Preseason training

[bulldogSimmo]

Thanks for the updates which are good reading..seems like a few spots up for grabs and there will be healthy competition which can only be a good thing

[mal68]

This is the last Doggy-Bag Takeaway I will share here on this thread albeit it this one is from Mondays match-sim session.
If you are still sitting on the fence about making a contribution to discussions here on WOOF and still haven't responded to the welcome message you have received hopefully this might motivate you a bit more.
On Monday there was 4 reports from the members here posted on the Rewards Board.

Doggy-Bag Takeaways - 13/01/25 (12)

Muzzled Dogs
Ugle-Hagan was not sighted on the track today which has been the norm on Mondays.
Naughton was primarily in the rehad group for running. He is apparently 3 weeks away from a full return
Weightman, Gallagher, Dolan, Coffield and Treloar were also mainly having their workloads managed with Gallagher spending the most time there.
All players did a power of running. I should add that Hynes played 2 or the 3 match sim quarters before sitting out the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter which was more or less a match scenario drill.

Skill Drills
With AFL umpires there it was a bit surprising to see the amount of running the players did before the match-sim started. They did a lot of running.
Offensive and defensive drills were done at a fast pace.
Plenty of keepings-off and midfield congestion type drills.

Match Sim
No Footscray boys to top up the numbers was a bit of a surprise.
Players were split into 2 teams, Blue and while. It seemed like it was 16 v 16 with a couple of players spare but we maintained a full wing and midfield set-up
I'll try and cover off as many players as a I can.
Poulter was used forward again and frequently he was matched-up Lobb. He's had a very good pre-season and has often been in a new role up forward.
Gardner vs English was the main ruck match-up. English was very good and must be a long way ahead of where he was 12 months ago. Gards did well and made a couple of marks down back and a couple of defensive spoils.
Scott rotated between midfield work in the centre square and half forward. He wasn't overly noticeable but used the ball quite well when he got it.
Garcia was in the midfield and seemed to have had some defensive assignments and was frequently trying to move Sanders away from the ball. I don't think he did that well today and overcooked a couple of kicks,
A.Jones was on the wing for the majority of the session and while if did okay he was also a little hesitant when he is looking for options to pass the footy. He was frequently against Davidson.
Baker got a lot of the footy and used the ball well for the most of the time but when he makes a mistakes it's a bad one. In one example he was having a shot from a fairly tight angle but somehow shanked it and it was OOBOTF.
Busslinger was the FB today and match-up on the forwards. On a couple of occasions he was against English who was resting forward and he was able to negate in the contests.
West was very competitive today and kicked to goals and was very good at clearing out his opponent when they got near the ball.
McNeil was also good today, he didn't get a lot of the footy but made the most of it when he did. He did his normal defensive acts.
O'Donnell was a CHB and performed well and went on one good run when he had the footy.
Last years picks Sanders and Freijah had excellent games. Sanders kicked the opening goal and got a lot of the footy. Freijah was used across half back so I expect we are going to play him there.
Croft was used in a couple of positions but I don't think the wing is a role we should consider for him. Smith was mainly played as the FF against Busslinger and he probably only spent 10 minutes in the ruck.
Bramble was across half back and frequently push forward. I liked his performance today.
Vandermeer kicked a nice goal and performed well. He fell victim to a English forearm when he tried to tackle him and had a bit claret coming out of his nose.
L.Jones and Khamis played as key defenders, Duryea sporting a headband was somewhat quiet.

The better players were Bontempelli, Richards, Darcy (3 goals) out marking Jones with 2 of them, Sanders, M.Kennedy and Liberatore.

Pupdates
Hynes had a good outing for half of the game before coming off. Had a chat to David King he mentioned he caught the eye.
Jaques played as a forward but had some excellent marks and interceptions and kicked a goal after out positioning his opponent.
Dolan didn't play in the match sim.
Davidson was the pick of the pups and was excellent as a winger. One particular repeat defensive effort against Richards was very encouraging.
L.Kennedy has a decent game, he got a bit of the football and his kicking was once again a feature.

Thanks for this, a shame you won't share any more here as it is quality

I am intrigued by the Gardner thing, is the plan for him to be 3rd tall down back and provide relief for Tim? Or just need someone to do it in the scratch matches and he is not commanding a spot anywhere else

[GVGjr]

Thanks for this, a shame you won't share any more here as it is quality

I am intrigued by the Gardner thing, is the plan for him to be 3rd tall down back and provide relief for Tim? Or just need someone to do it in the scratch matches and he is not commanding a spot anywhere else

You could also use it as an incentive to make more of a contribution to discussions and earn your way on.
Having 100's of members who only use the site as a Blog is the exact recipe for a site without advertising or sponsors to close down. Are you aware a heap of club specific websites have closed since WOOF started?
Some of them had as many 800 to 1000+ members in their prime but ended up with only 50 to 100 actual contributors and in the end the admins for those sites decided to give it away.
I get a lot of people see themselves as time poor but if they can spend an hour on here having a read every other day, they actually have time to make some contributions if they're committed.
We reward active contributors with one thread each year that targets the preseason and in season training at the WO.

[Thebont88]

Thanks Gary for the updates.

Im excited to see how we go with these match sims now with another pre season getting even fitter as a team due to being 2 years now under the new fitness boss.

[Dogs 24/7]

I am intrigued by the Gardner thing, is the plan for him to be 3rd tall down back and provide relief for Tim? Or just need someone to do it in the scratch matches and he is not commanding a spot anywhere else

The match sims reports are indicating it's Gardner in the ruck against English which means we are preferring to keep Lobb as a CHB and Darcy up forward. With Naughton having a managed workload and Marra not on the track at this stage it seems fair to keep Darcy forward. I doubt Gardner is a chance to play as a defender for us but if he is to be the #1 ruck at Footscray then this is great for him to learn a bit more.

[mal68]

So presumably we'd have to carry a third tall defender (JOD or Buss maybe) to allow Lobb to give English a break in game.

Any idea if Smith is recovering from an injury? Would have expected he'd be playing more in the ruck

[Dogs 24/7]

So presumably we'd have to carry a third tall defender (JOD or Buss maybe) to allow Lobb to give English a break in game.

Any idea if Smith is recovering from an injury? Would have expected he'd be playing more in the ruck

That's not how I'm reading it. Unless we make a surprise move in adding Gardner, Darcy will back up English on match days.

[Dogs 24/7]

Thanks for this, a shame you won't share any more here as it is quality

It is good content and there were 3 other reports from Mondays match sim with plenty of different observations shared.
As a Doggies supporter I'm obviously on WOOF but also on another VBulletin forum which has traditionally had a lot of lurkers like we do here.
They have done something similar to incentivise members to contribute and it's working out well.
There is a heap of content already on here you can enjoy. Simply speaking fan sites like this that have say 90% of their members as lurkers don't survive unless they have advertisers.

[GVGjr]

This is the first time the club has posted this much information regarding training that I can recall

Training times in January 25

Bulldogs fans can catch their favourite players training at Mission Whitten Oval on the following days in January before they depart for our preseason camp in Queensland at the end of the month:

• Friday 17 January – 9:30am to approx. 11:30am
• Monday 20 January – 9:30am to approx. 11:30am
• Wednesday 22 January – 9:30am to approx. 11am
• Friday 24 January – 9:30am to approx. 11:30am

ALFA Café will be open for refreshments and the Bulldogs Shop will be open from 9am – 2pm on the above dates and stocked with the latest gear for season 2025.

Please note that the above training times are open for members and fans to view training however, players will not be available for boundary signings or photographs.

Players will only be available for signings and photographs at advertised sessions held periodically throughout the year.

All player signing sessions will be advertised on our social media pages.

[Danny Delre]

Massive change from a few years ago, when sessions were locked. Amazing

I will try to make it down either tomorrow or friday

[GVGjr]

Massive change from a few years ago, when sessions were locked. Amazing

I will try to make it down either tomorrow or friday

They haven't really been locked for the last 3 seasons. There was a gap when the builders were fixing a few things.
That is vastly better with communication though, I'd say they've received a lot of calls an emails and decided to do something about it.
For a couple of seasons I've been getting a message each week confirming the days the boys will be on the track.
You never quite know until you get there what the session will be but it's typically like this.
Monday - Bigger session running session with a lot of footy drills. Sometimes match-sim.
Tuesday - in the gym, perhaps some running but a gym session.
Wednesday - The light session of the week. Technical based skill session
Thursday - The players day off.
Friday - A bigger session, more likely to have a match-sim. Plenty of running and a high number of short and sharp drills.
Saturday - Normally a hills running day. This is done away from the club.
Sunday - Players day off.

During the season the training days and schedule gets flipped around a bit depending on what day we are playing on but where possible Thursday is the players day off.
This is where the regular watchers get some advanced information on who is likely to debut and match selections. There is normally an announcement to the group and a fair bit of noise.
We only share that information on the Rewards board to a smaller group so that the club can control the announcement.

[bulldogSimmo]

Any clue why Jamara isn't training all sessions? Is it rehabbing or an unknown issue?

[jazzadogs]

Any clue why Jamara isn't training all sessions? Is it rehabbing or an unknown issue?

I think the most accurate answer is "nobody has any idea".

I noticed he shared the Indigenous AllStars jumper on Instagram, suggesting that he might be playing in the game against Freo on Feb 15. Has that squad been announced?

[DISHLICKERS]

28 new and returning members have joined in the last 2 days.
Here is a snippet from the more detailed Doggy-bag Takeaways from Monday.

Pupdates
Hynes had a good outing for half of the game before coming off. Had a chat to David King he mentioned he caught the eye.
Jaques played as a forward but had some excellent marks and interceptions and kicked a goal after out positioning his opponent.
Dolan didn't play in the match sim.
Davidson was the pick of the pups and was excellent as a winger. One particular repeat defensive effort against Richards was very encouraging.
L.Kennedy has a decent game, he got a bit of the football and his kicking was once again a feature.

L Kennedy has surprised a few with his kicking especially both feet and is somewhat of a smoky for Round 1

[GVGjr]

L Kennedy has surprised a few with his kicking especially both feet and is somewhat of a smoky for Round 1

Someone the other day mentioned that's it's a bit hard to know where the club could slot him in at the senior level and I think that rings true.