Training 2025 Pre-Season Training - reports, pics etc

[Lukeblueboy]

Specially the handballs given(sometimes under little or no pressure) falling at the feet of the receiver half halting momentum

 

[StaggerLee]

IIRC didn't Diesel come out and help training pre season before last when Voss started? Said he was going to help with skills. I remember thinking this would be awesome but then seemed to stop

I remember an artical when he came to Carlton (2nd time). Players were practicing thier handballing by standing there aiming straight at the target against the wall. His idea was handball into the wall and pick the ball up on the move and then hit the target. Thats why he was the best.

 

[Arr0w]

Playing devil’s advocate on the skills issue, might the club believe that if we have power and speed to create space and time then we will better execute our skills?

Every side would want to improve their skillset but with greater defensive pressure, improving efficiency isn't a given

Tigers won 3 flags with kaos footy, plenty of ways to improve output

 

[WildmanOfCarlton]

Great report. Thanks for heading down. Was there anyone in particular that impressed you? How was Jagga?

I think the players who impress the most, are the players we all know. When they do a drill where you try and stand in the tackle, Cripps just does it with ease, as he does in matches. Weitering was the only player to turn the ball over when they were practicing working the ball through a zone, you could see him leaving a bit of a gap he knew he could close.

I tried to spot and follow the new players, but when they set up drills in different part of the ground, your eye is naturally drawn to the one being completed right in front of you. I regret not following the group that was sent to the other oval for one of the drills, probably missed a good chance to see Jagga use his evasion and foot skills.

I did notice Lord, practicing getting back off the mark before kicking over and over again with one of the coaches at the end of training, he does seem to be grabbing his opportunity at AFL with both hands.

IIRC didn't Diesel come out and help training pre season before last when Voss started? Said he was going to help with skills. I remember thinking this would be awesome but then seemed to stop

Diesel was at training on Friday last week, he came past me about half way through the session, then met with a couple of guys and young kid came up all decked out in some junior club gear. They ended up talking for most of the rest of the session. Diesel was wearing pretty much the coaches and helpers uniform, could easily blend in with all the personnel out on the ground and you'd need to be close to tell it was him.

I agree the club does appear to need a skills coach, it's always worried me the casual way Charlie sets up for a shot at goal. He does not seem to have a set routine, some times spinning the ball in his hands as he comes in to kick, is he going to have the right grip on the ball when he stops spinning it. Of course it's hard to criticize too much with winning back to back Coleman medals, but I do think he would be even better with a set routine.

The simulation setups they do practice at training, do seem to be about making the right choices when kicking, not just executing the kick. Voss pulled one drill when someone, who I think hit the target, hadn't taken the option they must have been practicing. He made the restart the drill.

The young players do get around as a group alot of the time, before and after training often with a coach talking to them. On Friday, one of the coaches pulled Harry O'Farrell aside and explained what they wanted him to do in a drill to exit the backline and then congratulated him when he did it in the next drill. I suspect Arrows right, we don't get to see all of the coaching that takes place at the club, when they are locked away inside the ground at Princes Park.

 

[BigFrizz36]

I think the players who impress the most, are the players we all know. When they do a drill where you try and stand in the tackle, Cripps just does it with ease, as he does in matches. Weitering was the only player to turn the ball over when they were practicing working the ball through a zone, you could see him leaving a bit of a gap he knew he could close.

I tried to spot and follow the new players, but when they set up drills in different part of the ground, your eye is naturally drawn to the one being completed right in front of you. I regret not following the group that was sent to the other oval for one of the drills, probably missed a good chance to see Jagga use his evasion and foot skills.

I did notice Lord, practicing getting back off the mark before kicking over and over again with one of the coaches at the end of training, he does seem to be grabbing his opportunity at AFL with both hands.


Diesel was at training on Friday last week, he came past me about half way through the session, then met with a couple of guys and young kid came up all decked out in some junior club gear. They ended up talking for most of the rest of the session. Diesel was wearing pretty much the coaches and helpers uniform, could easily blend in with all the personnel out on the ground and you'd need to be close to tell it was him.

I agree the club does appear to need a skills coach, it's always worried me the casual way Charlie sets up for a shot at goal. He does not seem to have a set routine, some times spinning the ball in his hands as he comes in to kick, is he going to have the right grip on the ball when he stops spinning it. Of course it's hard to criticize too much with winning back to back Coleman medals, but I do think he would be even better with a set routine.

The simulation setups they do practice at training, do seem to be about making the right choices when kicking, not just executing the kick. Voss pulled one drill when someone, who I think hit the target, hadn't taken the option they must have been practicing. He made the restart the drill.

The young players do get around as a group alot of the time, before and after training often with a coach talking to them. On Friday, one of the coaches pulled Harry O'Farrell aside and explained what they wanted him to do in a drill to exit the backline and then congratulated him when he did it in the next drill. I suspect Arrows right, we don't get to see all of the coaching that takes place at the club, when they are locked away inside the ground at Princes Park.

It was pretty obvious that Harry's set up for kicking at goal was completely re-built prior to the start of last season. Was a successful operation, looked like he was taking an extra half step and veering to the right late. Went from 29 . 29 in 2023 to 49.21 in 2024.

I'd be surprised if this sort of skill work was being worked on out in the middle of the training track (whether it be Princes Park or Latrobe uni). This biomechanical stuff would happen indoors where it can be taped, shown for immediate appraisal and correction work to be done.

 

[The Bighouse]

He was a part time skills coach for a while but got let go during covid cuts. Then came in as footy director but was often on the track helping during voss's first preseason even though its not his job. Havent seen any images of him at training the past few years.

Would be great, even it was just private sessions with a few particular players.

Footy Director and pseudo skills coach dual role. Thought there was a bit of a catch there…

 

[Arr0w]

It was pretty obvious that Harry's set up for kicking at goal was completely re-built prior to the start of last season. Was a successful operation, looked like he was taking an extra half step and veering to the right late. Went from 29 . 29 in 2023 to 49.21 in 2024.

I'd be surprised if this sort of skill work was being worked on out in the middle of the training track (whether it be Princes Park or Latrobe uni). This biomechanical stuff would happen indoors where it can be taped, shown for immediate appraisal and correction work to be done.

I personally believe a number of players have improved their disposal, Harry, Cripps, Acres, etc

Cats had the worst efficiency numbers last year, although stats do need to be assessed with vision

Personally, I'd rather see better tempo, quick or measured

 

[marcmurphy3]

It was pretty obvious that Harry's set up for kicking at goal was completely re-built prior to the start of last season. Was a successful operation, looked like he was taking an extra half step and veering to the right late. Went from 29 . 29 in 2023 to 49.21 in 2024.

I'd be surprised if this sort of skill work was being worked on out in the middle of the training track (whether it be Princes Park or Latrobe uni). This biomechanical stuff would happen indoors where it can be taped, shown for immediate appraisal and correction work to be done.

I hope Charlie is doing similar work this offseason. His approach to goal kicking has become very lazy and conversion suffered as a result.

 

[Sector 7G]

I hope Charlie is doing similar work this offseason. His approach to goal kicking has become very lazy and conversion suffered as a result.

Was terrible from long range this year but was solid from close up.

 

[AndyLucimitis]

I hope Charlie is doing similar work this offseason. His approach to goal kicking has become very lazy and conversion suffered as a result.

Agree - that "I kind of don't give a shit' left-foot round the body kick for goal really annoys me. Maybe Ok from a few metres out but any further the 15 metres , go back and just kick it straight.

 

[Moon]

It pains me to watch the basic skill errors time and time again, year after year. Precision in kicking and handpassing is king.

Agree ... Watching Collingwood they appear well drilled and their foot passing and handball is automatic and precise whereas with Carlton ... they have to think about it and it isn't as accurate and doesn't flow as smoothly.
Collingwood also always have more than one target to kick to, always apply tackling pressure and have another Player running past to receive the Ball.

 

[Bamboo Harvester]

I hope Charlie is doing similar work this offseason. His approach to goal kicking has become very lazy and conversion suffered as a result.

Reckon the 'issue' with Charlie is that he plays with a free spirit that'll never change.

At the end of the day, he's a surfer lad from the Bellarine who just happens to be very good at football.....chances are if you try to regiment him, it'll just backfire.

 

[CarmenSandiego]

Agree ... Watching Collingwood they appear well drilled and their foot passing and handball is automatic and precise whereas with Carlton ... they have to think about it and it isn't as accurate and doesn't flow as smoothly.
Collingwood also always have more than one target to kick to, always apply tackling pressure and have another Player running past to receive the Ball.

Confidence thing.

Players naturally want to attack - they spend their Juniors being told how great they are and to take the game on and play on instinct.

Their gameplan empowers this - take the game on, get space & open up the play. Before they know it they've got yards of space & plenty of time to put their head over the footy and kick through it - often to their first option, as its instinctual. Overcomplicating means hesitation means second guessing which usually results in a rubbish kick.

Bolton overcoached the shit out of this group & stifled all this. Teague tried to reverse it but honestly NFI what happened there. Voss.. still not sure tbh.

 

[marcmurphy3]

Reckon the 'issue' with Charlie is that he plays with a free spirit that'll never change.

At the end of the day, he's a surfer lad from the Bellarine who just happens to be very good at football.....chances are if you try to regiment him, it'll just backfire.

He approaches kicks at goal with a demeanour that says "It doesn't really matter if I kick this. I'll get more opportunities anyway".

I dont think having a proper routine would hurt him despite his free spirit.

 

[jj1978]

I'm looking forward to this. I just hope we aren't tactically inept when it comes to how we go about this. Kemp's role can't be about keeping out of the road of Curnow and McKay like McGovern's was. Teams pick up on this immediately in modern football and use it against you. The better teams don't do this. Brisbane's other forwards who are strong in their air for example. Daniher and Hipwood were the key forwards but Brisbane were about best option. Not about keeping out of the way of Daniher and Hipwood and going mostly to them. They were about going to the forward with space or the one on one. Sometimes that was the talls but when it wasn't others were used.

We need to go through Kemp quite a bit because he will get free. Same with Moir. Let McKay and Curnow take the crowd and go through the other forwards at times. We haven't been able to do that because out other forwards are so weak in the air and don't present and position well because they aren't natural forwards. Now this will change.

I really really hope Kemp and Moir are in the side. They are tallish and strong in the air but both have good ground level games. Moir has is pretty much a genuine small forward when the ball is on the ground. I really hope Motlop can get going because he has the talent and the smarts and so does Durdin but he's lost a lot of it.

The truth is that the other side of the coin is that our small forwards are playing for their careers. If Motlop and Durdin don't fire they will be gone. I think we will look to offload a lot of small forwards end of next season and we will be chasing those sorts really hard.

Kemp and Moir will be our modern day Pearce and Clape getting chocolates whilst everyone else focused on Sticks and Earl.

 

[jj1978]

We will have Williams Motlop Durdin Fogarty Cottrell Fantasia effectively fighting for 2-3 spots

Potential there but none have nailed a spot

We also have Elijah Docherty and possibly mids like Walsh Cerra Smith pushing through there

I have no idea how it plays out but we need players to step up and nail this role next year

Sorry fixed.

 

[Jimmae]

Seems to me that a lot of that sort of work could be being done behind closed doors at the club facilities. Big ol' indoor space where they can practice kicking and handballing. Being out on the park is a good opportunity to do more match sim and game situation stuff.

Personally, while it would be great for the club to drive it, I think general skills really should be being constantly practiced by the players. If they know their disposal is a bit iffy (and you'd absolutely know if yours was), then there are plenty of avenues those players can explore to address it - from leaning on teammates with better skills/technique, to approaching the line coaches or development coaches directly, to leveraging external contacts for one-on-one coaching.

I'll never view poor skills as a failing of the club. It's something every player should take full ownership of - anyone can learn to kick or handball better, it ain't genetic.

Playing devil’s advocate on the skills issue, might the club believe that if we have power and speed to create space and time then we will better execute our skills?

There's plenty of room for more skill drills in the mix, perhaps scaling up across the pre-season. Don't understand the point of keeping indoors.

I don't understand the issue with giving everyone a footy to muck around with while they do sprints and runs, because if their base technique is sound, they should get more comfortable kicking under pressure.

 

[bradfisher14]

No I don't, what I find disingenuous is you highlighting one item in a post which had more content and jumping to a conclusion

"Interesting listening to Cripps this morning, where he stated there has only been a couple of tweaks to the HP program this off season

I guess we as supporters only see a few sessions during the off season, but wondering what layers the coaches are tweaking for the new season"

This isn't a Russell thread, it's a preseason thread and my content was on topic

Never questioned whether or not you were on topic, I'm not a mod.

From my view, your whole post was about the HP program. If I got that wrong, no worries. But I don't think it's a wild conclusion to think that discussion of HP this preseason also encompasses past HP programs and the recently departed former head of that program.

My intent is not to be disingenuous, so here are my intentions stated as clearly as I can. My take was that you thought Cripps' comments were a defence of Russell or that you wished to paint them as such. I found that interesting, so wanted to highlight and discuss as I respect your perspective on these matters. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[motts]

For those that have gone along, could you please share where at Latrobe training actually is?

It’s a big place and trying to make sure my wife and son can get to the right spot on Friday.

 

[Benaly28]

Kemp and Moir will be our modern day Pearce and Clape getting chocolates whilst everyone else focused on Sticks and Earl.

Pearce was a revelation and changed our forward structure completely in the mid 90’s.

Clape so underrated.

If Kemp and Moir can get anywhere near them we’re in good shape.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[FitzroyBlueBagger]

Motts

Tony Sheehan Oval
Latrobe University, Bundoora

 

[motts]

Much appreciated.

 

[windows1]

La Trobe University Football Club in Google maps

 

[The Bighouse]

Motts

Tony Sheehan Oval
Latrobe University, Bundoora

Was Tony Sheehan involved in our media dept at some stage?

 

[Aphrodite]

Was Tony Sheehan involved in our media dept at some stage?

Pretty sure he is a former Politician.