AFL pre-season 2023: Sam Draper impressing at pre-season training
The Bombers will need plenty of players to improve to avoid a repeat of 2022 this season and it appears one rising star is ready to answer the call. Get the latest pre-season news here.
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Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti is in the frame to make a possible return to AFL in Round 1, less than six months after making a sensational backflip on his retirement.
The livewire forward has completed the majority of Essendon’s pre-season campaign and on Monday morning saw out a session at Tullamarine that included match-simulation under the watchful eye of AFL umpires.
McDonald-Tipungwuti confirmed in November that he would be returning to the club after more than a year away from football.
He has not played AFL since Round 21, 2021.
The 29-year-old has been steadily rebuilding his fitness but again trained strongly with the Bombers’ forwards — including counterpart Jake Stringer — and proved accurate in front of goal.
McDonald-Tipungwuti, who has played 126 games for Essendon, announced his retirement in May last year, with new coach Brad Scott revealing last week the “pretty low place” the forward was in “not so long ago”.
He is considered likely to play against Gold Coast in next week’s practice match at the Suns’ home base that is scheduled for next Thursday.
JAKE’S BACK
After missing last week’s match simulation at Tullamarine due to back soreness, Jake Stringer was well and truly back in the thick of it on Monday.
He took part in all contact drills and then played out of the goal square in match simulation, clunking a few strong marks and exhibiting a dead-eye in goalkicking practice.
There has never been any rush to have Stringer firing this early in the year, with the 28-year-old continuing to build his ability to be a power player for the Bombers.
Tall forward Peter Wright is also back in full training after suffering a recent calf issue.
SOUND SAM
Watch out, opposition rucks.
If Monday’s almost three-hour session is anything to go by, Sam Draper could go from cult hero to serious threat.
He’s always been important, but the 24-year-old’s combination of size and craft has him in the box seat to become one of the Bombers’ best — if not the best — player in 2023.
Draper has proven imposing against Andrew Phillips and Nick Bryan in recent match hit-outs and was stoic again on Monday, even plucking the ball from the ruck and bursting forward out of a pack when given the opportunity.
Once the competition’s rising star but has all the hallmarks of the real thing.
INJURY BLOW
Midfielder Ben Hobbs will miss at least a couple of weeks of training after suffering a low-grade calf strain last week.
The club confirmed on Monday afternoon that Hobbs had been suffering calf tightness that was later revealed to be a strain thanks to an MRI.
But the club is optimistic.
“Ben has completed a full pre-season up to this point, so we expect him to recover quickly,” Bombers performance boss Daniel McPherson said.
“His calf has settled quickly and should only require a small de-load before he re-enters the program in the coming weeks.”
Blues primed to exploit AFL’s revamped sub rule
Despite the loss of Zac Williams for the year and Sam Walsh for the early part of the season, Carlton are still expected to play finals footy in 2023.
Their pre-season is nearing completion as matches against AFL opposition draw closer.
Let’s take a look at how the Blues are shaping up in another edition of track watch.
OH, CHARLIE
Carlton’s Charlie Curnow has gone from uncertain to unstoppable.
Twelve months ago after eight knee operations the superstar forward was shut down by St Kilda’s Josh Battle in a pre-season game, showing the gun goal kicker was perhaps still regaining his confidence.
But heading into 2023, the script has most certainly flipped for the reigning Coleman medallist.
Whether it was the floating mark in from the side over two opponents on the wing, the power running in to win the clearance, the laser pass or the leading mark and deadeye set shot, Curnow was irresistible at times in the Blues’ 30-minute intra-club at Ikon Park on Friday.
And that was after he led the run-throughs along the boundary line with teammates before things ramped up in the match simulation.
Clearly, Curnow looks ready to wreak havoc on opposition defenders once again, as he rounds-out a full pre-season alongside the other superstar twin tower Harry McKay.
But where McKay was most dangerous reaching up to the heavens in marking contests on Friday, it was Curnow’s mobility and athleticism and sublime skill which shone as he powered past teammates in hot conditions.
It was a sharp session, and for all the injury niggles the club has had in recent months, the Blues are going to take some stopping in the forward half.
It was in 2017 that Dermott Brereton said Curnow could become the No. 1 player in the game.
And despite the nightmare knee dramas, the Hawthorn champion’s bold prediction could still be on the money.
TOP ‘DOC’
Michael Voss might have been tempted to bin the Sam Docherty midfield experiment.
When Zac Williams went down with his torn ACL last week it would have been tempting to throw Docherty back to stiffen the defence.
But it is clear Voss wants to persist with the midfield move after Docherty paired up against Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps in the engine room for the entire match simulation session on Friday.
Docherty has a natural nose for the ball and linked up well as George Hewett took another impressive step in his return from a season-ending back injury.
Hewett gave Lachie O’Brien some blunt feedback for kicking to a short 50-50 contest midway through the session, underlining Hewett’s standing within the group after only one year at the club.
Paddy Dow was another who shone as he attempts to crack into the midfield mix as part of a make-or-break year.
MARTIN QUERY
Jack Martin faces an important fortnight of practice matches to prove his fitness after an interrupted campaign.
Martin ran laps and had shots for goal away from the main group as he works his way back from a calf niggle.
He ran well on Friday and would not have been ruled out of round 1 contention, but will need to ramp things up shortly.
Defender Mitch McGovern was absent from the track on Friday, too.
The club said it was a part of his regular program as he attempts to bounce back from another run of hamstring woes last season.
David Cuningham took part in the match play after a terrible run of knee, calf and hip injuries.
RUCK BATTLE
The new sub rule should play into Carlton’s favour this year allowing Voss to play Marc Pittonet and Tom De Koning in the same side.
Pittonet rucked in the ‘A’ side against De Koning on Friday and would be favourite to lead the ruck division in the practice matches.
It would mean De Koning, who is one of the most sought-after out-of-contract players in the game this year, can start forward and swap into the ruck. Later in matches Voss could sub one of the talls out for a running player.
Expect the Blues to play De Koning every week to help ward off potential suitors for De Koning, including St Kilda
BOLTER
Carlton’s top draft pick Oliver Hollands could turn up the selection pressure sooner than expected after a lively performance on a wing on Friday.
The No. 11 selection was taken to help add to the Blues’ outside midfield stocks, and in particular, give the coaches more run.
Hollands was busy in the intra-club and did not look out of place against more senior teammates.
Voss said before the draft the club was keen to add more outside pace to the midfield group.
BLUES DECLARE BOLD FLAG VISION FOR CLUB
– Lauren Wood
Carlton chief executive Brian Cook has declared the Blues want to win both a men’s and women’s premiership within the next five seasons.
As both teams eye a return to finals in 2023, Cook said there were no firm expectations on what the team could achieve this season, but silverware in the short-term was in their sights.
“In our business plan, we’ve indicated that we’ll win at least one men’s and women’s premiership in the next five years,” he said.
“But the real issue for us is to keep improving every year. That’s the important thing – both on and off the field. Not sure exactly what that means, apart from last year I said to win more games than we lose, and in the last 10 years that would have gotten us in the eight but it didn’t get us in the eight (in 2022).
“We’ll improve on last year – that’s our aim. Where that ends up, from a ladder point of view, who knows. But our biggest issue is improving both on and off the field.”
The five-year plan — which comes off the back of the Blues’ last strategic outlook that had the aim of a men’s flag — sits in line with the club’s five-year extension of its 26-year alignment with Hyundai that was announced on Thursday.
It comes as star midfielder Sam Walsh revealed he would not be rushing his return to football after recent back surgery.
The Blues fell narrowly short of a finals berth last season, having been all but set to play in September before dropping their last four games to finish ninth.
Cook stopped short of saying a top-eight finish was the expectation for the team.
“The expectation is to improve. One of the things I’ve learned in my long time in footy is that you cannot determine how much other clubs will improve,” Cook said.
“You’ll have a fair gauge on how you might improve, it’s talking into the wind a bit, when you start indicating that you’re going to finish fourth or fifth or sixth. That’s our philosophy. Our aim is to improve.”
Walsh will resist the temptation to rush his return to football, with a timeline to be back playing still on the backburner.
The 22-year-old underwent back surgery in December and has been ruled out of at least the first month of the season.
“I haven’t looked too far ahead,” Walsh said.
“Every session, there’s incremental gains that’s involved. We haven’t put a timeline on the contact stuff just yet.
“Certainly with the back there’s some strict timelines that you have to follow, but now that we’ve passed that six-week mark, we can start (introducing) a lot of things.
“I don’t think (missing at least a month will change) – we’re going to stick to that month and by then, we should have a really good look at where we’re heading.
“I want to come back as the best player I can. Wherever that lands, we’re going to have to reassess at that month mark.”
Blues skipper Patrick Cripps said the team was determined to improve off the back of last year’s finals heartbreak after lifting its training intensity, with Walsh keen to be right in the thick of the action.
“I definitely learned the hard way about how cruel (it is) to be missing games late in the year,” he said.
“Like anyone, you want to have a body of work that sets you up for playing a good block of solid football that leads you to good back-end (of season) footy because that’s when it really counts.
“Standing here now, I’d love to be saying I’m fit and firing at that time of year.”
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