Pre-season 2020

[stevoswan]

That’s great to hear about Hayward training the house down. I was going to post in the other thread about Will being one I’d like to see step up and have a breakout year. With his talent he could be much more than just a 10 touch 1-2 goal player. I hope he gets a bit more on ball time this year, adds another different mix for us in there.

He certainly looks to be in great shape. It appears he has made a real commitment to taking that next step.....it's exciting. Of course, his potential always has been.

[707]

Sorry about the lengthy quote Liz, I must have got a bit over excited at the Hayward news! Which is great news !!!

[stevoswan]

Buddy is sending a warning......

'I'm as hungry as ever': Look out, League. Buddy is back

[MattW]

Buddy is sending a warning......

'I'm as hungry as ever': Look out, League. Buddy is back

That article is my new favourite thing.

[Aaron]

The Club invites all fans to come along and watch the final training session of the year from 8.30am on Thursday, December 19 before the players go on a break. Open training session

[bloodspirit]

I dropped by training today although I don't have much to report.

As barracuda has already observed, there is a lot of match/play type drills going on, and even before that all the drills I saw (I missed the start) were involving balls. The squad, apart from those rehabbing, was divied into three teams that wore different colours (red/yellow/white) for a good part of the drills and they would have two teams competing and the other team either doing something else or ready to substitute in. There did appear to be an emphasis on moving the ball quickly and trying to replicate the speed of games at AFL level.

One of the players who impressed me most today was George Hewett. He just seemed to be working hard, thinking ahead and getting in good positions to offer an option to teammates when he didn't have the ball, and using the ball well when it was his turn. He's pretty close to becoming my second-favourite player. I wouldn't be surprised if he were added to the leadership group this year with Smooch's departure. I imagine the reason that he has not been a part of it to date is because he has been focused on his own game and is relatively quiet, more of a doer than a talker. This may remain the case, so it won't surprise me if he isn't elevated to the leadership group either. It might be time for him to step up and show some more leadership to those around him because I think he has his game quite well in control.

I saw all the draftees although I didn't happen to see Warner participating in anything. When I first arrived, the large group had been divided into a few smaller groups that were training drills separately. The one close to me included Will Gould and Elijah Taylor. I'm not sure if Gould had a big night last night, is feeling the effects of a couple of weeks of training or just hasn't settled yet but he was not executing his skills very well. He kept fumbling and then kicking the ball over people's heads or past them and dropping marks. At first I thought he was unlucky and he just got a few tricky ones but it happened a number of times. Possibly he was flustered after the initial bad luck. Anyway, I don't read much into it except that he wasn't 'on' this morning and hopefully he will settle soon. Elijah Taylor conversely was very neat with his kicks and seemed to get some easier balls and so didn't fumble.

Overall during this drilling stage I perceived the more experienced players in general were a lot less fumbly and cleaner with the ball. Despite this I was surprised how often the playing group in general was missing their target when they were doing an exercise that involved players kicking to each other from four different points after picking up the ball on the move. The kicks were maybe 20-40 metres but mostly closer to 20 m and I would have thought wouldn't present that much of a challenge to professionals but apparently it is not that easy to quickly pick up a ball and kick it to a team mate 30 metres away (under no opposition pressure).

There were a couple of players I struggled to recognise for a while. One was Jackson Thurlow. He was rehabbing with Amartey and McLean. McLean was out of his moonboot, which is positive. [Cal Sinclair is the only one of our rucks participating in main training and even he's wearing a fluro hat (which apparently means no contact - maybe he has to wear the hat because Amartey, Naismith and McLean are all rehabbing?). Actually Knoll was fully participating in the training as well as Cal.] Anyway... together Thurlow, Amartey and McLean were doing drills throwing balls to each other. Both Amartey and McLean were throwing balls to Thurlow simultaneously and Thurlow was doing a brilliant job of catching and returning everything and looking very casual, relaxed and assured while he did - giving them pointers in the midst of the exercise. Hopefully a good sign for Thurlow. He's going to need to show something on the field pretty soon I reckon.

It was fun seeing some of the coaches participating in the drills. Stevie J was involved kicking (and marking) the ball at various stages. Macca actually played in some of the match simulation stuff. Ronke was defending him at one point, and putting Macca under pressure, which was good to see. The best moment was when the white team got the ball and kicked it out of defence, marked, and moved it quickly on, bombing into the forward line. The ball was coming in right on top of Cal Sinclair's head and he had two opponents nearby. One of them was Macca and Cal Sinclair hip and shouldered Macca aside with Macca winding up on the ground before Cal attempted to mark the ball. I enjoyed that.

It was interesting to see they have started tackling already, during the match simulation drills. I'm sure they're a lot more careful than in a game but they are still fully tackling each other to the ground (albeit with the coaches then immediately calling "back it up! back it up! which appeared to be a direction to cease the tackle but I might have been mistaken).

Naismith was training alone. Running a few laps. And repeatedly trying some Eddie Betts style snaps at goal from hard up on the boundary in the deep forward pocket. Who is he trying to kid?! Few of his attempts went through that I saw.

There was also a young kid (maybe about 12 years old) hanging around playing with the footies and wearing #11 and having kicks at goal. He even got a bit of coaching from Nick Davis. He was having slightly more success with the snaps at goal than Naismith.

OK, that's all I've got for today.

[dimelb]

Thanks bloodspirit, a good read and very encouraging, especially Cal Sin. If we can get a full season from him it would be worth several steps up the ladder.

[barracuda]

I dropped by training today although I don't have much to report.

As barracuda has already observed, there is a lot of match/play type drills going on, and even before that all the drills I saw (I missed the start) were involving balls. The squad, apart from those rehabbing, was divied into three teams that wore different colours (red/yellow/white) for a good part of the drills and they would have two teams competing and the other team either doing something else or ready to substitute in. There did appear to be an emphasis on moving the ball quickly and trying to replicate the speed of games at AFL level.

One of the players who impressed me most today was George Hewett. He just seemed to be working hard, thinking ahead and getting in good positions to offer an option to teammates when he didn't have the ball, and using the ball well when it was his turn. He's pretty close to becoming my second-favourite player. I wouldn't be surprised if he were added to the leadership group this year with Smooch's departure. I imagine the reason that he has not been a part of it to date is because he has been focused on his own game and is relatively quiet, more of a doer than a talker. This may remain the case, so it won't surprise me if he isn't elevated to the leadership group either. It might be time for him to step up and show some more leadership to those around him because I think he has his game quite well in control.

I saw all the draftees although I didn't happen to see Warner participating in anything. When I first arrived, the large group had been divided into a few smaller groups that were training drills separately. The one close to me included Will Gould and Elijah Taylor. I'm not sure if Gould had a big night last night, is feeling the effects of a couple of weeks of training or just hasn't settled yet but he was not executing his skills very well. He kept fumbling and then kicking the ball over people's heads or past them and dropping marks. At first I thought he was unlucky and he just got a few tricky ones but it happened a number of times. Possibly he was flustered after the initial bad luck. Anyway, I don't read much into it except that he wasn't 'on' this morning and hopefully he will settle soon. Elijah Taylor conversely was very neat with his kicks and seemed to get some easier balls and so didn't fumble.

Overall during this drilling stage I perceived the more experienced players in general were a lot less fumbly and cleaner with the ball. Despite this I was surprised how often the playing group in general was missing their target when they were doing an exercise that involved players kicking to each other from four different points after picking up the ball on the move. The kicks were maybe 20-40 metres but mostly closer to 20 m and I would have thought wouldn't present that much of a challenge to professionals but apparently it is not that easy to quickly pick up a ball and kick it to a team mate 30 metres away (under no opposition pressure).

There were a couple of players I struggled to recognise for a while. One was Jackson Thurlow. He was rehabbing with Amartey and McLean. McLean was out of his moonboot, which is positive. [Cal Sinclair is the only one of our rucks participating in main training and even he's wearing a fluro hat (which apparently means no contact - maybe he has to wear the hat because Amartey, Naismith and McLean are all rehabbing?). Actually Knoll was fully participating in the training as well as Cal.] Anyway... together Thurlow, Amartey and McLean were doing drills throwing balls to each other. Both Amartey and McLean were throwing balls to Thurlow simultaneously and Thurlow was doing a brilliant job of catching and returning everything and looking very casual, relaxed and assured while he did - giving them pointers in the midst of the exercise. Hopefully a good sign for Thurlow. He's going to need to show something on the field pretty soon I reckon.

It was fun seeing some of the coaches participating in the drills. Stevie J was involved kicking (and marking) the ball at various stages. Macca actually played in some of the match simulation stuff. Ronke was defending him at one point, and putting Macca under pressure, which was good to see. The best moment was when the white team got the ball and kicked it out of defence, marked, and moved it quickly on, bombing into the forward line. The ball was coming in right on top of Cal Sinclair's head and he had two opponents nearby. One of them was Macca and Cal Sinclair hip and shouldered Macca aside with Macca winding up on the ground before Cal attempted to mark the ball. I enjoyed that.

It was interesting to see they have started tackling already, during the match simulation drills. I'm sure they're a lot more careful than in a game but they are still fully tackling each other to the ground (albeit with the coaches then immediately calling "back it up! back it up! which appeared to be a direction to cease the tackle but I might have been mistaken).

Naismith was training alone. Running a few laps. And repeatedly trying some Eddie Betts style snaps at goal from hard up on the boundary in the deep forward pocket. Who is he trying to kid?! Few of his attempts went through that I saw.

There was also a young kid (maybe about 12 years old) hanging around playing with the footies and wearing #11 and having kicks at goal. He even got a bit of coaching from Nick Davis. He was having slightly more success with the snaps at goal than Naismith.

OK, that's all I've got for today.

Awesome update! I have a feeling Budwa might be in the leadership group this year.

[bloodspirit]

Awesome update! I have a feeling Budwa might be in the leadership group this year.

Thanks barra! That's generous. Thanks to you too, dimelb.

I figure that if Buddy wanted to be part of the leadership group, he already would be. He seems content to lead in an informal capacity. Do you think he has changed his mind? Or do you have some inside mail? He tends to take the forwards under his wing a bit (e.g. I reckon he's done a fair bit for Papley's development and a bit for Blakey last year) and so he might particularly take an interest in young Elijah. Will be great if he does.

[SeanM]

I appreciate the training reports.

I am on leave next week. So looking forward to watching a training session and seeing the new draftees.

[bloodspirit]

It will be interesting to hear others reports from training and see what other people notice and compare notes.

I will aim to make it to the open training next Thursday because hopefully there will be some opportunities to chat to players and other personnel. I generally haven't tried to engage the players when I have been there, even when they have engaged with me a little, assuming I shouldn't distract them from their training. Generally they don't seem too interested either, although the day the new draftees arrived they were a bit more engaging, perhaps because I was wearing a conspicuous hat. (Cal Sinclair told me he liked it. I couldn't tell if he was having a (friendly) go. He was wearing a fluro cap at the time.) Please feel free to come and say hello. I'll probably be wearing my hat. If in doubt, come and check it out.

[wolftone57]

I have been trying, in vain, to browse the photos from the Coffs Harbour training. Unfortunately they will not come up. I have informed the IT people at the club, twice for two different pics, but still no action. Hoping something happens soon because I enjoy looking at the pics.

The reason pics, video etc are important to me is that I live in Laos and they are my only contact with the footy and our continued development as a squad. We have a team in Laos called the Lao Elephants who I am going to help develop the game with. They are Soccer mad here but with enough exposure they could come round

Sent from my ANE-LX2J using Tapatalk

[bloodspirit]

Here's a really lame article repeating what has already been reported which seems of dubious value anyway: https://www.afl.com.au/news/267609/w...-up-pre-season.

[Mel_C]

I have been trying, in vain, to browse the photos from the Coffs Harbour training. Unfortunately they will not come up. I have informed the IT people at the club, twice for two different pics, but still no action. Hoping something happens soon because I enjoy looking at the pics.

The reason pics, video etc are important to me is that I live in Laos and they are my only contact with the footy and our continued development as a squad. We have a team in Laos called the Lao Elephants who I am going to help develop the game with. They are Soccer mad here but with enough exposure they could come round

Sent from my ANE-LX2J using Tapatalk

Are you using the swans app or the website? This week I have been unable to the view the various photo galleries on the app. I have gone to the website and have had no problems.

[Auntie.Gerald]

BS looks like ex Poet adelaide Aidyn got his chance and didn't convince the swans?

Nowhere to be seen now ?