Bigman’s Training Reports

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bigman said:
Thankfully no issues finding the boys as they returned to aami stadium for the first time since early December. Must say I noticed the deck had a couple of issues with sand spraying up a bit especially in the centre.
Adam Kelly came out later on and inspected the surface, I wonder if he wasn’t overly happy with it.

The biggest positive today was the amount of players involved. A number of the lads who featured in the rehab group late last year completed the majority, if not all of today’s session, including the likes of Tex, Pedlar, Thilthorpe, Nankervis, Rachele, Milera and Soligo. Butts also did most of the session and looked to be in solid condition and without a limp.

Cumming was restricted to rehab but did a bulk of running work at a high intensity, which suggests to me he’s not far away from also rejoining the main group.

The only two to not train were Strachan and Hinge. Strachan made an appearance on the sidelines watching on (still in a moonboot) but Hinge was a no show. A poster recently mentioned Bond hurting his shoulder at a concert in the south east but I wonder if it was in fact Hinge? Bond didn’t appear to be carrying any sort of injury.

As I’m sure the players were rapt about, today was again 2km time trial day. It’s always hard to compare to previous times but if it helps Neal-Bullen, who finished first once again, appeared to finish slightly earlier than he did in November (around 6:15-6:20) and he didn’t have as much of a gap on the rest as last time with Bond, Sholl, Dowling and Thilthorpe not far behind.

The boys were split into four groups depending on their running ability. I always find this interesting as it’s a good indication as to where the fitness gurus rate them, and sometimes they change up giving an indication of whether players are improving or dropping off with their running.

The groups were as follows, with A being the fastest and D the slowest (players are not in order, also keep in mind I might not be 100% accurate as there’s a lot going on at once):

Group A: Jones, Keays, Berry, Thilthorpe, Dawson, Rankine, Neal-Bullen, Dowling, Smith, Sholl, Bond, O’Brien

Neal-Bullen took the honours. Was hard to make out the rest as there was a bit of a log jam and they finished at the other side of the ground, but looked to be Bond who finished second which is no surprise. Thilthorpe was actually leading for a fair chunk of the race before blowing up a bit on the last lap, seemed like he went out too hard.

Group B: Curtin, Pedlar, Soligo, Schoenberg, Nankervis, Laird, Milera, Ryan, Drury

Honestly difficult to figure out who won this group but looked to be Soligo, Drury and Milera out front.

Group C: Crouch, Rachele, Nick Murray, Walker, Cook, Michalanney, Burgess, Worrell, Peatling, Borlase, Gallagher

Rachele took the honours ahead of Peatling.

Group D: Murphy, Edwards, Welsh, Taylor, Fogarty, Toby Murray, Mcandrew, Keane

Murphy and Fogarty finished first and second, with Keane coming in third. Taylor came home hard to beat Edwards and Murray, with Welsh finishing last by some way - possibly upwards of 30 seconds later than the rest of his group.

Draper and Butts did not test. In fact Draper only did some of the early drills before heading inside. He looked to be moving fine so I’m curious as to why he was held off - poor Welsh wasn’t afforded the same luxury.

After some light skills work the players then moved into a couple of larger drills focussed on ball movement and using players to run and receive. They were split into three groups.

Teams were listed as follows:

Defenders: Borlase, Worrell, Bond, Laird / Nick Murray, Smith, Ryan Nankervis / Edwards, Michalanney, Keane, Milera

Midfielders: Berry, Rachele, Dowling, Curtin, Schoenberg / O’Brien, Soligo, Sholl, Taylor, Dawson / Mcandrew, Crouch, Rankine, Jones, Peatling

Forwards: Fogarty, Welsh, Murphy, Cook / Burgess, Drury, Pedlar, Neal-Bullen / Thilthorpe, Toby Murray, Keays, Gallagher

The lads then finished with some skills work in their various positional groups as well as some goal kicking. A few young onlookers were allowed to join for a kick - Michalanney was the one to go over and invite them. Good to see.

I’d say it was a slightly scrappy session which tends to be the case first up after a break. Fair few dropped marks especially from the big blokes. Nothing alarming however.

Some player thoughts:

Berry - gone the buzz cut which took a bit of getting used to!

Curtin - ran well in the trial and did a few things that I couldn’t help but be impressed by including a lovely no-look handball in congestion to a teammate that appeared to get some feedback from Rankine. Also very hard to tackle, he’s a serious unit.

Murray - noticed he had some strapping around his lower calf and a slight limp. Hopefully not too much in it as we need him fit and firing.

Pedlar - looked sharp and spritely again after having some injury issues in December. He’s someone who needs to be fully fit to play well, fingers crossed.

Edwards - relegated to the slow group in the time trial after being in one of the higher groups in his first pre season. Why the drop off? He ran a sub 6:30 at the draft combine and definitely didn’t run that today. Was hoping he’d come back from the break improved but he was beaten by Taylor. Questions need to be asked of him.

Soligo - mentioned a month or so ago I thought he needed to fine down a touch and to my eye he’s already done that. Looks fit and could’ve ran in the top group I reckon.

Michalanney - there wasn’t a whole lot of large-scale drills today but in the few that were, he was one of the standouts. His ability to rebound with genuine speed has come a long way.

Taylor - definitely ran better today than last time, though with the speed in which he finished I think he had more in the tank and was too conservative early. Solid signs regardless. Also trained well with his typical pizazz and flourish, he’s fun to watch.

Peatling - a little surprised he battled to keep up with Rachele in the running. That’s no slight on Rash who has improved considerably but Peatling is a reasonably established midfielder at this point.

Schoenberg - looked sharp! Running was only solid but he looks in good condition and took his opponent on a number of times and often beat them with speed and agility. Up against it as we know but would appear he’s giving it a shot.

Fogarty - most of the talls struggled in the air today but not Fog, he was on on-song from the outset. Laced out at least three or four lovely passes on his left during the ball movement drills.

Sholl - thought he was again a bit of a standout with his ball use and ability to get involved repeatedly. Physically he’s never going to be a big lad but he’s come a long way in this regard, probably the most solid I’ve seen him.

Any questions feel free to ask!
Click to expand...
Thanks, Bigman. You've highlighted the two surprising things, Edwards and Peatling. Any idea what's going on there?
 

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bigman said:
Thankfully no issues finding the boys as they returned to aami stadium for the first time since early December. Must say I noticed the deck had a couple of issues with sand spraying up a bit especially in the centre.
Adam Kelly came out later on and inspected the surface, I wonder if he wasn’t overly happy with it.

The biggest positive today was the amount of players involved. A number of the lads who featured in the rehab group late last year completed the majority, if not all of today’s session, including the likes of Tex, Pedlar, Thilthorpe, Nankervis, Rachele, Milera and Soligo. Butts also did most of the session and looked to be in solid condition and without a limp.

Cumming was restricted to rehab but did a bulk of running work at a high intensity, which suggests to me he’s not far away from also rejoining the main group.

The only two to not train were Strachan and Hinge. Strachan made an appearance on the sidelines watching on (still in a moonboot) but Hinge was a no show. A poster recently mentioned Bond hurting his shoulder at a concert in the south east but I wonder if it was in fact Hinge? Bond didn’t appear to be carrying any sort of injury.

As I’m sure the players were rapt about, today was again 2km time trial day. It’s always hard to compare to previous times but if it helps Neal-Bullen, who finished first once again, appeared to finish slightly earlier than he did in November (around 6:15-6:20) and he didn’t have as much of a gap on the rest as last time with Bond, Sholl, Dowling and Thilthorpe not far behind.

The boys were split into four groups depending on their running ability. I always find this interesting as it’s a good indication as to where the fitness gurus rate them, and sometimes they change up giving an indication of whether players are improving or dropping off with their running.

The groups were as follows, with A being the fastest and D the slowest (players are not in order, also keep in mind I might not be 100% accurate as there’s a lot going on at once):

Group A: Jones, Keays, Berry, Thilthorpe, Dawson, Rankine, Neal-Bullen, Dowling, Smith, Sholl, Bond, O’Brien

Neal-Bullen took the honours. Was hard to make out the rest as there was a bit of a log jam and they finished at the other side of the ground, but looked to be Bond who finished second which is no surprise. Thilthorpe was actually leading for a fair chunk of the race before blowing up a bit on the last lap, seemed like he went out too hard.

Group B: Curtin, Pedlar, Soligo, Schoenberg, Nankervis, Laird, Milera, Ryan, Drury

Honestly difficult to figure out who won this group but looked to be Soligo, Drury and Milera out front.

Group C: Crouch, Rachele, Nick Murray, Walker, Cook, Michalanney, Burgess, Worrell, Peatling, Borlase, Gallagher

Rachele took the honours ahead of Peatling.

Group D: Murphy, Edwards, Welsh, Taylor, Fogarty, Toby Murray, Mcandrew, Keane

Murphy and Fogarty finished first and second, with Keane coming in third. Taylor came home hard to beat Edwards and Murray, with Welsh finishing last by some way - possibly upwards of 30 seconds later than the rest of his group.

Draper and Butts did not test. In fact Draper only did some of the early drills before heading inside. He looked to be moving fine so I’m curious as to why he was held off - poor Welsh wasn’t afforded the same luxury.

After some light skills work the players then moved into a couple of larger drills focussed on ball movement and using players to run and receive. They were split into three groups.

Teams were listed as follows:

Defenders: Borlase, Worrell, Bond, Laird / Nick Murray, Smith, Ryan Nankervis / Edwards, Michalanney, Keane, Milera

Midfielders: Berry, Rachele, Dowling, Curtin, Schoenberg / O’Brien, Soligo, Sholl, Taylor, Dawson / Mcandrew, Crouch, Rankine, Jones, Peatling

Forwards: Fogarty, Welsh, Murphy, Cook / Burgess, Drury, Pedlar, Neal-Bullen / Thilthorpe, Toby Murray, Keays, Gallagher

The lads then finished with some skills work in their various positional groups as well as some goal kicking. A few young onlookers were allowed to join for a kick - Michalanney was the one to go over and invite them. Good to see.

I’d say it was a slightly scrappy session which tends to be the case first up after a break. Fair few dropped marks especially from the big blokes. Nothing alarming however.

Some player thoughts:

Berry - gone the buzz cut which took a bit of getting used to!

Curtin - ran well in the trial and did a few things that I couldn’t help but be impressed by including a lovely no-look handball in congestion to a teammate that appeared to get some feedback from Rankine. Also very hard to tackle, he’s a serious unit.

Murray - noticed he had some strapping around his lower calf and a slight limp. Hopefully not too much in it as we need him fit and firing.

Pedlar - looked sharp and spritely again after having some injury issues in December. He’s someone who needs to be fully fit to play well, fingers crossed.

Edwards - relegated to the slow group in the time trial after being in one of the higher groups in his first pre season. Why the drop off? He ran a sub 6:30 at the draft combine and definitely didn’t run that today. Was hoping he’d come back from the break improved but he was beaten by Taylor. Questions need to be asked of him.

Soligo - mentioned a month or so ago I thought he needed to fine down a touch and to my eye he’s already done that. Looks fit and could’ve ran in the top group I reckon.

Michalanney - there wasn’t a whole lot of large-scale drills today but in the few that were, he was one of the standouts. His ability to rebound with genuine speed has come a long way.

Taylor - definitely ran better today than last time, though with the speed in which he finished I think he had more in the tank and was too conservative early. Solid signs regardless. Also trained well with his typical pizazz and flourish, he’s fun to watch.

Peatling - a little surprised he battled to keep up with Rachele in the running. That’s no slight on Rash who has improved considerably but Peatling is a reasonably established midfielder at this point.

Schoenberg - looked sharp! Running was only solid but he looks in good condition and took his opponent on a number of times and often beat them with speed and agility. Up against it as we know but would appear he’s giving it a shot.

Fogarty - most of the talls struggled in the air today but not Fog, he was on on-song from the outset. Laced out at least three or four lovely passes on his left during the ball movement drills.

Sholl - thought he was again a bit of a standout with his ball use and ability to get involved repeatedly. Physically he’s never going to be a big lad but he’s come a long way in this regard, probably the most solid I’ve seen him.

Any questions feel free to ask!
Click to expand...
Where do Ranks and Daws finish in group A ? Towards back ?

Edwards is a weird one

Taylor at least is working on it

As I’ve mentioned before Peatling is a burst speed athlete with real speed rather than endurance

Great signs from Rachele I’m super excited about him and TT
 

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1990crow said:
Pedlar - how are his skills looking? Biggest thing holding him back you'd think.
Click to expand...
Wasn’t a massive amount of football to judge today but I thought he looked pretty sharp out there, when he composes himself he’s aesthetically a nice player to watch.

Let himself down with one kick that missed an easy target at half forward but otherwise I was happy with his session, he certainly looks fit.

His skill level and decision making ability seems very much tied to his fitness levels so hopefully that bodes well for this year.
 
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
Did you slot any goals bigman?

Outside of Sholl, who looks likely to be trialled on the wings during the preseason matches would you think based on what you've seen so far?
Click to expand...

Might’ve looked a bit out of place DABM given they were about single figures in age!

There hasn’t been a heap of match sim but I’ve noticed a bunch of players have been listed in multiple positions thus far and that includes Cumming (mids and defenders) and Dowling (mids and forwards) who have both played on the wing. Jones has been a constant there as well.

I would think it’s those four who are most in the mix at this stage. Gut feel is it’s between Sholl and Dowling for one of the spots as both are endurance/accumulator types and don’t provide the speed Jones, Cumming and others like Hinge, Draper, Cook or Nank would.

FWIW Nank hasn’t been trialled on the wing yet this summer and they seem pretty locked on him as a defender. Maybe a missed opportunity in my view as I think it would suit his attributes.
 
bigman said:
Might’ve looked a bit out of place DABM given they were about single figures in age!

There hasn’t been a heap of match sim but I’ve noticed a bunch of players have been listed in multiple positions thus far and that includes Cumming (mids and defenders) and Dowling (mids and forwards) who have both played on the wing. Jones has been a constant there as well.

I would think it’s those four who are most in the mix at this stage. Gut feel is it’s between Sholl and Dowling for one of the spots as both are endurance/accumulator types and don’t provide the speed Jones, Cumming and others like Hinge, Draper, Cook or Nank would.

FWIW Nank hasn’t been trialled on the wing yet this summer and they seem pretty locked on him as a defender. Maybe a missed opportunity in my view as I think it would suit his attributes.
Click to expand...
Do you know where the training locations are going to be for next week Bigman ?
 
BRL121 said:
Thanks, Bigman. You've highlighted the two surprising things, Edwards and Peatling. Any idea what's going on there?
Click to expand...
I’m not too worried about Peatling, just noticed he laboured a touch today and really battled to keep up with Rachele who, whilst much improved, is not among our best runners. Perhaps it says more about Rachele who looks super fit.

Edwards is the conundrum. He ran great in his time trials last pre season. This pre season he’s really dropped off quite a bit it would seem.

It’s strange as he doesn’t appear to be in poor condition. He’s probably bulked up a bit but he was a solid lad last year and ran just fine. I’ve noticed he’s listed by the club as a defender in training now which could be linked. I think they’re missing a trick here however as he does not have a defensive mindset and has already been exposed a bit back there by the likes of Curtin and Tex. He’s a midfielder.
 
beartoo said:
I must have missed something this off-season, Bigman. Who us Drury?

On SM-A256E using BigFooty.com mobile app
Click to expand...
Blake drury who played a few games at Norrh Melbourne and is on our sanfl list this season.

He’s a solid little player, lacks standout weapons but he will be a great get for us as he suits the level and is a big upgrade on typical top-up types.
 
Jeffcrowe said:
Where do Ranks and Daws finish in group A ? Towards back ?

Edwards is a weird one

Taylor at least is working on it

As I’ve mentioned before Peatling is a burst speed athlete with real speed rather than endurance

Great signs from Rachele I’m super excited about him and TT
Click to expand...
Even though they’re split into groups all players run the time trial at the same time, they just start and finish at different spots along the boundary line.

It makes it hard to know who is finishing where in which group, it’s absolute chaos to be honest. But you usually get an indication as players start to put a gap on others after the first couple laps.

To my eye Rankine and Dawson were in the back half of the group but that’s no slight on them as ANB, Bond, Sholl, Dowling and Jones are all high end runners.
 
bigman said:
I’d imagine aami stadium on Mon and Wed unless Kelly and co weren’t happy with the turf.

I think there’s an open session on Friday the 17th at Norwood.
Click to expand...
Appreciated !
 
bigman said:
Wasn’t a massive amount of football to judge today but I thought he looked pretty sharp out there, when he composes himself he’s aesthetically a nice player to watch.

Let himself down with one kick that missed an easy target at half forward but otherwise I was happy with his session, he certainly looks fit.

His skill level and decision making ability seems very much tied to his fitness levels so hopefully that bodes well for this year.
Click to expand...
Most importantly, did his shoulders look ok.

If Pedlar stays fit, will be like a new recruit.
 
Kane McGoodwin said:
Most importantly, did his shoulders look ok.

If Pedlar stays fit, will be like a new recruit.
Click to expand...
No strapping Kane.

He looks good. Whether he plays round one I’m not sure, may depend on injuries.

I think we’d want him in there but he needs to prove himself as spots are tight in that line.
 
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