Training Preseason Training Thread - 2024/25

[Keys]

Players return to the club from their Christmas break on January 9

 

[We_The_West]

Will be interesting how this impacts individual player stats on disposal efficiency etc. Even if it massively improves our team over all it may be difficult for us to assess individual players on kicking efficiency for example.

Could see some poor efficiency stats for some of our backs/Mids/high forwards but see more score involvements/pressure acts/tackles/intercepts etc.

If you watch Mini's first team meeting video on the WC website, you see him tell the players that he doesn't care about kicks, marks and handballs. He wants them to buy into a system based philosophy, which I think will massively help our younger players develop.

If our kicking efficiency drops next season, I'll happily take it if our contested ball numbers, tackles and post clearance groundball all increase. With less time to make decisions, it can be expected the skill level will fall at least in the short term.

 

[TheBudgies]

If you watch Mini's first team meeting video on the WC website, you see him tell the players that he doesn't care about kicks, marks and handballs. He wants them to buy into a system based philosophy, which I think will massively help our younger players develop.

If our kicking efficiency drops next season, I'll happily take it if our contested ball numbers, tackles and post clearance groundball all increase. With less time to make decisions, it can be expected the skill level will fall at least in the short term.

Completely agree. Our ground balls will be telling in this system. It cannot remain poor or we will be in strife.

It will be interesting the stats we do make priority in assessing team / game plan effectiveness.

 

[Dark Sharks]

If you watch Mini's first team meeting video on the WC website, you see him tell the players that he doesn't care about kicks, marks and handballs.

To be fair, most coaches say the exact same thing all through junior footy.

It's a pretty stock standard thing to say to a group of players, particularly if he's a new coach himself.

 

[We_The_West]

To be fair, most coaches say the exact same thing all through junior footy.

It's a pretty stock standard thing to say to a group of players, particularly if he's a new coach himself.

Agreed - time will tell whether the actions back up the words.

We actually looked okay moving the ball fast under J.Schofield in the back half of 2024... why Simmo was so against embracing the chaos ball I don't know... seems to me like finals footy is all about it so may as well train and play it week to week.

 

[mattyc75]

The fix is apparently to turn off player cards in BigFooty preferences, but none of them are ever going to do that.

How do you turn player card preferences off, I'm sick of scrolling down for miles every time someone writes a players full name

Sent from my SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[squashface]

Would pay money to see McQualter try to coach someone like Sheed to play quick at all costs.

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Linkedin post had the new boys photo shoot (apologies if these have been up for weeks, not a huge checker of LInkedin)

Pics look pretty awesome. Bring on next year.

 

[bzparkes]

Agreed - time will tell whether the actions back up the words.

We actually looked okay moving the ball fast under J.Schofield in the back half of 2024... why Simmo was so against embracing the chaos ball I don't know... seems to me like finals footy is all about it so may as well train and play it week to week.

Simpson said it himself numerous times: coaches hate things being out of their control and want play style to be 'predictable'.

It's probably why Richmond was such an outlier during their premiership run.

 

[Rowan18]

We’ve all written Batman off but imagine if he comes good… another rabbit hole of endless possibilities.

Just putting it out into the universe… hope he gets after it this season.

I haven't written him off. He's a ruckman doing his third preseason, you don't usually see anything from them until they've done 3 or 4. Bailey Williams was the same, looked shit in year 2, glimpses in year 3 and has been full time best 22 since.

 

[Rowan18]

Wednesday is the lighter load session in comparison to Monday and Friday and it seems Hewett, along with a few others, is skipping Wednesdays presumably to manage training loads

Ryan, Hewett, Brockman, Kelly, Allen, McGovern and Dewar all seem to be absent or on light duties for Wednesday sessions despite seemingly training fine on the two Monday sessions I’ve been to. (Didn’t go last Friday so not sure what they did then)

It’s not panic stations yet because it’s really just the very beginning of preseason, but it’s low key concerning how many players aren’t in full training. In addition to those mentioned who are on modified programs -

• Sheed, Jamieson and Hutchinson have done two fifths of **** all and I wouldn’t expect to see them with the main group until after the Christmas break. And probably not straight away when they return either

• Yeo, Chesser and Petruccelle haven’t done much more than that either. Some light running and walking laps before disappearing after 30 minutes or so. (Hough did do some training early but has since joined that group)

• Long and Bazzo are running but look to be building their fitness base and aren’t participating in most of the group drills. Johnston has also been the same since adding an elbow brace to his training kit this week

So a bit over a third of the list aren’t training fully.

That said, my general observation is that they look to be easing into preseason training a little bit which admittedly has only involved the full list since Monday. Still plenty of work being done but I haven’t walked away from a session so far where I’ve thought that was brutal

Whilst there has been some just running during sessions, most of it is included as part of the drills which was a feature of last year’s training.

In comparison to last preseason there’s been more focus on skills, in particular moving the ball quickly by hand or foot - often through a zone defence sometimes with tackling and other times with frontal pressure. That also means they’re working in forcing turnovers.

Working on tackling technique has also been common

Last year there was a greater focus on contests and clearances with a lot of match sim style scrimmages either half or full ground. So this year there’s been less contact work and more ball movement/skills

Still early days though and I’d anticipate things to ramp up prior to the break

There was a drill yesterday where I could hear McQualter’s instructions that I think illustrate how he wants us to play differently

The drill involved moving the ball through a zone type defence by foot (no handball). Players were taking a mark then backpedaling a bit before taking their kick - the sort of thing I’d seen them practicing under Simpson to get back off the mark quickly and then move the ball on

McQualter stopped the drill to explain that he wanted them to mark, turn around and if nobody was coming up to stand the mark then kick the ball straight away or take the ground in front of them. Only go back if an opponent had shut down the space

It’s a little thing but the mindset is speed of ball movement- no stopping and propping which was a defining feature of our kick-mark game style

On another occasion, I’ve heard McQualter stress that the ball movement doesn’t need to be perfect but it does need to be quick

How it looks once they start genuine match type scrimmages will be interesting - particularly who adjusts and who doesn’t

Very interesting. I suspect our transition is going to be shocking to start the season (as the boys adjust) but hopefully it clicks after the first third of the year.

I remember Collingwood being similar with Craig McRae in 2022. Had good passages of play in H1 of the year but it would keep breaking down. We beat them in that period. In the second half it clicked, they went on a wing streak and made a prelim.

 

[WCErevival]

Agreed - time will tell whether the actions back up the words.

We actually looked okay moving the ball fast under J.Schofield in the back half of 2024... why Simmo was so against embracing the chaos ball I don't know... seems to me like finals footy is all about it so may as well train and play it week to week.

Simpson did mention a few times he was working with a new gameplan of faster movement. He probably struggled to implement it though as he was brought up with the slower playing style.

 

[RookiePick]

McGinnity --> Shanahan in the #35. Looks like we're establishing a theme to be sure, to be sure!

 

[Happy Mastenator]

Simpson did mention a few times he was working with a new gameplan of faster movement. He probably struggled to implement it though as he was brought up with the slower playing style.

To be fair, you have to have the cattle to play that way. Feel like once we lost Jetta off half back it slowed us right back down.

 

[ZergMinion]

How do you turn player card preferences off, I'm sick of scrolling down for miles every time someone writes a players full name

Sent from my SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app

I think its something the poster of the gibberish has to do.

 

[ZergMinion]

How do you turn player card preferences off, I'm sick of scrolling down for miles every time someone writes a players full name

Sent from my SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Help - Tapatalk App Issues (Includes Player Cards and random emoji codes)

Where is the option to remove the player cards from the app? Makes posts unreadable. Go here: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/account/preferences Scroll to the bottom "Sports Data" option.

www.bigfooty.com

 

[We_The_West]

The Batman - Harris Andrews 2.0







Definitely looks like he's got the attributes to make it as a KPD.

At least he won't have to deal with the anxiety of losing the first ruck battle...

 

[amazingjoshy]

To be fair, you have to have the cattle to play that way. Feel like once we lost Jetta off half back it slowed us right back down.

Jetts retired at exactly the wrong time.

Wouldve loved to have seen one season of him with the stand rule

 

[PremiershipNo4]

Linkedin post had the new boys photo shoot (apologies if these have been up for weeks, not a huge checker of LInkedin)

Pics look pretty awesome. Bring on next year.

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Great pics!

 

[mattyc75]

Help - Tapatalk App Issues (Includes Player Cards and random emoji codes)

Where is the option to remove the player cards from the app? Makes posts unreadable. Go here: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/account/preferences Scroll to the bottom "Sports Data" option.

www.bigfooty.com

Hopefully that works cheers. Never could have found that without the link

Sent from my SM-S921B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Astro7]

To be fair, you have to have the cattle to play that way. Feel like once we lost Jetta off half back it slowed us right back down.

Fair call, Simpson had a whole playing list indoctrinated with the stop/kick/mark procedure. Can't recall how many zippy speedsters there were apart from Ryan, Rioli, Jetta and supposedly Petrucelle; but it would've been a long overhaul to convert to a fast chaos ball style, as was partly proven. As a coach he had to also change his mindset. Then came 2 years of injuries and all that la-de-dah, it was doomed and ripe for the big broom!

That Barnett's got a leap and some sticky mitts!

 

[Obeanie1]

Simpson said it himself numerous times: coaches hate things being out of their control and want play style to be 'predictable'.

It's probably why Richmond was such an outlier during their premiership run.

Well we were predictable that is for sure.

Unfortunately the opposition could read our plays like a book and counter them easily.

Wonder which side the Eagles will bring the ball out of defense? The same side we always do.

 

[Coasters7]

Agreed - time will tell whether the actions back up the words.

We actually looked okay moving the ball fast under J.Schofield in the back half of 2024... why Simmo was so against embracing the chaos ball I don't know... seems to me like finals footy is all about it so may as well train and play it week to week.

Doesn’t even necessarily have to be “chaos ball”, Richmond circa 2019, where there were next to no skills.

Brisbane and Sydney both play high octane transition ball but they do it with skill.

Moving the ball quick is a prerequisite of modern footy to catch the defence out. Beats me why it’s taken till now for us to try to consistently take the game on. When we’ve done it we’ve looked good. Wont always work out with a young squad but as long as the intent is there.

 

[flyinghi64]

Just heard on the news Ginbey may have injured an ankle/foot in a tackle.
Came back and finished the session but will be one to monitor.
Not sure if anyone was down there and saw it, hopefully they can shine more light on it if there was.
Please don't be anything to worry about.

 

[woosha24]

Beats me why it’s taken till now for us to try to consistently take the game on.

Honestly my opinion on this is, more than any other side in the comp, we're a team that plays according to "the vibe".

If we get a couple of goals in quick succession then the team look like champions - energy is high, contested effort is high, etc.

The second an oppo team rallies and/ or shuts us down, however: the heads drop, the one-armed half tackles crop up, finger pointing stats rise, etc.

We need to learn to cut the emotion out and just get on with the job. A system that we can play to consistently will go a long way towards that.

 

[wirra44]

Just heard on the news Ginbey may have injured an ankle/foot in a tackle.
Came back and finished the session but will be one to monitor.
Not sure if anyone was down there and saw it, hopefully they can shine more light on it if there was.
Please don't be anything to worry about.

If he came back and finished the session is probably a good sign , hopefully it was just a stinger