Training 2025 Pre Season Thread

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lachy said:
A bit of.doom and gloom on here at the moment.

Yes we have had a few issues but so do all teams at this stage of the season.

Tim looks like he will be fine, do think we should sign Crossley if his attitude is good. Only as a backup but if we are to try to win it this year given Darcy and Lobb have KPP roles and Smith is developing a backup is critical even for one game as Darcy Fort showed last season.

Naughts seems fine and English will be OK from an injury perspective. Trealor only needs to play 15 games to be a significant impact this season inclusive of finals so get him right.

Gut feel is JUH won't play this season likely at all. Anything would be a bonus but the club signing him for 2 years and not multiple years as some here wanted, well looks like the club made the right decision. Croft coming through helps forward and Buss down back.

We recruited what we needed, have good depth so there is no reason not to be positive now, unless of course you are a traditional doggies supporter.

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I admire the optimism, but Marra missing the season while not having a physical injury would be an unmitigated disaster. He’s the best forward this club has had since…? I guess we’re lucky that an even better one came 12 months later.
 
Golden_6 said:
Unfortunately something like this was always going to be a risk going back to his Pies days.

Treloar has actually done a remarkable job over the past few seasons in getting his body to a stage where it's more or less holding up for the entire season.

Assuming you have Bont, Richards & Libba as our starting midfield, we've got a pretty solid B team available in Sanders, Garcia, Kennedy & Harmes.
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Treloar had one season with the pies where he missed half the season.Of his 13 seasons, for 12 he played more than 17, and 7 seasons over 20 games.

The one season he played 10 games only and had the double cramp hammy incident has resulted in everyone including the media thinking he is injury prone.

The reality is that he would be above average for games played per season.


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cecil said:
It was reported that he was figuring out an extension last year and it strangely never eventuated. I still think he'd have to have a pretty dire year to not be worth another deal from our perspective though considering the amount of fringe players coming out of contract
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Would definitely have been put on hold now, perhaps they were waiting to see how he got through preseason ?

Our caps looking good going forward, Treloar was on $900+ with Collingwood paying some, if he does extend there will be a cut even with the increased cap.

JJ definitely last year frees up a little bit and we still have Sniff money saved up.
 
Lindsay_Gilbee said:
I admire the optimism, but Marra missing the season while not having a physical injury would be an unmitigated disaster. He’s the best forward this club has had since…? I guess we’re lucky that an even better one came 12 months later.
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Has the potential to be but Darcy is nearly already ahead of them and Naughton other than last year kicked more goals and last season played higher and less games.

An unmitigated disaster is massive hyperbole, he kicked 43 goals, 15th in the AFL and we had 6 players top 20 goals and were the second highest scoring team

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lachy said:
Has the potential to be but Darcy is nearly already ahead of them and Naughton other than last year kicked more goals and last season played higher and less games.

An unmitigated disaster is massive hyperbole, he kicked 43 goals, 15th in the AFL and we had 6 players top 20 goals and were the second highest scoring team

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How many goals did others kick cos Mara took the best defender…?
 
Lindsay_Gilbee said:
How many goals did others kick cos Mara took the best defender…?
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JUH, Naughton and Darcy in the side are a nightmare for opposition clubs

Two of the three above is a bad dream for opposition clubs as it makes it manageable for them.

Marra missing makes our side much weaker less threatening.

There is no guarantee JUH will play this year
 

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Mutt said:
Post about football not about satanic cults. That would be a good start.

You are testing my patience mate. If you want to be a smart arse about the moderating on here - and you've had two independent moderators delete your posts - you will get a perma-ban.

Your choice.
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Satanic cults? 😂
 
Dog 36 said:
JUH, Naughton and Darcy in the side are a nightmare for opposition clubs

Two of the three above is a bad dream for opposition clubs as it makes it manageable for them.

Marra missing makes our side much weaker less threatening.

There is no guarantee JUH will play this year
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Darcy-Naughton-Lobb-Jones still might be the best spine we've put out in many years.

We've normally managed to get 3 good ones and a makeshift tall in there somewhere, even in those brief moments we managed to get Tom Williams on the paddock with Lake.
 
Mofra said:
Darcy-Naughton-Lobb-Jones still might be the best spine we've put out in many years.

We've normally managed to get 3 good ones and a makeshift tall in there somewhere, even in those brief moments we managed to get Tom Williams on the paddock with Lake.
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The interesting one this season will be Crofts development

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DueWest said:
Would definitely have been put on hold now, perhaps they were waiting to see how he got through preseason ?

Our caps looking good going forward, Treloar was on $900+ with Collingwood paying some, if he does extend there will be a cut even with the increased cap.

JJ definitely last year frees up a little bit and we still have Sniff money saved up.
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Our cap should really be in a great spot.

Macrae, Daniel & Smith would have cleared $2 million in potential cap. Libba & Treloar should be on minimal money after the 2025 season.

The club might even be at the stage at looking at freeing up the JUH money at the end of his contract (which is only 18 months away).

I always thought the 2 year JUH contract was great because it gave us some visibility over whether the 3 tall forwards would work long term and whether we should be investing our resources into another $1 million contract on a 3rd key forward. The club might be having its mind made up for them.
 
Hopefully Marra is back soon - all the best to him - but our strength is spread of goal kickers - this is why I think we had the second highest points scored (confirmed by earlier post).

Without Marra - we will see Darcy step up and Naughton back to previous form. With Bruce Naughty was up around 50 - happily taking more load.

As others have said it will be the impact of the third tall that will be really important.

We saw that with Fogarty of Adelaide against us. We played an undersized Khamis on him rather than a full sized JOD or Buss and got eaten alive - the other two just had to play their role and not get in the way.

Not all good team play three talls if they have good marking medium targets and we have Flea who is perfect and was not at his best at all last year. West is also very good above his head.

Candidates for that role are a bit thin:

- Buku - just getting settled down back but if Coffield is fit it may be better for the team. He is a genuine swingman and attacking threat. He will kick a couple of goals every game and he leads out so will create space. My favourite for the role but feel bad for him having to move again.

- M. Kennedy - highly likely and good overhead and a nugget in the Mitch Hahn mould. Played the role for Carlton but is just OK as a forward and with other injuries will be needed in the mid. A rotation with Bont and Harmes is probably the most likely thing.

- JOD - has done well when asked before. Would also open the door to Buss and so a good thing. I would much rather that then move Lobb back - Lobb is a revolution at CHB and still has improvement in him.

- New: Davidson - I am a big fan. A bit smaller but still 191 and can really move and is hard to match up on. Ready to go and sounds like he is leading the pack in the pre-season.

- L.Smith - has been playing a bit forward in preseason and is a very good mark. Has looked very very good forward at VFL level - just not really as big a need long term as a backup ruck. Especially given Lobb is now settled at CHB.

- Cooper Hynes - is very good above his head and at 190 can be a threat.

- Go for the future and give Croft some games - he is not ready for KPP but as a tall fast flanker could be a Hipwood like contributor. Haven’t heard anything about him in pre-season - other than him putting on some size and ditching the mullet.

- in the past I had advocated for Naughty to do a Carey or God/Senior and play more mid but with JUH likely out for a bit that’s a no.

Trelor out is easier. Great player and will be a loss but Sanders and Garcia are ready to go.

I don’t see Kennedy as much in that same attacking role - he is more a rotation for Bont that allows Bont to go forward where he could well be the best third tall in the comp. Very handy.

Starting centre square mid goes from:

RR: Bont
C: Trelor
R: Libba


(Just so balanced and arguably or best starting 3 ever)

To

Bont
Richards
Libba

To Bont goes forward:

Richards
Sanders
Libba

Or for full rotation:

Kennedy
Sanders
García

Or for future:

RR: Bont - Elite of course and will still play for 3-5 years. Particularly if we look after him - which we have done in the last few years. Hynes to start rotating with him.
C: Richards - has everything and the more responsibility you give him the better he is. And has size and defensive ability - I reckon he could already be better than Dunkley for us). Kennedy rotating with him.
R: Sanders (Even though he has break out speed his ability to rack up first possessions put him at the top of his draft year and has shown many 30+ games - will be a star). García rotating with him.

Also have West, Gallagher and Harmes able to take good minutes. Really want to play West more as a first possession mid - he showed some great signs there towards the end of the year - one quarter in particular he was outstanding with half a dozen or more first possessions in a row while we were holding a thin lead - maybe a breakout but all talk with him in media is only talking a forward and getting more goals.
 

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Training 2025 Pre Season Thread


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