Liam Jurrah at training today...looking the goods

[Tex 68]

I popped down to training this morning to cast an eye over the boys and was extremely pleased with what i saw in respect to Liam.

He was absolutely flying.

He looks ready to play tomorrow in my opinion.

It must now be either a matter of base fitness or the club being ultra conservative with the shoulder joint, as he looked cherry ripe this morning.

I only got to training for the last 20 minutes, where he was doing a drill with the forwards, that resembled a Pagan's paddock type of drill and he looked in scintilating touch.

He was sprinting and darting all over the place, taking clean marks and clean possesssions at will at top flight.

After this drill the forwards had goal kicking practice and he just looked like a Lambourgini amongst a bunch of Commodores. An absolute class above. He just glides over the park.

He must be close to playing in the next week or so.

It is worth noting Liam was the only MFC player out there training that wasn't in the squad of 25 for Monday's game.

Interesting!!!

The way he moved this morning I would be tempted to slot him straight back into the seniors, bypassing Casey, though you would assume he would most probably have a couple of games with Casey to gradually increase his workload.

However with the way rotations on the interchange bench work these days, I would just bring him straight into the side for 5 - 7 minutes spirts, mostly because i am just hanging out to see him back in action.

CONCLUSION

We're not too far away.

The countdown is on to the Liam Show.

[Mad_Melbourne 877]

really good news to hear

i think the main reason they arent pushing him out to early is if a shoulder reconstruction is needed, or has he already had one?

none the less better to be safe than sorry, especially when afl is as physical as it is nowdays?

[Deetective Sgt. Taggert 389]

Thanks for the report. It will be great to have Jurrah back in the side to deliver some more flash and unpredictability to our forward line, and more than anything to bring some more excitement in the second half of the season so the Dees can build some momentum to finish off the year well

[jayceebee31 768]

I also went to training this morning and spoke to Jimma- the club is really up for the clash tomorrow.

[DirtyDees DDC 190]

Not only Liam Jurrah - Luke Tapscott also looked good and moved well. Very sound technique on his right foot and no slouch on the other peg. He didn't train with the main group but worked with Jurrah in sprint drills.

They were doing this kicking drill where 3 players set up in a triangle. Tapscott and Jurrah were nailing passes and you felt sorry for Max Gawn who was the 3rd man up.

According to the injury list Tapscott is 4 weeks away from resuming with Casey so hopefully he'll be back against Frankston on July 11. I hope he doesn't play for scorpions reserves - he's already built like Karmichael Hunt so he might kill someone in the minor league. If he can make a full recovery then he must be a chance to play a senior game this year.

[davey_magik 1]

I think the club is taking a conservative approach with him. From the sound of it he could have almost played tomorrow.

I think he'll have a week at Casey then straight back into the team. I'm not an expert on injuries or fitness training but I'd imagine he would still be able to do cardio with a shoulder injury?

[Little Goffy 14,791]

Low impact cardio for sure, yeah. So his heart and lungs wont have been asleep all this time.

Who knows, maybe he'll have done a Jamar and spent his injured time learning all about his position.

Injury list has him three weeks away. Which is so, so much shorter than 12.

[Neita3000 37]

Do Casey have a bye next weekend?

[demon destruction 81]

Exciting news to nearly have him back, you would think if he is flying could play Casey next weekend whilst the bye round is on then bring him in the week after!

We really need that extra goal kicking target

[whitito 187]

I popped down to training this morning to cast an eye over the boys and was extremely pleased with what i saw in respect to Liam.

He was absolutely flying.

He looks ready to play tomorrow in my opinion.

It must now be either a matter of base fitness or the club being ultra conservative with the shoulder joint, as he looked cherry ripe this morning.

I only got to training for the last 20 minutes, where he was doing a drill with the forwards, that resembled a Pagan's paddock type of drill and he looked in scintilating touch.

He was sprinting and darting all over the place, taking clean marks and clean possesssions at will at top flight.

After this drill the forwards had goal kicking practice and he just looked like a Lambourgini amongst a bunch of Commodores. An absolute class above. He just glides over the park.

He must be close to playing in the next week or so.

It is worth noting Liam was the only MFC player out there training that wasn't in the squad of 25 for Monday's game.

Any contact work?

Interesting!!!

The way he moved this morning I would be tempted to slot him straight back into the seniors, bypassing Casey, though you would assume he would most probably have a couple of games with Casey to gradually increase his workload.

However with the way rotations on the interchange bench work these days, I would just bring him straight into the side for 5 - 7 minutes spirts, mostly because i am just hanging out to see him back in action.

CONCLUSION

We're not too far away.

The countdown is on to the Liam Show.

[Swampfox 190]

Great News

What Jurrah will bring to our forward line is more options

He would be the hardest match up for the opposition than any other forward we have

We already know what Liam can do and maybe even stuff we havent seen but Tapscott is the one i am

looking forward to seeing most

[Matt Demon 1,578]

LJ will be back playing at Casey either next week or the week after according to one of the trainers

[Lil_red_fire_engine 11,339]

Exciting news to nearly have him back, you would think if he is flying could play Casey next weekend whilst the bye round is on then bring him in the week after!

This is what I think. Play him next week at Casey and then right to go for the Dees the week after. Would be enough to get me to Williamstown on the bye week.

[45HG 1,559]

Thank you!!

[Inner Demon 1]

In light of the abundance of reports over recent weeks about Liam looking good to go, I've hypothesised that he's been completing a "pre-season" before being considered for selection. Very, very sound management, particularly considering this would only be the 2nd he's ever done.

[Roost It 1,434]

From the reports it's clear he's training the house down!

[RalphiusMaximus 6,110]

Awesome news that Liam is getting back into it. However, I think everyone should hold back their expectations a bit. He's still a very inexperienced player and he hasn't had a game in three months. As good as he looks in training we can't expect him to shoulder the whole load and immediately turn things around. If he has a few low impact games and struggles to get back into it, don't be too disappointed.

[dee-luded 2,959]

This is what I think. Play him next week at Casey and then right to go for the Dees the week after. Would be enough to get me to Williamstown on the bye week.

We play Williamstown @ Williamstown (Saturday 19th June), - next week. Remember German, anyone???

The week after is a bye, for us.

Then the following week (Saturday 3rd July) we play @ Casey,,, v Werribee Tigers...

[Whispering_Jack 31,267]

As much as we would like to see players like LJ, Sam Blease and Luke Tapscott coming back early, we have to be aware that they've all been out for a while and there are certain rules that should apply to players undergoing rehab and how quickly they can return to the rigours of AFL football. Given the way the AFL and VFL fixtures work with the forthcoming byes I wouldn't be expecting any quick returns.

There's a suitcase load of difference between looking good at training and playing under full match conditions with the bumping, tackling and general crunching. My son played amateur football and came back after a shoulder reconstruction too early only to find recurring problems with the shoulder. I know he wasn't a professional footballer who had constant access to physios and state of the art technology but the lesson was that a conservative approach is best for a player's long term interests. In this case it means these blokes won't be back playing any form of footy until the first week of July at the earliest. Even then it is likely to be a slow process starting in the VFL reserves and building up to a full game in the seniors before getting a gig in the AFL.

If LJ has recovered from his injury and plays next week, it will be no more than half a game with the Casey twos and then he would have two weeks till his next hit out. I'm not sure something like that is going to work any better than if he was held back another fortnight and came back more or less on schedule.