Track Watch 12/01/25
We had a bunch of time trials to start the new year at some of the clubs. Key things to note from them included.
Karl Amon won Hawthorn’s time trial.
Rhyley Sanders came third in Western Bulldog’s time trial.
Matt Roberts came second in Sydney’s time trial (Sydney did back to back 2km runs).
Callum Mills came third in Sydney’s time trial.
Marcus Bontempelli came second in Western Bulldog’s time trial.
Other than this news, let’s run through, who has been catching our eye based on training reports over the past week.
Ollie Hollands
For those that have read our pre-Christmas Track Watch article (found here), you’d already know we were getting excited about the early talk of Ollie Hollands playing off half back. Carlton have only been back at training for one week and that talk has not gone anywhere. Ollie Hollands is still holding that role through match simulation which is making it far more real. It’s one we will need to monitor as Ollie Hollands would be severely undervalued at his current ranking if the half back role continues into practice matches.
Reminder, before tagging Zorko in the final, Ollie Hollands posted scores of 94, 105 and 98 in the final three games of the home and away season. Reminder, he didn’t do much before that.
Liam Baker
First things first, sorry about the photo. It’s very hard to find a photo of Eagles training that doesn’t involve Harley Reid being in a vast majority of the frame. We got confirmation this week from Andrew McQualter that Liam Baker would be playing out of defence to start the year. Whether that is in a more lockdown or distributor capacity will be worked out during match simulation.
We at AFL Draft Pros are not as excited about Baker as some but a distributor role off half back will be hard to argue with if true. We are just mindful in 13 games under Andrew McQualter at Richmond, Baker only averaged 61 which included two games in defence for 59 and 54.
Harry McKay
Did you know Harry McKay is only 27 years old?
Did you know that last year after round 8, Harry was averaging 95 points as a forward?
We are aware he’s never played a full season but that’s more manageable in AFL Fantasy Draft format. Especially if you’ve had a 95 averaging point forward for the first 8 weeks.
From all reports this week, McKay has come back in ripping shape and will only get better as the Carlton team gets their injured stars back that they were missing in the second half of the season.
Lawson Humphries
There is a bit of a pattern forming out of Geelong. In any interview of Geelong players who are asked who is burning up the track early, there is one name always in there and that is Lawson Humphries.
For those interested, other names include Knevitt, Guthrie and Smith.
Lawson is expected to resume proceedings off half back and depending how creative Chris Scott becomes with Tom Stewart this year, Lawson could become one of their main distributors. In his nine games last year, Humphries only averaged 70 points with only two games going over 90.
We’d need to see a fair bit in the upcoming match simulation to raise him up our AFL Fantasy Draft rankings.
Caleb Serong
When Josh Treacy was asked on Fremantle’s 2025 Mega Preview podcast who he thought would win this year’s Doig Medal, without hesitation, he answered “Caleb Serong” and then went on to comment “especially how he is has been performing over the last three weeks”.
Caleb Serong is a name that needs no introduction but these kind of words are what you need to reassure yourself when you are looking at selecting him in the first round of our drafts. Watch out Andy Brayshaw, Serong is coming for the top scoring midfielder position at Fremantle in 2025.
Callum Mills
As stated at the top of this article, Callum Mills came third in Sydney’s time trial after the Christmas break. This is a spot in the queue that is often not reserved for Callum Mills. What makes this even more impressive, is the fact that Sydney had to do an unexpected second time trial when ordered by the coach. The main takeaway from this news is Mills is fighting fit and that is a dangerous proposition for our defence.
If we see him play through the guts through preseason games he is a serious threat to finish in the top 3 defenders of 2025.