To be fair…I think it was clear that the footy issue was minor and he was likely to be back “before christmas”. Which in fact he was (this week is is first training session with the team for a number of weeks)
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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Training 2024 Pre-Season discussion
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- Jun 29, 2023
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Bit of a concern Jack Henry and Neale not participating ! Unless they're trying to reduce risk for injury prone players or something.
Good to hear about Osullivan playing multiple positions. Maybe he can become the next Blitz. Hes got a really good build tbh.
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Agree hahahaha
Geelong track watch: Top draftee Connor O’Sullivan’s versatility on show, hungry veterans return with purpose
Geelong’s top draftee showed off his exciting make-up, while there is plenty of fire in the belly for some big names. Plus, a potential father-son was a part of Cats training. All the notes here.
Is Geelong’s top draftee the new Mr Fix It?
It is just under a month since Connor O’Sullivan joined the Cats with pick 11 in the national draft, but he is already putting his versatility and athleticism on show.
During their match simulation on Friday, the 198cm tall was used in the ruck against Toby Conway and even lined up on a wing at one stage on Mitch Knevitt, with his tidy skills and mobility catching the eye across the session in the famous No.14.
Don’t let his size fool you, though. O’Sullivan ran the eighth best time 2km time trial at the national combine, running it in a blistering 6:11 minutes, with his athletic make-up meaning a spot on the wing isn’t out of the question.
O’Sullivan played at both ends as a junior, with his best footy in his draft year coming as a key defender, earning All-Australian honours for the Allies in the backline.
With Mark Blicavs turning 33 in March, O’Sullivan has the tools to be the Cats’ next swingman.
Another new face, Cats’ draft smokey Oli Wiltshire, showed some exciting glimpses during match simulation.
The Barwon Heads talent ran down vice-captain Tom Stewart to win a free kick for holding the ball and dashed through the middle with a bounce in another play.
Rookie pick-up Emerson Jeka, who played at both ends during his time at Hawthorn and Box Hill, slotted into defence and took a couple of nice grabs.
Young midfielder Ted Clohesy made his debut in the final round of last year and had some nice moments in defence.
Meanwhile, basketballer turned Category B rookie ruckman Joe Furphy, who joined the club in September, highlighted his strong running capacity in a running drill, finishing ahead of a group of talls.
EMERGING CATS
The main highlight of the brief scrimmage came from Ollie Henry, who brought down a screamer on the wing.
His older brother Jack had front row seats to the high fly, sitting on the bench as he continues his recovery from a Lisfranc injury.
Tanner Bruhn is another to watch out for in his second season as a Cat.
Improving significantly as the year went on with greater midfield exposure, Bruhn looks to have added some extra size to his frame and had some exciting moments on Friday.
Fellow on-baller Tom Atkins feels Max Holmes, from the same draft year as Bruhn, can also go to another level next season.
“It’s hard to say early on but I always just look at someone like Max Holmes and his running ability. He’s just going to be another year older this year,” Atkins said.
“I had to remind myself last year how young some of these guys are. Like Tanner is 21, Max is 21, it’s just insane how far ahead they are in their careers for such a young age.”
While the Cats youngsters appear to be taking no shortcuts on the training track, Holmes and Henry were caught red handed in their Amazing Race style pre-season camp in Anglesea.
“I’m going to throw him under the bus, Max Holmes and Ollie Henry were meant to go around a buoy but they went halfway and turned around,” Atkins said with a laugh.
“But then they didn’t realise but we had the drone flying up above them so looking forward to reviewing that footage. They ended up with a ‘did not finish’.”
HUNGRY VETERANS
It’s not just the young Cats who are making a statement.
The elder statesman have come back with extra fire in the belly after their disappointing premiership defence.
So much so that even newly signed assistant coach Steven King — who joined the club from Gold Coast, where he was interim senior coach for seven matches — has taken notice.
“There has been a real purpose with some of the older boys, how they have come back and how they’ve presented,” King said.
“Guys like Paddy Dangerfield and Tommy Stewart coming back, Tom Hawkins has been back around the building a lot before he had to and you can just tell there is a real point to prove with, ‘OK, what’s happened last year has happened’.
“They’ve reset, I think everyone is just fresh in the mind and body now to launch into another campaign.”
Atkins says the extra month has helped reignite the hunger in the group and has allowed the playing group to freshen up after a season where the Cats struggled to get their full team on the park due to injury.
“How we finished last year is not how we want to end up,” Atkins said.
“I know personally just having an extra month in the off-season, it really allows you to focus in on what you need to work on and what the team needs to work on and then by the time you get back to training you are just about jumping out of your shoes to get into it.
“You compare that to last year when we were a bit rushed getting back to pre-season, we’re all just so excited, so keen to get into games and show everyone that we expect better than what happened last year.”
POTENTIAL FATHER-SONS
A familiar name was among the group at training on Friday.
Alfie Wojcinki, the son of three-time premiership player David, completed drills on the sidelines with GWV Rebels prospect Jonty Faull, another 2024 draft prospect who was training with the Cats through the AFL Academy.
David coached Alfie and his teammates to an under-18 premiership with Newtown & Chillwell this year, with Alfie also listed with the Geelong Falcons in his bottom-age year in 2023.
Seventeen potential father-son and Next Generation Academy prospects Cats father-son prospects trained with the club this week, including King’s son, Oscar, who isn’t draft eligible until 2027.
It was a surreal experience for King, who was reminded of an incident involving him and Dangerfield that is etched in the Brownlow medallist’s memory.
“Even Patrick Dangerfield told me when he trained at the club when I was an AIS kid I broke his nose in a tackling drill when I was at the club so it is full circle,” King said.
“My son did the father-son academy during the week. (Dangerfield) was amazing with him so it’s funny how things develop and change.”
Geelong’s top draftee showed off his exciting make-up, while there is plenty of fire in the belly for some big names. Plus, a potential father-son was a part of Cats training. All the notes here.
Is Geelong’s top draftee the new Mr Fix It?
It is just under a month since Connor O’Sullivan joined the Cats with pick 11 in the national draft, but he is already putting his versatility and athleticism on show.
During their match simulation on Friday, the 198cm tall was used in the ruck against Toby Conway and even lined up on a wing at one stage on Mitch Knevitt, with his tidy skills and mobility catching the eye across the session in the famous No.14.
Don’t let his size fool you, though. O’Sullivan ran the eighth best time 2km time trial at the national combine, running it in a blistering 6:11 minutes, with his athletic make-up meaning a spot on the wing isn’t out of the question.
O’Sullivan played at both ends as a junior, with his best footy in his draft year coming as a key defender, earning All-Australian honours for the Allies in the backline.
With Mark Blicavs turning 33 in March, O’Sullivan has the tools to be the Cats’ next swingman.
Another new face, Cats’ draft smokey Oli Wiltshire, showed some exciting glimpses during match simulation.
The Barwon Heads talent ran down vice-captain Tom Stewart to win a free kick for holding the ball and dashed through the middle with a bounce in another play.
Rookie pick-up Emerson Jeka, who played at both ends during his time at Hawthorn and Box Hill, slotted into defence and took a couple of nice grabs.
Young midfielder Ted Clohesy made his debut in the final round of last year and had some nice moments in defence.
Meanwhile, basketballer turned Category B rookie ruckman Joe Furphy, who joined the club in September, highlighted his strong running capacity in a running drill, finishing ahead of a group of talls.
EMERGING CATS
The main highlight of the brief scrimmage came from Ollie Henry, who brought down a screamer on the wing.
His older brother Jack had front row seats to the high fly, sitting on the bench as he continues his recovery from a Lisfranc injury.
Tanner Bruhn is another to watch out for in his second season as a Cat.
Improving significantly as the year went on with greater midfield exposure, Bruhn looks to have added some extra size to his frame and had some exciting moments on Friday.
Fellow on-baller Tom Atkins feels Max Holmes, from the same draft year as Bruhn, can also go to another level next season.
“It’s hard to say early on but I always just look at someone like Max Holmes and his running ability. He’s just going to be another year older this year,” Atkins said.
“I had to remind myself last year how young some of these guys are. Like Tanner is 21, Max is 21, it’s just insane how far ahead they are in their careers for such a young age.”
While the Cats youngsters appear to be taking no shortcuts on the training track, Holmes and Henry were caught red handed in their Amazing Race style pre-season camp in Anglesea.
“I’m going to throw him under the bus, Max Holmes and Ollie Henry were meant to go around a buoy but they went halfway and turned around,” Atkins said with a laugh.
“But then they didn’t realise but we had the drone flying up above them so looking forward to reviewing that footage. They ended up with a ‘did not finish’.”
HUNGRY VETERANS
It’s not just the young Cats who are making a statement.
The elder statesman have come back with extra fire in the belly after their disappointing premiership defence.
So much so that even newly signed assistant coach Steven King — who joined the club from Gold Coast, where he was interim senior coach for seven matches — has taken notice.
“There has been a real purpose with some of the older boys, how they have come back and how they’ve presented,” King said.
“Guys like Paddy Dangerfield and Tommy Stewart coming back, Tom Hawkins has been back around the building a lot before he had to and you can just tell there is a real point to prove with, ‘OK, what’s happened last year has happened’.
“They’ve reset, I think everyone is just fresh in the mind and body now to launch into another campaign.”
Atkins says the extra month has helped reignite the hunger in the group and has allowed the playing group to freshen up after a season where the Cats struggled to get their full team on the park due to injury.
“How we finished last year is not how we want to end up,” Atkins said.
“I know personally just having an extra month in the off-season, it really allows you to focus in on what you need to work on and what the team needs to work on and then by the time you get back to training you are just about jumping out of your shoes to get into it.
“You compare that to last year when we were a bit rushed getting back to pre-season, we’re all just so excited, so keen to get into games and show everyone that we expect better than what happened last year.”
POTENTIAL FATHER-SONS
A familiar name was among the group at training on Friday.
Alfie Wojcinki, the son of three-time premiership player David, completed drills on the sidelines with GWV Rebels prospect Jonty Faull, another 2024 draft prospect who was training with the Cats through the AFL Academy.
David coached Alfie and his teammates to an under-18 premiership with Newtown & Chillwell this year, with Alfie also listed with the Geelong Falcons in his bottom-age year in 2023.
Seventeen potential father-son and Next Generation Academy prospects Cats father-son prospects trained with the club this week, including King’s son, Oscar, who isn’t draft eligible until 2027.
It was a surreal experience for King, who was reminded of an incident involving him and Dangerfield that is etched in the Brownlow medallist’s memory.
“Even Patrick Dangerfield told me when he trained at the club when I was an AIS kid I broke his nose in a tackling drill when I was at the club so it is full circle,” King said.
“My son did the father-son academy during the week. (Dangerfield) was amazing with him so it’s funny how things develop and change.”
Preseason puff.... but it sure sounds promising.
Jeka ..just slips into the Sav role.
COS the young replacement for Blitz
Wiltshire showing enough speed to run down Stewart.
Bruhn added some size..
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I'm just looking forward to the new guidelines kicking in.
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Been watching a Netflix show about a surgeon who implanted plastic windpipe in people. Blood curdlingI hadn't really heard/read much about Lars surgery lately so actually googled it prior to my earlier post
One of it most recent articles I could find about Lars & why it had fallen out of favour was dated 2018:
"It was too good to be true. The problem being that they just didn't biologically incorporate properly, and they had a much higher than anticipated failure rate and there were lots of recorded revision surgeries. People became very wary because it was felt that it was essentially unsafe to use, Dr Broe said.
"The problem was when they failed you were left with this synthetic debris floating around in the joint which caused synovitis, which is an inflammatory reaction in the joint and caused a lot of recurrent knee swelling and instability."
Whatever happened to LARS? The miracle ACL surgery that was too good to be true
Athletes with ACL injuries once lined up for the LARS surgery, touted as a miracle cure capable of shaving eight months off recovery time — but it has since fallen out of favour.www.abc.net.au
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I think it could go either way. Dogs are probably going to see that they get along just fine without him. Trading him is a risk but so is keeping him.
Their asset has degraded but it cuts both ways
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If Holmes is getting around Kel's nickname of "Ball Sports Kelly" because James is bad at ball sports...
Does that mean we need to refer to Max as "Water Sports Holmes" ...?
Probably best not to
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I can imagine it now.
Just cut together video of Jhye Clark quietly staring off in the distance. Toby Conway holding back tears.
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He seems to reliably hit the scoreboard in the 2s so I'd prefer him forward but a bit of defensive work might be beneficial as a learning opportunity
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sports_fan39
Debutant
That news sounds great, good signs early on, cant wait !!
Also very off topic, whatever happened to down at kardinia park (shannon byrnes / hawkins going around asking dumb/funny questions in the lockeroom or the tale between two cats with dangerfield, i kinda miss them lol
Also very off topic, whatever happened to down at kardinia park (shannon byrnes / hawkins going around asking dumb/funny questions in the lockeroom or the tale between two cats with dangerfield, i kinda miss them lol
Kingy (Steven) sounded very positive and buoyant about being back at the club as a new addition to the ciaching team. Good signs in what he's observed since pre season began and how the group young and old look to respond to the dissapointing end last season.
Thought the same. Could find a position as a small defender.
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Pretty sure none of them feel anything anymore
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Probably better than the old ceramic aggie pipe he used previously
Tandy
Norm Smith Medallist
Hope Bruhn can take the next step. Hope he's a 200 game cats player.
I have always been very confident. And from what I hear they are very happy with his improvement in running this pre season. Together with putting on size and the fact that he is a baby - huge upside I recjon
Back to pre-season photos...
There's also more available via 'Reels' for those with Instagram or if someone wants di take a few screenshots
Last photo I am loving that tight block of 4 young elite runners (need to guess who the 5th one was - obscured!)
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