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  1. #16
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    2023 Preseason training reports (delayed)

    A lot of people have joined the site recently and based on the feedback it was mainly to access the 2023 Preseason Training reports.
    It got that popular we have moved the thread too it's own board but it is also restricted to the members of WOOF who make contributions to discussions. We explain the reasons why we do this in the welcoming messages we send.

    What I thought I would do is move a small sample size copy of selected reports onto the Unleashed board but they won't be the latest ones. You are reading a small subset of discussions not the recent ones.
    People will still need to be a contributing member of WOOF to access the latest reports.
    There will also be no discussions on this thread just some copies of previously posted content moved over.

    In essence, if you want to see the latest reports and potentially join in the discussions please join WOOF and introduce your on the new members thread which will start to unlock your access privileges.

    What you are missing in this thread compared to the original is a number of good write ups on Fridays 27th match sim, plenty of quality comments, plenty of questions and answers from a highly knowledgeable membership base and some very good visuals plus some reports from the two open sessions at Rye.
    Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"

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  3. #17
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    I am pretty sure it was only 3 x 20-22 minute qtrs of full match practice this morning. I had to leave after 3 quarters but did hear several staff say it was 3 quarters only.

    Goals
    Weightman- 3
    Lobb-2
    Bont-2
    Hannan-1
    Daniel-1
    Williams-1
    Macrae-1
    Naughton-1
    Raak-1
    Sweet-1
    English-1

    As covered by others today was the first time we have played the majority of the senior side together (I would say 16-18 of the set 22) and then we changed up in the 3rd qtr.

    I will focus on the white team (probables) mainly and their line up

    Forward line was Naughton, Lobb, Jamarra, VDM, Weightman and Hannan.

    Backs started with Jones, Darcy, Gardner, Dale, Richards and Daniel from what I could see.

    Wings appeared to be Baker, Williams and Scott

    Mids- Bont, Macrae, Libba, Mclean

    Blue Team notable positions were West, Smith, Garcia playing midfield, Keath, Bruce and Cleary as the key defensive trio, Gallagher back (started on Weightman). McNeill I noticed playing some wing time.

    White team absolutely dominant as expected particularly once the game settled. I think they kicked the first 7 and it was 10 to 1 after 2 qtrs.

    Clear team focus on shutting down ball movement, celebrating the little wins for getting a spoil in, creating a stoppage, denying the team a mark and forcing it down the line. Not always executed perfectly but players were clearly celebrating these actions so fair to say it is a priority to get that attention to detail right in team defence.

    Back 6 was interesting. Obviously they have kept the blue team nearly scoreless to half time with the only blue goal coming from a Sweet chest mark over the back of a pack. I wasn’t convinced by the trio of Jones, Darcy and Gardner but things will obviously evolve. This was largely due to Darcy not being quite as commanding in the air as he was in previous games. Will touch on him later. As a group I thought they looked more assured and organised with Keath replacing Darcy later in the match. In the 3rd qtr Jones/Keath/Gardy did really well opposed to almost our starting forward line. Jones coming off his man to support exceptionally well a few times and a few intercepts from Keath as well.

    Quite a bit of heated instruction and yelling today which isn’t unusual. I do wonder what losing some of our best on field organisers might do but hard to gauge in these matches.
    Forward 6 are definitely working hard on their chemistry and creating psace for each other. Spangher stood behind the goals and encouraged players off the ball more than the guys who actually got the ball.

    Some individual player reviews

    Jamarra- Mentioned earlier that he is working very hard he just needs to finish his work. Highlights would be a couple of contested marks, some clean marks on the lead and his work rate. Room for improvement would be his finishing as he missed twice and general quality. He dropped a sitter which was a certain goal, took a good mark on a fast play then slowed down and scuffed the short pass kicking while walking backwards. If he fixes up those small details it becomes a pretty good game very quickly. Took a contested mark on Bruce inside 50 then didn’t make the distance too.

    Baker- I have held back on him but he did some really nice things today and you can see the genuine speed. Not convinced he is a natural winger but he has speed and aggression. His junior highlights are filled with running bounces and long goals so hopefully we start to see that comes out.

    Williams- Played wing, did pretty well. I think he will try to push forward on the fat side (off ball) and stretch oppo wingers. Took 2 marks inside 50 doing this today in the space of 5 minutes.

    English- Not as many intercepts today but got quite a bit of the ball. Probably a bit more even with Sweet in the taps today but English pushed forward hard on him early and caught him out twice.

    McLean- Lock for round 1 in my view. The only person who had the same intent and physical presence at the ball today was West. Toby was very good I thought the only issue will be where he goes when Smith/Treloar step back into that mid mix. Gives us too much low to the ground intensity for him not to play in my view.

    West- Played on ball and I can tell the coaches really want him to succeed. Got some encouragement from a couple of them as he went to the middle to start the game. His intensity, physicality and intent to win the footy is really noticeable it is just going to be the positional fit and ability to impact in transition. Looks great when the ball is in 10-20 metre bubble around him and might be in our best 15 players without fitting in the best 22 (potentially). Hard to gauge whether they are ok with him dropping back to the small forward role or its mid or nothing. Would like to see him release the ball quicker by hand, got too much vision and agility for his own good sometimes.

    Macrae- Man up please blue team

    Sweet- I thought he did ok today, did better in the taps and fought back well on English. Got some little touches around the ground, little 45 hit ups, 1-2 handball chains to stay involved.

    Bruce- Really interesting to watch him. Did some great proactive things that you normally associate with someone starting to sync with what he needs to do but the ball in hand stuff is a real worry. He left his man brilliantly at one point and beat one of our key forwards to run off with the ball and gave it straight back. He is running off his man and getting involved too but he just doesn’t have that natural ability in traffic when the game opens up in front of him. I wouldn’t write this one off he is really having a crack at it.

    Bont- Was taking the piss most of the time, could have kicked 4 goals if things went his way. Cleary ran him down after dodging 3-4 tacklers.

    Cleary- Took the kick ins for blue team. Started on Jamarra and halved some important contests, good tackler and willing to compete. He will play at some point.

    Keath- Very assured later in the match and ran to join in transition with the ball. Very funny moment when Naughton took his only real contested mark for the day on Keath’s back. Players all went to laugh and stir Keath up then realised who it was and pulled out sheepishly.

    Sullivan and McComb appeared to be the top up mids for blue team.

    Garcia- Little bit behind the other on ball options I think. Certainly having a crack I just wonder if forward isn’t a better option for him at this stage with the queue ahead of him.

    Naughton- I am not concerned by this but he didn’t look like it. Was probably better at ground level to be honest just wasn’t his usual aerial threat which again makes me think he is deliberately holding back. Kicked 1.2 I think but I can only remember 2 marks.

    Daniel- Started back and then by 2nd qtr was playing half forward and rolling up to the stoppage. They have a code for this which I think I have deciphered which I wont share here but it appears to be Macrae/Libba calling the shots on whether we roll one up to a throw in or ball up. We generally do bring someone up and play with 5 forwards and then Naughton/JJ (when there) or even Cody will call out 1 of 3-4 formations ahead of the ball eg: line out, 2-2-1. Daniel predictably caused a bit of havoc in this role. There was noticeable confusion in the third with players from both sides trying to work out what the plan was at one stage to counteract it.

    Dale- On a swirly day where ball movement wasn’t always crisp you really start to appreciate the flatness of his kicking. Very obvious that white team had an early advantage with Dale, Daniel and Richards at ground level in D50.

    Richards- More intercept marks and more metres gained. Not as many conventional D50 intercepts today more setting up well in the press. Blue team in particular couldn’t find an exit kick early and kept giving it back to our high backs.

    Jones- Probably the best from him so far against good opposition. Was absolutely gassed after a small effort at one point which makes me wonder how we will handle his rotations against a tall front 6. He was very assured under long balls and came off to support lots of times.

    Gardner- Made a few errors but took a couple of intercepts.

    Duryea- I am a huge fan but today wasn’t his best. Got caught with the ball a couple of times.

    Vandermeer- Made some errors with ball in hand which he needs to fix but he also ran down several players which I suspect is why he is rated highly.

    Lobb- Kicked 2 and one of them was an absolute bomb. He actually isn’t getting in many direct 1 on 1 or even pack marking contests at the moment but seems to find space on quick kicks. Rucked for a bit in the second which was when Sweet goaled.

    Weightman- He was very good, took a great pack mark early, pressured fairly well but to me looked the most likely of our forwards. Baker hit him up nicely at one point and he also kicked a banana from a little hook lead. Played midfield minutes in every qtr (maybe 2-3 bounces) then went back forward.

    Smith- His running is just going to be critical for us. Seemed a little off in some respects but his running was strong and it was his first hit out. Not sure everyone was stoked with him dumping Scott in a tackle.

    Scott- I thought he looked very good not for the first time this pre-season. Went off injured but I did see him running after that.

    Some other stuff will probably come back to me later on.

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  5. #18
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    Quote Originally Posted by Mantis View Post
    Yep, 1st choice forwards against 1st choice backs… Darcy into the ruck for Blue team and Keath swaps teams.

    Bont into blue team too.
    1st choice backs were Duryea, Jones, Gardner with Dale, Keith and Richards as the half backs. Keith is definitely on the improve and was impressed with Jones marking, running and short kicking skills. Duryea was in the thick of it but just couldnt quite find the extra time that he normally has. Richards was the best by far, Dale was good but did scrub a few kicks.

    One interesting thing was the use of Laith as the interchange half back. He did quieten down Weightman who had a good game and showed good courage however his disposal was below average.

    Will give some of my thoughts on the midfield set up and forward running patterns later

  6. #19
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    Looks like I get first shot then if G posting later this arvo (I'm sure DT will have something to say as well).

    As already noted, there was a heavy contingent of 'better' players in the White team (first qtr scoreline of 5.2 to 0.0 supports this, at half time it was 10.2 to 1.0).

    As mentioned previously there were significant 'choices' by coaching staff for the White team's starting line up which included the usuals plus Mclean, VDM, Scott, Hannan, Darcy, Baker, Duryea and Williams

    For the Blue team, significant players included West, Bruce, Garcia, B. Smith, Keath, R. Smith, Cleary and 6 VFL top up players (had initially counted 5)

    Players not involved in match sim included Treloar, JJ, Buss, O'Brien, Bedendo and Clarke (NB - Bedendo didn't participate in any of the warm up drills at all whereas most of the others did).

    Some positional player notes:
    In the first period for the White team, VDM played fwd, Daniel and Darcy defence, Scott and Williams on the wings.

    Mclean and Cody got short runs thru the middle for the White team.

    For the Blue team, the fwd line consisted of Buku and Raak and the VFL top up players along with the Blue team's resting midfielders, so didn't represent a lot of challenge for the White team's defence - at one stage Darcy was on West while on another occasion on Craig Cooper Peters (all 0f 165CMs).

    As a result, Jones had a bit of a picnic. Even with the very clear lopsidedness of the contests for him, I still thought he worked just as hard as you would want/expect and think we can be less fearful of the possible 'negativity' around him being 32 and having time away from the AFL.

    As the scores for the first two periods show (ie 10.2 to 1.0), the ball was in the White's fwd line a lot. I thought Cleary had a good defensive game on JUH and that Keath didn't harm his chances of a Rd 1 call up matching up on either Naughton/Lobb.

    I also thought Sweet didn't do a bad job, albeit restricted to his ruck work.

    At various stages in the match sim, Lobb and Darcy contested centre square ball ups while Bruce and Naughty attended a couple of fwd ruck contests. NB - Sweet was the lone ruck for Blue team until the third period so would have attended most ruck contests on the day.

    Some 'highlights'
    - Flea and Naughty taking big grabs in the forward line in the first qtr (Naughty failed to convert however)
    - Flea's banana kick from the boundary in the second period
    - bad head knock to Scott in second period (not a highlight). NB - he ran laps for the entirety of the 3rd period, so that action bodes well given his history of concussion
    - Lobb's big goal from outside 50 in the second period (NB - there was only 3 periods and not 4 quarters)
    - soccer goal by Bont in last period was worthy of an EPL shirt...

    Some interesting moves made by match committee in the second period included CD forward and VDM to half back. While Caleb was fwd he kicked a goal and gave an assist to Macrae.

    After two periods, jumpers were swapped (as mentioned in a previous post) and we then had first choice backs vs first choice forwards. As a result, the period yielded 2 goals apiece for each team. Gallagher was the only player (apart from Scott) to come off and not be involved in the third period.

    Some notes from third period:
    Darcy vs English in ruck (in one contest Darcy simply reached over English for the ball)
    Bruce moved forward and having a run in the ruck
    Darcy moved forward (and took a couple of marks albeit against VFL opposition)
    B Smith 'quieter' in this period (may have run out of gas as he worked pretty hard for the Blue team in the first two periods which was good to see).

    Some overall observations of likely Rd 1 players:
    Bont, Macrae and Libba in fine touch
    Until he went off, Scott was having a very good game along with McLean
    Jones, Gardner, Darcy looked strong as a (tall) defensive unit
    Dale and Richards are in for good years as is Daniel
    Baker got a lot of possessions and Williams outmuscled Roarke a few times on his wing
    JUH, Lobb and Naughton got amongst the goals, but were better tested in the third period against stronger opposition. JUH worked hard but is still clearly third in the pecking order of tall forwards behind Naughton and Lobb.
    West and Keath would be happy with their games while playing for the Blue team in the first half

    And finally...thought a strong endurance game from Arty and took his game up a notch (again), Raak and Buku absolutely starved of opportunities. Raak took a nice mark and goaled in the third period (when the teams were better matched) whereas Buku may have only touched the ball a couple of times thru the three periods. Roarke didn't do enough of what we know he can do (thought Williams easily accounted for him on the day), while Garcia was as tenacious as ever, but also went missing - likely when resting forward (same for McComb and McNeil).

    Think that about does it - a bit of rambling and of course, just how I seen the the match sim pan out. Looking forward to other observations from the day.
    Anyone can support a team that is winning, it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you, that takes a lot of courage, so lets always be behind our boys and girls in red, white and blue.

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  8. #20
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    Not sure I could add too much from the great reports provided by dt & Smads... and my work colleagues didn't get the memo I was spending time watching footy training as my phone was running hot... one even asked if that was a whistle in the background?

    My main obs were:

    - McLean looked really good... strong and running hard with nice precision with his kicking.
    - Williams, Scott & Baker all prominent on the wings.
    - Bont looked great... moving as well as I've seen from him.
    - L.Jones the best of the defenders, but as per dt's comments he is gasping for air at times... hopefully the aerobic conditioning improves with more games under his belt. Thought Keath had a strong last qtr when he switched teams... Gardy defended ok, but you close your eyes when he has the ball in his hand when under pressure.
    - As prominent as I've seen Arty in match sim... he has some tricks and he is progressing. I think we all expect kids to come in and make an immediate impact, but for his type (speculative pick, light frame) it's going to take 3-4 years.
    - Dale's kicking was ridiculous at times.
    - Daniel played on the 'fringes' of the pack and was prominent.

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  10. #21
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    Warm-ups were kept to a minimum. Some light run through and kicking before the extended version of match sim.

    At least 4 top up players with Poulter and Sullivan the most noticeable and 2 or 3 others. Two of the top up players were small forward types.

    The starting line-up for the first half and before the jumper changes:
    Home Team, Blue Team, B Team, Possibles (or whatever you want to call them)
    A.Jones, B.Smith, West, Cleary, Sweet, Gallagher, Keath, R.Smith, Raak, Khamis, McComb, Sullivan*, Poulter*, 2 other Footscray players, Treloar (suited up but ran laps) McNeil, Garcia, Crozier and Bruce

    Away Team, White Team A Team, Probables (or whatever you want to call them)
    VDM, Naughton, English, Libba, L.Jones, Dale, Bontempelli, Gardner, Scott, Daniel, Baker, Marra, Weightman, Lobb, Richards, Darcy, Williams, Macrae, McLean, Hannan and Duryea

    Busslinger, Clarke and O'Brien on running duties. I don't think I saw Bedendo doing much running at all. I didn't see JJ.
    3 AFL field umpires in attendance and our coaches manned the boundary lines.


    Starting Wings had R.Smith pitted against Williams and McNeil against Scott. I saw Baker on a wing a bit later.
    In the centre square it was Sweet, Sullivan, Garcia and B.Smith vs English, Bontempelli, Liberatore and Macrae.

    A few other match early match-ups were:

    Bruce vs Lobb
    Cleary vs Marra
    Keath vs Naughton
    Khamis had Jones or Darcy against him at various times.

    Some quick highlights included:

    English floated forward and converted his chance.
    Weightman took a good mark and goaled and in the next quarter he did a banana kick from he boundary line for a goal.
    Darcy getting schooled in a marking contest by one of the smaller Footscray boys
    Weightman had a couple of stints in the middle
    Lobb a goal from 55mtrs out set shot
    Marra a goal but also one of the worst efforts I've seen in missing an uncontested mark
    Baker gave away a 50mtr penalty for disputing an umpires decision (it was a bad decision by the umpire but still)
    Baz had to nominate as the ruck in one of the contests followed by Buku a few seconds later.
    Sweet outmarked Lobb for a goal
    Macrae outmarked Bruce
    Williams outmarked R.Smith for a goal

    I'll add a bit more later but I don't want to miss my deadline with Axe Man
    Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"

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  12. #22
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    Question time for all those who went along to the match sim:
    What did you think of the way we used Caleb Daniel?
    While we have somewhat telegraphed our best team at the moment who along with Adz, Baz and maybe JJ might force their way into the side by R1?
    How will we use Mitch Hannan this year?
    Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"

  13. #23
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    Re: Preseason Training for 2023 Season

    Quote Originally Posted by GVGjr View Post
    Question time for all those who went along to the match sim:
    What did you think of the way we used Caleb Daniel?
    While we have somewhat telegraphed our best team at the moment who along with Adz, Baz and maybe JJ might force their way into the side by R1?
    How will we use Mitch Hannan this year?
    I'll have a go...

    1. Caleb did seem to have some 'freedom' as to when to roll up to contests and when to play his normal role across half back (which is where he tended to start at each centre bounce). The bigger question is whether others eg VDM, Darcy, Weightman (even JJ) will have roles where they play multi positions depending on the state of a game so we do have some plan B options in 2023 for the coaches to consider.

    2.The only persons on today's effort who will push for a 'White' jumper next time were Keath and West in my mind.

    3. I'm a bit on the fence with Hannan's game today. he was in the play often enough (as was most of the White team's fwd line), but don't think he stood out...but that's not your question....in most match sims he is playing high half forward, so expect that is where we will use him. We are getting closer to Rd 1, so roles/positions from today's hit out would/should be close to how we line up against Melbourne I suggest.
    Anyone can support a team that is winning, it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you, that takes a lot of courage, so lets always be behind our boys and girls in red, white and blue.

  14. #24
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    Re: 2023 Preseason training reports (delayed)

    A lot of people have joined the site recently and based on the feedback it was mainly to access the 2023 Preseason Training reports.
    It got that popular we have moved the thread too it's own board but it is also restricted to the members of WOOF who make contributions to discussions. We explain the reasons why we do this in the welcoming messages we send.

    What I thought I would do is move a small sample size copy of selected reports onto the Unleashed board but they won't be the latest ones. You are reading a small subset of discussions not the recent ones.
    People will still need to be a contributing member of WOOF to access the latest reports.
    There will also be no discussions on this thread just some copies of previously posted content moved over.

    In essence, if you want to see the latest reports and potentially join in the discussions please join WOOF and introduce your on the new members thread which will start to unlock your access privileges.

    What you are missing in this thread compared to the original is a number of good write ups on Friday 10/2 match sim, Monday 13/2 training session, plenty of quality comments, plenty of questions and answers from a highly knowledgeable membership base and some very good visuals.
    Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"

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