TRAINING: Monday 20th January 2025

Demonland Trackwatcher Gator attended training out at Casey Fields to bring you the following observations from Preseason Training.

GATOR'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

There were 5 in the main rehab group, namely Gawn, Petracca, Fullarton, Woewodin and Lever.  Laurie was running laps by himself, as was Jefferson.  Chandler, as has been reported, had his arm in a sling.  Lindsay did a bit of lap running later on.

Some of the ''rehab 5'' participated in non contact drills and ball movement at the beginning of training, but when the more intense contest work started they retreated to the boundary and did short kicking to a player being hindered and bumped before they broke away for the short hitup.  This was interspersed with lap running.

The match sims mainly comprised of getting the ball out of D50 through either the wings, or a 45 kick through the middle.  Generally the skills were pretty good, but no team would be training without the odd turnover.  Once there was a turnover the forwards were spotted with passes or there were long kicks to advantage.

Players swapped from white tops to red and back again.  On multiple occasions.  And with many wearing caps it's not easy to pick up every player all the time.

The players I noticed the most were Viney, who stands out.  But he was also very involved.

Windsor is used a lot, moves fast and looks confident.  He missed the odd target, but looks great and generally uses it well.

I like Kynan Brown, but he did make a few poor decisions.  But he does enough good stuff to not sweat a few errors.  He's a second year player, after-all.  And these errors were split seconds kicks in congestion, which was part of the drill.

Billings got leather poisoning.  He's good when he's dancing with his sister.

Mentha surprised me.  He looked better than I expected, but did cough it up under pressure.  With small forwards it's AFL pressure that makes or breaks them.  Too early to tell.

Tom McDonald looks very good and dependable down back.

Bowey got stacks of it and played in defence.  

May was the general and intercepted well.

Rivers played midfield and looks assured.

Oliver is definitely leaner and fitter.  He still has his big physique, but it's much closer to normal.  Was involved without being dominant.

I love the look of Langford.  He moves really nicely, marks well and just has that class most left footers possess.  He and Rivers spent time on each other.  He'll be fine competing against men from day one such is his strength and build.

The only other player I wanted to mention was Salem.  He was moving really nicely and looked like the 2021 version.  He just looks fit and unhampered.  Even when he played last year he didn't look right.  May used him a lot as that first 20 metre outlet kick from deep defence along with Bowey.

I didn't see Pickett and I didn't notice McVee, but he may have been there.