Training 2023 Preseason + training discussion

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Wobbly Punt said:
Hi Folks,

I got there just in time for the match sim and missed any other drills beforehand. I’m typing this without reading anything else posted so if I disagree with anything democritus, Huski or anyone else posts then it’s done with utmost respect and I’d have no complaints if you go with their view over mine. I might too.

This will jump all over the shop chronologically as I am going from memory and dumping quickly as I type as I only have a little time. It’ll be a Pulp Fiction version of the match sim – the timeline will be mixed up.

First up – players I didn’t see out there in the sim. Cox, Emmett (on bike work at the ground though), Corbett (also at the ground but not doing sim), Benning, Williams, Wagner. They may well have done some hard yards pre my arrival but nothing I saw.

Lets get this started early – the umpires screwed Freo regularly today 😊. Young girl there was particularly confusing at times but she looked relatively new to it. Still better than Margetts. Banfield got a terrible free kick 30 out and converted it in the last, Walker was ripped off there. The ump was almost leaning on the fence knackered at that stage and called it from 30m away at a stoppage. Some other confusing stuff but not too bad, all jokes aside.

I started the game at the Glory HQ end in the pocket and moved to that horrible old stand for the remaining 3 qarters.

Game was full on. Players kept on telling each other to be physical and keep up the pressure. High intensity stuff although guys did pull up0 just on contact mostly. Having said that the inside mids were all on the end of very decent hits and all gave out ones too.

Tony Buhagiar was there and is impressed with the team based on the snippets I heard him say to his crew there. I think he was going at about 50% accuracy with naming the right players 😊 but he liked what he saw before I moved further away and couldn’t hear him and his mates anymore. He and them were all very pleased by the sounds of it.

Teams when they started in Q1 were mixed up a lot. Brayshaw v Serong in the mids as an example, definitely not best v rest but it went a bit that way later on for the last. Tabs, Fyfe, Jackson, Schultz, Switta plus 1 other I couldn’t see up front for purple to start. First choice backline was stationed on them. Treacy, Amiss, Freddy, Sturt, Kuek, Stubbs up front near me for grey with a mix of ours and some Peel dudes I think on them.

Darcy v Knobel and Chopper in the rucks. Also mixed up in the mids were JOM, Ras, Johnno, Aish etc. Jumpers were changed throughout the day so it all got very hectic keeping track. In the last Brayshaw, Serong, JOM all started together but didn’t finish together, Serong didn’t finish the game out but was handy all day when on. He did miss a few targets going forward which he needs to tidy up. Hopefully democritus or others can give a better indication of who was on which team because my memory has not grabbed much of that in terms of purple v grey and they did a lot of swapping.

Outside the forward and backs the matchups I did notice to start were Aish & Henry on a wing, Hughes and Noddy on the other wing. Ras, Stubbs, Colyer, Sturt, Worner and some Peel fill-ins got through there too. Of all the wingers Henry was the busiest, especially early. Colyer actually did a lot of good stuff early too. Colyer is still capable of playing well at AFL level its just his bad is way too bad now with who else we have.

Henry gave those who like him lots to be happy with today (especially in the first half) as he was all over the place. Deep back and then deep forward and often in the same passage of play. He missed a tough shot on goal from about where he kicked the WAFL GoTY contender last year and also made some nice defensive plays as well. At the same time he also gave those who don’t like him as a player something to gripe about. He had one free kick out of defence that he sprayed out of bounds that wasn’t great. He also had the guys near me killing him for a turnover that led to a goal which came from his kick. However, I will defend this one because what they didn’t take into account on that one was he kicked it to Brady Grey who simply let it go over his head (protecting his hammies I’d guess) when it should have been taken. Grey hadn’t been in the game long and he should have gobbled it up, Henry wasn’t to blame for that one. He remained running hard at the end, even when he switched to what became the weaker team (grey) to finish the game. His effectiveness dropped from his good start but he remained involved. Overall, I was again positive about what I saw. Even his sprayed kicks such as the bad one from the free kcik that he put OOB came after lengthy runs so with tired legs.

Noddy had one of those games wingers and HFF’s can have. He was ball adjacent for most of the day, but he didn’t find it much. He remained on track and ran hard etc which was a good sign but he was quiet today while still doing a small number of good things. I doubt today will worry him or the coaches much.

Others who got a run in the middle included the normal suspects but Schultz also popped in their in the last due to an interchange snafu. He got the clearance and did well delivering to Fyfe inside 50…so he got another go. Second time he didn’t get it but it was nice to see him in there.

Both Johnno and Ras spent time in the guts and acquitted themselves well. They’ll play this year and they’ll be handy. Johnno wasn’t as good as I’d seen him today but he was often up against either Serong, Brayshaw or especially JOM (very good today) so not much to worry about. Ras did some special stuff and, like Henry, sprayed some kicks too. No real horrible howlers like pressure free missed by a mile stuff but it’s something he’ll be working on. He’s no Connor Blakely but does kick like him sometimes. At the same time, he’s no David Mundy but he pulls off some kicks Mundy would be proud of too.

There was a brute of a kid in the mids too who I can’t name. Not because I forgot but because I don’t know him. He was 21 purple to start and ended up in grey (40 I think). Massive midfielder. Made JOM look small and Fyfe look average sized and I am not putting mayo on that, he’s tall and big for a mid. Skills a bit off but my god he’s a physical presence and showed plenty of aggro. Went at Aish, Brodie, JOM and even Darcy around stoppages that I saw. By that I mean hitting their arms and aggressively pushing them away from him as though spoiling for a fight. No idea who he is but if he makes a list, he’ll leave a mark on someone.

Worner was playing the Young role in his team and he was clearly instructed to get the ball and deliver it out of defense and also to try to get on it again and deliver it forward. Players were looking for him and he was running to get to uncontested possession spots. From a role perspective that’s encouraging for him. He was good for the most part barring one turnover but I liked his game today. He slowed towards the end as a few others did.

Amiss was big early. 2 goals in the first was great. 1 a great snag after a smart feed to an open forwardline from Henry that Jy ran on too, assessed his options and then kicked it to an open goal square then through. By no means an easy kick. His other was from a set shot where he led well to a dangerous spot and got hit up well. He would have had another almost identical goals later on if Banfield hadn’t cut across his lead and stolen the ball almost off his chest. Luckily Banfield slotted it but he was told to keep out of leading guys space by Coach Graham after he’d kicked it. Amiss copped a big hit later on in a contest as Reidy, he and their defenders went for a ball from a bunch of angles. Both went down which was a concern at first but he went off after a minute or so under his own steam and was back on within 5mins (yes I checked the time). I was worried about his kidney getting hit again but ti turned out just to be winded. He missed another shot from about 45 toward the fig which I’d bet he’ll kick 66% of the time. It was after an exceelent tackle so that was great. Concerns about the distance of his leg can be assuaged. He put lots of that to bed with that great kick just before the half against the Dogs in the final last year and has shown plenty of depth this PS and again today. He can hit one from 50 comfortably so all good there. Maybe it was Budgie there, sitting ion that old stand and my age but Jy reminds me a lot of Jim Sewell for those old enough to remember him. For Bulldog supporters I’ll accept the poor man’s Sewell in Joe Mackay as a comparison 😊.

Point of note here is that Amiss started on Serong Jnr at the start who played as a key back today. Read into that what you will in terms of Liam’s chances of getting on the list. They call him Junior which is no surprise and Tendai was constantly giving him a rev up during the first qtr. Jy got the 2 goals when matched on him early and I’d hope Jnr learns a bit from it. Not from the defensive efforts as his were fine but more that he dropped his head a bit after each one and then almost got caught napping because of it each time. He seemed discouraged a bit today.

Whilst we’re here in defence, Draper had a weird day today. He was good at times but also had a couple of forgettable moments. The worst resulted in a goal that was horrid to watch for the poor kid. He was running back across goal, in the square and almost on the goal line and attempted a short kick off the side of his foot to a teammate. Unfortunately for him he got it too far on the side of his foot and instead kicked it straight to Colyer who was standing almost right next to the goal post and easily dropped it on his foot for the goal. As opposed to Junior, after that mistake Draper hit the next contest very hard, only to have the ball spill out to his opponent because he didn’t kill it with the fist enough. No goal this time but not a great 5mins for him. He was fine otherwise.

Tabs was every version of Tabs we have ever seen all in one game. We should call him Melbourne (the weather not the team), he’s capable of giving us everything all in a 5min span at any time. Today he was lazy, brilliant, tough, poorly positioned, dangerous, thoughtless, hard running, wasteful and rock hard…and that’s all in the first 15mins 😊. Rinse and repeat the rest of the game. He finished stroing which I was most pleased with and not only with goals but with hard running up and down the grouond and giving good options. I still think he takes his leads too wide in to the pockets at times which I hope Graham improves on. Lazy for Tabs wasn’t with his workrate or movement but with the finishing aspect to his game which can be annoying. Should have kicked 4 but was still amongst the best today I thought.

Whist we’re talking forwards, I’ll do Treacy. He started up front with Amiss and Freddy and was vocal, physical, active etc. He didn’t hit the scoreboard until later but he was getting amongst it wihtout getting a lot of it. 1 passage I loved from him came in the second half when Young was clearly being set up to get the ball and deliver it inseide 50, Treacy saw it from 30m away and ran very hard to get to Young and laid a tackle forcing Young to dish to Sonny. Unfortunately for Sonny, Treacy had moved up then got to Sonny as well and he tackled him out of bounds in front of us in the old stand to kill a move forward. JT could have KILLED Sonny and Sonny gave him a thankful pat on the butt after they both got up likely in gratitude for him still being awake. It was a supe defenive effort. Treacy also kicked a very nice goal on the run from the Glory pocket (is it the Glory hole now they live there?). Best part of that for me was not just the finish which was clinical and under pressure, but that it came soon after that defensive effort I desscribed and as a result of him doing what Bailey didn’t do earlier on when he stole one from Jy. JT instead kept his width from a trammate as the ball went in to Sturt from JOM. On this occasion the ball went over Sturt’s head but he recovered well to get it out to JT who slotted it. Treacy was prasied for “keeping structure and keeping defenders away from the contest” by Graham after this one.

Reidy as a backup is going to be fine right from the start. He is physical and moves around ok. Not as good as Meek in the ruck, better than Meek as a forrward. Darcy killed him in the hitouts but he made a contest everywhere he could. He slotted a really nice goal from the outer pocket at the fig tree end which was a really nice kick. Darcy missed from the same spot later on funnily enough. Darcy had taken a very nice contested mark to get that shot.

Knobel needs too be more assertive when moving forward. On a few occasions he made it to a good space but his attempts to get his teammates attention were too subdued. He also flew for makrs a couple of times deep forward without putting his hands up to contest the mark. His ruck work was OK though and his field skills are good. 2 decent types we have there.

Young was so good I thought. They are definitely looking for him all over the ground so Fantasy players can take that for what it’s worht and add in the fact that he took the bulk of the kcikouts today. Ryan and Chappy each had a go too, but even with the Ryan one I think the plan was to have Ryan kick it out to Clark, get it back then handball to Young who’d positioned himself on the 50/boundary intersection or close by. It didn’t go great but the idea was good.

Jackson kicked a very nice snag from ab out 40-50 towards the hospital end. Came direct from a centre bounce and he made a good lead followed by a very good kick. He was effective without being dominant for most of the game but then in the last something very intriguing happened. We had Darcy in the ruck and Jackson as a mid. I’m here to say I am here for this. It can’t be a permamnent thing but it can be a good thing to happen regularly enough. Whilst in there he destroyed Johnno in a very strong tackle, he got on the end of a handball to kick from the bounce inside the F50 and hit Fyfe on the lead, he got the ball out to JOM from a ground level contest and that’s just the stuff I saw and remember! It was a brief view of this unicorn thing and it looked very tasty. We need to keep a bit of a lid on it in that he was up against Johnno, Ras and Aish at that point and was with Darcy, JOM, Bray, Caleb a nd Brodie in there at different points going against Knobel and the y9ounger crew but it was fun to watch and very effective.

OK, to wrap up, we come to Fyfe. The rumours of the death of Bull Fyfe have been greatly exaggerated. Not only did he take on 2-3 in tight on numerous occasions, he did it and he made it work. And he didn’t do that just against the kids either. In the one that stood out to me inj the pocket in front of the old stand he got rid of Ryan, Brayshaw and the big kid who scared me before a quick kick forward. In others he got out of tackle attempts from JOM, Stubbs, Brodie, Pearce and Young on separate occasions. He’s bullocking and he’s coming in to his own as the PS goes on. He took a strong contested mark at HF in front of the glory hole in the last, he nailed 1 long-ish set shot and then hit the post with another. He’s a growing threat in the air but he’s downright dangerous on the ground. We have ZERO worries about dfensive pressure when he’s up there. I mean none. Based on today the only thing we’ll have to worry about is how long he can keep it up in a game. There are so called defensive forwards in the league who don’t come close to what he did in that regard today. We have one or 2 on our list ourselves. He played agaionst good oppo, he made his presence felt and he is going to be very good for us. He’s dropping a few marks I’d expect him to take, he’s missing opportunities to hit up teammates at times but overall it is so good to see what he dished up today.

OK, that’s all I have time for, hope you get a bit out of it. Apologies for spelling mistakes and the lack of cohesive timelines but this was a brain dump bewteen meetings.
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Thanks for these gems. The Sewell reference leads me to think you're at least as old as me, in which case credits for being able to type (and walk). The reference to the unicorn simply makes me feel young again!
 
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democritus said:
Alright, here goes.

Got down to Freo oval just before 10am. Perfect timing as match sim began a minute or two after I found a cool spot in the shade under the Moreton bay fig tree.

Absentees: Cox, Wagner, Corbett, Williams, Benning, (didn’t spot Emmet), Wilson was doing laps around the oval with Bob Murphy


Teams:

Purple:

Backs: Draper, Davies, Worner, Liam Serong (briefly played forward then swapped to play down back), one or two peel players I couldn’t recognise

Mids: Darcy, Serong, Johnson, Brodie, Hughes/Colyer on the wing

Forwards: Taberner, Jackson (alternating with Darcy), Switta, Fyfe, Walters, Schultz, Banfield

Grey

Backs: Pearce, Chapman, Hamling, Clark, Young, Ryan, Walker

Mids: Reidy, Brayshaw, JOM, Erasmus, Aish, Henry/NOD on the wings

Forwards: Amiss, Treacy, Freddy (rotated a fair bit onto the wing), Stubbs, Knobel, Keuk

+ A few peel thunder/NGA players sprinkled through: Fairly sure I saw Jasper Scaife playing down back for the grey team.


As I alluded to earlier, the teams switched up in the second half. I won’t be able to tell you everyone who switched, really trying to focus more on the play. Team purple became the “bests” in the second half. The whole grey defence switched to play for the purple side. Davies was pulled in the second half and ran laps, again without a hat! From the midfield, Brayshaw, JOM flipped; I didn’t see Serong after the first half; although I didn’t notice him sustaining any injury and suspect this was a planned move in terms of his training load. Freddy and Treacy also swapped to play for the purple team and banners swapped into the grey team.

This left the grey team pretty depleted. The scoreboard read 52-14 in the second half to give you an idea of the disparity, Mzungu and Brady Grey had to fill in. Also, there was several Peel/NGA fill ins I couldn’t identify the grey defence was really without any best 22 players. It was pretty much Johnson and Erasmus in the guts in the second half, and a player I couldn’t recognise wearing the number 40; big bodied mature player.

Goal kickers:

Freddy X 3 – 1st in the 1st quarter (it may have been Keuk but it looked like Freddy),2nd in the 4th quarter from an assist from Fyfe, 3rd in the 4th quarter after selling the candy and kicking truly to an unprotected goal square. 3rd goal came off the back of some good D50 transition.

Amiss x 2: Both in the first quarter. 1st goal off the back of a good lead with conversion about 40m out. 2nd goal on the run in transition, tapped it to himself and kicked into an unprotected goal square. Missed a set shot in the 2nd quarter after a holding the ball free against Worner; was a regulation kick you would back him to make most times.

Tabs x 2: Missed two gimme shots in the 1st quarter. Converted two in the 3rd quarter, one from 40 after a very nice hit up from Walker on the back of Hayden Young dashing out of defence and the second a snap from the left pocket.

Schultz x 2: 1ST goal in the 2nd quarter after being hit up by Switta following a beautiful ground ball collect. 2nd a routine set shot.

Banners x 2: 1st goal in the 2nd quarter. 2ND goal in the final with a HTB free against Walker

Treacy x 1: From the right pocket in the 3rd

Reidy x 1: converted from right pocket in the 2nd after a HTB free

Sonny x 1: 4th quarter snap set shot.

Switta x 1: off the assist from Jackson

Colyer x 1: intercepted a shocking kick out of the defensive goal square from Draper.

Fyfe x 1: set shot 35 m out in the 4th. Had a post in the 4th from 45 out off the back of a wild passage of play which started with Jackson roving to Darcy and hitting up Fyfe.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly:

The Good:
  • JOM was everywhere. He didn’t do anything spectacular but didn’t make any mistakes. He’s a bull and is ready to step into the role vacated by Mundy.
  • Amiss in the 1st quarter. Give me more of that please.
  • Young taking the kick outs and his general play in transition. Daniel Rich who? Smokey for AA this season.
  • We look a million bucks when we transition quickly from D50, our easiest goals came from this and made it impossible to defend.
  • Aish. Rolled inside and outside all game. He’s bigger than I remember. No fuss, Mr fix-it who gives us so much flexibility and accountability. I believe he was playing a tagging role on Brayshaw in the 1st half.
  • Contested marking the second half from Darcy and Jackson on the wing.
  • Johnson’s hands in tight are very clean. He’s a big boy, didn’t look that much smaller than Jackson at the centre bounces.
  • Switta with those deft touches that just create scoring opportunities. Had small stints on the ball which I'd love to see more of in the season proper.
  • Fyfe with the goal assists. Was almost playing like a forward line mid, bullocking in the contest, dishing the ball out and setting up his team-mates. Didn’t make as many leads or fly for as many marks as I would have liked until the second half.
  • Reidy’s aggression. More than held his own in the 1st half against 2 of the best rucks in the league. Dropped away in the second half.
  • More for the spectacle than anything, 4th quarter featured a lot of Jackson roving to Darcy. Doubt we see it much in real life but it kinda worked.
  • Even spread of goal kickers. We don't have a star forward, yet. But we do have the makings of a cohesive forward line.
  • Belly roaming around the ground having a chat with onlookers. Love how professional this club now is but is still so accessible.
The Bad:
  • Draper had a few shockers by foot. Believe it was the second quarter trying to kick short out of defence and butchered it twice without being punished, third time lucky for the opposition with Colyer intercepting a scrubbed kick and converting. Still rate him as a prospect, didn’t get beaten in the air and held his position well. Definitely needs to work on his kicking
  • Fyfe had a great lead for an uncontested mark in the left pocket in the 2nd quarter, had a complete brain fart and hedged his bets between playing on or hitting up his team-mate which resulted in a nothing kick and a rushed behind.
  • Ryan seemed to have enough of young taking the kicks and took kick in duty back. He cleaned up his mess but I feel like his monopoly on the kick ins should be over.
  • Henry had some good moments sweeping back into defence to give support, spoiling marks and evading tackles to bring the ball out of the D50 so I’m certainly not saying he had a bad game. He did have a few bad moments. The one that stuck out like a dog’s bullocks was an aggressive kick looking to go into the middle, it was well telegraphed which resulted in a turnover and goal. Had a snap at goal that went out on the full. A few kicks out of D50 also on the full.
  • Did I mention Davies didn’t wear a hat again?

The Ugly
  • Jye went off clutching his side late in the 4th after some friendly fire. Don’t worry it wasn’t around his kidney and he did come back on in the last 2 mins.
  • Erasmus’ kicking. It’s very rushed, not diabolical when coming out of a clearance but I can’t see him claiming a wing spot with his current standard. Had a set shot from 45m directly out which landed well short. I’m not a hater, he’s going to be a bull but I can’t see him cracking a game without an injury to one of our inside mids. Johnson by contrast seems to take a lot more care with the ball and his decision making which is why I have him ahead of Ras in the pecking order with a healthy midfield contingent.
  • Grey team’s ability to match it with the bests in the second half. Think there’s more to take out an evenly matched game.
  • Davies not wearing a hat.

Best on ground: JOM, Amiss, Tabs, Freddy, Switta, Young, Aish


Hopefully, that is enough to tide you all over. Feel free to ask questions about particular players I haven’t mentioned. It’s hard to touch on everything!
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Great writeup Mate !
 
Wobbly Punt said:
Hi Folks,

I got there just in time for the match sim and missed any other drills beforehand. I’m typing this without reading anything else posted so if I disagree with anything democritus, Huski or anyone else posts then it’s done with utmost respect and I’d have no complaints if you go with their view over mine. I might too.

This will jump all over the shop chronologically as I am going from memory and dumping quickly as I type as I only have a little time. It’ll be a Pulp Fiction version of the match sim – the timeline will be mixed up.

First up – players I didn’t see out there in the sim. Cox, Emmett (on bike work at the ground though), Corbett (also at the ground but not doing sim), Benning, Williams, Wagner. They may well have done some hard yards pre my arrival but nothing I saw.

Lets get this started early – the umpires screwed Freo regularly today 😊. Young girl there was particularly confusing at times but she looked relatively new to it. Still better than Margetts. Banfield got a terrible free kick 30 out and converted it in the last, Walker was ripped off there. The ump was almost leaning on the fence knackered at that stage and called it from 30m away at a stoppage. Some other confusing stuff but not too bad, all jokes aside.

I started the game at the Glory HQ end in the pocket and moved to that horrible old stand for the remaining 3 qarters.

Game was full on. Players kept on telling each other to be physical and keep up the pressure. High intensity stuff although guys did pull up0 just on contact mostly. Having said that the inside mids were all on the end of very decent hits and all gave out ones too.

Tony Buhagiar was there and is impressed with the team based on the snippets I heard him say to his crew there. I think he was going at about 50% accuracy with naming the right players 😊 but he liked what he saw before I moved further away and couldn’t hear him and his mates anymore. He and them were all very pleased by the sounds of it.

Teams when they started in Q1 were mixed up a lot. Brayshaw v Serong in the mids as an example, definitely not best v rest but it went a bit that way later on for the last. Tabs, Fyfe, Jackson, Schultz, Switta plus 1 other I couldn’t see up front for purple to start. First choice backline was stationed on them. Treacy, Amiss, Freddy, Sturt, Kuek, Stubbs up front near me for grey with a mix of ours and some Peel dudes I think on them.

Darcy v Knobel and Chopper in the rucks. Also mixed up in the mids were JOM, Ras, Johnno, Aish etc. Jumpers were changed throughout the day so it all got very hectic keeping track. In the last Brayshaw, Serong, JOM all started together but didn’t finish together, Serong didn’t finish the game out but was handy all day when on. He did miss a few targets going forward which he needs to tidy up. Hopefully democritus or others can give a better indication of who was on which team because my memory has not grabbed much of that in terms of purple v grey and they did a lot of swapping.

Outside the forward and backs the matchups I did notice to start were Aish & Henry on a wing, Hughes and Noddy on the other wing. Ras, Stubbs, Colyer, Sturt, Worner and some Peel fill-ins got through there too. Of all the wingers Henry was the busiest, especially early. Colyer actually did a lot of good stuff early too. Colyer is still capable of playing well at AFL level its just his bad is way too bad now with who else we have.

Henry gave those who like him lots to be happy with today (especially in the first half) as he was all over the place. Deep back and then deep forward and often in the same passage of play. He missed a tough shot on goal from about where he kicked the WAFL GoTY contender last year and also made some nice defensive plays as well. At the same time he also gave those who don’t like him as a player something to gripe about. He had one free kick out of defence that he sprayed out of bounds that wasn’t great. He also had the guys near me killing him for a turnover that led to a goal which came from his kick. However, I will defend this one because what they didn’t take into account on that one was he kicked it to Brady Grey who simply let it go over his head (protecting his hammies I’d guess) when it should have been taken. Grey hadn’t been in the game long and he should have gobbled it up, Henry wasn’t to blame for that one. He remained running hard at the end, even when he switched to what became the weaker team (grey) to finish the game. His effectiveness dropped from his good start but he remained involved. Overall, I was again positive about what I saw. Even his sprayed kicks such as the bad one from the free kcik that he put OOB came after lengthy runs so with tired legs.

Noddy had one of those games wingers and HFF’s can have. He was ball adjacent for most of the day, but he didn’t find it much. He remained on track and ran hard etc which was a good sign but he was quiet today while still doing a small number of good things. I doubt today will worry him or the coaches much.

Others who got a run in the middle included the normal suspects but Schultz also popped in their in the last due to an interchange snafu. He got the clearance and did well delivering to Fyfe inside 50…so he got another go. Second time he didn’t get it but it was nice to see him in there.

Both Johnno and Ras spent time in the guts and acquitted themselves well. They’ll play this year and they’ll be handy. Johnno wasn’t as good as I’d seen him today but he was often up against either Serong, Brayshaw or especially JOM (very good today) so not much to worry about. Ras did some special stuff and, like Henry, sprayed some kicks too. No real horrible howlers like pressure free missed by a mile stuff but it’s something he’ll be working on. He’s no Connor Blakely but does kick like him sometimes. At the same time, he’s no David Mundy but he pulls off some kicks Mundy would be proud of too.

There was a brute of a kid in the mids too who I can’t name. Not because I forgot but because I don’t know him. He was 21 purple to start and ended up in grey (40 I think). Massive midfielder. Made JOM look small and Fyfe look average sized and I am not putting mayo on that, he’s tall and big for a mid. Skills a bit off but my god he’s a physical presence and showed plenty of aggro. Went at Aish, Brodie, JOM and even Darcy around stoppages that I saw. By that I mean hitting their arms and aggressively pushing them away from him as though spoiling for a fight. No idea who he is but if he makes a list, he’ll leave a mark on someone.

Worner was playing the Young role in his team and he was clearly instructed to get the ball and deliver it out of defense and also to try to get on it again and deliver it forward. Players were looking for him and he was running to get to uncontested possession spots. From a role perspective that’s encouraging for him. He was good for the most part barring one turnover but I liked his game today. He slowed towards the end as a few others did.

Amiss was big early. 2 goals in the first was great. 1 a great snag after a smart feed to an open forwardline from Henry that Jy ran on too, assessed his options and then kicked it to an open goal square then through. By no means an easy kick. His other was from a set shot where he led well to a dangerous spot and got hit up well. He would have had another almost identical goals later on if Banfield hadn’t cut across his lead and stolen the ball almost off his chest. Luckily Banfield slotted it but he was told to keep out of leading guys space by Coach Graham after he’d kicked it. Amiss copped a big hit later on in a contest as Reidy, he and their defenders went for a ball from a bunch of angles. Both went down which was a concern at first but he went off after a minute or so under his own steam and was back on within 5mins (yes I checked the time). I was worried about his kidney getting hit again but ti turned out just to be winded. He missed another shot from about 45 toward the fig which I’d bet he’ll kick 66% of the time. It was after an exceelent tackle so that was great. Concerns about the distance of his leg can be assuaged. He put lots of that to bed with that great kick just before the half against the Dogs in the final last year and has shown plenty of depth this PS and again today. He can hit one from 50 comfortably so all good there. Maybe it was Budgie there, sitting ion that old stand and my age but Jy reminds me a lot of Jim Sewell for those old enough to remember him. For Bulldog supporters I’ll accept the poor man’s Sewell in Joe Mackay as a comparison 😊.

Point of note here is that Amiss started on Serong Jnr at the start who played as a key back today. Read into that what you will in terms of Liam’s chances of getting on the list. They call him Junior which is no surprise and Tendai was constantly giving him a rev up during the first qtr. Jy got the 2 goals when matched on him early and I’d hope Jnr learns a bit from it. Not from the defensive efforts as his were fine but more that he dropped his head a bit after each one and then almost got caught napping because of it each time. He seemed discouraged a bit today.

Whilst we’re here in defence, Draper had a weird day today. He was good at times but also had a couple of forgettable moments. The worst resulted in a goal that was horrid to watch for the poor kid. He was running back across goal, in the square and almost on the goal line and attempted a short kick off the side of his foot to a teammate. Unfortunately for him he got it too far on the side of his foot and instead kicked it straight to Colyer who was standing almost right next to the goal post and easily dropped it on his foot for the goal. As opposed to Junior, after that mistake Draper hit the next contest very hard, only to have the ball spill out to his opponent because he didn’t kill it with the fist enough. No goal this time but not a great 5mins for him. He was fine otherwise.

Tabs was every version of Tabs we have ever seen all in one game. We should call him Melbourne (the weather not the team), he’s capable of giving us everything all in a 5min span at any time. Today he was lazy, brilliant, tough, poorly positioned, dangerous, thoughtless, hard running, wasteful and rock hard…and that’s all in the first 15mins 😊. Rinse and repeat the rest of the game. He finished stroing which I was most pleased with and not only with goals but with hard running up and down the grouond and giving good options. I still think he takes his leads too wide in to the pockets at times which I hope Graham improves on. Lazy for Tabs wasn’t with his workrate or movement but with the finishing aspect to his game which can be annoying. Should have kicked 4 but was still amongst the best today I thought.

Whist we’re talking forwards, I’ll do Treacy. He started up front with Amiss and Freddy and was vocal, physical, active etc. He didn’t hit the scoreboard until later but he was getting amongst it wihtout getting a lot of it. 1 passage I loved from him came in the second half when Young was clearly being set up to get the ball and deliver it inseide 50, Treacy saw it from 30m away and ran very hard to get to Young and laid a tackle forcing Young to dish to Sonny. Unfortunately for Sonny, Treacy had moved up then got to Sonny as well and he tackled him out of bounds in front of us in the old stand to kill a move forward. JT could have KILLED Sonny and Sonny gave him a thankful pat on the butt after they both got up likely in gratitude for him still being awake. It was a supe defenive effort. Treacy also kicked a very nice goal on the run from the Glory pocket (is it the Glory hole now they live there?). Best part of that for me was not just the finish which was clinical and under pressure, but that it came soon after that defensive effort I desscribed and as a result of him doing what Bailey didn’t do earlier on when he stole one from Jy. JT instead kept his width from a trammate as the ball went in to Sturt from JOM. On this occasion the ball went over Sturt’s head but he recovered well to get it out to JT who slotted it. Treacy was prasied for “keeping structure and keeping defenders away from the contest” by Graham after this one.

Reidy as a backup is going to be fine right from the start. He is physical and moves around ok. Not as good as Meek in the ruck, better than Meek as a forrward. Darcy killed him in the hitouts but he made a contest everywhere he could. He slotted a really nice goal from the outer pocket at the fig tree end which was a really nice kick. Darcy missed from the same spot later on funnily enough. Darcy had taken a very nice contested mark to get that shot.

Knobel needs too be more assertive when moving forward. On a few occasions he made it to a good space but his attempts to get his teammates attention were too subdued. He also flew for makrs a couple of times deep forward without putting his hands up to contest the mark. His ruck work was OK though and his field skills are good. 2 decent types we have there.

Young was so good I thought. They are definitely looking for him all over the ground so Fantasy players can take that for what it’s worht and add in the fact that he took the bulk of the kcikouts today. Ryan and Chappy each had a go too, but even with the Ryan one I think the plan was to have Ryan kick it out to Clark, get it back then handball to Young who’d positioned himself on the 50/boundary intersection or close by. It didn’t go great but the idea was good.

Jackson kicked a very nice snag from ab out 40-50 towards the hospital end. Came direct from a centre bounce and he made a good lead followed by a very good kick. He was effective without being dominant for most of the game but then in the last something very intriguing happened. We had Darcy in the ruck and Jackson as a mid. I’m here to say I am here for this. It can’t be a permamnent thing but it can be a good thing to happen regularly enough. Whilst in there he destroyed Johnno in a very strong tackle, he got on the end of a handball to kick from the bounce inside the F50 and hit Fyfe on the lead, he got the ball out to JOM from a ground level contest and that’s just the stuff I saw and remember! It was a brief view of this unicorn thing and it looked very tasty. We need to keep a bit of a lid on it in that he was up against Johnno, Ras and Aish at that point and was with Darcy, JOM, Bray, Caleb a nd Brodie in there at different points going against Knobel and the y9ounger crew but it was fun to watch and very effective.

OK, to wrap up, we come to Fyfe. The rumours of the death of Bull Fyfe have been greatly exaggerated. Not only did he take on 2-3 in tight on numerous occasions, he did it and he made it work. And he didn’t do that just against the kids either. In the one that stood out to me inj the pocket in front of the old stand he got rid of Ryan, Brayshaw and the big kid who scared me before a quick kick forward. In others he got out of tackle attempts from JOM, Stubbs, Brodie, Pearce and Young on separate occasions. He’s bullocking and he’s coming in to his own as the PS goes on. He took a strong contested mark at HF in front of the glory hole in the last, he nailed 1 long-ish set shot and then hit the post with another. He’s a growing threat in the air but he’s downright dangerous on the ground. We have ZERO worries about dfensive pressure when he’s up there. I mean none. Based on today the only thing we’ll have to worry about is how long he can keep it up in a game. There are so called defensive forwards in the league who don’t come close to what he did in that regard today. We have one or 2 on our list ourselves. He played agaionst good oppo, he made his presence felt and he is going to be very good for us. He’s dropping a few marks I’d expect him to take, he’s missing opportunities to hit up teammates at times but overall it is so good to see what he dished up today.

OK, that’s all I have time for, hope you get a bit out of it. Apologies for spelling mistakes and the lack of cohesive timelines but this was a brain dump bewteen meetings.
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Jesus... Who needs pornhub when you've got this!
 
Wobbly Punt said:
Hi Folks,

I got there just in time for the match sim and missed any other drills beforehand. I’m typing this without reading anything else posted so if I disagree with anything democritus, Huski or anyone else posts then it’s done with utmost respect and I’d have no complaints if you go with their view over mine. I might too.
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Cheers Wobbly
 

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Wobbly Punt said:
The rumours of the death of Bull Fyfe have been greatly exaggerated. Not only did he take on 2-3 in tight on numerous occasions, he did it and he made it work. And he didn’t do that just against the kids either. In the one that stood out to me inj the pocket in front of the old stand he got rid of Ryan, Brayshaw and the big kid who scared me before a quick kick forward. In others he got out of tackle attempts from JOM, Stubbs, Brodie, Pearce and Young on separate occasions. He’s bullocking and he’s coming in to his own as the PS goes on.
Click to expand...
 
I remember (not very well) a game ages ago where one of our players did a drop kick while being tackled and the umpire gave it holding the ball. Player protested but the umpire said "you can't do a drop kick". One of those "only happens to Freo" moments.
 
Alfonz said:
I remember (not very well) a game ages ago where one of our players did a drop kick while being tackled and the umpire gave it holding the ball. Player protested but the umpire said "you can't do a drop kick". One of those "only happens to Freo" moments.
Click to expand...
I think the interpretation was correct in that as soon as the ball hit the ground it’s “incorrect disposal”. I suspect if you said to the ump you intended to use a drop kick, say from a free kick, it might be allowed. Good luck not being dragged straight away though, if you didn’t hit your target.
 
I remember reading an essay once on the evolution of dropping the ball in Australian Rules. Apparently the rule turned a complete 180 degrees in the space of fifty years. In the 1800s the rule was like rugby and the player was penalised unless they immediately dropped the ball when tackled . By the early 1900s that had evolved to what we supposedly have now, penalising a player if they dropped the ball when tackled (and didn't dispose of it correctly hrough a kick or handball). Doesn't answer the question about whether a drop kick is a kick for that purpose, but I found that history interesting.
 
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