TRAINING: Friday 15th November 2024

[Demonland 73,140]

Demonland Trackwatchers took advantage of the beautiful sunshine to head down to Gosch's Paddock and witness the return of Clayton Oliver to club for his first session in the lead up to the 2025 season.

DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Clarry in the house!!

Training: JVR, McVee, Windsor, Tholstrup, Woey, Brown, Petty, Adams, Chandler, Turner, Bowey, Seston, Kentfield, Laurie, Sparrow, Viney, Rivers, Jefferson, Hore, Howes, Verrall, AMW, Clarry

Tom Campbell is here training separately with trainers not in Dees training gear. 

Windsor running laps after the warm up. 

Boys starting some basic kicking drills post warm up. 

Tholstrup wearing number 12.

Clarry looking sharp and a lot fitter and trimmer than last preseason. 

There’s a guy here who looks like Harry Sharp but I’m not close enough to tell and he isn’t training. 

Choco just yelled out to the players that the kicking in the last drill (no pressure mini circle work) was great and that he wants to see it continue that way in the next drill which has more pressure. 

Not Harry Sharp. The guy we thought was Harry Sharp is Tom Couch who is coming on board as a conditioning coach. 

Woey back in number 40 guernsey. 

Kick out simulation drill taking the ball from defense to forward line. 

Clarry and Rivers lining up on each other. 

Verrall is a big unit. 

Petty playing as a defender. Whether that is because there are no other senior defenders training (TMac, May, Lever) is anyone’s guess. 

Turner, JVR & Jefferson are the targets up forward. 

Kentfield playing forward of centre too.

With the simulated kick out to forward line transition drill their are 2 teams, blue and white, with white outnumbered. Players swapping blue and white to simulate them having to attack or defend in the their particular position. 

Judd playing mainly in defence. 

Andy Moniz-Wakefield wearing #34.

Petty on JVR in this drill. Again could be for lack of senior defenders at these early sessions. 

Ball was miskicked to JVR and Petty read the fall of the ball better, mopped it up only to be immediately sandwiched in a tackle between JVR and Tholstrup. 

Looks like Chandler might be doing some more midfield/high half forward this season perhaps replacing Nibbler’s role. 

Something new from a “discipline” perspective as opposed to previous preseasons. Whenever a drill is finished and they go to get water on the boundary. They have to sprint to the boundary. Nothing groundbreaking but reckon it sets a standard. 

Players doing sprints along the square line of the wing. 

When the whistle blew they were instructed to get water and as per my previous post they had to sprint to the boundary.

Few players were gassed and on their haunches and a few players yelled to get up saying “body language”. Player quickly bounced up.

Obviously a standard is being set.

Team split into 3 rotating drill groups. 

1. One on One marking and if dropped a tussle to get the loose ball  

2. One on One loose ball on the ground with the player who doesn’t get the ball having to tackle. 

3. Another one on one loose ball but with the goal for the player who wins the ball to get a handball off to a player running past. 

Tholstrup and then Sestan doing some tackling work with a trainer before rejoining the drills. 

Windsor back doing the contact drills after doing fast paced running along the boundary. 

Runners are now on. Some players running at a good clip along the boundary and some sprinting the length of the Centre square. 

Brown, Woey, Chandler and Laurie the best of the boundary runners. 

Tholstrup making sure all the boys get off their asses and “get up” in the rest periods. 

Clarry gassed after the sprinting. Not the only one. 

Sprinting and running finished. 

Now goal kicking practice. 

I have to leave so I guess we’ll have to wait until Round 1 to see if they’ve improved. 

FRITTA AND TURNER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Demonland pretty much has got it all covered but ...

Arrived at 9.45 and cones and coaching staff were in position, awaiting the players.

Big news obviously was Clarry in attendance; he was greeted enthusiastically by Goody.

I thought one of the players might have been Sharpie, but the Ghost Writer sorted that out for me.  It was Tom Couch who has taken up a conditioning coaching role.

The boys looked very sharp, carrying the ball through the center for a long kick to JVR, Jeffo for a goal.

Some of the boys have that AFL walk, or strut, that appears as arrogance but more likely simply ther affect of all that lower body conditioning.

Sprinting back to the boundary line after a drill was noticeable.

Choco was in strong and demanding voice.  One of the coaches light heartedly called out 'F... Cheat' during one of the competitive drills.

Viney was the most senior player training.

WAYNE WUSSELL'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Can't add much to what Demonland has already posted. Clarrie cruise through some early drills, but when they moved to the full ground activity, he showed he still has that burst speed. On one occasion he ran with the ball from the centre through to the 50-metre zone, being hotly pursued all the way by Riv, who couldn't quite catch him.

Another highlight for me was seeing Tholstrup leading to a high kick, being shadowed by AMW. Tholstrup leapt high and almost grabbed the mark on the second attempt, however, AMW got a hand in to spoil in the air then mopped up the loose ball. All of this at top pace.

Viney was Viney! Hard as nails, bouncing up like a rubber ball when taken to the ground.

Howes continues to excite with defensive run and fine spoils in the air, much like Jud when he burst into the team.

Riv looks great and seems ready to build on last year's excursion into the centre square.

Marty Hore is another who looks to be at peak fitness levels already.

Sestan looks comfortable in his role linking with the forwards. Another who has returned looking in better physical shape than last season.

Browny gets a lot of it and has genuine pace. One rapid run on the Punt Road wing, bouncing the pill, was scintillating until the ball refused to come back up and he stuffed it. Got caught!

Disco is not quite as tall as Roo or Jefferson, but he makes up for it with timing and those great hands. 

KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Got down for a quick look. Had a tennis game to go to so only got a glimpse.

One particular drill involved a keepings off via kicks. They were looking for space and accuracy. One of Choco's gems was "see the space before you get the ball, so you know where to move to"

Saw some sims. They players love it. Once into the bibs and no bibs, I could see the joy on their faces (let's get into it kinda joy).

The backline passed it around until a lead up field was "on". Goody was hanging in this area. Then they were getting a flood going. Often finding another pass or an outside run. Bowey was doing some beautiful passes. Looks like he has really matured in his execution, good vision and decision making. The ball went quickly into the forwards. There were three of them and doing hard leads in all directions, though with the pattern that Chaplin wants.

I get the impression that they may resort to getting as many mids around the contest as possible and having a very high forwrad set up.

Petty is strong, healthy and having plenty of involvement.

Rivers has filled out, looking big and fit.

JVR is working on creating separation, seems to be getting off the blind area of defenders, as he makes leads towards the goal from a high up field position. 

I thought Tholstrup's kicking is improving. His greatest assets are the intensity, the leadership and support. When Kentfield had a error he was the first and only one to get over to him with reassurance. 

Laurie is moving and executing those disposal well, AMW is the same. Woey is playing very sturdy footy. K.Brown has lots of upside, speed and a natural footy brain.

Unsure about Sestan. Good skill set but is he going to be able to get to the ball and perform when the speed increases from VFL to AFL. He was getting rushed. Would really like to him develop some explosive 5/10 meters runs. I've only seen the one gear.

Going to be lots of pressure for spots, as I reckon the the second tier of players are looking great.