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

[BeornJ]

Or what you call a slapper if you're a cockney.

That's my favourite song from Mary Poppins

 

[Obeanie1]

I was more taking a giant dump on the rest of the squad .

The same rest of the squad who had our worst season in history .

You do understands someone always comes 3rd in the yoyo test.

This year its Culley who was drafted as a 19 yr old. His strength is as an endurance runner.

And many in the squad didnt do the 2km trial or the yoyo test.

So your negativity hangover from last year is obviously is still raging.

Im encouraged by how across the entire team the players look leaner. Havent seen any players carrying kilos around the midrift. Nic looks leaner, Shuey, Yeo....... Simo even commented that they all look leaner and in decent shape pre Christmas. Id suggest everyone was told in no uncertain terms dont come back unfit. And with so many stuck in rehab or crook last season together with the terrible results on field that would burn inside any top level athlete.

So hows about we acknowledge that the squad seems to be heading in the right direction fitness wise until so clear evidence emerges that they arent.

 

[Get_The_Gaff]

You do understands someone always comes 3rd in the yoyo test.

This year its Culley who was drafted as a 19 yr old. His strength is as an endurance runner.

And many in the squad didnt do the 2km trial or the yoyo test.

So you negativity is a hangover from last year is obviously is still raging.

Im encouraged by how across the entire team the players look leaner. Havent seen any players carrying kilos around the midrift. Nic looks leaner, Shuey, Yeo....... Simo even commented that they all look leaner and in decent shape pre Christmas. Id suggest everyone was told in no uncertain terms dont come back unfit. And with so many stuck in rehab or crook last season together with the terrible results on field that would burn inside any top level athlete.

So hows about we acknowledge that the squad seems to be heading in the right direction fitness wise until so clear evidence emerges that they arent.

Pretty sure culley's fitness was one of the reasons he didn't get drafted in his draft year.

Had to hire a running coach ?

Where is this culley the endurance beast coming from ?

Would culley be getting top 3 at a club like Geelong, Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane?

Doubt it they have senior players pushing the standards .

Where are our senior players ? Our midfield apart from gaff is not setting the fitness standards and that is why we can't run out quarters .

Yeo , Kelly, shuey , sheed who are our bloody midfield are either injured or lacking every preseason then on game day as a result . They haven't set the standards and the next crop has been lacking because of it .

I'm very happy culley is setting standards but I'm not kidding myself about why he able to do it .

He may very well have upped his endurance significantly but guys with 5+ preseasons should be much further along .

 

[Cuzz09]

It ultimately will be the new guys who set better standards

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[Goroyals22]

You do understands someone always comes 3rd in the yoyo test.

This year its Culley who was drafted as a 19 yr old. His strength is as an endurance runner.

And many in the squad didnt do the 2km trial or the yoyo test.

So you negativity is a hangover from last year is obviously is still raging.

Im encouraged by how across the entire team the players look leaner. Havent seen any players carrying kilos around the midrift. Nic looks leaner, Shuey, Yeo....... Simo even commented that they all look leaner and in decent shape pre Christmas. Id suggest everyone was told in no uncertain terms dont come back unfit. And with so many stuck in rehab or crook last season together with the terrible results on field that would burn inside any top level athlete.

So hows about we acknowledge that the squad seems to be heading in the right direction fitness wise until so clear evidence emerges that they arent.

Because at this stage their is no proof at all that they are. Yeo still isn’t doing full training, nic still has missed more sessions than he has been at, shuey has already been injured, Chesser still hasn’t fully recovered. Our beep test was just won by two wafl players and a guy 6 months ago not on an afl list…

Why didn’t many in the squad do the yo-yo test.. they are either injured, not upto doing it fitness wise or some other reasoning.

 

[bzparkes]

Pretty sure culley's fitness was one of the reasons he didn't get drafted in his draft year.

Had to hire a running coach ?

Where is this culley the endurance beast coming from ?

Would culley be getting top 3 at a club like Geelong, Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane?

Doubt it they have senior players pushing the standards .

Where are our senior players ? Our midfield apart from gaff is not setting the fitness standards and that is why we can't run out quarters .

Yeo , Kelly, shuey , sheed who are our bloody midfield are either injured or lacking every preseason then on game day as a result . They haven't set the standards and the next crop has been lacking because of it .

I'm very happy culley is setting standards but I'm not kidding myself about why he able to do it .

He may very well have upped his endurance significantly but guys with 5+ preseasons should be much further along .

He hired a sprint coach.

Damien Cavka won the time trial in his first year.

None of it means shit.

 

[dinnaz]

He may very well have upped his endurance significantly but guys with 5+ preseasons should be much further along .

Guys with 5 pre-seasons also weigh 10-15 kilos more. Quite often players set a PB at age 18-19 and never get near it again as they bulk up.

 

[WCErevival]

Guys with 5 preseasons should be beating the new kenyan olympian marathon runner we picked up.

 

[Keys]

Any1 got this one Shuey exclusive: I ‘came really close’ to ditching captaincy

Leader was talked out of stepping down this year by teammates

West Coast veteran Luke Shuey has confirmed he wants to captain the club for a fourth season.

And the 32-year-old told The West Australian he “came really close to handing it in” at the start of this year, but was talked out of it by senior teammates.

Shuey also predicted coach Adam Simpson was the right man to lead the Eagles back into the finals.

The midfielder said “everyone should put their hand up, all 44 players on the list”, to be captain, but he was “happy to do it” if the players wanted him to continue.

The Eagles players vote on the captaincy near the end of each pre-season, with input from senior staff and the coach.

“The players always need a say, there needs to be guidance from above and the coach needs to have his say as well, but the player vote gives you an idea of who the boys want to follow,” Shuey said.

“I’ve always said if that’s me, I am happy to do it, if it is someone else I am happier to stand aside and let them be the man for the job.”

Shuey revealed he told Simpson it was time for a new leader when he strained a hamstring in the 2022 pre-season, on the back of 20 games across two seasons interrupted by soft tissue injuries.

“In the back of my mind I was thinking ‘I will let the boys down, they need a captain who is on the field’,” Shuey said.

“I did my hammy and then straight off the track and spoke to Simmo in his office and said it might be time to let someone else step up to the mantle and I’ll still keep doing what I have always done, I just don’t want to risk not being out there on the field.

“He said ‘go and speak to your closest mates at the club and see what they think’. So I rang a few boys and the message was ‘put your hand up again and nominate’.

“I was reluctant to, but I did and so be it, I was voted in. Fortunately I was able to be out there more than I have been in the past few years.

“So long as the boys want me to do it, I will do it. I still have the energy for the role. What gives me energy is knowing I am wanted in that position.”

Shuey wouldn’t single out a successor but the heirs apparent are Oscar Allen, Tom Barrass and Liam Duggan.

“From a leadership perspective the club is in a really good position going forward,” he said.

“There are obviously a small stable of boys who will be candidates to fill the role after me, whenever that is, but down the road after that bloke there are going to be a couple of pretty special leaders coming through, which I am really looking forward to watching.”

Shuey endorsed Simpson as the coach to take them forward.

“Bloody oath,” he said. “There are five-six years of evidence there. When we had a healthy list available, he took us to finals footy and contended for a premiership,” Shuey said.

“With the new generation coming through, things can turn really quickly. There is no doubt in three or four years’ time if we stick with him, which I think we need to, he is going to be the coach contending for top four again.

“There are going to be new names up in lights around here – and I will probably be retired sitting in the life members enjoying a frothie while watching them – but he is a good man and has another crack at success left in him.”

Shuey played down a niggle to his calf prior to the pre-season.

“I was down south on holiday and up until that stage I had completed every session, was feeling fit, and I went for run and felt the calf grabbed a little bit,” he said.

“So I pulled the stumps on the session, walked home, still to this day not even sure if I strained it or not, but given my history we had a week and a half de-load and rebuild and that coincided with the first week back for the young boys. I was here doing it and it looked like I was in the rehab group, but I was actually on a small incline back into the main sessions and I haven’t had a drama since.”

The importance of stringing together 17 matches in 2022 after he played only seven and 13 in each of the previous two seasons, mainly due to soft-tissue injuries, could not be underestimated.

“The next step is to be able to again stay on the park and get back to my best footy and if I can’t do that then with the young talent we have got coming through it might be time to step aside in the near future,” he said.

Shuey said it was “hard to say” whether his best football was in the rear-view mirror.

“I was extremely confident in the body by the end of the year,” he said.

“There were moments in games where we had a bit of a laugh with a few of the boys when I had to open up and sprint and chase around the younger blokes in the competition with the leg speed I don’t have any more.

“I was getting up to the speeds I used to get up to and the boys reckon they were crapping themselves that I was going to do a hammy. I was able to open up and not think about it, which is a good place to be in.”

He described as refreshing returning to pre-season training and seeing the younger players.

There were five players selected at the national draft — Reuben Ginbey, Elijah Hewett, Harry Barnett, Coby Burgiel and Noah Long — two NGA players ahead of the rookie draft — Jordyn Baker and Tyrell Dewar — and the Eagles also relisted Isiah Winder and Zane Trew.

Shuey described Ginbey, a midfielder/defender from East Perth, as an “18-year-old Adonis” and Hewett, a mid from Swan Districts, as a “hidden gem”.

“Reuben Ginbey is going to be an absolute athlete within the next two years. A scary prospect. I am relieved he is on our side,” he said. “Elijah Hewitt could be the hidden gem. He didn’t exactly slide in the draft, 13 is still a pretty high pick.

“There were 12 blokes clubs rated before him, but if he gets it all together, he could be one of the best of the bunch.”

Shuey said Collingwood and Sydney have proven clubs can climb quickly back up the ladder. “Both bounced back from 17th at the end of the season to play finals the next year,” Shuey said. “You see around the competition the development of young players like Andrew Brayshaw and Luke Davies-Uniacke and even Josh Rachele at Adelaide, just gives you belief these guys can get it right so quick and become stars and you can rely on them carrying your club for seven-eight years.

“We will dream big and be bullish about what we can achieve next year. You need a bit of luck all the time in footy.

“If we get a little bit and our young boys come on in the way we expect them to, then who knows what the season holds for us?”

 

[Carbine Chaos]

The time was right to hand over to Barrass.

A lot of pressure for him to stay on the park now, if he can't do it (again) it'll look rather foolish.

 

[Micki Free]

Complete lack of leadership skills from shuey not to step down and also from Simpson and club hierarchy with their delusions of grandeur

 

[bh90210fan]

The players want him as their captain, so he’s the right man for the job

 

[bzparkes]

Complete lack of leadership skills from shuey not to step down and also from Simpson and club hierarchy with their delusions of grandeur

That's not how a captaincy works...

 

[Get_The_Gaff]

He hired a sprint coach.

Damien Cavka won the time trial in his first year.

None of it means s**t.

Nah culley was no endurance beast ever .

I watched his first month of Wafl when he came to the club . He struggled to run out the quarters and game but that is nothing unusual for a new draftee .

The fact he can increase his fitness so quickly makes you wonder why others can't.

 

[Micki Free]

That's not how a captaincy works...

Team based approach, of course it is.

 

[bzparkes]

Nah culley was no endurance beast ever .

I watched his first month of Wafl when he came to the club . He struggled to run out the quarters and game but that is nothing unusual for a new draftee .

The fact he can increase his fitness so quickly makes you wonder why others can't.

Yes but he hired a sprint coach, not a coach for endurance.

 

[bzparkes]

Team based approach, of course it is.

And if the playwrs wants him to be captain? You want the coaches to make an executive decision to not give him the captaincy?

Great way to destroy the club's culture and sow distrust in the playing group.

 

[Shueygod]

Nah culley was no endurance beast ever .

I watched his first month of Wafl when he came to the club . He struggled to run out the quarters and game but that is nothing unusual for a new draftee .

The fact he can increase his fitness so quickly makes you wonder why others can't.

Most of the others have been spending extended periods out with injury the last few years.

Kelly is probably the one who should also be competing with those 3 but realistically I’m not too surprised with that top 3.

 

[Shueygod]

If Tommy B doesn’t want the captaincy it does make it difficult to select another.

Hopefully if Shuey goes on as captain Allen has a monster year and will be ready to take over.

 

[Micki Free]

And if the playwrs wants him to be captain? You want the coaches to make an executive decision to not give him the captaincy?

Great way to destroy the club's culture and sow distrust in the playing group.

I think 2022 season destroyed the clubs culture

 

[shooshka]

Nah culley was no endurance beast ever .

I watched his first month of Wafl when he came to the club . He struggled to run out the quarters and game but that is nothing unusual for a new draftee .

The fact he can increase his fitness so quickly makes you wonder why others can't.

The others weren't playing in the u18 comp, working 2 jobs and training in between last year.

He was coming off a low base. His improvement has been great, but wondering why others who have many years of a professional environment can't improve in a similar manner over 1 preseason is a strange comment

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[bzparkes]

I think 2022 season destroyed the clubs culture

There's no evidence of that.

 

[bunderson]

I actually think it's good leadership for Shuey to stay as captain one more year.

There are no expectations for us to jump up the ladder and if we finish near the bottom it protects an incoming `first year' captain from any criticism.
Sheuy can take all the media hits and we end up with another strong draft hand. Turn over a few more players and then hand over captaincy to someone who can then take over and be with the club as it raises up the ladder.

Strong leadership to protect anyone new and then handover for our next premiership tilt.

 

[Keys]

I think 2022 season destroyed the clubs culture

I think 2022 was the year we re-established our culture that began to crack during the first hub in 2020 (some may say earlier) and broke down in the second half of 2021

Cast your mind back to the end of last year and Simpson’s speech at the B&F talking about the need for unity and having each others backs.

We had a terrible year, our worst on record, yet there was no signs of disharmony or infighting. The players all returned for preseason in better shape and the mood coming from them players and coaches is positive

As a group they held together through a shambolic year on field which was impacted significantly by injuries and covid

I don’t think 2022 destroyed the club’s culture at all

 

[Kegs15]

Yeah I'm not overly fussed with Shuey captaining one last year - it'd be different if we were contending but I reckon the stuff that happens outside the performance of the best 22 on game day will be extra important this year.

Development, WAFL improvement, beginnings of a new successful gameplan, the younger generation establishing their own culture etc etc - experienced heads like Shuey and Hurn can help establish all that in a growth year without lumping all the pressure of a non-finals year onto a new captain. Then Barrass or Allen can take over when we start getting good again and have a smoother ride.

At the very least I'm certain a few of our younger guys will be dealing with rehabbing injuries in a professional environment for the first time and at least Shuey's got a lot of experience to pass on in that regard