Bigman’s Training Reports

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Thylacinus said:
Hamill training with the A group could be coverage in case Milera doesn't get up.
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Good call

Also I think sometimes coaches will throw a curve ball in selections during preseason so that A teamers don't coast and to incentivise B teamers
 

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Bearded Clam said:
Hope not..

i’d rather Nank… or even play Curtin off half back.

Hamill is cooked.. unfortunately… he really shouldn't even be allowed to play on this year. He should be forced to retire now.. but they cant do it cause he’s contracted.

so.. they should force him to do so at the end of the season when his contract ends.. and then find him a permanent role with the AFL in a coaching or fitness or administration role of some sort.

its sad.. but there is absolutely no point burning AFL games on him, best to give these to a young player who’s got a future in the game.
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Like for like, both made of glass.
 
CrowToon said:
How many handball chains are you seeing that end up with OBrien? I'd be devastated if we deviated from that tried and tested cheat code this season.
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Murphy is competing well in the air up forward :thumbsu:

And the switch that finishes with Butts has been :fire:

Keays has been threading them from the boundary too
 
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
Good call

Also I think sometimes coaches will throw a curve ball in selections during preseason so that A teamers don't coast and to incentivise B teamers
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Perhaps the coaches are trying different fringe players in the A team to see how they gel & trying different options...
 
Now Parnell heading up the race after hurting his shoulder in a tackle, looks like the same one that was strapped. Not sure how serious, was in a bit of pain initially
 
Getting a little concerned with how many injuries we seem to be copping at this time of year. Is this more than usual?

Also a bit of a shame that it's happening to some uncontracted fringe players like Gollant and Parnell... these guys are playing for their careers this season, they need the opportunity to be able to present their case for another contract.
 
Jarman3 said:
Getting a little concerned with how many injuries we seem to be copping at this time of year. Is this more than usual?

Also a bit of a shame that it's happening to some uncontracted fringe players like Gollant and Parnell... these guys are playing for their careers this season, they need the opportunity to be able to present their case for another contract.
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Could go one of two ways:

1. Most of the injuries are minor setbacks and become distant memories once round 1 rolls around.

2. They linger, add up, affect the early round performances and we never really recover.

Praying it’s number 1. starting to think it might be number 2.
 
Jarman3 said:
Getting a little concerned with how many injuries we seem to be copping at this time of year. Is this more than usual?

Also a bit of a shame that it's happening to some uncontracted fringe players like Gollant and Parnell... these guys are playing for their careers this season, they need the opportunity to be able to present their case for another contract.
Click to expand...
Yep pretty normal for this time of year
Also they’re cautious at this time and they’ll take people out of training if any doubt
 

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When assessing the impact of training loads on injuries, it is important to distinguish between collision type injuries and workload type injuries. Sloane (eye), Soligo (ankle), Parnell (shoulder), Curtin (knee) are a combination of the increased intensity of training and plain ole bad luck.

The Hammies (Milera, Butts) are a greater concern but not unusual. Rob’s appendicitis is an odd one.

Across the entire season, each week clubs have 8-9 players unavailable on average. Usually a lower number in the first half of the season and a higher number in the second half of the season (for obvious reasons). Having all 43 players available in a given week is as rare as hen’s teeth.
 
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Unfortunately a few player health issues today which put a dampener on things.

As mentioned before gollant left the track very early on with what seemed to be a leg issue. It came only after some light skill work so it was a surprise to see him injure himself, must have been quite innocuous.

Parnell copped a great run down tackle from chayce which left him carrying his right shoulder and walking off the field in quite some pain. Seemed to be doing better after a few minutes but still went up the race and wasn’t seen again. Credit to chayce who ran across the ground to apologise to pistol and check if he was ok. Wasn’t a nasty tackle either. It appeared to be the same strapped shoulder he must have hurt in the xmas break.

There were a few other casualties though hopefully not too serious.

Late in the session thilthorpe fell a bit awkwardly in a marking contest against strachan and seemed to flare up an issue with his lower back. He walked around for a bit in some discomfort before heading up the race (not for the first time this pre season, hopefully it’s just him being overly precautionary as is typical).

Rachele and keane also both copped knocks - rash copped a corky in a tackling drill and was quickly strapped up around the quad, while keane copped a thilthorpe knee going back with the flight. Both did all the running afterwards and looked ok, but headed up the race before the session ended likely to get some treatment.

Obviously not ideal, we will have to wait and see what the injury toll actually was. While it was definitely a physical session, it was still a typically lower-key Monday outing so I think it was mainly just bad luck. The gollant issue appeared to be the only soft tissue injury.

Milera was still relegated to doing laps before heading in about halfway through. No sign of soligo, sloane or butts today. Curtin was more involved in the main group although was still held off from the sharper, more intense work. To my eye I thought he still looked a bit sore and restricted, nothing alarming but will clearly take some more time to fully recover.

As is usually the case on mondays, a large portion of the session was four different drills in four quadrants of the ground, with each group rotating to the next in about 12-15 minute intervals. One focusses on tackling and fending, one on ball movement in tight by hand, one on ball movement in space by foot and the other on hitting leading targets up forward.

The tackling work was particularly interesting to watch as the players are clearly starting to get much more competitive and even a bit aggressive at times. Laird in particular looked like he was on the angry pills today.

Not a whole lot to note player-wise but a few observations:

Berry - kicking was really sharp I thought today and once again his leap and sure hands overhead make him quite an aerial threat. Really think he deserves a shot in the practice games as he has been a consistently impressive trainer this summer.

Pedlar - trained pretty well and was quite impressive in the running, didn’t seem to be affected by his activities on Saturday!

Hamill - much less fumbly and looked really quite sharp and confident. Will be interesting to see how high he is in the pecking order with junior still some way off and pistol possibly out for a bit.

Nankervis - once again I thought his competitiveness and tackling stood out. He seems a stronger, more confident player this year to match his serous athleticism. Had one great moment in particular where he swivelled the hips and evaded dawson on the wing who was right on his hammer. Hopefully another who gets a shot at it in the trial games.

Dowling - one of those players who has the ability to take his time and provide some calm even under pressure. Quite an impressive tackler too. If he can improve his ground ball I can see him finding his way into the team at some stage as a hybrid wing/forward.

Fog - took some real nice clunks today and looked to have lifted his intensity a bit. Good to see.

Toby Murray - another who took some great contested marks, including one where he was too good for rob. Skills are solid too. Might be slightly undersized as a ruck but there’s a bit to work with there.

Looking forward to Wednesday and Friday when there should be a decent amount of match sim once more. Hopefully our player count isn’t too dire.
 
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bigman said:
Unfortunately a few player health issues today which put a dampener on things.

As mentioned before gollant left the track very early on with what seemed to be a leg issue. It came only after some light skill work so it was a surprise to see him injure himself, must have been quite innocuous.

Parnell copped a great run down tackle from chayce which left him carrying his right shoulder and walking off the field in quite some pain. Seemed to be doing better after a few minutes but still went up the race and wasn’t seen again. Credit to chayce who ran across the ground to apologise to pistol and check if he was ok. Wasn’t a nasty tackle either. It appeared to be the same strapped shoulder he must have hurt in the xmas break.

There were a few other casualties though hopefully not too serious.

Late in the session thilthorpe fell a bit awkwardly in a marking contest against strachan and seemed to flare up an issue with his lower back. He walked around for a bit in some discomfort before heading up the race (not for the first time this pre season, hopefully it’s just him being overly precautionary as is typical).

Rachele and keane also both copped knocks - rash copped a corky in a tackling drill and was quickly strapped up around the quad, while keane copped a thilthorpe knee going back with the flight. Both did all the running afterwards and looked ok, but headed up the race before the session ended likely to get some treatment.

Obviously not ideal, we will have to wait and see what the injury toll actually was. While it was definitely a physical session, it was still a typically lower-key Monday outing so I think it was mainly just bad luck. The gollant issue appeared to be the only soft tissue injury.

Milera was still relegated to doing laps before heading in about halfway through. No sign of soligo, sloane or butts today. Curtin was more involved in the main group although was still held off from the sharper, more intense work. To my eye I thought he still looked a bit sore and restricted, nothing alarming but will clearly take some more time to fully recover.

As is usually the case on mondays, a large portion of the session was four different drills in four quadrants of the ground, with each group rotating to the next in about 12-15 minute intervals. One focusses on tackling and fending, one on ball movement in tight by hand, one on ball movement in space by foot and the other on hitting leading targets up forward.

The tackling work was particularly interesting to watch as the players are clearly starting to get much more competitive and even a bit aggressive at times. Laird in particular looked like he was on the angry pills today.

Not a whole lot to note player-wise but a few observations:

Berry - kicking was really sharp I thought today and once again his leap and sure hands overhead make him quite an aerial threat. Really think he deserves a shot in the practice games as he has been a consistently impressive trainer this summer.

Pedlar - trained pretty well and was quite impressive in the running, didn’t seem to be affected by his activities on Saturday!

Hamill - much less fumbly and looked really quite sharp and confident. Will be interesting to see how high he is in the pecking order with junior still some way off and pistol possibly out for a bit.

Nankervis - once again I thought his competitiveness and tackling stood out. He seems a stronger, more confident player this year to match his serous athleticism. Had one great moment in particular where he swivelled the hips and evaded dawson on the wing who was right on his hammer. Hopefully another who gets a shot at it in the trial games.

Dowling - one of those players who has the ability to take his time and provide some calm even under pressure. Quite an impressive tackler too. If he can improve his ground ball I can see him finding his way into the team at some stage as a hybrid wing/forward.

Fog - took some real nice clunks today and looked to have lifted his intensity a bit. Good to see.

Toby Murray - another who took some great contested marks, including one where he was too good for rob. Skills are solid too. Might be slightly undersized as a ruck but there’s a bit to work with there.

Looking forward to Wednesday and Friday when there should be a decent amount of match sim once more. Hopefully our player count isn’t too dire.
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How do you think Chayce will go this year bigman ? Can he elevate again off last year ?
 
Faaarrk said:
Nank should be in the starting 18 round 1 given how well he performed end of last year. Either on half back or wing ( preferred) depending on who’s injured etc.
Give him a few games to truly build his confidence and show what he can do. We may be gunning for the finals but we still need to pump games into the young ones.
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Hopefully him and Ryan are a shot especially if milera doesn’t come up
 
Jeffcrowe said:
How do you think Chayce will go this year bigman ? Can he elevate again off last year ?
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Jeff I am just impressed he has done everything and not missed even a session since returning from that nasty injury.

I thought he looked a touch heavy coming back to training but that is excusable given the injury was still relatively recent. I still don’t think he’s quite at peak condition but he looks in better nick now albeit quite beefy which may be a directive from burgess. He definitely looks stronger and more powerful which could help him in breaking tackles which has been an issue.

Hopefully he can cement that spot on the wing and based on recent match sim it seems he will get first dibs on it. At times at training he can go a bit quiet and not get enough of the ball, but what is consistent is his ball use which is almost always high level.
 
I thought that given trial games are near and they will determine much of our round one make-up, I would list the best trainers this preseason to give an indication of who is hitting the games with momentum.

Typically I focus a bit more on the new or fringe players to see if they can push into the team but sometimes the senior lads are too good not to mention.

Top 10 in order:

1. Rankine
2. Soligo (number one before injury)
3. Crouch
4. Laird
5. Berry
6. Dawson
7. Thilthorpe
8. Rachele
9. Sholl
10. Murphy

Honourable mentions:

Dowling, Nankervis, Keane, Smith, Ryan

Plenty of players not on that list who have been training well but those have been the most impressive to date from my view.
 
bigman said:
I thought that given trial games are near and they will determine much of our round one make-up, I would list the best trainers this preseason to give an indication of who is hitting the games with momentum.

Typically I focus a bit more on the new or fringe players to see if they can push into the team but sometimes the senior lads are too good not to mention.

Top 10 in order:

1. Rankine
2. Soligo (number one before injury)
3. Crouch
4. Laird
5. Berry
6. Dawson
7. Thilthorpe
8. Rachele
9. Sholl
10. Murphy

Honourable mentions:

Dowling, Nankervis, Keane, Smith, Ryan

Plenty of players not on that list who have been training well but those have been the most impressive to date from my view.
Click to expand...

Thanks for everything bigman! Always look forward to reading your insights! Do you think Berry is a chance for getting picked round 1?


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bigman said:
I thought that given trial games are near and they will determine much of our round one make-up, I would list the best trainers this preseason to give an indication of who is hitting the games with momentum.

Typically I focus a bit more on the new or fringe players to see if they can push into the team but sometimes the senior lads are too good not to mention.

Top 10 in order:

1. Rankine
2. Soligo (number one before injury)
3. Crouch
4. Laird
5. Berry
6. Dawson
7. Thilthorpe
8. Rachele
9. Sholl
10. Murphy

Honourable mentions:

Dowling, Nankervis, Keane, Smith, Ryan

Plenty of players not on that list who have been training well but those have been the most impressive to date from my view.
Click to expand...
Good to see Berry has got his mojo back.

Problem is we probably don't have a midfield spot along with both Laird & Crouch.
 
Jeffcrowe said:
Hopefully him and Ryan are a shot especially if milera doesn’t come up
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I already had Nankervis in our best side before Milera was in doubt.

Would certainly consider Ryan if Milera is out.
 
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