Training Pre-season updates 2025.

[Fat Jesus]

You'll be surprised.
It's something you have to see to believe tbf
But he need to put the amazing preseason games into games next month.

Not doubting him at all. It's just training. Pre season games and than the real stuff.

 

[Jen2310]

Not doubting him at all. It's just training. Pre season games and than the real stuff.

That's why I did say, that's his next step. To put this form, into game time. One step at a time, but signs are good, and hopefully he can keep his confidence he seems to have.

 

[Fat Jesus]

That's why I did say, that's his next step. To put this form, into game time. One step at a time, but signs are good, and hopefully he can keep his confidence he seems to have.

I don't like people having a go at guys like Frampton or Markov. Both premiership players.
Not insinuating it was you.

 

[Fat Jesus]

Yes Jen2310, signs are good.

 

[Jen2310]

I don't like people having a go at guys like Frampton or Markov. Both premiership players.
Not insinuating it was you.

No that's not fair I agree, they have made the most of their opportunity and have a medal to show for it, of course. And I do think they both can play a role in 2025.

 

[Hardas]

You'll be surprised.
It's something you have to see to believe tbf
But he need to put the amazing preseason form into games next month.

I hope you're right, Jen.

 

[Jen2310]

I hope you're right, Jen.

Yes, lets hope it pays off. I think we're all rooting for him.

 

[Fat Jesus]

Yes, lets hope it pays off. I think we're all rooting for him.

He's got everything, size, strength and speed.
Would be like a new recruit for us.

 

[Jen2310]

He's got everything, size, strength and speed.
Would be like a new recruit for us.

Yeah. Could be the missing link, and he's still very young too. Looks a natural down there. Reads the play really well. Uses his pace to burn off players and attacks and sets up the offence from defence. He's marking has been good, and contest work (spoiling etc)
Shame they never tried this earlier than last few games of 2024, but could end up being a genius move if it works out for everyone. The team, and Reef.

 

[DopeMaster]

Yeah. Could be the missing link, and he's still very young too. Looks a natural down there. Reads the play really well. Uses his pace to burn off players and attacks and sets up the offence from defence. He's marking has been good, and contest work (spoiling etc)
Shame they never tried this earlier than last few games of 2024, but could end up being a genius move if it works out for everyone. The team, and Reef.

Man if he could take Murphys KPB defensive traits plus add Nobles manic rebound dash from the backline that’d be a serious combination of attributes.

Can’t think of another player who does both.

 

[ElliottsMaggies]

Man if he could take Murphys KPB defensive traits plus add Nobles manic rebound dash from the backline that’d be a serious combination of attributes.

Can’t think of another player who does both.

Good thing he has Murphy there to mentor him

 

[Apex36]

I think there’s a lot of supposition here on the basis of training reports from fans.

Sure the other two could also be picked to play that role, but we haven’t seen anything yet to suggest what course we’ll be taking. In Rd 0 for instance I’d have zero faith in McInnes, Dean or Frampton against any of Hogan, Riccardi or Cadman and would much prefer Moore, Howe and Maynard as our three nominal key backs. I just don’t think we’ve seen anything to support your view that Fly et al are warming to that setup. I’d like a full block of pre-season matches and a month of real stuff to consider whether it’s clear that’s the direction we’re taking.

Honestly mate I’m going to try to put up some training reports over the next 8 weeks and they’ll be as worthless as farts in the wind for the season ahead (aside from training numbers) because it’s training…

We’ve seen over the last 12 months that the coaching staff want another key defender to support Moore alongside Howe and Maynard with Murphy gone. There’s far less evidence to support them changing up the structure to an undersized defence than there is to support them maintaining the 2 keys + Howe as the intercepting 3rd.

 

[Apex36]

My god the Reef adulation has started early. “He’s our second best defender already.” Give it a rest he hasn’t even played a game there and he’s only back there because he failed elsewhere.
Can we please have a season where he’s judged on what he actually does not what your imagination thinks he does.

He’s not in the starting defence for me. Moore, Frampton, Howe first for the talls then Dean and Reef but not for the big talls if you get my drift.

Remember last preseason when Finn was going to have a break out year? Let’s just not put bets on Reef for AA just yet ok.

This seems a lot like hyperbole, because I’m pretty sure absolutely nobody has said this.

 

[Matrix10]

Frampton helped us hugely in a Premiership win. Reef still miles away from him.

Don’t know about miles FJ. toss of the coin , both borderline players , yes Reef is young , but this is what ? 5th year on the list ! Like I have said previously, I don’t see it with him . come real game opponents is the acid test . training and having intra club practice matches and scenarios, is exactly that , practice .

 

[Jen2310]

Pre-season training.

January 24.

9:30-12:30.

Absent:

• Reef
• Beau
• TJ

Rehab:

• Mitchell
• Johnson
• Sullivan.

Nick completed most of the session with lot of drills as he ramps up his progression from the foot injury.
Josh and Jordy completed 80-90% of the session. Josh will be back in full training next week when they return, and I wouldn't be surprised if Jordy is the same.

Thomas McGuane started his 2nd stint at the pies, as he begins his highly anticipated draft year. A few VFL players also participated in the session including the likes of Harry Mahoney and Curtis Taylor. Brady Grey and one other one, the same ones as last week.
Tom didn't look out of place. The way he uses his hands when kicking the ball, it's very Nick like. Has real composure and doesn't look outawed amongst the bigger bodies. Given his age, he still has a light frame, but thats to be expected at this stage.

He'll be at training next Wed-friday to complete his week before CTL resumes in Feb. This was about the same time of year as when Nick (And Dib) trained with the club at the start of his draft year. So this is the start of something special for young Tommy. He even wore the #34 for a bit of training today as well. Looks good on him.

Curtis Taylor did a run down tackle on bruz and got him HTB, how much was he on the other side of a tackle like that at north? I bet he felt happy he was able to give it back haha.

Harry Mahoney too didn't look out of place with the afl boys and the uptempo speed of the training. He is someone the club really like, and how he plays.

There was some conditioning, drills involving handballing to one another in a tight group. There was was the forwards and defenders moving around at FF trying to create space, and one player (Jordy or Houston - they donned the orange vests) being the deignated kicker inside F50.

There was also a ball movement drill and a shorter match play senario before in the last part of the session was a proper full ground match sim. They seemed to play for I'd say 20 mins, one quarter. As they start to ramp things up. I'd say we would be three weeks from the intraclub -- by the time they get back next week, it'll be closer to 2 weeks. So I would assume we would be seeing match sims every week (fridays most likely) as we head toward then.


I think we have a lock on who our wings will be.
Lippa and Sidey.
WHE I think will rotate with Lippa between wing and HF, as he was opposite wing to Lippa/Sidey through match sim today.

Midfield was Allan. Fin. Long v Pendles. Crisp. Perryman.
I'm very interested to see how they fit all of Pendles. Crisp. Perryman, Nick. Jordy. Mitchell?? into the mid rotations given Perryman is training and playing fully as a inside mid.

Obviously no Cox, he'll be back next week apparantely, so it gave Steene and Smit a good opportunity to be front and centre v DC.

All in all, it was a good session.

 

[Mick F]

I'm starting to think the same about Dean. When he did have the ball he kicked it out of bounds or past the man. He obviously doesn't have the pace, but he had some okay games last year, there was always the hope he would take the next step like Reef seems to be heading towards.

I was hopeful with Kreuger and Dean.

 

[Jen2310]

I was hopeful with Kreuger and Dean.

I was hopeful for Kreuger too, just a shame he couldn't stay on the park. He had a lot of attributes that we like. Unfortunately didn't work out for him.

 

[Chunky Steak]

Am I imagining it or do the boys look leaner than ever? Not at the expense of muscle necessarily, but so many of the boys look like there's not an ounce of fat on them.

Which would correspond with what IQ was told this off season (in terms of trimming down).

May also be a virtue of having an older list with many preasons under their belts, as someone else mentioned.

We really seem to be going all in on outrunning our opponents and I'm here for it.

 

[Pragmatic Shill]

We should have retired the 34 after that massive pre-season Chugg had.

 

[DERKADERRR]

This seems a lot like hyperbole, because I’m pretty sure absolutely nobody has said this.

You clearly said that he's the greatest defender of all time and we should sign him up for 10 years.

I got what you meant, you think at the moment it looks like he's the front runner to be our second KPD with Howe as our third tall/interceptor. I also agree, and I'm not sure why everyone is taking it any other way.

 

[tigerairau]

We should have retired the 34 after that massive pre-season Chugg had.

If we retired numbers after every massive pre-season a player had, 18 and 26 would have been gone in the last 24 months.

 

[magpies42]

I get what you mean, but to me the biggest value of guys like Moore, MacGovern and Andrews is that they're such good interceptors that they force teams to change the way they move the ball.

Moore's positioning is so aggressive that he often gets burnt, but at the same time that positioning probably makes teams second guess their entries more than others do.

Its hard to judge, but I'd still have him up there with the others, even though he has some bad games and gets burnt when we can't maintain pressure. He's the one I'd want when the whips are cracking in a big game and the entries are getting messy.

For certain, Moore sacrifices his game for the benefit of the team playing off his man almost akin to zone defence. That is our unfortunate reality in that we’ve not been able to find a replacement for Murphy, Reef isn’t a key position player either.

I’d query the aggressive positioning though, I think his run and carry and intercepts were down last year…I think he plays off his man as more of a defensive ‘Libero’ type strategy.

 

[magpies42]

We’ve seen over the last 12 months that the coaching staff want another key defender to support Moore alongside Howe and Maynard with Murphy gone. There’s far less evidence to support them changing up the structure to an undersized defence than there is to support them maintaining the 2 keys + Howe as the intercepting 3rd.

Nathan Murphy was also undersized, so bringing in Reef is keeping to that exact same structure provided he can play the same role.

 

[tmpies01]

Really really impressed with today’s session. Agree that they all look fit and sharp.

Hard to look away when watching Houston do his thing. Skills and footy IQ next level. His leadership goes under the radar too IMO, love the way he guides the younger boys.

The way Naicos was training, it didn’t look like he had an injury at all, clearly the club is just being ultra cautious and that’s understandable. Looked to participate in everything although I think he was put on ice not long after match sim started because I didn’t see him out there for long. But he will be fine and that’s great to know.

Pleased with how West, Cochran and Hayes are going. They all have shown promising signs already.

 

[Fat Jesus]

Don’t know about miles FJ. toss of the coin , both borderline players , yes Reef is young , but this is what ? 5th year on the list ! Like I have said previously, I don’t see it with him . come real game opponents is the acid test . training and having intra club practice matches and scenarios, is exactly that , practice .

Only miles away because Frampton has a premiership medallion brother. Reef may turn out the better player. On Grand Final day Frampton shut down Andrews.
Perhaps his best game ever in the black and white. Both borderline at the moment, I agree.