The countdown is on with coaches casting a close eye over their charges as they push for senior selection come round one on April 6.

The Standard’s  JUSTINE McCULLAGH-BEASY spoke to the mentors about how their respective teams are tracking this summer. 

Co-coach Neville Swayn says...

Pre-season standout: “Riley Arnold has been super impressive. He’s taken on a bit more leadership in terms of the running group as well and is looking really good.”

Next generation: “We’ve got three or four under 18 guys who have done everything with the senior group so far as well. They’re the ones who could be our surprise packets. It’s a bit unknown until we start our practice matches. Leigh Ball, Luke Ball and Toby Kent, they’ll be midfielders.”

Main focus: “The boys did a 2km time trial on Friday night. It (the focus) is a combination of a running program and ball work. We still want to touch the balls as much as we can.”

Cobden coach Adam Courtney says...

Pre-season standout: “Jack Hutt’s leadership and effort at training has been outstanding so far as well as blokes like Charlie Darcy, Paul Pekin, Ash Rosolin and Luke Pekin. There’s a lot of blokes putting their hands up. It’s a massive positive for the club and we really want to keep pushing the effort the boys are putting in on the track.”

Next generation: “Lachie Gass is just first year of under 18s and he’s putting in a pretty big pre-season at the moment. He’s six-foot two and he’s only 16 years of age, so we’re really excited for what he can bring to the football club as a whole this year as well a couple of boys who are first and second year out (of under 18s), Josh Hickey is putting in a pretty good pre-season. He’s had an injury-interrupted career so far. Lachie is probably a key position defender in the juniors and most likely a back flanker in the seniors. He is very quick, very strong and very skilled and Josh has really silky skills on his left foot, he’s pretty light but he definitely has a dip.”

Main focus: “We’re kicking the footy at training, trying to work a lot on our skills. We want the boys to kick the ball 80 to 100 times at training and they are getting a lot of running in their kicking drills which is good too.”

Coach Matt Dunn says...

Pre-season standout: “Having Jarrod O’Brien back (from the SANFL), he’s setting a pretty good standard for us and Luke Uebergang, who has had a couple of years with his knee injuries, has put himself in a really good position to have a good season as well. Luke is looking at a small forward-type role and could potentially play onball as well.”

Next generation: “Harry Waters and Kobi Walter who played in our under 16s grand final side last year have both been doing the Rebels’ program so we haven’t seen too much of them but they’re two players who should get an opportunity at the Rebels and if not should be knocking our door down. Harry is fairly versatile, he probably plays mostly midfield but he can play as a small forward and is pretty creative off of half-back and Kobi has some good size on him and can probably play across half-back, half-forward and through the middle of the ground.”

Main focus: “We tried to mix it up a lot before Christmas between the fitness component and a lot of touch and a bit of game style and structure stuff will start to come in over the next few weeks now.”

Coach Chris McLaren says..

Pre-season standout: “A couple of blokes who are already good players and look like they’re going to go next level would be Lachie Rhook, Todd White and Alex Pulling. They were three important players for us last year but those three look like they’re ready to go again and look really sharp.  James (Gow) has trained a couple of times and Ben and Sam (Dobson) are training full-time and they’re both great trainers. Ben looks as sharp as ever.”

Next generation: “There’s a group coming out of the under 18s who have played a little bit of senior footy in Frazer Robb, Jack O’Sullivan and Seamus Brady and Clem Nagorcka is one as a bottom-age under 18 player who we think will play some senior footy. He is really pacy and plays onball in the juniors. He’s a beautiful kick and he’s been in the Rebels’ program as under 16 and he’s trying out this year in the under 18s as a bottom-ager.”

Main focus: “Pre-Christmas was about freshening up mentally and physically a little bit. We’ve started ramping it right up the last few weeks.”

Adam Dowie says...

Pre-season standout: “Our best runner is Adam Wines so for a key position player to be our best runner is a pretty good sign, followed closely by his two brothers Luke and Matthew. Sam McKinnon has been doing a lot and I know Will Scriven has been training really hard. Darcy Keast has probably been doing more than anyone – I don’t know Darcy that well but the one thing I have picked up quickly is he is very, very professional.”

Next generation: “Callum Grundy, Tom Keast and Jackson Grundy (have impressed). We already have a lot of young guys so we’ve tried to incorporate and make sure the younger players feel they can train and they are welcome to train. They are going to learn something, it’s not just going to be running.”

Main focus: “Skill level. I think, from my observations, looking at the stats from last year stoppage-wise they stack up against most sides in the competition. They would win or break even so that’s a pretty good sign. They love that one-on-one stuff...so being able to keep the ball has been a focus and a lot of touch and work on our ground balls and how we want to move the football.”

Coach Dan Nicholson says...

Pre-season standout: “Eddie Purvis hasn’t missed a session yet so we’re looking for some good improvement out of him this year. His skills (are sharper) and he’s got a good fitness base going into this year as well. He’ll probably play across half-back again for us and we expect him to take that next step.”

Next generation: “It is tough to say with pre-season, it will be a bit more obvious once practice matches start. Josh Dwyer is at the Rebels again this year so he is looking really good. It is one thing we have struggled with in previous years, getting that commitment out of the young guys to actually push themselves and have a crack at that level so to see ‘Joshy’ having a go at it is really good.”

Main focus: “We have been doing a lot on skills and defensive pressure. We know our offence is as good as anyone, it’s just about getting those defensive fundamentals down pat.”

Coach Tom Sharp says...

Pre-season standout: “Daniel Jackson’s been unbelievable on the track. He’s taken on the role as fitness coach and his commitment to the job has been fantastic. He’s got himself insanely fit and strong and will be looking at making a move to the midfield this year which is good to see. He’s just gone from strength to strength and is really setting an example for the boys. Harris Jennings who has come back from the (Greater Western Victoria) Rebels has been very good and his fitness is going from strength to strength as well.

Next generation: “The good news for us is senior spots are going to be really competitive and all these boys that have come out of the under 18s are going to be fighting for spots. They are all really pushing each other. Harry McIntyre who was the captain last year has got himself really fit and has been superb at training and Zane Barker, who was instrumental last year and came runner-up in the under 18 league best and fairest, is really pushing his spot for the Rebels and hopefully he gets in and if he comes back and plays for us it’ll be really good as well. Zane is a really quick half-back flanker and he’s got good foot skills, acceleration and pace and ‘Harry Mac’ will be more of a hardball get type of player.”

Main focus: “We’re still not going to be an overly tall side so we’re going to we’re going to have to be fit, that’s the message I’ve been drilling into the boys. Come February we’ll be moving into structures and how we want to play as a team.”

Assistant coach Danny Finn says...

Pre-season standout: “They’re all tracking along really well in terms of where we want to be.”

Next generation: “Our players at the Rebels, I think a lot of them played senior football last year – Isaac Thomas, Ethan Harvey, Jay Rantall and the Herbert boys (Liam and Marcus) as well. They won the under 18 flag so all of those players have been training but it’s still early days.”

Main focus: “Doing the basics and fundamentals well. In terms of how we play, we’re not even worried about that yet until we do those basic, simplistic skills well. Kicking, handballing and to make sure we’ve got a good running base. It was about making sure blokes don’t work too hard pre-Christmas in terms of their high intensity stuff. That was a really good focus for the players to understand – running really fast prior to Christmas isn’t going to benefit them but getting a good base is. There was a fair bit of education on all of that.”

Coach Michael Sargeant says...

Pre-season standout: “They’ve all been pretty good. We left them to their own devices in the early days a little bit. We’ve got really good results from that, they’ve been training really good away from the ground, doing their extras. We have quite a few living away so we have a good training structure in Melbourne with a few of the boys and some of them have been lucky enough to do a bit of training with Collingwood’s reserves.”

Next generation: “We’ve had Isaac Kenna come in from the (Kolora-Noorat) Power and he’s doing the Rebels as well and Kane Johnstone and Jimmy Moloney have been training. Jimmy is bottom-age under 18s and has put in a really good pre-season so far. Kane got a taste of it for one or two games last year. At the end of the day, I’m hoping those two boys (Kenna and Johnstone) are playing Rebels. We’d like to see if we can get them through the half-forward-wing areas and Jimmy is a similar player as well. He’s got a bit of x-factor about him.”

Main focus: “We’ve been working pretty hard on our leading patterns. There were some games last year where we were leading and leading to our kickers and we were a lot better side and it allowed us to kick a bit shorter instead of kicking long all the time. Our contested work has been another focus.”

Coach Matt O’Brien says...

Pre-season standout: “Jordy Foott won our 2km time trial, Brad Bull has been exceptionally hard working as well and Jye Turland’s intensity at training has been at a particularly high level. It’s been his best pre-season to date as well.”

Next generation: “Harry Ryan has taken another step forward, Noah Turland’s been in good shape as well, Tom Jenkins put in a pretty good pre-Christmas also and from our really young brigade Finn Radley, he’s only an under 16 but he’s really impressed over pre-season. He’s really taken a leap forward.”

Main focus: “Skill work, we’ve had a really high emphasis on kicking with a different variety of kicks – longer to position and the smaller chip kick.”

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