Training Pre Season - Who's deadset training the house down 2024 style.

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Wolf how many games have our forwards played together? vs a quality AA backline in tough conditions?
Look, our forwards have played plenty of game time tgether. This is not the problem. Last week the leading patterns & the high kicks hit the mark. Today neither did. This wasn't due to the bad forward patterns but to the shit midfield delivery. Even if you go long you set the ball to the advantage of your talls. tonight it was either on their heads or too short which allowed the intercept. Leads were ignored in favour of long bombs
 
Dummy patterns is a forward problem. Lead with conviction and you will be used.

At the very least mids will learn to use you.
What I am trying to say is that I think Horse deliberately set Dummy Patterns so they would not be used .
 

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I'm suggesting it's a practice game with several key players sitting out the game, a lot of our B-team playing and we weren't as intense as they were. It's not the end of the world.
i have never said it was. I think Horse did not even want to get near winning this.
 
I didn't think Sheldrick was as bad as some made out. Not a lot went right for him tonight, but I feel like it was all down to the tempo. He was just playing with the wrong intensity for that game.

It was kind of slow and sloppy, the kind of game where you just had to show some poise and calm and the ball was in all likelihood going to spill out to you rather than you needing to get it. Nearly every player who "cracked in" turned it over or gave away a free.

Sheldrick - understandably, given he was a fringe player wanting to make an impression - was going at full bore every contest and I felt he kind of put himself under pressure and overcooked a lot of his possessions because of it.

Very redeemable IMO. If Adams is out for multiple games as well as Parker, then Sheldrick can play round 1 knowing he's got some room to breathe, and games to build his form up and he can be less... manic.

We saw this last year when the window opened for him.
He played very little time in the mids. He played mainly on the wing. That pissed me off. We need him to get practice in the mids because we need him there, not on a bloody wing. What's more he was obviously far too slow for his opponent
 
please do not blame the forwards. This is a game plan issue. The effing problem was we just bombed the effing ball on every occasion. We never even looked for an effing

We bomb because we are trying to hit fifty metre passes, the lions look for 20 metre passes kicked to the forward softly as they move. We are trying to play a very fast game getting the ball long to forwards one on one. But if we don’t mark the ball we are going to get smashed because our forward line is too tall and too immobile.
 
What I am trying to say is that I think Horse deliberately set Dummy Patterns so they would not be used .
Those patterns would 100% be a forward coaching thing. And they wouldn't be delivering the instruction as dummy, more so as legitimate leads patterns which players tend to just execute lackadaisically going through the motions.

Played as a forward myself and did this too often when things weren't going my way lol.
 
Desperate to get Heeney more involved? Likely yes.

Desperate to find an alternate to Parker, Rowy, Errol, Gus, Chad and Adams at centre bounce? I hope not.
I didn't mind him DQ. Certainly didn't stand out as a weakness in the midfield, but then I rarely think anyone does. Have said it before but when I watch our games, I don't feel like I'm watching midfielders playing badly, I feel like I'm watching a midfield play badly. There is something in the connection/chemistry/structures between them that doesn't seem to work.

Hopefully that improves this year. I'm not ruling it out based on one practice game where we looked to be cruising somewhat.
 
We bomb because we are trying to hit fifty metre passes, the lions look for 20 metre passes kicked to the forward softly as they move. We are trying to play a very fast game getting the ball long to forwards one on one. But if we don’t mark the ball we are going to get smashed because our forward line is too tall and too immobile.
That is not the problem if we don't have 4 talls. Ladhams absolutely confounded the forward line structure. But I think you are not quite right about the game plan. We used this game plan today. But last week we used a short pass game plan, 20-30 metre kicks. But today we were not passing 50 metres we were bombing it on their heads or short. Very few kicks to advantage. It certainly gives your oponent a huge advantage
 
Thought lions handball & midfield work was quality. Good footage to show the lads in their review. We were sloppy with our handballing.

Melican & Jordon looked good.

I was concerned with the inability of our forwards to win the 50/50 contests. Poor aerial & ground presence imo. I wouldn't go with 3 talls in a wet weather type of game. We would get more out of a medium/small in those conditions imo.

Looks like Heeney is locked into a midfield role, especially if Taylor Adams is out.
 
I didn't mind him DQ. Certainly didn't stand out as a weakness in the midfield, but then I rarely think anyone does. Have said it before but when I watch our games, I don't feel like I'm watching midfielders playing badly, I feel like I'm watching a midfield play badly. There is something in the connection/chemistry/structures between them that doesn't seem to work.

Hopefully that improves this year. I'm not ruling it out based on one practice game where we looked to be cruising somewhat.
I just can’t convince myself that inside midfield time plays to Heeney’s strengths.

Put him one-on-one in a bit of space and he’s rarely beaten. Which is why I quite enjoy seeing him play on the wing.

In any event - trying to read too much into pre season games has been shown time & time again to be pure folly.

Time for the real stuff to begin.
 

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A pre-season game played in stifling heat, with a slippery ball, low to medium intensity and minus key players. Not to mention deadly serpents everywhere.

And yet there’s some hysterical hyperbole.

God I love Bigfooty.

And according to some folk

Sheldrick
 
Ladham’s reminds me of Cal Sinclair in that he drops the footy but gives his all for his ability. Good depth in case of injury though I’d love for him to get some momentum without brain farts and show he’s more than my assessment.

Has Florent ever taken a ball out of fullback and not coughed it up. Ran too far got away with it then coughed it up anyway. Even his good switch play up the other end, his handball still hit the ground before getting to the running players.
 
Sheldrick is going to rip this season apart, all the signs are screaming for a breakout season. His pre season program, He’s fit there are openings in the midfield and his pedigree is excellent.
I couldn’t be more bullish on this guy. Reading anything into pre season games is just silly, that’s a general statement not just pointed at Gus.
 
TBH the game gave me flashbacks to the days of Paul Roos and his attitude to practice matches.

It seemed to me, from a coaching perspective, we were much more focussed on judging individual performances rather than establishing structures, game plans or cohesion between players in the same part of the ground.

For example our talls down back (incl Blakey) were thrown around in a mix/match scenario.
7 or 8 players ran through the centre bounces, with only Adams, until his injury, about the only constant.

Personally given the season proper is only a week away I would have preferred more of a best 22 hitout for at least a half, but at least I think after the game we are closer to determining next week's line up.

For me Melican clearly ahead of Hamling.
We ran three smalls through the fwd line, sometimes at the same time, in Fox, Wicks & Corey Warner. Maybe only one will play next week, even if Hayward is out. I've always been a booster of Warner for the pressure fwd role, hard, quick and IMO just a bit more footy smarts, up fwd, than the other two.
Wicks will probably get the nod v Melb, but watching him tonight the old Tom Hafey advice of stop all your finessing did come to mind.

Highlight for me was Jordon. Really impressed in the way he found space to provide a target when we were in possession. And showcased his ability to win his own ball as well.
Blakey and Gulden carried on from where they left off last season and Blakey's aerial defensive work has become top class.
McCartin reminds me of a few of our tall defenders of the past. No fuss, dependable and generally just gets the job done.
Promising signs from Melican. Had high hopes for him after his early days, but injury cruelled since. But yep his kicking....
Ladhams was a pleasant surprise.
Campbell looked the part down back. However I think he is a guy we will continue to swing around positionally as needed, to take advantage of his boot.

Adams was listed as only playing 50% of total game time, but led our clearance numbers. However I thought his handling was often sloppy and his disposal particularly by foot was poor. Willing to put it down to his first full day at the new job.

If Adams does miss next week and with us already without Mills and Parker I'd like to think of it as an opportunity for our next crop of midfielders to stand up.
If it is Chad, Rowy, Errol, Jordon, McInerney (who seems to have spent a fair amount of time in there in the 2 practice matches) & Sheldrick with cameos from Heeney and Papley so be it.
I think they'll thrive on the responsibility.

Bring on Melbourne.
 
Brisbane handled the conditions SO much better. Like a home game for them.
As I live 10 minutes from their training ground at Springfield, I can confirm it has been an unusually hot and humid summer here and I often see them training at night under lights. The conditions last night sound like the exact same conditions they have been training in all summer. I'm sure they would have run out the game far better because of it.
 
Bombing it on Logan's head is not going to help him progress at all. He is a leading forward and should actually be given more license to roam. Moves well and is a beautiful field kick, as demonstrated by when he played behind the ball. Prefer to see him receiving 40-60m out and either hitting his deeper forwards lace out of slotting the long ranger. His skills are wasted just sitting him in the goal square and having to battle in a pack. With the likelihood of Heeney playing more on ball, makes sense to me to play him at HF.
 
Sheldrick is going to rip this season apart, all the signs are screaming for a breakout season. His pre season program, He’s fit there are openings in the midfield and his pedigree is excellent.
I couldn’t be more bullish on this guy. Reading anything into pre season games is just silly, that’s a general statement not just pointed at Gus.

yeah, i can't believe the criticism of sheldrick ... from what i saw, he was in everything ... some things just didn't go his way (as was the case with most of our players ... eg, amartey) but you can see he's got confidence in himself to keep at it, keep trying stuff, and there were several "nearly" moments ...
but apart from that, and ignoring the bigfooty bitchiness over a trial game in pretty horrible conditions, i thought there was a lot to like
jordon and melican looked very good
mcinerney, blakey, wicks (geez, he can tackle), campbell, mccartin, corey warner, roberts and cunningham showed a bit
even ladhams, for all his general haphazardness, looked ok

but it was a practice game in which we were mostly competitive, against what looked a pretty strong lions side that has been a finals fixture for several years
 
yeah, i can't believe the criticism of sheldrick ... from what i saw, he was in everything ... some things just didn't go his way (as was the case with most of our players ... eg, amartey) but you can see he's got confidence in himself to keep at it, keep trying stuff, and there were several "nearly" moments ...
but apart from that, and ignoring the bigfooty bitchiness over a trial game in pretty horrible conditions, i thought there was a lot to like
jordon and melican looked very good
mcinerney, blakey, wicks (geez, he can tackle), campbell, mccartin, corey warner, roberts and cunningham showed a bit
even ladhams, for all his general haphazardness, looked ok

but it was a practice game in which we were mostly competitive, against what looked a pretty strong lions side that has been a finals fixture for several years
I like Gus, just get a Tom Mitchell vibe in that I think Horse doesn't rate him. He will prefer to shuffle the magnets around to cover Mills / Adams / Parker and bring in guys like Roberts and Fox.
 
you're kidding yourself if you think Gus isn't rated.

I can't see Grundy, Ladhams, McLean and Amarty playing together much, it will be interesting how that all pans out.
I rate him. I'm sure his team mates do too. Just not sure Horse does. I hope I'm proven wrong and he gets a good run at firsts with all our inside mids out.
 
you're kidding yourself if you think Gus isn't rated.

I can't see Grundy, Ladhams, McLean and Amarty playing together much, it will be interesting how that all pans out.
I think Sheldrick's highly rated? The Swans players literally said he's the player to watch ahead of this year.

But with a clear spot up for grabs and the chance to demand selection, he didn't take it last night. No big deal and not a hanging offence for a young player.

FWIW if Adams misses next week I'd play Sheldrick and feel rather comfortable doing so.
 
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