56 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I assume you've excluded Viney because his longest "bombs" don't travel that far?

Viney is the main culprit ahead of Lever. Trac & Clarry leaving will have a serious impact on our skill execution numbers by foot.

2 hours ago, Olgreybeard49 said:

That looks exciting to watch. Gonna need stamina for 4 quarters of that!

It’s much easier to run when it’s fun and instinctual.

@Dannyz any inside intel on the vibes so far with Kingy at the helm, players and staff?

18 minutes ago, BW511 said:

It’s much easier to run when it’s fun and instinctual.

@Dannyz any inside intel on the vibes so far with Kingy at the helm, players and staff?

Absolutely nothing. Information regarding anything has become scarce.

1 minute ago, Dannyz said:

Absolutely nothing. Information regarding anything has become scarce.

I guess that’s a good thing

Great report RedLegs - many thanks...

39 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Absolutely training the HOUSE down!

Yep .. training like a giant

21 hours ago, RedLegs23 said:

Absolute peach of a morning down @ Casey. Got in @ 10am & from the looks of it, the boys were already well into the session. Left just after 12pm & the boys were still out there busting a gut with some team sprints.

Here’s what I saw.

Rehabbers:

• Viney - walks & short slow jogs with trainer along the boundary. Looks to be favouring one side as he runs? Seems some way away from main training. Wasn’t there long.

• Mihocek - 80 - 100m run throughs boundary side @ a decent pace. Was doing so for about an hour. Wasn’t involved with the main group.

• Mathews - kick to kick with trainer. Trainer then kicking to a leading Mathews out the goal square. Rinse and repeat. Joined all the main running drills & moving well but wasn’t included in any other team footy drills. Edging closer from that PCL it seems.

• Sharp - not sure why he was in rehab today. A heap of kick to kick with trainer & boundary side running & at a very good clip to. Didn’t seem impeded in any way. Wasn’t involved in any team footy drills. 

• Melksham - was a mix of main group & rehab. Looks fine.

• AMW - mix up between main group & rehab but was more so in the main group. Looking fit & obviously nearing full training very soon. It’s about 11 months since his ACL.

• Steven May, Xavier Taylor & Shane McAdam all unsighted.

Drill observations:

• Quick ball movement. Everything done at pace.

• Windsor looking sharp & light on his feet.

• Kozzy dangerous. Always.

10v8: goal is to transition the ball from deep in defence to the other end of the park ending in a goal. Clear that we want to move the ball at pace. 

5v5: stoppage scenario. Random ball up across the middle of the ground. Win ball & transition the ball to goal as best possible.

• Good to see the skipper out here training fully.

• Lindsay looking sharp. Trained fully.

• Culley strong in the contest. Gets through tackles. Needs to tidy up in-play skills. 

More full ground transition works from the back half to FF. This time, transitioning / switching down the flanks towards goal.

Groups of 3&4’s running the boundary at a good clip. Slow pace for the first 20secs then fast pace for the next 30 or so. 

3x groups of 7v7 - concentrating on a more controlled transition play.

Match Sim: 5min periods at a time. Saw I reckon about 5 of these.

• All rehabbers sitting this one out

• Roo presenting well. Getting involved as a high half forward

• Kolt looking better today. More of a connector high half forward role, taking marks & hitting up inside F50

• CJ looking in good touch. Dancing through traffic & delivering the pill well & very considered.

• Culley with the contested mark 30m out. Set shot goal. Can’t question his contested & aerial game.

• Turner v Roo - turner with the contested mark win deep in defence.

• Trelly bobbing & weaving out of traffic in defence… but then caught. Fritta converts the holding the ball free. Unlucky, but welcome to AFL.

• Good to see our defensive stocks are looking fit & settled. Rick, Petty, Disco, Salo, TMac & CJ. Bloody hell bowser is a loss though.

• Harvey getting busy. 

• Sparrow just seems a lot more sure with his decision making this pre season. Less is more works better for him I think.

  Thats all from me folks

  🔴🔵

Were the gates open or did you have to do it from behind the fence. Great report.

3 minutes ago, stinga said:

Were the gates open or did you have to do it from behind the fence. Great report.

Cheers Stinga, gates were locked mate so unfortunately from behind the fence.

What time is training tomorrow ( wednesday ) at Gosch's?

3 minutes ago, Redleg said:

What time is training tomorrow ( wednesday ) at Gosch's?

10AM-12PM

17 hours ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

@Ghostwriterwhats Culley like?

It’s probably a poor choice by me but when I see snippets of him he smells of someone who’s got a bit of arrogance in him since last season.

Probably dead wrong, hence wanting to know as you probably have had chats with him.

I’d love to know your thoughts?

Jai has changed since he first came to us. The first time we spoke I got the impression he didn’t really rate himself. I don’t know if I’d say it’s arrogance but he’s definitely more confident and self-assured now. He’s quite a serious person but at the same time he’s pretty chill. He is rather reserved by nature but he has been more talkative of late and even on occasion a little cheeky 😊

7 hours ago, Go Ds said:

How did Clayton Oliver go? I haven't heard him mentioned on Demonland in months. 🙄

Knowing our luck he'll have a 15/15 season instead of the 4/0 season of last year.

As in 15 goals / 15 Brownlow votes for GWS this year.

1 hour ago, RedLegs23 said:

Cheers Stinga, gates were locked mate so unfortunately from behind the fence.

AFL reports that 2026 draft prospects Xavier Ladbrook (another Xavier) and Darcy Szerszyn will be training with us. Anyone know anything about these lads. It does not seem that trhey are tied to us - i.e. via an academy?

6 hours ago, dees189227 said:

Gee a few clubs copping serious injuries at this time.

Although had a bit of a chuckle at howe doing the old man's calf. Even Moore did to.

can’t say i’m surprised

when 3 of your 5 best and most important players are the oldest on your list your destined to up end around blues and bombers on the ladder which will probably be around us aswell

1 hour ago, Ghostwriter said:

Jai has changed since he first came to us. The first time we spoke I got the impression he didn’t really rate himself. I don’t know if I’d say it’s arrogance but he’s definitely more confident and self-assured now. He’s quite a serious person but at the same time he’s pretty chill. He is rather reserved by nature but he has been more talkative of late and even on occasion a little cheeky 😊

Sounds a bit like Ed Langdon

1 hour ago, RedLegs23 said:

Cheers Stinga, gates were locked mate so unfortunately from behind the fence.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Roost it far

1 minute ago, Roost it far said:

1 hour ago, RedLegs23 said:

Cheers Stinga, gates were locked mate so unfortunately from behind the fence.

I thought he was on holidays

19 hours ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

@Ghostwriterwhats Culley like?

It’s probably a poor choice by me but when I see snippets of him he smells of someone who’s got a bit of arrogance in him since last season.

Probably dead wrong, hence wanting to know as you probably have had chats with him.

I’d love to know your thoughts?

Confidence can often be misread as arrogance…I get the feeling that he has found a place where he feels comfortable and it’s starting to show in his approach to the game.

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

I won’t lie roost, I did think about my cutters an unhealthy amount of times.

33 minutes ago, hardtack said:

Confidence can often be misread as arrogance…I get the feeling that he has found a place where he feels comfortable and it’s starting to show in his approach to the game.

Yep absolutely, that’s why I asked. Very hard sometimes to tell the difference. I hope he has a ripper season. Sounds like he’s tracking along well

22 hours ago, Olgreybeard49 said:

That looks exciting to watch. Gonna need stamina for 4 quarters of that!

very easy to run forward with the hope of getting on the end of it no matter how tired you are. Its running back the other way that's hard, and comes down to mind set and effort.

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

Don't laugh, I have seen snakes at Casey bigger than Giant Pythons!

19 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Don't laugh, I have seen snakes at Casey bigger than Giant Pythons!

And they got traded! 🤣

5 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

I commented last season about Collingwood (was using them purely as an example not the benchmark) their players make a lot of mistakes when they play fast footy, some due to player skill error and some due to the pressure applied by the opposition. But at times a teams defence succumbs to the pressure themselves of the constant bombardment of quick and at times unpredictable entries.

Spot on about Collingwood's defensive issues.

The fast, transition footy Mcrae implemented at the pies (designed to counteract the zone defence, contest heavy method that was in vogue) is now the template for how AFL is played.

The method requires the back seven to push up the ground, making it super hard to maintain an effective zone defence whilst also putting a huge emphasis on defenders (and mids, wings and HHFs) needing leg speed to get back on turnover.

Given they won flag with a so so defence, and didn't have super quick back seven, somewhat surprisingly the Pies actually had the best defence in the AFL for most of last season. They mitigated their lack of defensive leg speed by being the slowest in the AFL to play on after a mark or free kick, allowing their defence to get set behind the ball.

But late in the season, injury age and their lack of speed all compounded and their defence fell apart, and they got opened up on turnover.

We had exactly the same issues, though ours were season long. And unlike the Pies our defensive structures were all over the shop. Which meant, that for all the noise about our forward line, our biggest issue was our chronic inability to defend on turnover.

Given Basset was our defensive coach he was bloody lucky to escape any real scrutiny as were a mess defensively.

Goody could have mitigated those issues by setting the defence deep and not playing fast. But instead, we went fast - in fact we were one of the fastest teams in terms of ball movement from the back half and were the quickest at playing on from a mark or free kick.

Obviously, King's method will be more of the same. But King won't have to worry about having our two best mids being butchers, which will mean fewer turnovers to defend. And i really like the mix of defenders with real leg speed he has at his disposal, in particular Disco (who is sneaky quick and zones off aggressively), Xavier Taylor, CJ, and AMW (who, if fit, will be a key for us).

And having Taylor and CJ means King won't have to use Windsor as transition defender, which is great because he never looked comfortable as a defender.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by binman