Training Pre season training

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No battle, howard, marshall- max is going to look like plugger; kicking 10 in a loss
Are Dougal and Marshall out for the season? At the stage Ro is still a chance for round one and we don’t have a timeline for Dougal.

Sure, if we lose both for an extended period then improving gets harder but theres still plenty of reasons we can improve. I expect Mitchito to get back to the player we saw 18 months ago, Wilson looks likely to avoid second year blues and NWM will likely become an AA candidate this year on his current trajectory.
Then you consider someone like Sharman who has an opportunity and the talent to become a genuine second target all of a sudden the outlook isn’t so bleak.
There is a bloody lot to like about the way we finished last year and what we’re building, if you can’t see that then that’s on you
 
The issue is our youth will only be replacing our current best players.
If this is another year of finishing circa 14th- we're idiots for not trying to cash in one of sinclair or marshall for top draft picks.



I stand corrected- though the last second snags goal flips that equation of course.

The main point is that it's not a stretch for us to be on 'bottom 4 watch' given where we finished last year and the subsequent ins and outs to our best 22.

Hard to mount a reasonable case as to how we will do any better than last year.
Much easier to argue we will do worse.

Last year best inside mid - Steele.
Second best inside mid - ummmm. Jones? Clark? Windhager?

This year Macrae. Straight away better. We had already lost Crouch, one of our top mids from 2023.


From last year, in order of games played.
Steele. - So far uninjured. - Neutral.
Owens : - so far uninjured, and we'd hope that a player his age and experience improves. ( just hit 53 games ). PLUS
Marshall: Yes, likely to be replaced by inexperienced Boyd or Heath. MINUS
Wilson: We'd hope that he improves on his first year, he improved throughout the 2024 season. PLUS
Battle: Shoenmaker, or Barratt. Minus
Wilkie : Neutral
Wanganeen Milera, not sure he's had a great pre-season. Lets say Neutral.
Hill : Looking good so far: Neutral
Sinclair : Neutral
Higgins : Neutral
Membrey , probably Hall. Minus.
Bonner : I guess we'd hope that McLennon/Hastie fill his role. Or Sinclair plays back there Neutral
Wood: Hopefully back to his best , Neutral.
Sharman: gets a more consistent role. I'd hope for a PLUS.
Stocker : had an interrupted 2024. Neutral.
Butler : played 16 games in 24. Neutral.
Windhager : 15 games in 2024, made him our second most proliferate mid. Hope Macrae makes a huge impact. PLUS
Byrnes : 15 games , neutral.
Howard:15 games. Cordy? misses the start of this season, but we were without him for significant time 2024. NEUTRAL
Webster: is he injured? Neutral.
Caminiti: May get more games without Membrey. Young and improving. PLUS.
Jones 13 games.
Ross: 13 games , replaced by Windhager/Garcia ( or Phillipou if he was fit ).
Phillipou, looked good for 4 or 5 of his thirteen games.
King 12 games: Hoping for a big year from him. PLUS
Henry 12 games: If he plays we are a better side. PLUS.
Clark 11 games, and he actually played pretty well. If he gets a full season our midfield is better.

So we look own in the obvious losses, loss of Battle and Membrey, and injury to Marshall. Those are the big question marks. Those are the potential big negatives.

Our main inside midfield last year was a mess.
Steele played 23 games.
Sinclair played there a lot, ruining our backline ( Bonner )
Windhager and Byrnes played just 15 games. ( with Byrnes more outside ).
Ross 13 games.
Phillipou a few in the midfield.
Clark 11 games.
Dow 10
Hugo 9
Jones 13


If we can get a more fixed midfield , maybe
Steele, Macrae, Windhager, Clark, Jones,.

That's looking much stronger than what we had last year.
 
What have we got in Carroll? An outside mid who's already behind Byrnes and Wilson, and maybe not far in front of Travaglia.

Probably a bit rough. He looked alright at Carlton. Plenty unhappy that he was cut.
 
The glaring thing is if our season is over because Pou has a stress fracture injury and Howard has dislocated his shoulder, we definitely have bigger personnel problems and are a long way off the top 4.
I don't think anyone is saying the season is over but Pou is arguably our best young player and has been flying this pre-season, there was an article as recently as Friday saying how good he looked at training so it's a pretty gutting loss.
 
The glaring thing is if our season is over because Pou has a stress fracture injury and Howard has dislocated his shoulder, we definitely have bigger personnel problems and are a long way off the top 4.
Losing Pou isn’t an issue. Played a few great games last year, and we have an additional
mid in McRae. As for howard - schoenmaker.

When Howard plays, he’s a liability. When he’s injured, we’re now a certainty for bottom 4 lol. The rhetoric around him is always bipolar
 
Losing Pou isn’t an issue. Played a few great games last year, and we have an additional
mid in McRae. As for howard - schoenmaker.

When Howard plays, he’s a liability. When he’s injured, we’re now a certainty for bottom 4 lol. The rhetoric around him is always bipolar
Schoenmaker is not a realistic replacement for a guy who plays on the 200cm key forwards.
 
Probably a bit rough. He looked alright at Carlton. Plenty unhappy that he was cut.

Yeah, and Byrnes and Wilson look alright, i'd be unhappy if they were cut.
Have any of the training watchers seen if he's playing "inside" at training?
Otherwise he's just another bit of competent depth.
 

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Losing Pou isn’t an issue. Played a few great games last year, and we have an additional
mid in McRae. As for howard - schoenmaker.

When Howard plays, he’s a liability. When he’s injured, we’re now a certainty for bottom 4 lol. The rhetoric around him is always bipolar
I think losing Pou is absolutely an issue, there is no best case scenario in this, but it is what it is. It is am injury. Players get injuries.

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Yeah, and Byrnes and Wilson look alright, i'd be unhappy if they were cut.
Have any of the training watchers seen if he's playing "inside" at training?
Otherwise he's just another bit of competent depth.
Yes, he has been at centre square bounces. Has been ok. But Hall has been impressive and is ahead of him.
I would class Carroll as good as Dow.

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Sadly, Cordy is probably our best depth there.
The only expereince option we have. Maybe Caminiti can learn quickly if we chose to move him there - he did an okay job in the few games he played there last year - but even then, Cordy might still be needed some weeks depending on the match up.
 
Yes, he has been at centre square bounces. Has been ok. But Hall has been impressive and is ahead of him.
I would class Carroll as good as Dow.

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Hall has been in the forward group. Carroll with the mids. Doesnt seem like they are competing for the same position to be classing it as one ahead of the other.
 
Hall has been in the forward group. Carroll with the mids. Doesnt seem like they are competing for the same position to be classing it as one ahead of the other.
Must be moving between groups. Played mid in match sim and was extremely impressive. Garcia type. His extraction and work in heavy traffic was eye catching.

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Those arguing we won’t improve on last season are also forgetting how horrendously bad we were for a 6 week stretch there where we couldn’t buy a goal.
We looked a completely different side for the last 8 rounds (beside the Brisbane game) and typically that the is form that flows into the following year for clubs.
 
Must be moving between groups. Played mid in match sim and was extremely impressive. Garcia type. His extraction and work in heavy traffic was eye catching.

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Good to hear. Getting some variety in the centre square throughout a game instead of relying on the same 3 mids will only make us better.
 

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Training Pre season training


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