AFL 2025: Richmond tweaks training to strike perfect fitness balance
Richmond has set 'a really clear plan' to strike the balance between preventing injuries and improving fitness in the back end of games.
GWS ran over the top of the Tigers last week, kicking five unanswered goals in the final term to win by three points.
It was Richmond's second loss by less than a kick in three matches after losing narrowly to North Melbourne in May.
With such a young list, an acceleration of match fitness runs the risk of injuring the young players unconditioned to AFL loads.
But Richmond coach Adem Yze said the Tigers and high performance manager Ben Serpell had implemented structures to boost fitness with less risk.
'Ben Serpell has set around whether they have a lighter week, I think Jonty Faull is having a lighter week this week and that was planned,' he said.
'We've set a really clear plan on their training loads throughout the year, obviously Josh (Smillie) and Sammy Lalor are having a break now because of injury.
'But if it does come to a point where they've played four, five, six games in a row, they will have a lighter week.
'We don't want them to be missing games, but we will just manage their program. It will just take time.
'Our big boys are playing on some quality defenders and they will be for the rest of the year. It's going to be hard to be consistent across four quarters, but that's what we're trying to fast-track.'
Yze said there were no glaring trends from the second close loss, aside from failing to run out the entirety of the match.
He took confidence out of the statistics that indicated a much closer contest in the last then the scoreboard suggested.
'Like I said post game, I would be worried if we just got smashed in clearance or inside 50s or couldn't get it out of our back end,' he said.
'On the weekend I think the last quarter was 15 inside 50s to 13. We had some opportunities, we just got a bit tired.
'A couple of younger boys we've noticed late in games are playing on really good defenders, like Sam Taylor's last quarter was enormous.
'We'll look at that, we'll help our younger boys through that, but it's going to take time.
'We're striving to play four-quarter footy. On the weekend we played 3½ and it wasn't good enough.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Herald Sun
30 minutes ago
- Herald Sun
AFL wildcard weekend needed to keep season alive, draft assistance
Andrew Dillon is well aware the only concept the public hates more than draft assistance through priority picks is the annual discussion about a wildcard weekend. But as the AFL's chief executives meet on the Gold Coast on Tuesday and Wednesday for a two-day gabfest, those two contentious ideas will intersect given this season's glaring concerns. Talk to the punter in the street and they will tell you this year has been one-sided and downright boring. The same clubs dominating as in recent years (Brisbane, Geelong, Collingwood) and too many one-sided, predictable encounters. As recently as last year we had 13 teams competing late in the year for eight finals spots. And this season we are likely to have four teams in the eight who were absent last year in Collingwood, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Fremantle. A season that started in a blaze of glory with a series of epic blockbuster clashes had run out of puff by the five bye rounds which interrupted the season's momentum. Just when it should be about to roar back to life, the season has lost its sting. So as those CEOs assemble, Dillon's solutions to two connecting challenges will be interesting to assess. The challenges are obvious. How does the AFL keep interest in a season for longer in an era when Fox Footy and Seven have paid record sums for what looks like a series of dead rubbers in the last eight weeks? Is the AFL prepared to actually get serious about an 8 v 9 wildcard weekend that keeps more teams relevant deeper into the season instead of just discussing it at the annual CEO's conferences? And how can the league actually fix its draft and equalisation system to hasten the boom-bust cycle so rebuilding clubs don't spend a decade trying to work their way back up the top? How do we incentivise teams bouncing hard from rebuilds to flourish like the Dogs in 2016 as they peeled off nine wins in the final 13 home-and-away games before peeling off four straight finals victories? Or Richmond's Tiger Train winning the last nine games of 2014 to make finals with a three-point SCG victory over Sydney? Both those teams banked draft picks through rebuilds but were able to come out the other side without running into a brick wall formed by free agency, academies and NGA talent. The problem is easy to diagnose. Sixteen years ago Mick Malthouse coined the term Blockbuster Fatigue to describe his club's inability to rise to the occasion after weeks of marquee contests. The AFL is about to hit Dead Rubber Syndrome. This week the top nine teams play the bottom nine teams. Mathematically, 10th placed Port Adelaide is still in the race but in reality no chance given they are two wins behind Gold Coast, have a percentage of 84, and have played an extra game on the Suns. Fox Footy's ratings are going gangbusters but a penny for the thought of Seven's executives with flagging ratings and a series of one-sided encounters in the eight rounds ahead. Perhaps this year is no perfect example given Essendon is sinking under its weight of injuries, Melbourne is mediocre, Carlton is cast and Sydney leaving its run too late. But clubs, players and the AFL have good reason to push for a wildcard weekend. The players are sharing in the largess of a 37 per cent pay rise in the current 2023-2027 CBA deal but with TV rights locked in for seven more years it is hard to see where their next big pay rise comes when they start negotiating the next deal in the near future. They need to do everything in their power to turbocharge the value of the TV rights, including state of origin and the wildcard round that would mean more teams are more relevant deeper into the season. It isn't just the single wildcard contest, it is that in an 18-team competition more teams are alive until later in the season. The yearning for tradition is a moot point given the repeated changes to the AFL's finals system since a top four in 1987. The league had had three versions of the Argus system, a round-robin finals system with a challenge format, the Page McIntyre system, a top five (1972-1990), two versions of the top six (1991-1993), and two versions of the top eight since 1994. Thirty years on in a new world order with the NRL a fierce competitor, it is a perfect time for the AFL to trial a wildcard weekend. Fixing the equalisation system that is all but bust is another huge challenge but the AFL would do well to listen to Alastair Clarkson. He is modern football's greatest coach but even he knows his club doesn't stand a chance when it comes to measures like free agency and the trade period. A year after recent premiers Collingwood (Dan Houston, Harry Perryman) and Geelong (Bailey Smith) stocked up on star talent, the Lions will likely secure Oscar Allen as a free agent. As Clarkson told ABC Radio on Saturday, his club just isn't on an equal playing field. The league dodged a bullet when Matt Rowell decided against going to heavyweights Collingwood or Geelong last week, but none of the league's battlers were even in the picture. As Clarkson said on Saturday: 'The mechanisms to get yourself up the ladder are as challenging as they have ever been'. 'At Hawthorn the first two drafts there was a priority pick involved. One was Jarryd Roughead and the other was Xavier Ellis and they were both premiership players for the club. Richmond, the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn all reaped the benefits of that situation where they did try to give a leg up to clubs and all of those clubs won premierships in the next decade. But the system worked in terms of equalisation. Now there are other forms of equalistation. 'NGA academies, northern free agency and all of them have made it more difficult for teams down the bottom of the ladder to secure the talent they need.' No one wants a return to the pre-draft priority pick but if the bottom three clubs received an extra mid-first-round or end-of-first-round pick it would help equalisation in a truly broken draft system. North Melbourne is never in the hunt for quality free agents and in fact lost Ben McKay to free agency entering the peak of his career because his departure helped secure them a quality compensation pick. 'Players are getting paid well enough these days that more free agents are looking for success,' Clarkson said. 'They are clubs in the window of opportunity in the next one or two years and it's meant that the teams in the bottom six or eight on the ladder are not getting access to free agents which makes it even tougher to try to climb the ladder.' The AFL is unlikely to bring about the return of the priority pick as Tasmania's introduction to the league approaches but Clarkson's point stands. Brisbane and Geelong look to have five-year flag windows ahead, and the Roos are stuck down the bottom as usual. The value in amassing quality draft picks is diluted when your rival can just add a Jeremy Cameron or Dan Houston because they are chasing flags. Clubs down the bottom are forced to desperate measures. West Coast has had to continually 'split' high draft picks to go back in the order to take multiple players in the top 20 given they are so far off. St Kilda is having to throw stupid money at Tom De Koning while Bailey Smith plays down the highway for half of that sum. North Melbourne got some draft assistance from the league and had to hand over quality picks for Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker because no one else would come. Heaven forbid to think what the Roos are having to pay Logue, Luke Parker, Zac Fisher, Callum Coleman-Jones and Aidan Corr combined while clubs with academy pipelines secure those players on mandated first and second-year wages. The AFL is reviewing its academies and keeping open the prospect of tightening its bidding systems for father-son and academy talent. It has broad enough club support for a wildcard weekend but doesn't need it anyway. The coming months will gauge the AFL's appetite for change but after a month in which Dillon has stabilised the AFL's administration he should forge ahead with a wildcard weekend. And at a very minimum make more tweaks to the draft bidding system so if clubs in the top eight do secure elite talent they pay a premium instead of a discount for the best kids in the land.
Herald Sun
30 minutes ago
- Herald Sun
Carlton defender Jack Silvagni in doubt to face Collingwood
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. Silvagni was confined to run-throughs on the far wing at Ikon Park alongside injured forward Harry McKay as the Blues held an open training session on Monday morning. He spoke at length to the Blues' trainers before moving inside about 30 minutes into the session. Fellow defender Jacob Weitering moved well in a promising session after battling an ankle injury in the Blues' heavy loss to Port Adelaide, but losing Silvagni would force another reshuffle of the club's key position stocks ahead of the prime time clash with their arch rivals. About 40 Carlton supporters watched on in the stands as the under-pressure side was put through its paces. There was minimal security presence and the session passed without controversy except for one rowdy onlooker standing outside the gates. 'Bit of voice, lads! Bit of voice, come on. Library,' he yelled out. Blues skipper Patrick Cripps trained fully after dealing with illness over the past week, as did sore ruckman Tom De Koning. Embattled coach Michael Voss was not spotted, but rarely ventures on to the track during the first session of the week. MORE TO COME. Jay Clark's Top 50: Who reigns as footy's number one man?
Perth Now
40 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Veteran Cat seeks to add weapons in flag pursuit
Geelong star Jeremy Cameron is keeping close tabs on rival forward Jesse Hogan, among others, as he attempts to add to his arsenal in the latter stages of his AFL career. Cameron leads the Coleman Medal race this season with 48 goals from 15 games, well clear of GWS gun Hogan (40 goals) and the rest of the chasing pack. The 32-year-old, who won the goal-kicking award in 2019, insists he had "no idea" he was that far in front, declaring his main focus is on team success with the high-flying Cats. He remains dedicated to improving his own craft after what he assessed as a "very inconsistent" start to his 2025 campaign. "I knew I was leading but I didn't know by how much or who was chasing me or whatnot," Cameron said. "The football that I do watch, I try and watch the key forwards and how they move. "I've said that since day one as well. I try and take pieces of their games to improve mine, so that's probably as far as I've looked at it." One of those on former GWS star Cameron's radar is current Giants spearhead Hogan, who won last year's Coleman Medal with a career-best 77 goals. "I just have a strong interest in all key forwards and watching them, especially some of the younger guys coming through playing good football," Cameron said. "It's great to see, and there have been a couple that have stitched us up at times this year. "But there's a few beauties in the comp, as well as guys like Jesse Hogan doing his thing. "I speak to my close mate Toby (Greene) up there and the way he goes about it. "I still watch GWS games a lot and the way he plays the game is different to how I play it, but I can sort of take little bits of his game and try to add it to mine at the ripe old age of 32." Cameron's form has sparked discussion about whether he could become the first player to kick 100 goals in a season since Lance Franklin in 2008. Geelong have a relatively friendly run in to September, with five of their eight remaining home-and-away games against current bottom-six sides - and none against teams in the top eight. The possibility of playing three or four finals also boosts Cameron's chances of achieving the rare scoring feat. But the veteran is more interested in another premiership after tasting the ultimate success in 2022. "As you get older you sort of realise how important it is to just be playing good football as a team, and you want to challenge for premierships," Cameron said. "Especially being there and getting that done before, I want to be back there and doing that again. So that's my focus."' Geelong's post-bye run home starts in a clash with second-from-bottom Richmond at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.
