2023 Preseason

[Aaron]

Official Injury update on 10 Feb

Lance Franklin. Sam Reid and Tom Hickey continue to work through their individual pre-season training programs. Expected to feature in the upcoming pre-season practice match series

Nick Blakey -glandular fever. To be rested for approximately three weeks
Ryan Clarke - hamstring strain 2 weeks ago. progressing well and has recommenced some integration into football skills.
Joel Amartey - hamstring strain , sidelined for a few more weeks
Hayden McLean - low-grade quad strain last week; expected to reintegrate into training next week.
Sam Wicks - sprained shoulder last Wednesday.Further investigation before plan to return.

[bloodspirit]

Handy injury update.

I believe they are going to have a match practice tomorrow and coming Saturdays. Don't know about the start time.

I saw Blakey at training the other day standing by and watching on, not even participating in handball drills so I wondered what was going on. Now we know.

[SeanM]

840am now and the senior players have turned up. So assume some kind of match play will occur this morning.

[troyjones2525]

Hopefully there are a few RWO representatives at the match sim today because as usual the media reporting from the club has been next to nothing in regards to match sim and player updates in the pre season.

It seems year after year you read about every other club (including GWS so it's not just a NSW thing) about who's flying in match sims etc but we never see anything from our club (except on here).

Our media department leaves a lot to be desired...

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[SeanM]

It started around 915am. It seems like it was 3 quarters with a drink break halfway in each quarter. After the match the players were doing more drills.

I tried to roughly write the teams down at the start. There were also VFL or Academy players involved.

Red
Gould Edwards Francis Vickery Mitchell Rankin
Ladhams ChadWarner Sheldrick Mills Gulden Stephens
McAndrew Logan Heeney Konstanty Hayward Papley

Blue
McCartin McCartin Rampe Cunningham Fox Florent
Owen Parker Rowbottom Campbell Roberts Mcinerney CoreyWarner
Hall-Kahan


1st quarter
* Red Logan - Logan marks a clearing kick from blue's defence 30m out from goal and converts set shot.
* Red Papley - There is a pack of players around the ball 25m out from goal. Ball gets to Papley who is standing free on the outside and snaps from 25m central.
* Blue unsure - Morrision centres the ball then someone picks up the loose ball and quickly snaps from 25m in front
* Blue Parker - Blue mids win it from the centre bounce and immediately attack, it eventually gets to Parker who kicks a goal 50m out directly in front.
* Red Logan - Papley kicks it to Logan who is free. He converts the set shot 30m at an angle

2nd quarter
* Blue Parker - Parker picks up a loose ball in the forward pocket, breaks a tackle then snaps from 20m out at an angle.
* Red Logan - Mills with a short flat kick finds Logan who made a short lead. He takes the mark and converts from 30m in front.
* Blue Roberts - Roberts takes a mark in the forward pocket and converts the set shot
* Blue Parker - The ball is in front of goal in a pack of players. Someone handballs it back to Parker who is free 25m out directly in front. He quickly snaps a goal.

3rd quarter
* Blue Vfl player - Hall Kahan kicks it to a VFL player who marks and converts a set shot from 25m at an angle
* Red Mills - Mills picks up a loose ball 40m in front of goal and has a quick shot and kicks a goal.
* Red Heeney - Papley marks the ball 50m out on the counter attack. And kicks it to Heeney who is running into goal. Heeney marks it 10m out directly in front of goal. Then converts the set shot.
* Red Heeney - Hayward picks up a loose ball on the edge of the 50m and finds Heeney in space. Heeney converts the set shot 25m directly in front of goal.
* Red Owens - Rowbottom makes a low pass to Owens 35m directly in front of goal. He converts the set shot.

In the third quarter the teams got mixed up a bit (Eg Rampe leading the reserves defence vs seniors attack, some mids swapped teams and fox/florent were on the red team defence)

[SeanM]

I thought Parker was good. Obviously a big goal threat from midfield. But seeing him up close, he was very intense and competitive at the contest. Campbell looked good buzzing around the midfield at full pace. Executed quite a few classy attacking kicks on the run under pressure. (I feel long term Campbell/Gulden offer something unique to our midfield with their attacking kicking)

As a unit Hayward/Heeney/Papley was an attacking threat with their movement across the forward line especially in the 3rd quarter. Florent/Fox seemed to provide most of the run from defence.

Of the more long term young players. I thought Owens did better than expected competing against Ladhams in the ruck for most of the day. Vickery made a nice run from defence, bouncing a few times and past a few players. And also had a few moments of composure in defence.

[707]

Thanks Sean, please keep it coming until we eventually appear on the telly. I think a scratchie/pre season game or two is on Fox/Kayo?

[liz]

I stopped by to watch as well. I thought I had arrived at the end of the first of four periods but, reading Sean's account above, maybe I arrived midway through the first period. They were just finding positions after a break as I found my spot on the fence. Parker's long range goal on the run (I think from further than 50m out) was the first score I mentally registered.

A bit like the match play on Wednesday last week, I thought the session displayed effort rather than high levels of skill. There was a lot of fumbling and the "kick it to a teammate" mantra mostly ignored the requirement for that teammate to be wearing the same coloured top. There was also a general absence of the kind of hard running in support of the ball carrier or running into space that we hope to see when the real stuff starts. I don't know if the hot conditions (it was hot, even before 10am) or the small size of the ground contributed to that, or if they were just not playing at full intensity. The pressure and tackling were decent - certainly more impressive than the ball movement.

I thought Parker and Campbell were the standouts, consistent with Sean's view expressed above. I also thought Florent was busy, purposeful and neat. And while Gulden wasn't exempt from the mistakes and fumbling that plagued most of the players, there were a couple of impressive second efforts from him to spoil or tackle at the next contest.

McDonald had a much better outing than 10 days earlier, largely by finding space on the lead rather than taking contested marks. (I don't recall seeing him take a contested mark, but thats not to say he didn't.) The main difference to 10 days ago was that, at least in the last two full periods that I saw, he had Francis as his opponent, rather than Paddy Mac of the earlier session. Sean has attributed both McCartins to the blue team, at least at the start of the game. I didn't see them out there at all. Certainly they weren't playing in blue defence in the last two periods down at the southern end. Maybe they had shifted to the red team and so were up at the northern end, which was further away from where I was stationed - I could pick out Rampe in defence at that far end, but not the McCartins.

There was one incident late in the game that suggested Mitchell still has some way to go. (As one would expect, but he's been talked up a bit by teammates in the scant media that has been made available.) The red team had just put together their best passage of ball movement all morning, with the aforementioned running in support magically materialising for a moment. The ball was in Mitchell's hands as he ran inside the forward 50, close to the boundary line. He just needed to execute a 15m pop kick over the top of an opponent for an easy mark to McDonald, who had lost his marker. Instead he let rip with a low percentage, long kick at goal. He missed. There was no visible or audible remonstration from a controlled McDonald but you could still sense his frustration. Or maybe I was projecting my frustration onto him.

[Scottee]

Hopefully there are a few RWO representatives at the match sim today because as usual the media reporting from the club has been next to nothing in regards to match sim and player updates in the pre season.

It seems year after year you read about every other club (including GWS so it's not just a NSW thing) about who's flying in match sims etc but we never see anything from our club (except on here).

Our media department leaves a lot to be desired...

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You took the words right out of my mouth.

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[troyjones2525]

You took the words right out of my mouth.

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After reading on the AFL page about Richmond's match play today I decided to check our official app to see if there's anything from today's game. Surprise, surprise there's crickets!

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[SeanM]

I remember seeing P.McCartin in the 1st quarter. I think he had a facial clash with McAndrew and had a cut to the face so may have sat out the rest of the game. Initially McAndrew was playing as a tall forward partnering Logan. But he seemed to come back later in the ruck.

I don't have any specific memories of Tom McCartin. At the start it seemed to be senior forwards matched up against senior defenders. And the two midfield were even strength. So I may have just assumed he was there.

In the 3rd quarter. It appeared to be senior forwards matched up against reserve defenders plus Rampe. I could hear Rampe constantly talking to his defence and organising them.

Also when I got there at 830am, some of the guys on light training loads like Franklin and Reid were playing a very low intensity match sim with the academy players on a narrower marked out oval. It might have been 10 a side. I assume it was to get them moving around in a match setting.

[i'm-uninformed2]

Unfortunately Blakey is out for at least three weeks with a mild (if there’s such a thing) case of glandular fever.

[troyjones2525]

How did Konstanty and Sheldrick go?

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[Ruck'n'Roll]

Let's hope Blakey hadn't been particularly close to his team mates, Mono can be extremely infectious and debillitating.

[707]

Thanks Liz for your report, cheers