Bigman’s Training Reports

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Dangarman said:
Article states we have had 3 F/S players, but I think the Rowes are still the only pair where both Dad and Son played an AFL premiership points match for the club. Ben Jarman never played an AFL game, neither did Jim Michelanney.
Could the Stevens overtake the Cooks?

www.afc.com.au

Crows welcome sons of greats to West Lakes

Six Crows Father/Son prospects are shadowing the squad this week
www.afc.com.au www.afc.com.au
Click to expand...
We have had 3 father son selections. Rowe was not a father son although steve had played AFL. Didnt play 100 games.

Edwards
Jarman and
Michalanney

These are our three father sons
 

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PeterSalt said:
For crying out loud, he's moving to GWS next year. They see him as a defender

He has no future as a forward at Adelaide
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I was at Richmond Oval the first time he played a full game in defence for us in the twos. We eventually had a solid win but the Berg was killed by his no name opponent. I have never seen a tall defender with less natural instincts to defend (made Big Billy Frampton look like SOS in comparison).

GWS must have a fantastic coaching group to reinvent the Dragon (hello Ben Hart?).
 
crows dude said:
We have had 3 father son selections. Rowe was not a father son although steve had played AFL. Didnt play 100 games.

Edwards
Jarman and
Michalanney

These are our three father sons
Click to expand...
Three father son selections, but the Rowes are the only father sons to have played at the AFC.

We can recognise this even if the AFL didn't qualify them for draft purposes.
 
bigman said:
I thought this was Thilthorpe’s session today.

A poster asked me earlier this week if he had shown more strength and aggression with his increased size and I saw some of the fruits of that during today’s session.

Busting through tackles, fending off opponents and driving his legs it was exciting to watch him strut his stuff. Skills and ball handling wise he is already elite for a big man so to see him play so aggressive was pleasing. I would imagine he’s pretty much over whatever he had coming back from the xmas break as he’s moving much better.

No aerial stuff to really judge yet which is obviously key in his development but really good signs today, he looked unstoppable at times particularly in the stoppage drills which were run by the umps for the first time this pre season

Nearly full numbers today which was great to see. Sloane and milera were back in almost all drills while dragon also participated in some. Pedlar was back and did not appear to be under any duress. Rob was on the sidelines still, Murray and Harry (for a short while) too. The father sons were again back today and participated in the early skills stuff. The senior players especially sloane were super encouraging of them and once again they did not look half bad. The older stevens son in particular wearing 19 was quite impressive in his size and movement.

The stoppage work which was the first of its kind this pre season took place over two drills with full contact allowed (and visibly much enjoyed by the players). The first was centre square work where only one ruck went up, likely to avoid injury. Groups were split into three rotating through although with Rob still in the rehab group it meant strachan and filthy didn’t switch out as the rucks. Those involved were berry, crouch, rachele, sloane, pedlar, edwards Dawson, soligo , Taylor, rankine, laird and bond. As said before I thought thilthorpe basically owned this drill.

The second was boundary stoppage work. Rachele, rankine and pedlar were no longer involved which would suggest they’re still not seen as full time mids and instead going to be used mostly for the centre square. The wings were involved in this drill which included jones, nank, billy and sholl. Once the ball was cleared and driven forward, the coaches would force an almost immediate turnover and players had to quickly transition from offence to defence or vice versa. Berry and soligo stood out the most to me in this section.

This was followed by the typical two-thirds ground drill where the ball is randomly kicked towards half back with one team moving the ball forward and the other defending. There was seemingly no a or b team so hard to judge which players are favoured at present. The drill was split into three phases with all players participating in at least two of them. A similar drill then took place between three teams with one switching out each time the ball was turned over or a goal was kicked.

I will post some player thoughts on this drill:

Jones - saw him fend and spin out of a tackle which hasn’t been a strong suit of his. Perhaps his increased size has been intentional to give him more power and strength to break tackles. To me still looks a little too heavy but it may be a directive from burgess

Keays - did not participate in any of the midfield work and this has been the case all pre season.

Berry - thought he was sharp today, in particular one moment where he intercepted a difficult high ball on the wing before winning it on the ground and dishing it out. Using his pace too which is good to see.

Curtin - did some nice things including a run down tackle on cook that forced a turnover, a number of his famous sidesteps and a beautiful half volley taken at high speed followed by a lovely pass. Had one bad moment where he tried to do too much and was caught by cook at half back but a rare error for him

Rachele - looked sharp today and good to see him on the track after leaving the track early on Monday. Thought he looked a bit more explosive and aggressive including a nice fend off on Gallagher where he then took off and drilled the ball to tex.

Edwards - still finding his way but I liked how he got more involved and was able to find space. Kicking still awkward but was effective today. Will be a bit of a slow burn I suspect.

Taylor - copped a nasty hit which left him in some distress, thankfully he returned to the field after a short hiatus and was able to get involved quite a bit. Rarely wastes the ball and takes his time to sum up situations rather than kick blindly. For me he fits a real need in our midfield although he has to find a way to stop getting hurt, this wasnt the first time I’ve seen him on the wrong end of a bump across the pre season.

Ryan - made a couple of mistakes but this lad just has it. Doesn’t have that raw rookie look about him, instead shows a level of composure that reminds me of max this time last year. Might have to rely on injuries to get in but he looks more ready every time I see him. Physically already developed quite a bit too since the draft.

Milera - seemed to relish being able to train almost all the drills and looked real sharp including a lovely burst through the middle of the ground before lacing out burgess, as well as run down tackles on both crouch and thilthorpe which were htb.

Gallagher - trained across half back which hasn’t really been the case up until now, was more forward earlier in the pre season.

Sholl - thought he made some uncharacteristic errors by foot today. Has anyone told him he’s a better kick on his left??

Butts - don’t like to be too negative but I feel like his game is still going a bit backwards. Not taking the game on and slows things down too much, and overall I don’t think hes moving as fluently as previous years. Doesn’t scream a confident player at present which he needs as a defender. Hopefully lifts once match sim starts.

Keane - every so often makes an absolute howler, usually a lazy kick that dribbles along the deck, but overall unlike butts appears to be full of confidence and taking the game on. Sometimes looks too casual in his movements but it almost always seems to work. Almost.

Finally there was a bunch of running at the end of the session. The group was divided into two groups - mids and the rest. The mids ran about 150m at high speed around 10 times, while the rest did wrestling drills. They then swapped once the mids were done and did high speed runs of about 100m.

The mids were split into three groups which appeared to be roughly based on running ability, as follows:

Bond, jones, billy, keays / sholl, Ned, rankine, edwards (only for five reps before rested) / Dawson, berry, cook, pedlar, Taylor. Berry joined the second group once edwards was done.

Things that caught my eye was cook keeping up well with dawson in the later reps and taylor although still last definitely not lagging as much compared to the same drill last pre season. Good to see.
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This is reporting of the highest order. Thorough yet succinct.
Greatly appreciated. 😁😁
 
bigman said:
Slackjaw he has been very impressive. He’s not the absolute class of a curtin but he has probably been just as much a standout.

His running patterns and ability to overlap are already strong and while not having elite speed he definitely has some toe and explosiveness. A competitor too. Occasionally makes an error by foot but usually it’s down to fatigue or biting off a bit too much. Doesn’t appear to be overly nervous, in fact looks really quite comfortable and settled out there

Haven’t seen enough ground ball or contest work to know whether he could make it as a mid. He didn’t really play there for the bushrangers which probably says a bit. Also with smith gone soon, chayce preferred on a wing and hamill having repeated head knocks he might be exactly what we need off half back going forward.
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Reckon the club has no intention of looking at him as a mid. Missed on Redman and were looking for a quick running, strong half back and this is the lad we identified. Great to hear he looks like fitting the bill


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1970crow said:
Crouch and Laird played all their minutes in the stoppage rotation. Dawson did as well once moving to the middle. Prior to Crouch there was more depth, but with him back, it's 3 blokes playing 75% TOG entirely in that rotation. That leaves only 1 full time role remaining to share amongst the blokes we want to see in there and Sloane.
Click to expand...

We still had Schoenberg, Sloane and Pedlar (2 of) play 20% plus each week once Crouch came in - will be an interesting watch though as we all would expect Rachele, Soligo and Pedlar to get more time this year


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rabidcrow said:
We still had Schoenberg, Sloane and Pedlar (2 of) play 20% plus each week once Crouch came in - will be an interesting watch though as we all would expect Rachele, Soligo and Pedlar to get more time this year


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Click to expand...
Sounds like Soligo is the one this year, Rachele and Pedlar are highly effective forwards, hard to sacrafice their goals especially if Laird and Crouch can give it to soligo and Dawson to pump it in with high precision.

Long term vs short term different of course.
 
I was out there for like 10mins while I waited for a coffee. I must have missed all the action.

Only thing I can say is, Cook is actual more solid than previous years.

Double down on big man's earlier comments on Edwards. Moves well, big lad but his kicking action is like a stabbing kick. It was effective in the drill I was watching, but its almost painful to watch.

Mchenry doing set shots, soligo doing touch work and fast hands, and Rob and Toby Murray
Doing a kicking mark drill in close.

Sorry didn't see much.

Bodega coffee was good!



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A decent amount of match sim today and it was rankine who flourished.

Absolutely extracted the urine with some of the stuff he did playing pretty much exclusively on ball. One moment in particular saw him dodge and weave around two players (crouch and Taylor) causing them to collide before speeding away. Was worried for a moment they were seriously injured but thankfully both were fine after dusting themselves off. Rankine just looked a total class above with his speed and class and appeared to relish playing in the guts. Not sure how much he will play there come the real stuff but he would have given the coaches something to think about as to how much we use him in the middle this year.

Unfortunately it wasn’t all great news with thilthorpe leaving the track very early after some sprint work. Appeared to suffer some sort of leg injury, hamstring or hip issue perhaps? Not ideal given how good he was on Wednesday.

Curtin was also relegated to the rehab group and barely did anything other than some bike work. Had more strapping than usual around his knee and had quite a noticeable limp. Not sure we will see him in full training again for a little while which is obviously disappointing.

On the positive side murray joined the boys for some of the early running and skills work which was great to see. Sloane and milera are pretty much in everything now. Dragon and rob did some drills but are still probably a week or two away from full training. Pedlar participated in most drills including match sim but was wearing a fluro hat, not sure what exactly the issue is but can’t be too bad as he was in the CBAs at times. Parnell still wearing a fluro hat too with his shoulder strapped. Murphy continues to have quite a bit of strapping on his knee

There was around 30-35 minutes of match sim today with some drills wedged in between. The first chunk of match sim was focussed on ball movement from defence (with the coach kicking the ball in a random direction) while the second half incorporated centre square and boundary stoppages and was essentially 20 mins or so of ‘real’ football.

The drills in between included stoppage work similar to Wednesday, with midfielders divided into three groups. They were:
Blue -Strachan/crouch/Rachele/Soligo/sloane
Red - Tmurray/laird/rankine/berry/bond
Yellow - Rob/Dawson/edwards/Taylor

As for the match sim, the centre bounces included laird, rankine , dowling, pedlar, crouch, dawson, Taylor and rachele. There weren’t a heap of CBA’s but those were the players who went though there. Interestingly soligo always started on the wing. Hinge also had some time there. Teams once again appeared evenly matched rather than an A vs B scenario.

Some individual player thoughts:

Berry - did not have a huge day but took one really nice high mark on the wing with dawson right on his hammer. Want to see more from him over the next few weeks

Rachele - showed some good power and energy in the middle and was involved in a few scores including a goal of his own from tackling crouch htb. Kicking is still not quite to the level of his debut year.

Soligo - was one of the best performers, probably second to rankine. Definitely nippier than previous and his ball take and use was class as always. Great footballer

Taylor - didn’t get heaps of it and as mentioned earlier was involved in yet another collision but he really is value for touches. Had a beautiful clearance where he took the ball in one hand and dished out in practically the same motion. Also kicked a nice goal. Still needs to develop physically, he looks a bit like a junior footballer compared to the other lads in the middle. Will help with the bumps he cops too

Ryan - copped a knock from the younger murray (obviously runs in the family) which quietened him a bit but early on was rather prominent across half back and the wing. Just knows when to time his runs and that knock he had, he quickly got up from and linked up with tex for a one-two and delivered the ball for a keays goal. Tex was visibly impressed.

Worrell - took kick outs and was excellent by foot. Love seeing him use his legs and eat up the ground, hopefully he can do more of that as he gains more confidence at the level as it is a weapon of his.

Laird - like a duck to water as soon as the match sim started. Sometimes the senior players go under the radar in pre season but he was very noticeable particularly with his stoppage work.

Dowling - once again impressed me with his composure and his long kicking in particular stood out. Had one bad forward entry but otherwise has clearly come a long way in a short space of time

Sholl - not for the first time he was excellent in a preseason match sim. Constantly found space and used the ball better than he did on Wednesday. Does appear to be a bit stronger around the ball but the proof will be in the pudding come the real thing.

Keane - was not a great day for the talls across the board (what was left of them anyway with curtin and filthy out) but I thought the Irishman was the standout. Took a couple of good intercept grabs and often takes the high risk-high reward option which I like.

A number of players were a bit quiet today (tex, hinge, burgess, nank, gollant and fog come to mind) but that’s not uncommon with match sim, not everyone can dominate. I still want to see more from gollant. He’s never been the greatest trainer but usually performs once games start. With cook training well however he needs to up the ante a bit over the next month.
 
bigman said:
A decent amount of match sim today and it was rankine who flourished.

Absolutely extracted the urine with some of the stuff he did playing pretty much exclusively on ball. One moment in particular saw him dodge and weave around two players (crouch and Taylor) causing them to collide before speeding away. Was worried for a moment they were seriously injured but thankfully both were fine after dusting themselves off. Rankine just looked a total class above with his speed and class and appeared to relish playing in the guts. Not sure how much he will play there come the real stuff but he would have given the coaches something to think about as to how much we use him in the middle this year.

Unfortunately it wasn’t all great news with thilthorpe leaving the track very early after some sprint work. Appeared to suffer some sort of leg injury, hamstring or hip issue perhaps? Not ideal given how good he was on Wednesday.

Curtin was also relegated to the rehab group and barely did anything other than some bike work. Had more strapping than usual around his knee and had quite a noticeable limp. Not sure we will see him in full training again for a little while which is obviously disappointing.

On the positive side murray joined the boys for some of the early running and skills work which was great to see. Sloane and milera are pretty much in everything now. Dragon and rob did some drills but are still probably a week or two away from full training. Pedlar participated in most drills including match sim but was wearing a fluro hat, not sure what exactly the issue is but can’t be too bad as he was in the CBAs at times. Parnell still wearing a fluro hat too with his shoulder strapped. Murphy continues to have quite a bit of strapping on his knee

There was around 30-35 minutes of match sim today with some drills wedged in between. The first chunk of match sim was focussed on ball movement from defence (with the coach kicking the ball in a random direction) while the second half incorporated centre square and boundary stoppages and was essentially 20 mins or so of ‘real’ football.

The drills in between included stoppage work similar to Wednesday, with midfielders divided into three groups. They were:
Blue -Strachan/crouch/Rachele/Soligo/sloane
Red - Tmurray/laird/rankine/berry/bond
Yellow - Rob/Dawson/edwards/Taylor

As for the match sim, the centre bounces included laird, rankine , dowling, pedlar, crouch, dawson, Taylor and rachele. There weren’t a heap of CBA’s but those were the players who went though there. Interestingly soligo always started on the wing. Hinge also had some time there. Teams once again appeared evenly matched rather than an A vs B scenario.

Some individual player thoughts:

Berry - did not have a huge day but took one really nice high mark on the wing with dawson right on his hammer. Want to see more from him over the next few weeks

Rachele - showed some good power and energy in the middle and was involved in a few scores including a goal of his own from tackling crouch htb. Kicking is still not quite to the level of his debut year.

Soligo - was one of the best performers, probably second to rankine. Definitely nippier than previous and his ball take and use was class as always. Great footballer

Taylor - didn’t get heaps of it and as mentioned earlier was involved in yet another collision but he really is value for touches. Had a beautiful clearance where he took the ball in one hand and dished out in practically the same motion. Also kicked a nice goal. Still needs to develop physically, he looks a bit like a junior footballer compared to the other lads in the middle. Will help with the bumps he cops too

Ryan - copped a knock from the younger murray (obviously runs in the family) which quietened him a bit but early on was rather prominent across half back and the wing. Just knows when to time his runs and that knock he had, he quickly got up from and linked up with tex for a one-two and delivered the ball for a keays goal. Tex was visibly impressed.

Worrell - took kick outs and was excellent by foot. Love seeing him use his legs and eat up the ground, hopefully he can do more of that as he gains more confidence at the level as it is a weapon of his.

Laird - like a duck to water as soon as the match sim started. Sometimes the senior players go under the radar in pre season but he was very noticeable particularly with his stoppage work.

Dowling - once again impressed me with his composure and his long kicking in particular stood out. Had one bad forward entry but otherwise has clearly come a long way in a short space of time

Sholl - not for the first time he was excellent in a preseason match sim. Constantly found space and used the ball better than he did on Wednesday. Does appear to be a bit stronger around the ball but the proof will be in the pudding come the real thing.

Keane - was not a great day for the talls across the board (what was left of them anyway with curtin and filthy out) but I thought the Irishman was the standout. Took a couple of good intercept grabs and often takes the high risk-high reward option which I like.

A number of players were a bit quiet today (tex, hinge, burgess, nank, gollant and fog come to mind) but that’s not uncommon with match sim, not everyone can dominate. I still want to see more from gollant. He’s never been the greatest trainer but usually performs once games start. With cook training well however he needs to up the ante a bit over the next month.
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Thilthorpe and Curtin injuries. Sigh.
 

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TryAnHit said:
Go back for a laugh and look at all the posters who said we shouldnt give up 5 for him.
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Around pick 10 was fair trade, had Rankine continue to show his form in the 2nd half of 2022 then easily pick 5. Arguably, he has gone pass that 2nd half form in 2022 last year, now he is worth pick 5 and another 1st rounder.
 
rabidcrow said:
We still had Schoenberg, Sloane and Pedlar (2 of) play 20% plus each week once Crouch came in - will be an interesting watch though as we all would expect Rachele, Soligo and Pedlar to get more time this year


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Last year we started with Laird Berry and Rachele in centre square

Berry struggled then Dawson came in

Keays came in for a bit mid season then was pushed forward almost permanently and rightly so

Rachele was pretty midfield prominent until at least the collingwood home game then needed physical management

Pedlar started to gain minutes in last 4-6 weeks and did well especially in centre square

Soligo and Sloane played pretty similar minutes inside mid and wing with Soligo more TOG

Crouch played well but his issue is he can’t play in any other position , if he keeps his form up he plays though

In a perfect world crouch prob has the least TOG minutes , keays plays forward and Sloane plays sanfl or sub ? Rachele and Soligo play much more inside and Pedlar continues to build and might end up our best centre square stoppage player


So yeah to me it looks like Matt Crouch is main threat to sloane selection
 
TryAnHit said:
A fit and improved version of Crouch without his sideways handballs is out 2nd best mid behind Dawson. Apart from laird none of the others are able to get the pill 30+ times a game. If he can get it to the outside users or have penetrative kicks which he showed the end of last year. He is a weapon.
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I don't know about that (and that's not a knock on your post) as I think if we ran Izak through there for good portions of the game - he would rack up getting the ball and imagine the quality of the ball he would be dishing out or sending into the forward line. Seems like Bigman's latest report highlights just what a sublime talent Rankine is and how well he is tracking this preseason. I am keeping all my fingers crossed we see him a LOT more in the middle this year and beyond..A McLeod mk 2
 
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