Training 2023 Pre-season thread

[Section 5]

After the VFL practice match reports, these injured/rehab players will now be available for R1 selection.
Lyons, Answerth, Lohmann, Fletcher, Brain.
Hopefully Berry and Zorko are also ready for selection.
Gardiner unlikely going by reports.

If we are lucky, we may avoid injuries at training or setbacks for the returning from injury players.

Should our medical/fitness teams achieve that outcome, we will be in a good position. Fingers crossed.

 

[briztoon]

Not sure re Port without Finlayson, but the other 2 are looking ominous. Melbourne with a permanent resting ruckman in Gawn / Grundy, plus McDonald and Brown. Fritsch plays tallish. Tbf it’s the same we faced previously against them before McDonald’s injury.

The dogs look like going for an NBA style forward line. Naughton, Darcy, Lobb, JUH. Too tall? Maybe. I remember Matthews loading up on talls in 2001 v Blues and we were flogged, but the talls we put in were pretty ordinary.

Right now i’d imagine Payne on Naughton, Harris on Lobb, then it gets hard. Gardiner if back on Darcy? Rayner on JUH? Or if no Gardiner probably has to be Joyce.

But given Joyce is no star maybe we are playing in to their hands playing him. Do we back in our regular backline and our midfield pressure and make the dogs look too tall?

Will be interesting to see our approach…

Did the Dogs actually play with 4 talls in their forward line at any time?

I would have thought they'd play a ruck and 3 tall forwards at all times.

Still, you've got Darcy at 208cm and Lobb at 207cm, surely you're playing our two tallest defenders on those two. Play Rayner on Naughton, who's the shortest at 195cm

 

[rye]

i wasnt overly impressed with footscray against north in the portions i watched

they cheated forward at every stoppage and opened up north who for whatever reason were doing the same when they were realistically never going to win the bulk of clearances against footscrays mature on-ballers. north's backline had no cohesion and was just bodies falling into each other as footscray got unpressured entries on to the heads of their talls. they werent punished for aggressive stoppage formation at all and the game outside of centre bounces was end to end footy with almost no pressure being exerted by either side in transition. its particularly hard to gauge how effective their forward line set up will be given just how woeful norths back 6 and midfield were at defending.

going the other way if north did win a clearance or the ball otherwise ended up there, footscray didnt even really have to care as the quality of entry was terrible and jones was allowed to play off an absolute crab and intercept everything. he would not be afforded that luxury against teams with halfway competent forwards.

 

[BuntonRules]

i wasnt overly impressed with footscray against north in the portions i watched

they cheated forward at every stoppage and opened up north who for whatever reason were doing the same when they were realistically never going to win the bulk of clearances against footscrays mature on-ballers. north's backline had no cohesion and was just bodies falling into each other as footscray got unpressured entries on to the heads of their talls. they werent punished for aggressive stoppage formation at all and the game outside of centre bounces was end to end footy with almost no pressure being exerted by either side in transition. its particularly hard to gauge how effective their forward line set up will be given just how woeful norths back 6 and midfield were at defending.

going the other way if north did win a clearance or the ball otherwise ended up there, footscray didnt even really have to care as the quality of entry was terrible and jones was allowed to play off an absolute crab and intercept everything. he would not be afforded that luxury against teams with halfway competent forwards.

Gunna be a long season for Clarko n the shinboners.

 

[Viceregal]

Gunna be a long season for Clarko n the shinboners.

Hope whatever he is being paid is worth it... then again someone had to coach and anyone 'lesser' would be walking into the Verdun sailent...

 

[BuntonRules]

Hope whatever he is being paid is worth it... then again someone had to coach and anyone 'lesser' would be walking into the Verdun sailent...

Obscure reference, but we all know he should have been walking in to an office in Hobart.

 

[Section 5]

Not that this chart for 1 preseason game means anything but here it is.

Position	Team	%	Position	Team	%
1	Crows	213.4	10	Hawks	100.0
2	Saints	209.4	11	Port	66.3
3	Lions	202.2	12	Suns	63.1
4	Swans	179.6	13	Kangaroos	59.4
5	Demons	170.4	14	Tigers	57.7
6	Dogs	168.2	15	Blues	55.7
7	Giants	158.4	16	Cats	49.5
8	Dockers	150.3	17	Bombers	47.8
9	Pies	106.0	18	Eagles	46.8

 

[M Malice]

Not that this chart for 1 preseason game means anything but here it is.

Position	Team	%	Position	Team	%
1	Crows	213.4	10	Hawks	100.0
2	Saints	209.4	11	Port	66.3
3	Lions	202.2	12	Suns	63.1
4	Swans	179.6	13	Kangaroos	59.4
5	Demons	170.4	14	Tigers	57.7
6	Dogs	168.2	15	Blues	55.7
7	Giants	158.4	16	Cats	49.5
8	Dockers	150.3	17	Bombers	47.8
9	Pies	106.0	18	Eagles	46.8

I'll take it, stop the season now, Saints away in a Qualifying Final, I fancy our chances.

 

[Viceregal]

Obscure reference, but we all know he should have been walking in to an office in Hobart.

The Germans in WW1 decided to invest the French city of Verdun which has a great deal of historical significance for the French. The idea was that the Germans could sit around the three sides of Verdun shelling the French and the French would keep sending men into the all-but-surrounded city and get mangled.

It actually worked pretty well ... the entrie French army was rotated through there and and ended up pretty wasted and would have ended the war in a German victory (at least on the Western Front ... which would have freed them up to turn and face the, at that time, advancing Russians who had not yet had their colour revolution).

Two things went wrong for them - firstly while the French did indeed get pounded the pesky British ended up taking over half the trench lines thus keeping the stalemate going and secondly the Germans ended up getting invested in the need for a German victory there (as opposed to just a trap for the French) and the pride/honour of the German Crown Prince.

Anyway what has any of that got to do with North and coaching ... basically anyone without an bulletproof track record as a coach was just going to be another offering to the meat grinder (like another French unit into the Verdun sailent)

 

[briztoon]

Hope whatever he is being paid is worth it... then again someone had to coach and anyone 'lesser' would be walking into the Verdun sailent...

 

[twhowler]

Did the Dogs actually play with 4 talls in their forward line at any time?

I would have thought they'd play a ruck and 3 tall forwards at all times.

Still, you've got Darcy at 208cm and Lobb at 207cm, surely you're playing our two tallest defenders on those two. Play Rayner on Naughton, who's the shortest at 195cm

Granted i only read match report but Tim English was ruck.

I take on board all the comments re crazy height won’t necessarily work and agree. But it will be interesting to see as if you add English in to the mix there’s some serious talent albeit mix of realised and to be confirmed. Would be a pick 9, pick 2 and pick 1!

 

[briztoon]

Granted i only read match report but Tim English was ruck.

I take on board all the comments re crazy height won’t necessarily work and agree. But it will be interesting to see as if you add English in to the mix there’s some serious talent albeit mix of realised and to be confirmed. Would be a pick 9, pick 2 and pick 1!

I assumed English played ruck.

The Dogs could play English as ruck, start Naughton, JUH and Darcy up forward, with Lobb on the bench.

Lobb could then play back up ruck for 20%, and relieve each forward for 20% game time.

This would see each of their talls play 80% game time, with a ruck and 3 tall forwards on the ground at all times.

Means they only have 3 smalls on the bench. A small defender, a mid, and a mid/forward. But they could make the rotations work, if one of their small defenders can play wing for 20% game time.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Not that this chart for 1 preseason game means anything but here it is.

Position	Team	%	Position	Team	%
1	Crows	213.4	10	Hawks	100.0
2	Saints	209.4	11	Port	66.3
3	Lions	202.2	12	Suns	63.1
4	Swans	179.6	13	Kangaroos	59.4
5	Demons	170.4	14	Tigers	57.7
6	Dogs	168.2	15	Blues	55.7
7	Giants	158.4	16	Cats	49.5
8	Dockers	150.3	17	Bombers	47.8
9	Pies	106.0	18	Eagles	46.8

Can we get a similar table including last week's matches as well?

 

[briztoon]

Bulldogs have another rated father son 200cm KPF prospect in this years draft.

 

[Section 5]

Can we get a similar table including last week's matches as well?

Na can't be bothered.
At least this week's games were under match conditions plus a couple of extra interchanges.
Some of last week's games had 6 Quarters and way too many players available.
Each group of clubs had their own rules etc.
Also, i don't think a couple of clubs actually participated.

 

[PattyKwasagun]

Bulldogs have another rated father son 200cm KPF prospect in this years draft.

Hadn't heard that. Wow. Genuinely wonder if they might pass on him - they really can't fit any more young tall forwards in without trading somebody out. It's quite a dilemma, but to spend draft capital on another KPF would start to look like an unwise list build (if it doesn't already).

 

[briztoon]

Hadn't heard that. Wow. Genuinely wonder if they might pass on him - they really can't fit any more young tall forwards in without trading somebody out. It's quite a dilemma, but to spend draft capital on another KPF would start to look like an unwise list build (if it doesn't already).

Jordan Croft. At this stage, he’s probably a second round prospect. He’s in the initial Vic Metro squad.

Bulldogs could get their two first round picks in this year, then match a bid on Croft.

Naughton hits free agency in 2 years time, and there’s already rumours of him heading back to WA (Freo to be precise).

English hits free agency next year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if West Coast have a massive crack with NicNat likely to retire next year.

Plus Lobb is 30 this year.

Think they’ll take him.

And then there’s Max Darcy in next year’s draft (needs a growth spurt, currently plays wing).

 

[KissKiss]

They could also have sent Naughton back. He looked good there in his first year and would be better than Jones as a back. Jones is pretty old from memory. All these giant key forwards and still have issues with key backs

 

[Berrygood]

It hurts. But I tend to agree. For me the person missing would be Rayner. Although Rich didn't look his best the other night. Maybe he was just going through the motions of a pre season game.

What an absolute nightmare of a job Match selection have. We have around 30 capable Afl players to choose from.

A good nightmare to have tho. The kind ya wake up in shock but ya wanna get back to sleep to see how it ends.

Fages selections over the years has been pretty loyal to established first graders. So I think both Rich and Rayner will play round 1. After that it's up them to hold their spots.

I think that when the whips are cracking and points are on the line Rich will stand up. I hope he does, I'd hate to see him retire a reserve grader.

And Rayner, if not in the backs, I still think he holds his fwd/mid role. Some here have suggested he doesn't fit in to our fwd structure with 3 talls but the last cpl of years we played with Hippy, Joe n Mcstay and he fit in. All we've done is swap Mcstay for Gunston, still 3 talls, so I don't see how he won't fit now.

I'm exhausted trying to pick our round 1 team, trying to anticipate what will happen, thinking on the best 22/23 for the season. I'm happy now to just let the selection nightmare happen, wake up then see how it ends. I don't think it will end badly.

 

[On the quiet]

Hadn't heard that. Wow. Genuinely wonder if they might pass on him - they really can't fit any more young tall forwards in without trading somebody out. It's quite a dilemma, but to spend draft capital on another KPF would start to look like an unwise list build (if it doesn't already).

If they did take another KPP, think Bruce who played back in the game against North is probably under some pressure. I also don't know why they signed Jones for 3 years, maybe 2 with a 3rd year option if meets a games threshold etc.

I watched a bit of the first half and at times they seemed very tall in the forward line, but I don't think they played all four talls at once in the forward line.

 

[Kwickhatch]

Anyone seen mark Robinson's top 50? Reeks of vicbias but I mean it's a Vic reporter catering to the Vic audience.

Charlie Curnow

30

Charlie Curnow

Age

27

Ht

194cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.3

3star

K

9.7

4star

HB

3.6

3star

M

5.3

5star

T

2.2

4star

G

1.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

10.8

3star

K

6.4

3star

HB

4.4

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.8

4star

at no. 1?
If y'all are wondering Lachie comes in at 8 after dusty.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Anyone seen mark Robinson's top 50? Reeks of vicbias but I mean it's a Vic reporter catering to the Vic audience.

Charlie Curnow at no. 1?
If y'all are wondering Lachie comes in at 8 after dusty.

Where is Will Ashcroft?

 

[Full Wingspan]

Anyone seen mark Robinson's top 50? Reeks of vicbias but I mean it's a Vic reporter catering to the Vic audience.

Charlie Curnow at no. 1?
If y'all are wondering Lachie comes in at 8 after dusty.

I stopped caring for the HUN top 50 lists when I was about 15.

 

[maggotman]

Anyone seen mark Robinson's top 50? Reeks of vicbias but I mean it's a Vic reporter catering to the Vic audience.

Charlie Curnow at no. 1?
If y'all are wondering Lachie comes in at 8 after dusty.

Think you'll like this one better :

The AFL's 50 best players

Not valuable. Not skilled. Not must-watch. But who are the 50 best AFL players heading into season 2023?

www.espn.com

 

[mpal6]

I think Answerth is best 22. His kicking may be a bit skew whiff, but he's got the mongrel about him that I think we need.

I thought he was unfairly maligned by many on here for some of his performances last year. To be able to come back and play every game after having OP is a massive achievement. As for who he would displace from the team, I honestly wouldn't have a clue. Everyone who played on Friday played pretty so there'd be some very unlucky players.

Answerth is good value against bottom 8 teams. He can also hold his own against the bottom half of the finals teams. Once you get to top 4 who are very well drilled in shutting down options as well as put us under enormous pressure - then he'll get exposed. Answerth puts body on the line, goes when its his turn to go and is one of the most courageous players we have on the list. But to me there appears to be no standout trait that he can lean on, when the pressure goes up against the top teams. Piercing kicks out of defense, rebound with pace etc - I can't pick a skill that'll help him in tricky situations.

He's not best 22 for me but he'll definitely be in the next rung as reliable depth to plug a gap.