OK - sorry about the false alarm last Friday, but I'm assured there will be an open training session at Gosch's Paddock tomorrow at 9.45am.

Looking forward to some good reports from those who can attend. 

I live on the Gold Coast so it's a little difficult to make it to training sessions, but could someone who goes please take special note of:

 

• Jack Grimes - whether he trains fully and if so with defence or mids;

• Tom McDonald - whether he trains with forwards or backs;

• Jordie McKenzie - whether he has bulked up at all; and

• any news on the draftees?

 

Any insights are always appreciated because  I'm sure there are plenty of interstaters like myself who would love to be able to attend but just physically can't get there.

 

I think that the three name players and of course the draftees could be massive to our chances of turning it around in 2012 and if I could be on the boundary myself they are who I'd be looking out for.

Boys doing 200 meter sprints. Liam Jurrah still doing laps with personal attention from trainer.

Mark Jamar and Rohan Bail doing laps on their own.

I read on twitter that Jim was going to present Mitch Clark with his jumper.

Do we always present the jumpers this early?

Anyway obviously wearing number 11.

Jurrah now doing 200 m sprints with trainer and looks quite impressive.

Colin Sylvia doing individual laps.

Jack Grimes training in main bunch.

Matthew Bate hard at it again, as is Nathan Jones as usual. Ricky Petterd is doing individual 100m sprints.

Everyone seems to be out and about today. As well as the Demons, we have Victory training on Collingwood's ground, the Storm doing laps of the whole park.

Matthew Bate must be ok if he's hard at it (injury-free that is - someone reported sore hammy last week).

Thanks for the updates DeesPower.

Great sporting hub Gosch's Paddock.

and they wonder why Melbourne is the Sports capital of the world

Seems Liam is making some progress...obviously theres a plan in place. We seem so much better organised and directed now.

and they wonder why Melbourne is the Sports capital of the world

Seems Liam is making some progress...obviously theres a plan in place. We seem so much better organised and directed now.

I agree BB but the only thing that really matters is game results.

The proof is months off, I have my fingers crossed.

For the last half hour they have been doing tackling drills and have just started a practice match. Luke Tapscott, Jordie McKenzie, Jake Spencer and Lucas Cook walking laps slowly.

Ricky Petterd has joined the main group. Playing Tom MacDonald up forward on Chip Frawley and very impressive he is too. Cale Morton in a back pocket. Stef Martin at CHF or on the ball. Matty Bate on the ball.

It will be interesting to see where Martin ends up. He is the biggest at the club outside Gawn and very quick and agile. Personally I think they will alternate him between CHB and CHF. Either way, he is a great asset.

It will be interesting to see where Martin ends up. He is the biggest at the club outside Gawn and very quick and agile. Personally I think they will alternate him between CHB and CHF. Either way, he is a great asset.

I think it is time to end our farcical, schizophrenic attitude to where Martin plays his footy.

He strung about ten of his best 15 games together last year as a back-up ruck to Jamar who went forward and kicked a few goals.

Let's work on him there and develop his prowess forward. With Clark there now, the back-up ruck just has to be dangerous enough to take a good tall forward away from Watts or Jurrah leaving those two with the third and fourth talls and making life more pleasant for rpfc.

Just got back from training, was good to see the boys out and about.

The main group started off by doing 10 or so 200 meter sprints, the other group seemed to be doing more indivdual running, half laps with the occasional sprint, Mark Jamar, Colin Sylvia, Ricky Petterd, ran pretty hard.

LJ was running with trainer a few med paced laps followed by some sprints. Then some tackling drills followed by an actually game time drill.

Jordan Gysberts looked tired as well as Flash.

I took some photos but unsure how to load them on this site.

Anyone know how?

I think it is time to end our farcical, schizophrenic attitude to where Martin plays his footy.

He strung about ten of his best 15 games together last year as a back-up ruck to Jamar who went forward and kicked a few goals.

Let's work on him there and develop his prowess forward. With Clark there now, the back-up ruck just has to be dangerous enough to take a good tall forward away from Watts or Jurrah leaving those two with the third and fourth talls and making life more pleasant for rpfc.

Martin is a nice problem to have though.

With Clark up forward, and Sellar probably down back, either position which Martin could hold down, and the development of Gawnius Maximus, Martin could well fit in as the second strong athletic big bodied forward, with the versatility to fill in ruck or as a tall defender.

I hear that Tom McDonald is also being developed up forward, so the final line up will certainly be interesting.

For the last half hour they have been doing tackling drills and have just started a practice match. Luke Tapscott, Jordie McKenzie, Jake Spencer and Lucas Cook walking laps slowly. 

Ricky Petterd has joined the main group. Playing Tom MacDonald up forward on Chip Frawley and very impressive he is too. Cale Morton in a back pocket. Stef Martin at CHF or on the ball. Matty Bate on the ball.

It will be interesting to see where Martin ends up. He is the biggest at the club outside Gawn and very quick and agile. Personally I think they will alternate him between CHB and CHF. Either way, he is a great asset.

The midfield tackling was close in tackling. Cone type markers were placed about 4m Dia.

Choco and Greaves rolled the ball in to the centre that had one player, whose job it was to get out of the circle whilst being tackled by others or handball clearly to someone. It was pretty intense. Everything is based around applying defensive pressure or getting clear despite the intensive pressure.

 

The wind was swirling about a bit, so when they were doing press drills, they came unstuck with poor kicking skills in such windy conditions.

It was the first time I saw Sellars. He is a big unit and definitely has some good skills. Looks a good CHB type.

 

CS rocked up and spent the whole time talking to BP (not that anyone gives a Rats Tossbag.)

Overall, my impression this morning was that today's session was not nearly as intense as the one I saw two weeks ago. Perhaps it was a bit "end of termish". Some go hard no matter what (Jones, Bate, Martin, both Mcd's, Moloney). Others not so much: Blease, Gysberts, Watts - although there did seem to be a pleasing improvement in his intensity this time.

At the end of the session they broke up into backs, forwards etc . I was watching the forwards training at the Punt Road end. Interestingly both Martin and Blease were in the group. I wonder whether they have plans to turn Blease into the small crumbling forward we have been looking for?

I agree BB but the only thing that really matters is game results.

The proof is months off, I have my fingers crossed.

couldnt agree more Old.. but it sort of seems we have a better handle on what we're doing now. Foundation stuff. Seems so much was lacking before.

The guy walking with McKenzie and Spencer was Taggert. He's quite solid - already bigger than Jordie in the legs

It's amazing the differing opinions and perspectives. I thought today was the hardest session they have had, the running was huge, I don't know what people consider 200m but they ran a lot more than that. It three of sets 2 x 400m, 2 x 300m, 2 x 200m with 1-2 min rest between each one, it was hard work and even our better runners struggled with this. It was solid and the last set the players were spent. I was impressed by the improvement in Blease and Gysbert a long way to go but the worked well in the first 2 sets.

The highlight to me was the main group is growing, today was the largest amount of players in this group. Our club to me look to be getting a few things right, I am impressed by the programs certain players have that aren't working with the main group and how the injured players all have someone taking care of them. Jurrah has a rabbit that paces him and for the first time, today Jurrah looked comfortable with his work often beating his rabbit.

The drills are the same as past seasons, lots of running zone set ups.

Good to see Davey complete the session, he struggled through the running, today saw him and Blease fill that small forward role. Martin will play forward and be the second ruckman, through the drills it looks like we wil have three tall forwards a small the a couple of mid size.

Still amazed that AFL players can't him a target over 15m and kick on there opposite foot, the only player that did was Jack Watts, every other player tried to kick accross their body.

We have some tall boys on our list and some are starting to get a bit of size about the.

It amazes me that anyone playing AFL couldnt kick half way decently... Youd think it was mandatory...youd think !!

Overall, my impression this morning was that today's session was not nearly as intense as the one I saw two weeks ago. Perhaps it was a bit "end of termish". Some go hard no matter what (Jones, Bate, Martin, both Mcd's, Moloney). Others not so much: Blease, Gysberts, Watts - although there did seem to be a pleasing improvement in his intensity this time.

At the end of the session they broke up into backs, forwards etc . I was watching the forwards training at the Punt Road end. Interestingly both Martin and Blease were in the group. I wonder whether they have plans to turn Blease into the small crumbling forward we have been looking for?

Misson said this training session would be ramped up because they were about to head into a break. Makes sense.

I didn't say the training wasn't hard, it is just that IMO wasn't as hard as the session a fortnight ago. I haven't seen any others so not in a position to comment. Certainly the "practice match" today was a lot less intense than two weeks ago, and they ended the session then with four gut renching 400m runs which gave you a pretty good idea who was on the money as far as fitness was concerned for this time of the year.

I know it is very early days and we are all premiership contenders in December, but overall from the two sessions I have seen I can see a big difference this year and we appear to have a far more professional coaching setup.

The signs are good ....

Cheers to everyone who not only takes the time to go out and see the boys run laps but then does the write-ups.

Sounds like exciting times ahead...

Did anybody see where Jack Grimes played during the mini scratch match?

FIrst visit to training for me today, sure was a great day for it.

Have we received clarity as to why Sylvia is still not with main group, is or was it a calf? He did many a lap today by himself at a moderate pace, sure didn't seem to be pushing it. For Sylvia he looked a lot less 'cut' than usual, so perhaps has added a few kilo's over the preseason. Another running alone for an extended period was Bail, but he was sure flying and didn't look impeded by any obvious issue.

Jurrah's running buddy is more like a deer than a rabbit, he kinda praces along, anyway, I am digressing. He didn't seem to be overdoing it, but stayed on the park for about 3/4 of the session, but no matchplay.

Grimes still looks a little off the pace, as he and Pettard and a few others were doing more specialised rehab on other side of field. Jamar also seemed to be taking it rather easily.

Some of the handball drills were interesting, a big emphasis on getting through traffic with hands and making good quick decisions. Some excelled better than others, they did a keepings off drill with kicking also which was interesting to see some skills under pressure, a few shanks were well criticised at times, good to see expectations were high.

That's my take, have week off work due to injury, hope there is another session down there later in week.

FIrst visit to training for me today, sure was a great day for it.

Have we received clarity as to why Sylvia is still not with main group, is or was it a calf? He did many a lap today by himself at a moderate pace, sure didn't seem to be pushing it. For Sylvia he looked a lot less 'cut' than usual, so perhaps has added a few kilo's over the preseason. Another running alone for an extended period was Bail, but he was sure flying and didn't look impeded by any obvious issue.

...

That's my take, have week off work due to injury, hope there is another session down there later in week.

I noticed Sylvia doing some jogging, inside of left calf was taped with some Physio tape. It didn't look all that serious just precautionary tape to stop over stretching.