2024 Preseason Training Reports (Delayed information)

[GVGjr]

This is from the Doctor from Friday 8/12/23.

I also dropped in for a squizz. My focus was mainly on some of the recent draftees/recruits.

- There was a 3 way kicking drill and I focussed on the group in front of me which involved Darcy, Jamarra and Poulter. Can I put it out there the recent images of Darcy looking like Tarzan are wide of the mark. He is still a beanpole but very impressive today. His ground level ball handling was superb. At one stage the kicking switched from regular short and sharp low trajectory drop punts to Banana kicks and around corner kicks using the wrong foot. Each of the 3 executed this very well with Poulter sublime.

There was another kicking drill which ended with a player given the choice of two leading options. Overall I thought this was sloppy as players missed their targets or made it difficult. However Busslinger and Lobb just drilled their kicks down the throats of their intended target.

- Nick Coffield was a stand out for me today. He has an impressive physique and strong. He looks ideally suited to the 3rd tall role. He started a great piece of play down the wing with a great pass to Sanders who then beautifully weighted a pass to the advantage of Darcy who duly converted from the angle.

- Gags is also building up nicely. Looks strong across the shoulders even when standing alongside more seasoned players. Some his kicking today was a delight. He hits some challenging targets. This acknowledged by some of the trainers and coaching staff. He also went in for some centre bounces and made at least 2 bursts out of the centre and was rewarded for a holding the ball.

- Sam Darcy, I mentioned his ball handling at ground level. It was astonishing really. He also marked strongly, kicked superbly and out muscled Lobb in the ruck several times, one of these resulted in a snap goal from the contest. He was terrific today.

- Jamarra is starting to look imposing. Took a screamer in front of me over Keath despite being the meat in the sandwich. Great mark. His ball handling at times was a little sloppy. Ran from the forward line to defense to spoil Clarke near the goal square to save a certain goal

- O'Donnell is also looking more physically ready. I was impressed with him today. He spent time on all the big gun forwards and did very well. He also directed a bit out there and was more vocal than I expected him to be.

- Sanders was an absolute star in the handball drill where there were 5 or 6 a side working in a confined area. He knows how to find space and I didn't see him miss a target once despite the chaos going on. His composure was first rate. He also laid a clamping tackle on Libba and was rewarded for it. You don't often see that. During a match sim Bevo called Sanders over and had him change teams and sent him to defence to take on Flea. He was successful in spoiling Flea twice when Flea looked to be in the best position. The first spoil highlighted his closing speed as he was at least 5 metres behind at one stage but managed to get the spoil in.

- Charlie Clarke. I thought he really struggled today. In the handball drill he wasn't really able to keep up and didn't get much of it. He was sucking in the air big time during some of the sprints.

A few other observations

- West spent some time in defense and was quite good but his kicking on the way out was not so good.

- Lachlan Smith is a strong young man and outbodied Darcy in the ruck a couple of times. Had a stint up forward opposed to Buss

- I thought Buss was good today. He seems to show incremental improvement with each outing.

- Astro appeared in defense for a short period

- Vanders should not be allowed to goose step. He did kick a nice left foot snap

- Bevo's kicking is in desperate need of repair. It was shocking to be truthful

- Chris Grant must be going to the same gym as me. He must be working on building up the belly region.

- Sam Power & Milesi were present and there were quite a few youngsters watching on in their training gear. There were a few indigenous boys among them and Arty seemed to know at least one of them

[GVGjr]

The one from Meenies on Friday 8/12/23

Also there today. I concur with a lot of what Doc said here.
For the match sim:
Darcy was beating Lobb in ruck, but broke even with Smith.
I was getting confused with the quick swap ends, second guessing of West was down back, but Doc confirmed I was not imagining it. He got plenty of it but kept spraying the kick. If he cleans that up he would start in the 22 each week.
Agree about Clarke. He did well in early drills but was just lost in match sim.
Sanders was the link player through all sessions. All class.
Also really liked Coffield in most drills and Gaggs should be a starter as well.
Not overly happy with some of Williams efforts.
Didn't think today was a JUH day.
I was a bit concerned in the End Zone drills where the movement was very deliberate, methodical, and slow. It reminded me of the tactics we used during the season when we used precision but short passes to try and move forward. This will not win us games.
Also, not sure if it was just today, but the 4th phase drill did not impress me too much, in that I think far too many were only going at half efforts at best. I haven't been to other days to know if this was normal or maybe just today's mix of strong winds and heat.

[GVGjr]

This one from Critter from Friday 8/12/23

My initial impression after a few minutes' orientation was how well some of the players' bodies have developed physically. Darcy is super impressive and moves far better than his 208cm would suggest he might do; Busslinger's shape is good - broad shoulders, strong thighs and is running much better this year; Weightman has lost his boyish looks is quite chiselled now; and, as Gary said in an earlier post, Buku appears to have added muscle. He was stronger in holding his ground.

The training drills have been described elsewhere. Players? efforts in Skills Drills were encouraging, the Match Sim less so. The wind really blew up later in the morning, making it harder to hit targets in the Match Sim. The intention of all sessions appeared to be to keep up the pace. Players were timed when moving from one group to another so as to keep up the pace and the coaches ensured the ball(s) were moving non-stop. Shorter kicks out of the back line and long kicks to fast leads in the forward line seemed to be the order of the day.

• Bont joined the skills session, kicking with his right foot. Otherwise, he was restricted to running drills.
• Bailey Williams - looks really fit and ran strongly. Caleb Poulter also looks good and matched him in contests.
• Jack Macrae - from the distance he looked slimmer this year. Moved well with hand and foot and had a good strong encouraging voice.
• JOD - He's gonna be ? No, I?m not going to put the mozz on him. Except to say he looks an exceptional talent
• Buku - Maybe there's a chance. Was good in the skills drills, maybe not so much in the match sim. Contested well in the air but his ground ball play was better than last year. Looks stronger. The impression I have is that he needs to hone his focus on the moment.
• Adam Treloar - as you'd expect, fast clean and efficient
• Riley West - Interesting. Often, he appears to be working at 110%, impossible I know but you get my drift. At times he was mercurial with some great hard running and strong, clever kicking. But it's when he finds himself off balance from trying to make good a wayward kick coming in to him that things get wobbly. He gets off balance and because he's going so hard that he seems to find it difficult to get back on balance. So, he either fumbles the ball or mis-directs his kick. My solution would be simply to keep playing him. He will reward us.
• Artie Jones did a lot of running by himself or with Lachie Bramble or in special skills training, one on one with one of the assistant coaches. Maybe its fitness, who knows. He even did a session of goal kicking practice from multiple points around the arc. He nailed them all one except one.
• Riley Sanders will play Round 1. The list management team got him right.
• Coffield looks likely for the first round also. Good size, is strong and moves well as a defender.
• Gallagher got lots of the ball and carried it well.

Nothing in today's session was definitive but a lot of it was encouraging.

[GVGjr]

The one from Dog Town from the Friday 8/12/23 session.

A few things that I noticed

Khamis looked really good behind the footy if he was able to get set up for a hack kick or down the line kick. Challenge will be when he gets turned around. Took quite a few intercepts during the match sim.

JOD took a very big pack mark over Darcy in the match sim. He looks great at the moment, his defensive craft has developed very rapidly. Using his body very well and seems a leader already. Was often one of the main instructors behind the ball.

Sanders won several clearances against most of our front line mids. As others have mentioned over the last two weeks he is a clever user of the ball. Not a flat kick but weights his kicks really nicely and can use his hands to put others in space.

In the defensive exit kick drill I got the feeling we were not interested in spreading the ground. 90% of the ball movement was skinny side and very narrow. It was exceptionally windy at that point so that could be part of the reason. Lots of short kicks and handball receives in tight quarters but not many lateral kicks.

O’Driscoll pace is very eye catching. Came off the back for a couple of handball receives and he is electric.

Coffield looking confident in his body. I watched his vfl games late last year and he wasn’t really committing himself to every contest coming off his knee. I thought he looked really good.

Harmes has fit in well and played multiple roles.