Training Training Thread 2023

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How was Xerri looked this preseason? Does Goldy, CCJ, and xerri all play?
Has improved his tank and looked good in the intra. All three won’t play together.

It’ll likely be Larkey/Comben with Goldy and one of CCJ/Xerri.
 
So, based on the preseason so far, what are the predictions for the year?

Be more competitive? Let us get a taste for how we go against another club before we shoot the load.

I’m an optimist by nature but I just have a sneaking suspicion it will go much better than anyone here can imagine.

I have a pretty big imagination.

Logic being, in 2021 in Noble’s first season we didn’t look like winning a game early in the season. But when we got going, 4.5 wins was the outcome. Given we lead GWS by 28 at 3/4 time - let’s call it 5 wins for the purpose of this discussion. And that was under a coach who couldn’t coach.

The problem with Noble was that he came in and said we need to kick more of a score and focused on the offensive side of our gameplan but we didn't have a good system of retaining the ball.

I think the lack of system hurt us and the lack of skill killed us. I think we would have on average made 5-7 howler defensive errors per game MORE than the opposition every game so we pretty much were 30-42 points down before the match started. If you take that score off all of our defeats last year it puts a lot of losses into contention when you consider we put the cue in the rack in the last quarter after matches were long gone.

We just had poor structure, our spine was garbage, McKay missed a fair bit of footy with injury/concussions, we didn't have Cunners in the guts. A spine with fully fit McKay, Logue, Goldy, Comben and Larkey plus adding Cunners is a massive improvement over what we had last year. Powell looks primed to have a big season, our biggest challenge is going to be how we handle team selection and the onball scenario.

However, you need 360 degree pressure to do well in AFL games, high pressure on the ball carrier, high pressure on those who are receiving the ball, more tackles, more one-on-one wins. We lost way too many defensive one-on-ones around the ground last year, if it takes 2 or 3 players to force a tackle or disposal of the ball it leaves other players loose. If we bring in lighter bodied players into the team, they MUST be able to pressure and be able to stick tackles. We still had a lot of players in the practice match who didn't have a tackle or only had 1 tackle and didn't really look like they had any interest in the defensive side of the game so still need to see more of it happen.


Now add just natural improvement from the young list, we should have been aiming for 8 wins in 2022, but of course for a number of reasons that didn’t happen. However, I reckon 2021 was a truer indication where we were than 2022 is.

I think we have a pretty good draw to win games, Eagles here, Freo away then Hawks in Tasmania, a high possibility of being 2:1 after round 3. Saints, Essendon, Giants, Hawks again, Saints again, Eagles again, Essendon again, Suns in Tassie probably all in the mix. I'd say Crows are a possibility but that is in Adelaide and I can't remember the last time we didn't play like drug overdose victims in SA. There is potential to win games if our confidence is up early and we have good availability over the season.

With Clarko and his new coaching team, new recruits like Logue and Tucker, and natural improvement from the likes of Curtis and co, i reckon 10-12 wins is possible.

It can take time to adopt a new gameplan and for everyone to gel, I just hope we are competitive this year and look like we might have a chance to win more consistently.
 

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Saints will be an interesting watch.

King, Membrey, Hayes and Allison all injured at the moment- who’s going to kick their goals for the first month or two?
One of the more humiliating experiences of the last few seasons, and there have been many, is watching those bunch of imposters push us around
I used to just laugh at how utterly useless and born to fail they were and now they don’t even raise a sweat kicking our butt
looking forward to a New North
 
One of the more humiliating experiences of the last few seasons, and there have been many, is watching those bunch of imposters push us around
I used to just laugh at how utterly useless and born to fail they were and now they don’t even raise a sweat kicking our butt
looking forward to a New North
Was it 2019 when larkey and zurhaar kickied five each on them?
 
Who's worth more?

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vs

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Double up games against Eagles, Hawks, Drug Cheats, Saints and GC should see 5-8 wins at least.
When was the last time we beat the drug cheats? I'll take 2 x wins against them and pawt (if we pay them twice). Any beyond that are bonuses, though we should be a show against hawks and eagles.
 
I ran through the rest of the teams and could make a case for almost all teams bar Hawthorn to be good enough to make finals. I think that we will have the greatest improvement of any team but will it be enough to bridge the gap enough to get us into the Top 8 dance? I have my doubts only because a bunch of our most talented players are inexperienced and it appears we are still planning to hold onto senior players who should be moved on and that will knock a couple of percent off our best.
 
It’s tough, but I’d have to go the key forward.

Then again, worth is dictated by the market, and Ben is off contract hitting his peak years.

The intraclub got me thinking when they competed a few times. Ben is rightly recognised as a key piece of the puzzle to lock away.

But Nick has become such an integral part of the side over the last 3-4 years it's easy to overlook the fact he's actually a year younger than McKay.
 

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The intraclub got me thinking when they competed a few times. Ben is rightly recognised as a key piece of the puzzle to lock away.

But Nick has become such an integral part of the side over the last 3-4 years it's easy to overlook the fact he's actually a year younger than McKay.

I think Pound for Pound, McKay is the better player in his position.

However KPF vs KPD evens it up slightly from a North perspective.
 
Loving the different views on how we should set up.

In years gone by it was 8 or so decent players and shitmen filling the remaining spots.


(GROUP A)
  1. Phillips 0 games in 2022
  2. Sheezel -0
  3. Comben- 1
  4. Archer- 3
  5. Bergman- 1
  6. Ford-3
  7. Goater-1
  8. Wardlaw-0
  9. Dawson -4

13 games for the up-and-comers in 2022




(GROUP B )
  1. Goldy- 22 games in 2022
  2. Zurhaar- 19
  3. McKay- 15
  4. Curtis- 15
  5. McDonald- 22
  6. Scott- 21
  7. Simpkin- 21
  8. LDU- 21
  9. Ziebull- 19
  10. Larkey- 20
  11. Hall- 11
  12. Greenwood- 21
  13. Corr
  14. Logue- 0
  15. Tucker- 0
  16. Shiels- 0
  17. Howe- 0
  18. Cunnington- 2
232 games for grp B in 2022


(GROUP C- shitmen)



  1. Mahony- 13 games in 2023
  2. Xerri- 12
  3. CCJ- 10
  4. Taylor- 22
  5. Lazzaro- 12
  6. Perez- 16
  7. Bonar- 10
  8. Powell- 18
  9. Spicer- 5
  10. Turner- 17
  11. Young- 20
  12. Stephenson- 16
171 games for the Shitmen.


Too many games played by the Shitmen for my liking. Hence why we're dead last I suppose.
I think Powell will drag himself out of the mire. A few others may follow
Perez, Young and Bonar are all OOC at seasons end, which speaks volumes for how they're perceived internally one could suggest.

With Logue, Tucker, Shiels, Howe in the mix along with a raft of youngsters Curtis Taylor would want to be careful imo.



So I'd like to see most weeks

Group A- 6

Group B- 14

Group C- 3

That gives us experience, enough youngsters in the side and minimal shitmen.

10/12 wins right there.
 
Gold Coast should well and truly have our measure this year. They are ~3 years further along the list development road than us.
Who said we should be following same development path as anyone else? There is no such thing as 3 yeats ahead. By that logic GC should play finals and push for top 4 next year. But it may never happen.
 
You are very tough on the backmen
the bizarre decisions to move on Frog and Ats, who could actually Defend, and stay on a man , and play a team defence game plus Taz shafting us meant we lost 7 years of teamwork down back

2022 saw
perez back from injury, Bonar new to the caper, Hall patchy, Corr new to us plus the ongoing JZ experiment
let alone the mids who are unwilling or unable to play both ways

the number of games that these blokes have played together is minuscule
I would play Howe, no doubt on your lower list, plays close, limited but effective
it’s the endless coughing up that kills us, not the Clanger but the Super Clanger where the opponent is gifted a goal
 
Absolutely, we’ve also got the hardest run into the season, both Richmond and bulldogs will be eyeing top four.
I see those two games as a real positive. Everyone will be fully tested and Clarko and his staff will learn a lot from those games moving into round 1. Judging by the optimistic comments in this thread I think some of the supporters will also become a bit more realistic in their expectations. We are coming off the extreme lows of almost two years of Noble's ineptitude and Clarko will achieve huge improvement, but I think that will be evidenced by North becoming competitive again rather than a large number of wins that will put us in finals contention. For me the pass mark is about 7 wins and anything above that will be a bonus. We have an excellent draw to help us climb the ladder.
 
Loving the different views on how we should set up.

In years gone by it was 8 or so decent players and shitmen filling the remaining spots.


(GROUP A)
  1. Phillips 0 games in 2022
  2. Sheezel -0
  3. Comben- 1
  4. Archer- 3
  5. Bergman- 1
  6. Ford-3
  7. Goater-1
  8. Wardlaw-0
  9. Dawson -4

13 games for the up-and-comers in 2022




(GROUP B )
  1. Goldy- 22 games in 2022
  2. Zurhaar- 19
  3. McKay- 15
  4. Curtis- 15
  5. McDonald- 22
  6. Scott- 21
  7. Simpkin- 21
  8. LDU- 21
  9. Ziebull- 19
  10. Larkey- 20
  11. Hall- 11
  12. Greenwood- 21
  13. Corr
  14. Logue- 0
  15. Tucker- 0
  16. Shiels- 0
  17. Howe- 0
  18. Cunnington- 2
232 games for grp B in 2022


(GROUP C- shitmen)



  1. Mahony- 13 games in 2023
  2. Xerri- 12
  3. CCJ- 10
  4. Taylor- 22
  5. Lazzaro- 12
  6. Perez- 16
  7. Bonar- 10
  8. Powell- 18
  9. Spicer- 5
  10. Turner- 17
  11. Young- 20
  12. Stephenson- 16
171 games for the Shitmen.


Too many games played by the Shitmen for my liking. Hence why we're dead last I suppose.
I think Powell will drag himself out of the mire. A few others may follow
Perez, Young and Bonar are all OOC at seasons end, which speaks volumes for how they're perceived internally one could suggest.

With Logue, Tucker, Shiels, Howe in the mix along with a raft of youngsters Curtis Taylor would want to be careful imo.



So I'd like to see most weeks

Group A- 6

Group B- 14

Group C- 3

That gives us experience, enough youngsters in the side and minimal shitmen.

10/12 wins right there.
The question with this analysis is around the inclusion of Stevo, Powell, Taylor, CCJ, Perez and Bonar in Category C.
 

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