Training Pre-Season 2023 (First game 18/3 v North)

[bombard]

I especially like this quote from Duggan

“I think last year was taken pretty personally by everyone, to be honest.”

 

[CoastersFlag No.5]

Based on this tweet, it won’t be the first time Kilgallon has worked at the club

From the RTE article
"Then the time came to see where the rubber met the road. So, he emailed every AFL club asking for a chance. One replied.

"This was the early days of internet. It was hard to get phone numbers," he says with a laugh.

"A guy called Glen Stewart emailed me back. He was the head of performance with the West Coast Eagles at the time. He is still there actually.

"Ever since they have had a really strong connection with UL. Eighteen or 19 students travelled over and have done that internship. I am now affectionately known as Irish number 1."

 

[Keys]

Not to be a campaigner, but don't they do this every year?



It's not exactly a new concept. For any AFL club. Pre Christmas is getting everyone back, rolling the legs over and doing time trials to see how everyone's fitness looks... that's it.

This comment makes it seam like we've previously played scratchies and done full contact in December.

Some kent could go ahead and fact check that, but I doubt it's ever been the case

Yeah, didn’t mean to give the impression that we were smashing into each other pre-Christmas, but we’ve definitely laid off doing virtually any contact work which I’ve seen snippets of other clubs doing (small sample size as I’m not really following what anyone else is doing)

But just going off what Duggan said (from about 2.40 in his interview)

Talked about how much more standalone running they’re doing each session before the balls come out than previously and that it’s something he believes other clubs are also moving to

Previous years I think they incorporated running into ball movement drills without as much just running - other preseasons it was rare I saw them doing much just running

He mentioned something along the lines of building kilometres into the legs giving them a base to take into the middle of the year

Then at the end of the interview he said they’ll continue to ramp up running (whilst on their break) so they’re ready for January and get into footy

It’s more a vibe sort of thing but I get the sense as a group they’re in better shape overall.

I'd say in previous years they've spent that first week in January easing back into it and shaking off injuries - think Keys is trying to say that from the first session back in the new year they aim to be training at a high intensity straight away.

Not so sure about first session back but it sounds like they want to get properly fit first rather than still building fitness when they start working on the game plan

Seems more of a delineation between getting fit and actual footy work than they’ve done in the past

Like I said to DS, it’s more a vibe thing but they look fitter

 

[Get_The_Gaff]

He’s like a ******* mirage. Every time I think I’ve picked him up he disappears and I can’t spot him again to confirm if it was him

Like his father . Didn't even notice him playing then ends up with 30 touches by the end of the day

 

[bzparkes]

Based on this tweet, it won’t be the first time Kilgallon has worked at the club

Nepotism, 'jobs for the boys', etc.

 

[Yeo_Check_Out_ma_Flow]

 

[MeltMan]

From the RTE article
"A guy called Glen Stewart emailed me back. He was the head of performance with the West Coast Eagles at the time. He is still there actually.

He is still there actually.​

He is still there actually.​

He is still there actually.​

He is saying our negative like a posative...

 

[Keys]

He is still there actually.​

He is still there actually.​

He is still there actually.​

He is saying our negative like a posative...

Well actually, he’s not

That article is from 2021

The West are describing Stewart as former high performance manager

Eagles unveil new strength coach after horror injury run

The man tasked with getting West Coast’s superstars off the injury list and onto the field in 2023 has been revealed.

thewest.com.au

The West understands Kilgallon had a long-standing relationship with West Coast and the club’s former high-performance manager Glenn Stewart, who was involved in the organisation for more than 20 years.

And his LinkedIn page also has him as former high performance manager and leaving the club in September of this year. Now runs his own consultancy business he started in September 2021

As the former High Performance Manager of the West Coast Eagles for over 20 years

Club was very quiet about his departure. Not even a thanks for your efforts

Hard to believe he left on poor terms though if his replacement is someone he’s had a long history with and gave him an opportunity when nobody else was responding to his emails

 

[Keys]

West Coast is poised to appoint a new strength and conditioning coach in a shake up of their program to avoid another miserable injury run like the one that plagued their two-win season.

Chief executive Trevor Nisbett has addressed the club’s horror injury record, including a spate of soft tissue injuries, and says the Eagles want to prevent them next season.

The Eagles’ fitness came under the spotlight this year, with a number of players, including injured pair Elliot Yeo and Nic Naitanui slammed for being overweight.

Former strength and conditioning coach Jordan Stares has left the club for a role at the Queensland Academy of Sport.

Nisbett said the club is just days away from signing off on its new conditioning coach, who will work under high performance manager Warren Kofoed and will be in place before players return for pre-season training.

“Our strength coach has left us, so we are bringing in another conditioning person and we are looking at two or three other areas which will affect the players and their routines and what they’re doing,” he told SEN.

“It will be a different look in our high-performance area under the guidance of Warren Kofoed, Warren has been with us for a number of years and has done an outstanding job.

“We are in the process of appointing him (new conditioning coach), that will hopefully be done within the next week, and if all goes to plan he will be in place prior to the players coming back. We have been working on that for a couple of months.

“Obviously it is his responsibility to ensure that our players are on the track and playing and available. That’s something he is addressing along with the rest of us to ensure we’ve got a fit and healthy squad.”

Nisbett conceded many of the soft tissue injuries players suffered this year could have been prevented with different conditioning strategies.

“It was probably 50-50 in the end, we were really disappointed with a lot of the soft tissue injuries that we got throughout the season and they’re always the ones we think we can prevent,” he said.

“It was certainly the ones that are collision injuries or just accidents during games or trial games or whatever, those were extraordinary and we had a number of ankle injuries this year — there seemed to be a spate of those, and that was disappointing.

“We’re not sure we could have prevented any of those given the circumstances with all of them.

“We have to get on top of those injuries we can prevent and that’s something we’re addressing and we will have a change in personnel in a couple of those high performance areas which will assist us.

“Hopefully we will have a fit, competitive squad all year round and that’s the aim.”

The Eagles suffered a spate of injuries in a dire pre-season game against Fremantle at Mineral Resources Park earlier in the year and were hit by COVID cases worse than any other club, with their management of the pandemic also brought into question.

“I think it is the most extraordinary season we have encountered. It was tough from all aspects, it started disastrously with injury to a number of our players and then on top of that with COVID, so it was a terrible start and it just didn’t finish well either,” Nisbett said.

“I think there’s a number of things, obviously we review everything every year, but every second year we do a total review of what our strategy is going forward, what our timelines are going forward and as a board and a collective with our executive we try and work out where we’re going to be in two or three years time.

“We have got a lot of work to do and we will be putting things in place to try and get those things right.”

That’s an article in The West back on November 8 after an interview Nisbett did with Mark Duffield

It mentioned Jordan Stares leaving but nothing about Glenn Stewart

This bit is telling

“Our strength coach has left us, so we are bringing in another conditioning person and we are looking at two or three other areas which will affect the players and their routines and what they’re doing,” he told SEN.

“It will be a different look in our high-performance area under the guidance of Warren Kofoed, Warren has been with us for a number of years and has done an outstanding job.

“We are in the process of appointing him (new conditioning coach), that will hopefully be done within the next week, and if all goes to plan he will be in place prior to the players coming back. We have been working on that for a couple of months.”


Given Kilgallon had to relocate from Ireland it makes sense that it’s taken a bit of time to get here - although from the photo of him at the club, it’s likely he’s been here for a bit already. From the other articles it sounds like he’s more than happy to stay quietly in the background which might explain the low key announcement of his appointment

The other areas, Nisbett mentioned would have been the appointments of Trewhella (Development Manager), Morrison (Development coach) and Burgin (Psychologist) which were announced previously

All up it means this off season two senior S&C people have left replaced by a highly credentialed manager with a strong record at Sydney. Kofoed survived. We also beefed up our development coaching as we add young players through the draft plus a full time psychologist

It’s been done on the quiet but there’s been some quite significant and targeted changes

Maybe, there is an understanding of what needed to be done after all

 

[MeltMan]

Well damn keys, here i am trying to perpetuate the ol boys club S&C and you come along with god damned facts. Im gonna go do my own research.

"Never let the facts get in the way of a good story WCE bigfooty meme."

 

[Keys]

Eagles ‘not expecting’ Shuey to step down as skipper

West Coast have given a strong indication that they’ll be backing Luke Shuey to remain as Eagles captain in 2023.

www.perthnow.com.au

Summary of what Bell said for those who don’t want to listen to the interview

It’s also another news article that’s been generated solely on the back of an interview done with someone else

The Shuey captaincy has come up in several interviews with West Coast people and to a man they’ve said the decision will be made in late January but no change is anticipated

Thought 2023 would be a good time for someone else to take over but that looks unlikely unless Shuey steps down himself.

 

[Bacchus]

Eagles ‘not expecting’ Shuey to step down as skipper

West Coast have given a strong indication that they’ll be backing Luke Shuey to remain as Eagles captain in 2023.

www.perthnow.com.au

Summary of what Bell said for those who don’t want to listen to the interview

It’s also another news article that’s been generated solely on the back of an interview done with someone else

The Shuey captaincy has come up in several interviews with West Coast people and to a man they’ve said the decision will be made in late January but no change is anticipated

Thought 2023 would be a good time for someone else to take over but that looks unlikely unless Shuey steps down himself.

Hope Shuey will step down. One of the problems of the organization seems to be keeping people past their ‘used by date’.

Barrass will be starting to become over ripe by the time he gets there.

 

[DanWCE]

Like his father . Didn't even notice him playing then ends up with 30 touches by the end of the day

Andrew Gaff is Ledwards Dad?!

 

[THE A5]

Hope Shuey will step down. One of the problems of the organization seems to be keeping people past their ‘used by date’.

Barrass will be starting to become over ripe by the time he gets there.

i felt Shuey was bit too old for it and TB is heading that way too. Just don’t think 28/29 is suitable age for a captain as their most likely on the back end of their career

 

[boondy]

Mark Kilgallon.
In my top 5 strength and conditioning coaches .

 

[Dark Sharks]

"Never let the facts get in the way of a good story WCE bigfooty meme."

NOTHING gets in the way of a good bigfooty meme.

 

[bono333]

Does anyone know who this is?

 

[Bender_]

Luke Edwards

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

It's obviously Big Bad Bailey Williams

 

[Keys]

Luke Edwards

This is why I haven’t spotted Luke Edwards before

Been mistaking him for Callum Jamieson

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Yeah, didn’t mean to give the impression that we were smashing into each other pre-Christmas, but we’ve definitely laid off doing virtually any contact work which I’ve seen snippets of other clubs doing (small sample size as I’m not really following what anyone else is doing)

But just going off what Duggan said (from about 2.40 in his interview)

Talked about how much more standalone running they’re doing each session before the balls come out than previously and that it’s something he believes other clubs are also moving to

Previous years I think they incorporated running into ball movement drills without as much just running - other preseasons it was rare I saw them doing much just running

He mentioned something along the lines of building kilometres into the legs giving them a base to take into the middle of the year

Then at the end of the interview he said they’ll continue to ramp up running (whilst on their break) so they’re ready for January and get into footy

It’s more a vibe sort of thing but I get the sense as a group they’re in better shape overall.




Not so sure about first session back but it sounds like they want to get properly fit first rather than still building fitness when they start working on the game plan

Seems more of a delineation between getting fit and actual footy work than they’ve done in the past

Like I said to DS, it’s more a vibe thing but they look fitter

IIRC when Simpson came in it was mentioned we were going to do our running in drills and less actually fitness work etc. obviously it worked for a bit.

But **** me sideways, if it’s taken this long to implement more running into the program. The thing the players, staff and club as a whole forget is that the end of 2021 was just as deplorable as the whole of 2022

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Based on this tweet, it won’t be the first time Kilgallon has worked at the club

A good call. Leister Tigers might have installed some understanding on what S&C requirements for tackling.

"Messieurs Gaff, Kelly and Sheed, please report to Mark for remedial work"

 

[AsterixTheGaul]

Now Miguel Sanchez has Brearley to contend with. Maybe Kate gave some feedback to Gary in her end of year exit interview!!

 

[Rowan18]

i felt Shuey was bit too old for it and TB is heading that way too. Just don’t think 28/29 is suitable age for a captain as their most likely on the back end of their career

These days a 28 year old probably has at least 5 years left. I'd be fine with Barrass to take over, as he has a good level of experience. The problem with picking a guy like Allen, is that he's got enough on his plate to establish his career. He doesn't need the distraction of Captaincy. I also think an ideal Captain has done a few years in a leadership role and co-ordinated his line on field as well.

 

[Rowan18]

IIRC when Simpson came in it was mentioned we were going to do our running in drills and less actually fitness work etc. obviously it worked for a bit.

But * me sideways, if it’s taken this long to implement more running into the program. The thing the players, staff and club as a whole forget is that the end of 2021 was just as deplorable as the whole of 2022

It ebbs and flows between the two. Woosha won a flag off extreme running fitness and skills being secondary. When Simmo came in, the comp was very defensive and it required elite kicking (ie skills) to pick through the zone. So he prioritised skills over fitness.

Richmond and Melbourne took it back the other way, with extreme fitness allowing them to run all day and force the ball forward. Sydney and Collingwood also embraced that last year and Geelong was somewhere in between (I think they won a flag off good tactics but expect them to drop a notch in 2023).