Pick 21: Luke Trainor

[one-eyed]

Season surprises

Andrew Slevison
SEN
8 May 2025

Which player at your club has most exceeded expectations in the first part of the 2025 season?

Luke Trainor

Of Richmond’s haul of first-round draft picks, Luke Trainor might have had the lowest profile of the lot.

The no-nonsense defender was taken with Pick 21 in last year’s draft and simply gaining some minutes at senior level would have been seen as invaluable in his debut campaign.

But Trainor has barely put a foot wrong since pulling on the black and yellow and has been arguably the club’s brightest shining light so far in 2025.

While No.1 pick Sam Lalor clearly has plenty of class, he’s toiling away in a high half-forward role which is difficult for anyone, let alone a first-year player.

Lalor’s highlights have been bright and while he’ll likely flourish further with more midfield minutes, Trainor has been the pick of the crop to date as an assured defender with an innate intercept ability.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2025/05/07/the-player-at-your-club-who-has-exceeded-expectations-in-2025

[one-eyed]

At quarter-time, the Fox Footy commentary crew revisited the incident, with Brereton somewhat changing his tune as he cautioned Trainor.

“He’s just got to be really careful. It’s a bit of a jumper-punch, but … the umpire was 15 metres away looking at it — directly looking at it — and he took no punitive action whatsoever,” Brereton said.

“And, look, you don’t like to cast aspersions, but that’s the third time Trainor’s gone to ground on what seems a frivolous act in the one quarter.

“He (Brockman) definitely did something with him, it was a bit of a jumper shove-push … (but) what I would say is if I was an older teammate (of Trainor), I’d say ‘mate, keep your feet’.

“He’s a man. He’s playing league footy, open-age, AFL. Keep your feet.”

Ben Dixon said: “I agree with you on that one.”

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/live-afl-2025-richmond-tigers-vs-west-coast-eagles-round-9-live-scores-updates-blog-stats-start-time-aest-and-how-to-stream/news-story/5a23043bc60657f504ebea7efd34203c

[Hard Roar Tiger]

Why didn’t you say the same thing about Sissyly last week Dermie. Ya dog!

[Damo]

Why didn’t you say the same thing about Sissyly last week Dermie. Ya dog!

Dermie and Kelli Underwood

What a pair

Talk about painful commentary

One feels the need to treat viewers as infants watching a game for the first time .. the other feels the need to grunt and grown and attempt to scream to be more masculine

Combined with a quota filling boundary rider for the trifecta

[MintOnLamb]

Brereton is a dog, I was on the boundary when he king hit Tony Free from behind 50 m away from play, broke Tony’s jaw and IIRC,  Tony never played another game at that level.

[one-eyed]

West Coast's Tyler Brockman copped a fine for jumper punching Trainor.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/1320120/match-review-eagle-learns-fate-for-jumper-punch-gone-wrong