TRAINING: Wednesday 28th January 2026

A plethora of Demonland Trackwatchers were once again out in force to bring you their preseason training observations from Wednesday morning's open session at Gosch's Paddock.

DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

PRESENT: May, JVR, Langford, Lindsey, Windsor, Lever, Steele, Turner, Gawn, Tholstrup, Culley, CJ, Langdon, Laurie, Taylor, Matthews, Jefferson, Howes, Rivers, McDonald, Adams, Heath, Mihocek, Sharp, Fritsch, Sparrow, Trelly, White, Petty (yellow hat), Kozzy, Chandler, Berry, Mentha, Onley, Johnson, Kentfield (yellow hat), AMW

REHAB: Salem, Viney, Melksham, McAdam, Henderson, Bowey (bikes & water boy)

ABSENT: Campbell (arrived late still in a neck brace)

Petty’s Back!!!

Petty & Kentfield in the fluoro hats.

Assume that Petty may have had concussion which is why hasn’t been at training.

First drill after the warmup has two separate groups on either wing between the 50m arcs doing a drill where the order of the day is very fast ball movement and playing on at all costs.

A third smaller group doing one vs one where the ball kicked high to forward vs defender between May/Lever and JVR/Heath and then swapping which defender is on which forward.

New drill. Players line up to kick to a leading forward running towards the kicker with one defender on his tail and another defender to his side as an interceptor. Immediately after that play another player will kick to that forward who has now tried to get out the back of the two defenders heading towards goal.

Other drill. Keepings off handball drill 10 vs 7.

McAdam who now has taping on his left knee is doing some runs on the boundary with Reece Conca.

Melksham running laps.

Salem working with a trainer doing some light changing directions runs between cones.

Viney doing some light very small two legged bunny hops in a straight line.

Henderson & Bowey on the bikes in the shed.

Players doing 200 metre fast runs in groups of 5 along the boundary.

Perhaps a mini Match SIM about to start.

Max, Petty (yellow no contact hat), Kentfield (yellow no contact hat), Sharp & AMW have peeled off from the group to train separately.

Forwards (Blue): Mihocek, Chandler, Mentha, Fritsch

Defenders (White): May, Howes, Adams, CJ, Taylor

Forwards (White): JVR, Jefferson, Trelly, Matthew, Laurie

Defenders (Blue): Turner, Lever, TMac, Berry

Rucks (Blue): Johnson

Rucks (White): Heath

Mids (Blue): Culley, Kozzy, Rivers Langford

Mids (White): Windsor, Steele, Sparrow, Langdon

Wings (Blue): Onley

Wings (White): Kolt

Match SIM is not a traditional SIM. Mids are setup on the wings with the plays starting either from a loose ball on the wing or from a free kick from half back. Plays are mostly confined to one side of the ground along the wings.

Jefferson running laps at a good clip.

Max, Petty, Kentfield, AMW & Sharp running laps and are not participating in the contact SIM.

THIRTY ONE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Salo is doing buttsercises and stretches. Melksham and McAdams are in rehab along with Matthews, AMW. Viney has just shown up, in runners. Henderson and Bowey are walking and not in training guernseys.

Matthews has joined the main training group.

Lots of warm ups. Kick to kick, springs, quick off the mark exercises. Kick, handpass kick.

Three groups. Finding space, up and down between the arcs, closer more congested work, forwards contested marking.

So far, the only players who aren't joining the main group are Salem, Melksham, McAdam, Viney, Bowey and Henderson.

Mihochek has joined the main group. I don't remember seeing him in it before.

Pretty sure that Roo just brought Culley down in a great tackle. Looks like keepings off for that group, two defenders on one forward on this side. Finding space and leading is the name of that game.

Jeffo is in runners. Running the boundary.

Pretty sure AMW is here, as is Bowey. Bowser is on the bike right now.

Sharp running the boundary now too.

Jeffo back in the match sim.

Tom Campbell is here, still in neck brace and with kiddo.

Max did a bit of match sim. By the last quarter of it, a few of the players were gassed. They were yelling for Roo to take some centre work but he was off field, cooling off a bit. He did some running and was back out there after a break. After all, not many players do the whole two hours of the game. Same with a few other players, particularly the young blokes.

The match sim often doesn't use the rucks - the "umpire" throws the ball in a random direction and whoever is closest gets possession and starts the sim. Also they played some of it without full forward/pockets/full back at one end.

I think it was a bit of a lighter session. The players would disagree I think.

Also if I heard correctly, there's no training on Friday. The players are on a four day break after today's session.

Reporting on training for Demonland is harder than it looks, especially with a phone that is determined to use the wrong words and change a player's name. Anyway, it wound up at 12:15 with a lot of gassed players.

Happy birthday to Disco Turner!

GREG SCHNEIDER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Novice track watcher here but was a bit of an ordinary session? Not a whole lot to take out of it or be impressed by. Not sure what I was expecting but felt a bit flat and skills were average. Granted, Ricky Mentha suprised me and could get games on the wing/half forward this year, looks like he’s really improved. Good number of players out on the park, the few in rehab don’t look far away at all so I think we’re doing well in that area.

I’ll also add- JVR looks a different player, in fact I didn’t even realise it was him until halfway through the session because he is moving so much smoother, he looks lighter and more agile, think last year he was too heavy and that was part of the issue, running really well

HARVEY WALLBANGER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

A bit of repetition but here goes.

All players present but Tom Campbell joined the group in his neck brace, with his kids, towards the end of training.

Those in rehab and looking some way away (6) - Bowey, Henderson, Viney, Melksham, McAdam (a particular concern as he now seems to be heavily favouring his left knee) and Salem (hard to judge what he has done - but doing only very light work today).

Petty and Kentfield in fluoro caps (no contact) and did all the craft work, so no match sim for them, but suggest they are not far away.

Same for Sharp, Gawn and AMW - did most of the drills, but no match sim.

Match sim was interesting - with no Gawn or Campbell, Johnson and Heath do the ruck work. In and under were Steele, Rivers, Lindsay, Windsor, Kosi and Sparrow with Langdon and Culley setting up in one wing position and Langford and Tholstrup (Onley alternating) on the other side.

We may be getting an insight into our mids this year....? Not Culley, not Langford - these two, with Langdon may rotate through the wings...

ENTER SANDMAN 2021'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

The summer training is moving more towards match sim -albeit with a lot of pauses for coaching and reiterating messages to the players. Latrelle was a highlight in the first proper match sim, kicking 3 goals by my count. He seems like a natural crumbing forward who takes his opportunities when they come his way.

There was no clear A and B team today and a lot of positions are still up for grabs. It's unclear as yet who will be the starting midfield - Kossie, Langford, Rivers, Culley, Windsor, Steele, Sparrow, Kolt, Lindsay and Onley all ran through there today and Viney was watching from the sidelines. Most likely we will have more rotation through there in previous years and it is handy that several of those players can also play forward, back or wing as needed. Gawn was mostly working on running.

I really like watching Steele's well rounded game - he has toughness, skills and endurance. He holds himself to a high standard and I think he will quickly become one of our most consistent contributors.
It was good to see Checkers in the first match sim though he took the bike during the second one. I noticed him coaching Kalani at one stage which was good to see. May still strikes me as an important on-field leader and a great kick out of the backline even if his athleticism is starting to wane.

I think this iteration of the team looks best when we are slicing and dicing across the field with pace from Kossie, Windsor, Rivers, Langdon plus guys like CJ and Taylor out of the backline, leading to mismatches and out the back goals in the forward line. With no Petracca, Oliver and Viney injured at the moment its unlikely we will be dominating the inside game each week but that's part of our team's evolution. We are still a work in progress and it will be interesting to see how Steven King reshapes our team - there will certainly be some exciting times this year but also perhaps times where we come up against our limitations.

GEORGE ON THE OUTER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

As @Greg Schneider noted as a novice track watcher....nothing to see here!

Match Sims are not what we have come to expect or have seen in the past, they seem to be an exercise to work on a particular aspect of ball movement. Starting in the middle, there is a no contest between rucks and the ball just moves freely out. Maybe it is getting forwards to present, but there is no real tackling and because of the lack of numbers on the field you finish with really open forward lines, which would never happen in a real game.....make of it what you will.

But I suspect the main match sims are being conducted behind closed doors at Casey, given the short time to season opener and a new coach trying to implement changes.

I'll go out on a limb now....we will not see McAdam play a game this year. Barely, and I mean barely running, unable to extend one leg fully, and it is the end of January. Today looked even worse as he had a knee bandage on, then off and did the running with much less speed than even last week.

Sadly, we will also see little of Viney. @Demonland mentioned his training is limited to half a dozen bunny hops. No running, not even walking the boundary. When he is finally able to get some running in, with the lack of the ability to do it now for months, means he will take a long, long time to get to necessary fitness levels. The same will inevitably apply to Bowey.

The one thing noted by @thirty-one was correct.....at the end of the session, the players were gassed. All over the field they were on haunches sucking in the big ones. They are obviously being pushed harder than before. After two hours of "sims" and drills they finish with a series of 200m sprints. If it were me, the ambulance would be called.

DEESPICABLE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Based on what I saw, here's my stab at our team as it stands, minus all the injured players - I included Mihocek in the injured, but he did do most of the match sim today.

This is my fourth pre-season session this year I've attended and my standouts have been - Kossie, Culley, Roo, Windsor and Salem (missing today of course) - but remember these 14 or 15-man style games suit running players who like space.

Defenders (7) - We have lost quite a few of our small brigade and contrary to articles, Moniz-Wakefield would be a long shot to make it in time for Rd 1 as he is still in a graduated rehab phase.

Smalls/Mids - Lindsay (may even do kick-ins if Salem is out for a while), CJ, Taylor and Howes

Talls - Lever, Adams (based on desire to blood him and he does bring closing speed, but T-Mac has looked better and May is clearly better but out of favour), Turner

Midfielders (9 includes ruck) - Based on today Heath gets in, but obviously Gawny is expected to be raring to go well before then.

1st rotation - Pickett (licence), Rivers, Steele; 2nd rotation - Windsor (licence), Sparrow, Langford* (also some wing duties). Wings: Culley, Langdon, Ruck: Heath (Gawn when fit)

Forwards (7) - Roo, Fritsch and Chandler would be first picked and from then it's a bit of a lottery, but I'd expect the excitement of Latrelle will see him named for Rd 1. Personally I'd play May up forward, but that seems unlikely based on the training I've seen. Mihocek would play Rd 1 if fit as well.

Smalls: Chandler, Latrelle. Mids: Fritsch, Tholstrup (just, although Mentha was busy today, but mega fumbly). Talls: JVR (playing lead-up high), Johnson (back up ruck), Jefferson (certainly not my choice, but it seems likely he will be trialled again more from the goalsquare).

Left out based on today, but you'd think will be ready by Rd 1: Gawn, Mihocek, Salem, Petty

Left out but unlikely to be ready by Rd 1: Viney, Melksham, Bowey, AMW.

It's still a very decent side, even with our injuries, and the difference from recent years is that it is a very quick unit. Our issue will be our toughness in the contest, but we will play at breakneck speed.

PS: Bet you I forgot someone!

SALEMS LOT'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

I got along for a bit of the middle session. Watched a very energetic 2 defenders on 1 forward with a midfielder kicking to their lead.

Lever and May pair so well, they shut most of the forwards down

Absolute stand outs were Disco as a defender and Roo and Fritta as forwards. Brody was heavily involved as well. The other one who seemed quite elusive was Bill Lawrie. Not quick but crafty.

Still waiting to see what caused us to pick up Kolt. He is so keen but lacks a bit of class IMHO

Damn they are fit!! They just go and go.

Disappointing lack of soccer balls too.