers attended together for our first session of the year and we were slightly worried by the skills of the players. A few things we noticed:

Stephen Hill: starting off the HBF in match sims and we heard a lot of the players saying "get it to hilly" as they moved the ball - we think it's a clear strategy to try get the ball in the hands of our best users.
Mora: Looks lovely playing on mayney in match sim. He will be a great addition to our backline as he can play on nearly every size and he has a big kick to take the ball out of the defensive half.
Fyfey: still working into it but he looks a million bucks.
Pav: very clean and helping vocal with the structures
Clarke: trained the house down but he does this every year - im not buying it.

Other positives: Collins voice and efforts, sonny everything, wellers foot skills, mundy is just a rolls royce

Concerns: yarran very scratchy but that's expected, balla and clancee getting in a bit of a push and shove, no harley , goal kicking was scary bad

Realities: De Boer, Suban and Danyle Pearce are a disgrace. It annoys me like nothing else that they get games. They stuff up the ball movement every time with their fumbles, skills and their poor footballing abilities. They must be depth players as we have to give blakely weller langdon ect games ahead of these squibs

Danyle Pearce has been in the top 3 kicks this preseason with Mundy and Hill. If he made one or two mistakes today he is still in my top five preseason performers. Suban was also playing bloody well in the sessions I've seen and de Boer won a TTHD award. Im not having a go at the above post Im just providing my viewpoint. More long kicks like D.Pearce and Suban helps our movement IMO. From what I've seen the amount of high slow kicks is the major weakness in our squad. Not Suban or D.Pearce.

Clarke training well is pleasing. Like you I will see what happens when the season starts.

 

[salim malik]

Suban,De Boer ,Tendai didn't do to much wrong today. They suffer from the no matter what they do and how good they do it it will still be crap syndrome .

 

[Fred Ziffel]

Suban,De Boer ,Tendai didn't do to much wrong today. They suffer from the no matter what they do and how good they do it it will still be crap syndrome .

They are on a hiding to nothing. The same goes for Danyle Pearce.

 

[DannyTheDoorman]

Beautiful day today with lots going on. As Dudley said lots of negatives and positives.

- Dawson who I watched quite closely today didn't put a foot wrong, with ball in hand he made much quicker decisions then what I've come to expect from him. His kicking in the drills were low and hard. In the 1v1 drills he did with Ueber, Collins, Hannath he won them all. Collins however drew even with him in a few. In the match sims he completely blanketed whoever he was put on.

- Funny what we each see differently, I thought Weller had a decent session. In the goal kicking drill he kicked 4 goals in a row from 35-40m. He was the only player I was watching that didn't miss a shot on goal during the drill. In the match sims he had a great run up the middle doing a quick 1 -2 another 5m run followed by another 1-2, unfortunately he used all his kicking karma up in the drills and he missed the running shot on goal. He presented well throughout the sims and kept himself involved. He was not even close to being in the worst on ground group.

- Blakely looks in ripping nick and also kept involved all day. In the clearance drills he looks right at home. However i thought his skills were alittle off - I saw him scrub two kicks under no pressure, but he was by no means alone.

- Hill is just beautiful in every aspect. He just doesn't put a foot wrong. I saw him multiple times under pressure able to make time and get boot to ball and deliver it lace out. In one of the match sims he ran the ball out of backline and kicked a bullet about 30m into the hands of one of our mids (couldn't see who). Can't fault the bloke.

- Fyfe looks to have really beefed up his upper body to match his legs. In the stoppage work he was in fine form and looked right at home. However, I know he is still finding his touch after being in rehab but his kicking skills were well below standard. In the kick to kick drill he missed at least 3 that I saw. All of them going over the intended targets head. Then when it came to the goal kicking practice (35m out on 45° angle) he only managed to slot one goal from the four attempts I saw. In the match sims he took a great mark 15m out on a slight angle. He shanked it. He looked quite dejected a few times after he made mistakes so I'm guessing he knows he has a way to go.

- Mora as everyone has said is a beast and looks sooo good. Moving well and was kicking bullets in the drills. Not much to add to what everyone has been saying over the past month.

- Hughes is a great size now (Johnson height) and took some great marks. His kicking is fine but he needs to speed up on making decisions. In one of the sims he took a mark about 65m out and rather than kicking it 20m out from goal square he waited 30 seconds before kicking it deep into a pocket only for it to get spoiled over the line. He was chastised by about 4 or 5 players/coaches and Pav yelled over the top of everyone "right here, this us where you should have kicked it".

- Tabs disappointed me alittle today. His kicking was off like many others, missing two easy kicks in a row in the drills before settling down and finding his touch. He took a nice mark over Johnson in the sims but wasn't able to do anything when Dawson was on him. Pav was really drilling Tabs and Clarke with positioning in the forward line. One of Tabs best attributes is him being able to find space, something he can do because he is always running. Quite a few times the mids overlooked him being free and kicked to a contest. Sometimes this was Tabs' fault though, he would have worked hard to get free in a great position but then wouldn't call for it! He did take some good marks throughout the morning and was hit and miss with his goal kicking. A note on the goal kicking - I thought as a group it was of a pretty poor standard.

- Mundy, Walters and Hill as always were the standouts with ball in hand. Always making good decisions and executing with precision.

- Yarran has a beautiful ball drop and a lovely kicking action. Still not 100% but starting to move well, did a kick to kick with Fyfe during one of the half-oval sims. In the match sims did a nice shinmy 60m out before setting the ball nicely 10m out from goal.

First look at Ueber, Nyhuis and Tucker and really liked what I saw.

As Salim said, Clarke did some great things up forward, a few nice pack marks. He wasn't running very well though so I don't think his knee is close to 100% yet.

Anyway I saw lots but not really sure what else to write. A random drone was flying over top so someone would have gotten some cool footage. Wasn't a Freo drone because the staff were pointing it out wondering about it too.

My TTHD award goes to Dawson. Looked great today.

As I said earlier great to meet you today. Thanks for the great report.

 

[Dockernut]

I don't think it is a bad idea to make Clarke earn it in the wafl. Strangely they only gave him a 1 year deal, and that may be a mutual decision, but he does become a F/A at the end of the season. It is a bit of a make or break year for him, especially in terms of setting up his future career. He can't simply show promise, he must produce, and a part of that to me is that I want to see him as hungry far success, with the full commitment week in and week out to be a top-line AFL ruckman. Dare I dream that he may actually inflict some pain to an opponent one day?

Would be silly for us to give Clarke up (edit - not saying that's what you were suggesting we do) for anything other than an established ruck IMO. Griff goes down again and suddenly we're pretty thin on the ruck front.

 

[DannyTheDoorman]

Would be silly for us to give Clarke up (edit - not saying that's what you were suggesting we do) for anything other than an established ruck IMO. Griff goes down again and suddenly we're pretty thin on the ruck front.

Clarke appeared lazy to me in the past but give him his dues he has worked dilligently during Rehab since the start of PS. He looked very switched on today.

 

[jedi mind tricks]

Danyle Pearce has been in the top 3 kicks this preseason with Mundy and Hill. If he made one or two mistakes today he is still in my top five preseason performers. Suban was also playing bloody well in the sessions I've seen and de Boer won a TTHD award. Im not having a go at the above post Im just providing my viewpoint. More long kicks like D.Pearce and Suban helps our movement IMO. From what I've seen the amount of high slow kicks is the major weakness in our squad. Not Suban or D.Pearce.

Clarke training well is pleasing. Like you I will see what happens when the season starts.

He made a really sefish choice today. I left today's training a bit dissapointed with him because he has tye abilty to be a real leader of the club.

 

[simpsonwillo]

Beautiful day today with lots going on. As Dudley said lots of negatives and positives.

- Dawson who I watched quite closely today didn't put a foot wrong, with ball in hand he made much quicker decisions then what I've come to expect from him. His kicking in the drills were low and hard. In the 1v1 drills he did with Ueber, Collins, Hannath he won them all. Collins however drew even with him in a few. In the match sims he completely blanketed whoever he was put on.

- Funny what we each see differently, I thought Weller had a decent session. In the goal kicking drill he kicked 4 goals in a row from 35-40m. He was the only player I was watching that didn't miss a shot on goal during the drill. In the match sims he had a great run up the middle doing a quick 1 -2 another 5m run followed by another 1-2, unfortunately he used all his kicking karma up in the drills and he missed the running shot on goal. He presented well throughout the sims and kept himself involved. He was not even close to being in the worst on ground group.

- Blakely looks in ripping nick and also kept involved all day. In the clearance drills he looks right at home. However i thought his skills were alittle off - I saw him scrub two kicks under no pressure, but he was by no means alone.

- Hill is just beautiful in every aspect. He just doesn't put a foot wrong. I saw him multiple times under pressure able to make time and get boot to ball and deliver it lace out. In one of the match sims he ran the ball out of backline and kicked a bullet about 30m into the hands of one of our mids (couldn't see who). Can't fault the bloke.

- Fyfe looks to have really beefed up his upper body to match his legs. In the stoppage work he was in fine form and looked right at home. However, I know he is still finding his touch after being in rehab but his kicking skills were well below standard. In the kick to kick drill he missed at least 3 that I saw. All of them going over the intended targets head. Then when it came to the goal kicking practice (35m out on 45° angle) he only managed to slot one goal from the four attempts I saw. In the match sims he took a great mark 15m out on a slight angle. He shanked it. He looked quite dejected a few times after he made mistakes so I'm guessing he knows he has a way to go.

- Mora as everyone has said is a beast and looks sooo good. Moving well and was kicking bullets in the drills. Not much to add to what everyone has been saying over the past month.

- Hughes is a great size now (Johnson height) and took some great marks. His kicking is fine but he needs to speed up on making decisions. In one of the sims he took a mark about 65m out and rather than kicking it 20m out from goal square he waited 30 seconds before kicking it deep into a pocket only for it to get spoiled over the line. He was chastised by about 4 or 5 players/coaches and Pav yelled over the top of everyone "right here, this us where you should have kicked it".

- Tabs disappointed me alittle today. His kicking was off like many others, missing two easy kicks in a row in the drills before settling down and finding his touch. He took a nice mark over Johnson in the sims but wasn't able to do anything when Dawson was on him. Pav was really drilling Tabs and Clarke with positioning in the forward line. One of Tabs best attributes is him being able to find space, something he can do because he is always running. Quite a few times the mids overlooked him being free and kicked to a contest. Sometimes this was Tabs' fault though, he would have worked hard to get free in a great position but then wouldn't call for it! He did take some good marks throughout the morning and was hit and miss with his goal kicking. A note on the goal kicking - I thought as a group it was of a pretty poor standard.

- Mundy, Walters and Hill as always were the standouts with ball in hand. Always making good decisions and executing with precision.

- Yarran has a beautiful ball drop and a lovely kicking action. Still not 100% but starting to move well, did a kick to kick with Fyfe during one of the half-oval sims. In the match sims did a nice shinmy 60m out before setting the ball nicely 10m out from goal.

First look at Ueber, Nyhuis and Tucker and really liked what I saw.

As Salim said, Clarke did some great things up forward, a few nice pack marks. He wasn't running very well though so I don't think his knee is close to 100% yet.

Anyway I saw lots but not really sure what else to write. A random drone was flying over top so someone would have gotten some cool footage. Wasn't a Freo drone because the staff were pointing it out wondering about it too.

My TTHD award goes to Dawson. Looked great today.

Great report mate. Was good to meet you today. One thing I did notice is that Weller has a beautiful kick. Low, flat , hard and precise, saw him hit a few targets today like a champion dart thrower. I'm excited about this guy.

 

[freodocker5]

Danyle Pearce has been in the top 3 kicks this preseason with Mundy and Hill. If he made one or two mistakes today he is still in my top five preseason performers. Suban was also playing bloody well in the sessions I've seen and de Boer won a TTHD award. Im not having a go at the above post Im just providing my viewpoint. More long kicks like D.Pearce and Suban helps our movement IMO. From what I've seen the amount of high slow kicks is the major weakness in our squad. Not Suban or D.Pearce.

Clarke training well is pleasing. Like you I will see what happens when the season starts.

I have to strongly disagree with you/find it hard to believe some of those observations and I'm not trying to be a prick to you.

Danyle Pearce's kick can't possibly go from how bad it was last year to now be top 3. He kicks a flowerbag every third kick.

Suban's kick, IMHO, is extremely over rated by some on this board. He actually doesn't have the long wracking kick that many believe he has as he hits loopy inaccurate passes.

These two are also serial culprits to miss goals on the run with little to no pressure around them

 

[yakka man]

I have to strongly disagree with you/find it hard to believe some of those observations and I'm not trying to be a prick to you.

Danyle Pearce's kick can't possibly go from how bad it was last year to now be top 3. He kicks a flowerbag every third kick.

Suban's kick, IMHO, is extremely over rated by some on this board. He actually doesn't have the long wracking kick that many believe he has as he hits loopy inaccurate passes.

These two are also serial culprits to miss goals on the run with little to no pressure around them

I tend to agree. Suban's kicking on match day is not damaging. Danyle Pearce is better, though, he does tend to either kick a shocker or an absolute beauty.

 

[Stotch]

I have to strongly disagree with you/find it hard to believe some of those observations and I'm not trying to be a prick to you.

Danyle Pearce's kick can't possibly go from how bad it was last year to now be top 3. He kicks a flowerbag every third kick.

Suban's kick, IMHO, is extremely over rated by some on this board. He actually doesn't have the long wracking kick that many believe he has as he hits loopy inaccurate passes.

These two are also serial culprits to miss goals on the run with little to no pressure around them

Pearce lead our inside 50's last year, he's one of the best kicks in the side.

 

[Moist Biscuit]

Pearce lead our inside 50's last year, he's one of the best kicks in the side.

No he isn't.

 

[Taylor]

Pearce lead our inside 50's last year, he's one of the best kicks in the side.

What was the retained possession percentage for Fremantle compared with the rest of the top four, specifically what was Danyle's retained possession stat?

If you can find it. I think that is the most important stat for a mid, but can't find it.

 

[blue shark]

They are on a hiding to nothing. The same goes for Danyle Pearce.

What we need are smarter footballers, not more foot soldiers. By the sound of this pre-season they have addressed
our lack of skills, short kicking, handballing in panic. Working on creating time and space with better delivery by
hand and foot.
Will be interesting to see how the entire list respond to the changes from last year, knowing that turn overs killed
us in 2015.

 

[DockerLand1]

What we need are smarter footballers, not more foot soldiers. By the sound of this pre-season they have addressed
our lack of skills, short kicking, handballing in panic. Working on creating time and space with better delivery by
hand and foot.
Will be interesting to see how the entire list respond to the changes from last year, knowing that turn overs killed
us in 2015.

What killed us most in 2015 was a complete lack of scoring power. Only 6 occasion did we kick over 100 points. only 3 of those games were against Top 8 Sides ( W.C, Dogs and Roos ) all within the first 9 Rounds when we were hot as can be. after that we were fighting and grinding out wins. Of course Turnovers are important ( critical in some cases ) but this comes about because we are not able to put teams away when we have the chance.

Only 3 players kicked about 20 goals and nobody over 44 goals when we finished top of the ladder. We finished 12th in Points scored per game.

That is a serious issue.

 

[Caldera]

What was the retained possession percentage for Fremantle compared with the rest of the top four, specifically what was Danyle's retained possession stat?

If you can find it. I think that is the most important stat for a mid, but can't find it.

This.

Inside 50's are overrated, unless they result in a shot on goal through retained possession or through a kick to a dangerous spot. An inside 50 that comes straight back out again is wasteful, but also exposes the attacking team to a counter. D Pearce is not on his lonesome when it comes to wasteful inside 50's either.

 

[Ragtooth]

What killed us most in 2015 was a complete lack of scoring power. Only 6 occasion did we kick over 100 points. only 3 of those games were against Top 8 Sides ( W.C, Dogs and Roos ) all within the first 9 Rounds when we were hot as can be. after that we were fighting and grinding out wins. Of course Turnovers are important ( critical in some cases ) but this comes about because we are not able to put teams away when we have the chance.

Only 3 players kicked about 20 goals and nobody over 44 goals when we finished top of the ladder. We finished 12th in Points scored per game.

That is a serious issue.

Could the lack of skills be the reason for the lack of scoring power?....It's hard to score when the ball is randomly bombed high into the forward line....if it hasn't already been turned over by kicking out of the defensive 50.

The start of last season our skills seemed flawless. Silky smooth with seemless transition. I was shocked how well we were moving the ball! For some reason our skills seemed to drop in the last half of the year (maybe a change in opposition game plan?)

 

[beetz]

More to it than quality of inside 50 delivery. It would be nice if we had a decent key forward outside of Pavlich who had exceptional leading ability i.e. getting to the correct positions, reading the play etc.

Unfortunately Taberner is no where near exceptional currently. Griffin is good but he is a ruck man first and forward 2nd - the repeat efforts catch up to him as the game goes on.

Walters/Ballantyne are perfect as the small forward roles.

 

[Taylor]

You only need to look at the first half of the St Kilda game at Etihad.

 

[Nothing]

What was the retained possession percentage for Fremantle compared with the rest of the top four, specifically what was Danyle's retained possession stat?

If you can find it. I think that is the most important stat for a mid, but can't find it.

I'd be interested to know too. Having said that, I also think that one of Danyle's KPIs is metres gained. I've made comment before but often he would be the one that Freo would try and get it to in congestion for the quick kick down the line for another throw in (ideally). Obviously Danyle is achieving most of his targets (regular selection, B&F finish) which seems to mean that one of his targets is metres gained. Currently, he's not in the bottom 6 in the team and unless a couple of players have stellar preseasons/start to WAFL I think once again he will play most games this year.

If he gets surpassed then we are going fantastically well.

 

[Unique Name]

Anybody have a copy of the AFL prospectus? Lists every stat taken by Champion Data for the season. Usually about $40.

 

[Taylor]

I'd be interested to know too. Having said that, I also think that one of Danyle's KPIs is metres gained. I've made comment before but often he would be the one that Freo would try and get it to in congestion for the quick kick down the line for another throw in (ideally). Obviously Danyle is achieving most of his targets (regular selection, B&F finish) which seems to mean that one of his targets is metres gained. Currently, he's not in the bottom 6 in the team and unless a couple of players have stellar preseasons/start to WAFL I think once again he will play most games this year.

If he gets surpassed then we are going fantastically well.

When you consider that our game is built around stoppages it makes sense that any distance closer to goal we can get for a stoppage up there is better that a stoppage here.

The floating defenders are a huge worry for that plan though, an intercept mark with a quick switch sends the ball back into their attack for every club except us. Which is another problem.

If we start getting into scoring positions from rebound fifties and tidy up the inside fifties then we will add 30-40 points to our scoring power and our players won't get as fatigued.

Can someone twitter ask Ross Lyon for me on AFL.com.au this:
"How do you plan to score more from ball won back in defense, given the side was so good at winning it but so poor at turning it into scores?"

 

[Sully90]

There's no one problem for our inside 50 efficiency. The blame is equally shared between our forwards (lack of movement inside 50) and midfielders (average efficiency/decision making when picking a target). It sounds cliché, but the only real solution is through constant practice to the point where both lines trust each other enough. From the forwards this means trusting the midfielder with the ball to deliver it onto the chest, and for the midfielders this means trusting the forward to burn off his opponent on the last few steps on the lead. At the moment I don't think there's any real understanding between both groups of players in this regard.

 

[dockerfemme]

Our clanger count and disposal efficiency were that of a top team last year. Our inside 50 count and scoring were that of a bottom team. As Tayl0r said, our game plan is built on stoppages, which results in slow transition of the ball and that allows opposition defenders to be well set. We need to fix our ball movement and trust our players to execute a more attacking form of ball movement. The stats suggest that they can.

 

[blue shark]

When you consider that our game is built around stoppages it makes sense that any distance closer to goal we can get for a stoppage up there is better that a stoppage here.

The floating defenders are a huge worry for that plan though, an intercept mark with a quick switch sends the ball back into their attack for every club except us. Which is another problem.

If we start getting into scoring positions from rebound fifties and tidy up the inside fifties then we will add 30-40 points to our scoring power and our players won't get as fatigued.

Can someone twitter ask Ross Lyon for me on AFL.com.au this:
"How do you plan to score more from ball won back in defense, given the side was so good at winning it but so poor at turning it into scores?"

Injuries, suspension and looming retirements didn't help our cause last year, but we seem to have
more options, depth in the backline this year, and maybe a different game plan with players rotated
from mid/flanks.
Sutcliffe's had a interrupted pre-season last year? Sherro was just finding his feet.
Will be plenty of players putting their hand up at Peel this year, so I expect improved run and carry all over
the ground.