Training 2025 Training Blog - Training Reports only - *NO DISCUSSION*

[Aphrodite]

Same principle as the Bluemour File - this thread is for TRAINING REPORTS ONLY

No discussion is to take place in this thread!


All discussion belongs over here: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2025-pre-season-training-reports-pics-etc.1389175/page-10​

It's an easy reference point for training reports without having to sift through pages & pages of posts.

By all means copy and paste training reports from this thread using #TrackTalk hashtag which can be referenced back for discussion in the 'Pre-Season 2025 - Training reports, pics etc' thread & vice versa:-

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Training - 2025 Pre-Season Training - reports, pics etc

Starting off with ...

www.bigfooty.com

This has been found to be a valuable reference tool for those of us that love reading training reports and can't make it to training sessions whether it be to due to work commitments, living interstate etc.

The time and effort our posters put in attending training sessions and keep us up to date on how our players/new recruits are tracking is invaluable and we all love reading their informative training reports and we thank you.

 

[Aphrodite]

1st one below.


Thank you windows1

 

[windows1]

Ok well a little preseason treat for ya.

Old Windows made his way down to Latrobe today. To ‘study’ the squad of course.

Observations in random order. Firstly no big declarations to make mainly due to (a) no really serious running drills and (b) no more extended match sim.

Now that the dampener is out of the way, and presuming you didn’t change channels…..

WOW Holy Shit! Never seen the squad basically all there! I think only Fantasia missed. Sure there were several expected names on modified programs but unlike in the past where you’d see guys just standing around hand balling, every player on a modified program looked to be on it for precaution sake only. And as for the modified groups- it seemed to be very individual based not so much one sized fits all.

Just an awesome start to preseason.

Modified group 1: Charlie, MCG and Acres. MCG seems to be in that for good now. They’ve worked out how to get him through. Charlie seemed totally fine, at his absolute powerful best. May I say Acres is quite a fine runner……and Charlie torched him. All 3 no issues at all. They only really did running drills. Reports MCG looked fat in others’ posts in past weeks were invalidated. Looked totally fine and I was very close to him.

Modified group 2 SOS TDK Cotts doc C Durdin. Did a lot of footy drills. Doc did more of the simulation stuff than the others. Sos TDK and Durdin just did the footy drills and running but no real sim. Again totally precautionary and seemed fine. Tom seemed totally unhindered but his fitness a little off what he was at this time last year. Will get it back by end of preseason.

The younger players had the usual load mgt stuff. Didn’t really get to see Jagga in the situations he excels in but he looked good.

Ben C has developed a ‘competent’ kicking action where he has a low ball drop, gets boot to ball quickly and punches low 40m passes. Looks effective.

The big 4 mids - Walsh Cripps Hewett and Cerra (horray!!!) seemed in top condition and certainly took no backward steps on the younger guys. Walsh dumped Jagga unceremoniously at one point. Maybe even a little dirty (just a ‘welcome to the big time’ thing).

Jesse was a highlight. He looks way fitter than he has ever before. They didn’t do a lot of running but he was really not far off Ollie in the short stuff they did. Lord as well excelled there. I did feel Lij was a bit behind where he was this time last year.

I was impressed by Hudson O’Keefe’s added size. He’s a great athlete and prospect. One to watch.

HOF does not really have the body that will fill out to ‘big unit’ status and is very skinny.

Saad’s pace looked better than this past season. Cerra was really in great free moving shape. Wonderful to see. The one on one battles with Walsh were a treat and I have to say Cerra had the edge there.

Pretty hard to determine much by way of positions just yet as they really didn’t do a lot of simulation full ground.

Happy to take questions but don’t ask about positions.



#TrackTalk

 

[WildmanOfCarlton]

Took a punt and headed over to LaTrobe Bundoora this morning and after spotting a person in Carlton training gear crossing the road in front of me, turned out to be Newman, I knew I was in the right place. There were a few players milling around and quite a few coaches and helpers setting out all types of cones and equipment. While I parked the car the players all went up stairs into a room where you could hear the occasional round of applause.

When they came out on to the ground and started warming up, I spotted most of the new draftees and some of the train on players I knew from last year - Sam Durdin, Matt Carroll, Liam McMahon and Will White. There were four I wasn't sure about, three young blokes in Carlton singlet's but no numbers, I think they were NGA players Tyson Gresham, Jack Ison and Mingara Clark, heard players call the little one Gresh and another Jack (so I made the assumption). There was a very tall player wearing number 49, thought it was Mirkov when I first saw him, but while tall I don't think it was him. Maybe it was Grainger-Barass or the other ex-Hawk Ethan Phillips, but I don't think they are as tall as this bloke.

Corey Durdin and Matt Cottrell were both wearing yellow hat's, which we were told earlier in the week means don't tackle. Fantasia didn't really join in the warm up and Cottrell, Acres and McGovern did all the initial warm up, but had broken away to the goal square before the first lot of drill's began. They were asked to swap into singlet's and their training tops were given to the three NGA boys. As the training session went on, this little group grew to include Corey Durdin, Silvagni, Curnow, DeKoning and I think the new Irish player Duffy.

Similar to last year, they created three main groups to complete the drills, then swap to the next. These included handball keeping's off, kicking from behind a mark, at least one was forcing the players to use left foot, kicking and following up to receive a handball back and kicking again, etc. They even did a drill near the goals where the small forwards were trying to read the ball off a contest and kick the goal (an area I feel we need to be better at). They progressed through the drills, until they ended up with most of the players doing match sim on most of the ground. Eventually the players swapped took off their footy boots and put on runners and began to run half laps of the ground within set time limits and with set recovery times. This is about the time I left.

Probably focused on the draftee's and identifying players I didn't recognise. Of the draftee's, the bits I saw of Jagga were impressive, one grab and hit his target's. Ben and Lucas didn't seem out of place, but they did pull Ben out of the main group for some running on his own. Harry O'Farrell was getting some individual coaching when they were completing the whole ground match sim. I think they took all of the draftee's out early before the big match sim drill was finished.



#TrackTalk

 

[windows1]

Notes:

• cinc missing completely (Ramsay was wearing his number). So too S Durdin.
• fantasia was there and did nothing at all
• TDK out of the rehab group
• Acres, MCG, Charlie, SOS, Cotts and little Durds largely rehab group. All ran heaps and strongly. Rehab for conservative reasons only. Okeefe also joined them for the most part. Was running fine. He has put on nice size as i said previously.

Jagga got beaten repeatedly (predictably) by Walshy in one on ones. Walsh was a beast today. Trained fully and awesome. Jagga was otherwise good. I am looking forward to a proper match sim.

Cerra, Walsh, Cripps and George are all FLYING. In great nick and ready to rumble.

Denver Granger Barrass moved really well. Caught my eye with his kicking too. Looks weak one on one though. But def looks good otherwise.

Motlop smashed them (along with Billy Wilson) in shuttle sprints and may have been my pick of the session with his movement through traffic in drills. Saad looked top speed too.

Cowan and Ollie great today.

One to note and watch was Matt Carroll. I need to pay more attention to him in future. Has a strong build, power, pretty clean. He impressed me today but I need to really focus on him - looks to be aiming for a back flank role.

Kemp endurance running looks career best now. Ready for that repeat running third tall forward role.

Moir running looked solid. He looks to be improving.

Ben C kicking was uhm...... His brother showed his leap on a couple of occasions with some nice marks.

HOF 2 years away at best. Lord kicking could do with some more punch. Tends to float them too much. Looked good otherwise.

Nothing much else to report. Happy to take questions.



#TrackTalk

 

[WildmanOfCarlton]

Decided to go along again today, having found where the team trained last Friday.

I see the club posted another of those training in 60 videos before I managed to post this, if you look closely the training tops were white when turned inside out, instead of orange today.

Unfortunately I didn't do a head count so I'm not sure if anyone was missing, but suspect Cincotta was missing again.

Cottrell walked past me a couple of times but didn't go out on the training track, I did notice Fantasia was training on his own on a second ground next to the building. He eventually came on to the main training ground when the did a drill on both grounds, but basically was kicking at goal up one end.

Noticed that Cripps had a shoulder strapped, as did Corey Durdin (still wearing the yellow hat), Olli Hollands had a yellow hat on too, but was being tackled so maybe that doesn't mean not to be tackled.

I still think there is a bit of a re-hab group with Silvagni, Acres, Duffy, McGovern and Durdin joining in for some drills or being the end target in some drills, but not fully joining in training.

After warming up one they split into two groups and one played soccer, while the other group caught tennis balls belted as high as possible into the air.

The players were called out to catch the ball and lots of good natured cheering and ribbing took place if the ball was caught or dropped.

The next drill was the one at the start of the video, bibs were given to one group the tacklers and the others were trying to take and stand in the tackle, then dish it off to the others.

Of course Cripps excelled at this, using the bibs allowed them to swap in new tacklers and keep the pressure up.

Unlike Friday where they did running at the end of the session, today they did running between the drills.

Running around the boundary anti-clock wise, then turning and going back the other way, before moving on to the next drill.

They divided into forward, mids and defenders - so for the players there has been talk about - Kemp was with the forwards, Newman and Ollie with the defenders.

Inside an area marked out by cones, one group practiced moving the ball while the others put pressure on them.

Not sure being forward, mids or defenders matters much, Pitto and O'Keffee did some crash tackling of a big tackle bag during this drill and while the majority did the running.

They then split into two big groups and practiced ball movement on the whole ground, one group went to the ground Fantasia was running on for this drill.

It looked to me like they were trying to practice getting through a zone defence, there were more attackers than defenders.

Weitering managed to turn the ball over at one stage as a defender and kick a goal which they all celebrated. But this was the only time the defenders managed to stop the ball movement, more running after this drill.

They completed a similar drill in a number of smaller groups on the main ground, followed by more running.

Around this time some players started to leave the track and head off, Acres, Charlie and Walshy left together, while SOS and TDK left around this time too.

They did some wrestling activities next, pairing up and shoulder blocked each other for a while before trying to push or knock their opponent over.

They followed this by including the ball with one player picking it up and another tackling him ball and all.

It pretty much wound up from there, with some players playing a reaction game with Hamill, others like Kemp did goal kicking.

I'm not planning to go to Friday's open session, hopefully someone who does and can give us a report.

It's not the greatest ground to watch footy at one side slopes away from the fence and only one flank provides a bit of height to see the ground.

There is some road works being done between the road running around the Uni and the sports area.

Hopefully the club is prepared for a crowd of kids, like has turned out at recent open training sessions and all the extra traffic, that will go along with it.



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[WildmanOfCarlton]

Having seen the team had returned to training last week via the Clubs videos and pictures showing them training. I made the assumption the main ground was still not ready for them to use and figured I might be able to watch them train today on the outside oval at Princes Park. When I arrived, there was no sign of them inside or outside the ground, so I took another punt and drove out to La Trobe where they trained before Christmas. Luckily for me they were there.

Arrived a little before 10am and they were well underway. While I didn't do a complete roll call, as expected I couldn't see Cincotta on the track and Curnow and Monahan where the rehab group (not sure what has happened to Rob). These two left fairly early to go swimming as part of their rehab, I assume. Five players were wearing the fluro yellow - don't tackle me hats - Silvagni, McGovern, Corey Durdin, Cottrell and Duffy, and they were left out of the full contact drills.

I think they were doing a ball movement drill when I arrived, one group starting with the ball and another defending, in retrospect this was probably not a contact drill. They were using most of the ground and realised they split into two groups on the two grounds. Most of the younger players were on the second ground, so I went over and caught the last bit of that before they all moved back to the main ground. The yellow hat wearers stayed on the second oval and did some running drills.

While the main group did a full contact whole field match sim type drill, which included ruck work for the first time. You could see the appeal of Jagga in this drill, he'd get the ball and give it off very quickly and move to a position to get it back, one grab and very clean with the ball. Haynes did a couple of nice things, covers his man and uses the ball well, hopefully he can provide that consistent support for Weitering he was recruited for. Fantasia did a couple of nice things at one stage, I sometimes forget how capable he is. I liked a couple of things Moir did as a forward including kicking a goal and giving one off and Ben Camporeale kicked a nice goal to finish the drill.

Everyone moved over to the second oval for the next drill, mainly a handball drill with the opposition trying to get one hand on the ball carrier to turn the ball over and a kick at goal allowed when in range. all player joined in as it was not full contact. Eventually the rules about kicking were expanded and the opposition had to get two hand on the opposition to get a turn over. A lot of running in this drill and players were constantly swapping in and out. They returned to the main oval to do some more whole field match sim drills, but this time without the ruck work.

I'll finish with a couple of concerns: couldn't recall spotting Acres for the whole session, didn't see Walshy during the handball game and saw him after this heading off with one of the trainers, no obvious sign of injury, hopefully just watching his workload and young Harry Charleston was running laps from part way through the session.

On a more positive note, there were two players wearing no. 16, Ben Camporeale and a smaller player I think they were calling Frank when he got the ball, I think maybe Francis Evans one of our VFL signings. Not sure how much longer before the ground in ready and training returns behind closed doors on the main ground at Princes Park.





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[WildmanOfCarlton]

Went along again on Friday, just haven't had a chance to sit and type something, but better late than never as the saying goes. I'll start with who was and wasn't training, briefly saw Alex Cincotta still limping, Walshy did a lot of running, but did join Charlie Curnow and Rob Monahan who were doing their own thing off to the side of the main groups, kicking and running at different stages, these seem to be the rehab group. Silvagni, McGovern and Duffy did alot of the drills, but did not join in the match sim, I suspect they are no contact still. I did not spot Sam Docherty, don't know why and during the session Jordon Boyd left the drills, ran some laps and then rode an exercise bike on the sidelines for a while, like Doc, no idea why.

The train-on guys were present, McMahon, White, Grainger-Barass and Matt Carroll. Along with the NGA boys Jack Ison and Mingara Clark, no Tyson Gresham this week or Harry Dean. Kreuzer's shadow Flynn Riley, I think, a ruckman signed up to the VFL Squad, he tends to follow Kreuzer around and occasionally join a drill. There were also about 3 or 4 blokes I think are probably also from the VFL squad, I couldn't identify them all one was Francis Evans, I think. Finally for the oldies like me, I spotted Wayne Harmes and Rod Ashman (he was wearing a hat that made it hard to see his face) watching training from the sidelines, great to see some club champions came along and support the team.

After doing some warm up running and stretching, they did some different drills, a couple of groups played keepy uppy with a soccer ball, while others did tackling or evading drills and reading the ball off a contest. They split into groups and practiced ball movement, with one group handballing or kicking, while others tried to pressure them. They eventually moved into match sim, which they did stop half way through did another drill and then went back to match sim.

From the match sim, it was good to see Blake Acres taking part even if he was wearing the yellow (dont tackle me) cap, along with Corey Durdin and Matt Cottrell both back to full training. I thought Cerra played really well and got a number of clearances, Hudson O'Keeffe did some good things in the ruck, has come along way in two seasons. Kemp looked like he was set to mark a couple of times only for Weitering to arrive and knock him out of the way or block his run and mark it himself. It is players like Weitering, Cripps, McKay, who are the best at trainers, just as they are the best players.

Of the others, Motlop and Moir were working in well with McKay, as is Williams who is moving further up the field a bit more than he was in games during the year. Both Holland boy's were getting plenty of the ball. You can tell Haynes knows what he's doing, a couple of spoils and a tap to advantage, hope he gets a good run at it at Carlton. If you haven't seen it already have a look at the extended highlights of the match sim the club put up on the website. It's a compilation of different training sessions since they returned after the break, not just last Friday's session, explains why Cerra, TDK, Moir, etc. appear to switch sides.

Hoping to get to another session or two at LaTrobe, before they return to being behind closed doors at Princes Park.




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