It’s 95% between the ears with Peter. They need to somehow make him more aggressive and confident. Although some things you can’t teach…thats why Caddy is going to be a special player.
Maybe its just that Stringer was the most capable in our forward line and therefore kicked so many. Obviously we gave him enough opportunities to kick those goals, we just need a better spread across our group of goal kickers and we can fill the void easily.
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Why tho?
sigh
Very blatantly said I hope he does well.
Maybe you’re being funny, but having the same conversation in tandem with half a dozen different posters really is friggin’ tiresome.
I do agree that if every forward and a couple of mids can kick an extra couple of goals then the void will definitely be filled.
The thing is we only scored 1892 total points in 2024. It’s fine to break even but scoring that many goals won’t get you above 11-12th on the ladder.
Assuming Langford kicks about 40 again, can Caddy, Jones and Draper kick 20+ goals each in 2025? It’s not that crazy an expectation so fingers crossed they can.
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I feel like Caddy and Kako can at least get 40+ goals between them (depending on fitness).
Remember we had Menzie play over half a season last year and only kick 3 goals. That is just an absolute pathetic return. I feel like we now have some of the talent to do a much better job.
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Totally unfair. He hardly played in the forward line and was Sub in some games if I remember correctly
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Sorry wim, just having a laugh.
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He was the sub for 3 games. So lets remove those games…that means he played 11 matches in 2024. That’s 45% of the season he was a starting player. I think there was one game where he was moved to the backline.
So 3 goals in 10 games. Thats an average of 0.3 goals a game. Paddy Dow average had an average of 0.3 goals a game from 10 games in 2024…in which he was substitute for 7.
If we apply the same logic to Paddy Dow, that means he played 3 games and had an average of 1.0 goals a game.
Menzie was a steaming pile of trash in 2024.
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Any observations?
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Whos the guy in Blue, looks like his bulked up over the preseason? … sorry slow work day 
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That’s our transition defense.
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YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
Yes he may have had an and shoulder though. Either way its going to be a challenging year with his contract expiring.
Snelling did get some CBA while he was with us from memory.
He definitely did in the 2022 praccy game against st kilda.
I distinctly remember questioning how rutten thought that would actually work.
Kind of like Kelly on a wing 
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I do remember that, he was given a go but ultimately he was put back as a forward because there were players that the coaches rated better in that position.
Hobbs and Tsatas both played in their best positions in the VFL last year. Tsatas copped a tag most weeks and racked up the touches. Hobbs went ok but nothing to write home about. Tsatas looks like starting round one in the guts at AFL level, Hobbs maybe on the bench or VFL. Sounds about right to me. When Hobbs starts dominating VFL let’s start looking at who he replaces.
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He puts his hands up when guarding a mark. Bring him in
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There’s been a decent gap between visits to training. My last one was 1 Feb 2008. Fair to say things have changed over the last 17 years…
So my thoughts of today’s training are based on a single data point with nothing to compare it to.
I was mainly focused on the big stuff: skills, ball movement patterns, and the level of energy and talk between the group.
And not drilling down on each individual players - so sorry if that’s what you want to read. Plus too many new faces to gives a thorough assessment.
Overall I thought it was a decent session - solid skills mixed with regular instances of errors.
Specifics:
Modified group - Parish, Jones, Ridley and Nguyen were the key ones. They all moved fine and did in close ball work and then went off to the other oval. Ridley was running laps and moved fine.
Unmodified group I recall it went like this:
they started by grouping off as backs, forwards and mids across the ground and did set drills. What stood out was a focus on quick ball movement. At times across the ground. Sometimes it went well and then there’d be a stuff up. And not always under the pressure.
They then moved on to match sim I didn’t note who was in the probables and possibles as this changed often enough. As per the drills there were good bits and poor bits with skills and executions. Coming out of the back line we looked good.
But going forward was still, for me, frustrating. There was not a lot of space or strong leads being created. Kako managed a marking leading and Caddy was left all alone in the pocket to mark. But typically it was long high balls to a contest. Sometimes this was from quick ball movement which is good, but it didn’t feel like we’ve improved much in this area. Caddy, however, was one who stood out for finding space and being strong in the air.
They then did further drills to finish off:
One group was the forwards and back - and this focused on ball moved from about the centre into the forward line from a free, Once again it mirrored the match sim were it was scrappy and felt like the forwards were not that coherent in positioning and offering an option. I’d say the defenders won out. Also the running of the drill allowed for a decent pause between the plays as they set up. I get it was hot and feedback etc but getting the players to think more quickly would have made it more real match like - anyway that’s just me.
The other group was the onballers. Basically, ball “bounced” and they went for it. It was short and sharp and overall it looked good.
Comments on some individual players that caught my eye:
Tsatas - kicking looked fine. Be it short passing or longer kicks to goals.
Durham - he started in the drills, probably did some of the match sim (not sure) and then he went off with the modified group. He was running laps at the end and pushing himself really hard.
Saad - looks very good with the ball in hand.
McGrath was excellent. Probably the best out there today,
Reid and Merrett - very solid.
Baldwin - thought he was good and showed good composure and skill.
Redman - the main one who was trying to make some noise. He was ■■■■■■ off when Kako go the better of him with that marking lead - which was good to see it hurt him. The boys are overall a quiet group and a bit more talk would be good to hear.
Not sure whether any of the above means much. I left happy to see them train, but I wasn’t blown away. Would have been nice if I was, but not sure I needed to be. The real test of where we are at will be seen at least in the practice games against other sides, and then in the season roper all will be revealed.
final notes:
The long black from the Jack Jones cafe was very good - definitely long.
The shaded seated area on the grassy knoll works well given the sun.
Next report 2042
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