Scheduled tomorrow (Wednesday) @ 9.45am

Casey Fields

The place to be unless you're working (like me).

One of my favourites is Max Gawn whose latest tweet says it all:-

Looking fwd to the early drive out to casey tommorow morning! #haha

My advice to Max is not to worry about the drive. The last bloke who did that ended up a permanent fixture playing on a cow paddock in Preston for the Northern Bullants.

One of my favourites is Max Gawn whose latest tweet says it all:-

My advice to Max is not to worry about the drive. The last bloke who did that ended up a permanent fixture playing on a cow paddock in Preston for the Northern Bullants.

Can't believe they didn't give Maxy the jumper number 1 in the footsteps of another Maxy (Walker).

The situation virtually demands it.

Agree... #1: Tall, and straight up. Just like Big Max. Haha

Agree... #1: Tall, and straight up. Just like Big Max. Haha

according to his footy playing stats 'big' Max was 189 cm 84 kg

hardly tall by today's standards and dwarfed by such 'giants' as Dunne at 192

I was at training this morning for about an hour , until it got too hot .

My observations , in no particular astounding order :

Bate looks like a completely different player - his tank-like thighs have disappeared, along with his barrel chest .

Jones was the pick of the trainers.

Morton has lost weight.

Gysberts still appears malnourished.

Watts was enthusiastic and involved , contrary to what I'd read here previously.

Martin had a body to die for ( purely from an aesthetic perspective).

Trengove and Moloney want the captaincy and both stood out as leaders.

No Davey, Jetta, Jurrah, Sylvia, Grimes, Strauss, Jamar, Cook.

Thanks joeboy.

Morton looks the same to me.

Malnourished for Gysberts ? That's an interesting observation that I have not read before. What do you mean by that ?

Is it "not well built" and "looks exhausted" ?

He's still developing physically and building his tank.

I was at training this morning for about an hour , until it got too hot .

My observations , in no particular astounding order :

Bate looks like a completely different player - his tank-like thighs have disappeared, along with his barrel chest .

Jones was the pick of the trainers.

Morton has lost weight.

Gysberts still appears malnourished.

Watts was enthusiastic and involved , contrary to what I'd read here previously.

Martin had a body to die for ( purely from an aesthetic perspective).

Trengove and Moloney want the captaincy and both stood out as leaders.

No Davey, Jetta, Jurrah, Sylvia, Grimes, Strauss, Jamar, Cook.

Hey Joe Boy,

So which one was you out of the four spectators there.

I Stayed about an hour like you, I as getting burned and so was the dog.

Training started with a bit kicking nothing structured then they split up into teams bout 15 each side BLUE & WHITE, they then moved into two teams of handball drills. They then switched over to different coaches to do another lot of drills.

After that theydid a practice match with the wings and flanks moved in probably because of the 15 a side.

It looked like all the permission to train guys were there along with Sellars Taggert & Tynan.

I guess that's why a lot of the senior guys were missing.

Luke Williams looks a promising type and very well built. Gawn & Martin were opposing rucks so it was obvious they are competing for the 2nd spot.

I didn't stay there until the end but I think Martin had the better of him. As JoeBoy said Jones just trains his socks off,and it looks like his disposal has improved.

I couldn't really say how clutterbuck went, I wouldn't know him if I fell over him. There was one guy there who looked anything but a footballer, not much of a body and clothes were miles too big, but he could certainly get the ball. perhaps that untidy description might ring a bell with Joe Boy.

Morton has lost weight.

Gysberts still appears malnourished.

Interesting juxtaposition of observations.

If Morton has lost weight, how in the hell could you see him?

Gysberts malnourished - meaning I presume skinny all over. Surely not skinnier than the old, let alone the new, Morton.

Do you therefore envisage either being able to stand up to AFL?

HI Joe Boy,

Maybe you could give us your 3 word analysis of training. Just for a bit of inbetween season fun!

If Morton has lost weight, how in the hell could you see him?

LOL........and if he was any lighter he would have blown away in the breeze

I took one for the Demonland team and went this morning.

They started off by splitting up into 2 groups, who then split up again into either blue or white singlets. From there, the game was to handball your way through traffic from one end to the other end of a coned-off space. So pretty confined handballing. Jones was great at this, as well as Stef Martin, Watts was pretty good too. There were a few players in there with pads hitting some blokes, keeping them under the pump so that was pretty good to watch.

After that, it broke into a full ground match simulation type drill. I'm not sure what the focus was but there was a non-Melbourne staff acting as the umpire who gave the odd free kick away. Mitch Clark was great and was very physical even though it was a token pressure tackling rule placed over the drill. He even swore at the umpire when a 50m was awarded against him. That said, there were some good tackles including morton taking down Stef Martin which got a bit of support. Watts found a bit of space on the wings and the Frawley and Garland had a lot of the ball (mostly because the ball would start at one teams backline at every opportunity). There was a blond haired kid, about 6'3 who i think was called "leroy" looked quite good. He is a big guy and whilst his kicking isnt great, he moves really well. Can someone tell me who that was? There was also a massive emphasis on the interchange bench with players being strongly instructed to not enter the field until the player had fully entered the interchange area. They had a coned off area representing the interchange and this was a big focus. Big Gawn is horribly slow around the ground and I'm far from sold on him. He ran to the interchange bench twice and was encouraged many times to hurry up and get off as he was going at a snail's pace. Sellar looks good when he doesnt have the ball. He seems to read the play well but looks a little shakey under foot. Looks handy though.

On a side note, at one stage during the game Jones was yelling at Gysberts to get out of the space etc. but Gysberts wasn't actually even on the field he was walking the boundary. Gysberts yelled back to Jones 'I'm off!!!!'

There were a lot of people missing today. No Sylvia, Jurrah, Jamar, Davey, Jack Viney, any of our new recruits, Petterd, Grimes, Strauss, Tapscott, Cook, Joel Macdonald, Lawrence, Jetta and many others but it was a high tempo training drill. There were no running intervals which was good as I wasnt there to watch people run. The footy's were out for the whole session.

After that, Jade Rawlings got a bunch of the guys to get involved in a drill where a team had to try and handball it 10 times without turning it over or going out of bounds. It was a tough drill because there was not much space. Rawlings was participating himself and applauded Jamie Bennell twice for his efforts. Martin was great at this drill and I think he may even become our number 1 ruckman in many games next season. Troy Davis is massive and has lost a lot of weight in his legs and hips which were needed. He needs to work on his kicking now.

I moved across to another drill which was a contested marking drill involving Jeremy howe, Jai Sheahan (a training invitee), Troy Davis and some other training invitee. It was a basic drill where one of the melbourne staff would kick a ball in the air to a 1 on 1 contest. Howe was the pick of the bunch by a country mile and outmarked almost everyone. I noticed Troy Davis grappling far beyond the rules of the game and if it was a real game, he would have had 10 Frees against. The coach actually told him to watch his holding but this is a big concern for me. He naturally wants to hold the singlet and grab the torso of his opponent from behind. Howe then suggested to the coach that after the marking contest, the players shoudl fight for the ball when it hits the deck. So they tried that but howe kept on marking in straight out of the air which got a bit of a laugh from the coach.

At the end of the session, Leigh Brown went one on one with Cale Morton something that would scare the hell out of me in a game. It seemed like a bit of a 'rough me up' session and Cale was hardly inspiring. Leigh Brown is retired but still a big guy. It was Cale's job to spoil Brown but most of the time brown either marked it or didnt get a chance to because of the poor delivery coming in. The other match up was Rivers on Jade Rawlings. Rivers did well but at on stage when the whole team was watching the drill Rawlings plucked one clean and the consequent cheers were pretty funny.

Anyway, the session went for about 80 mins and then Misson, the fitness dude, told the players to head inside for a pretty cruisy cycle on the bike machine and then have an ice bath to which Gawn replied with 'Geezice baths in Casey, who would've thought'..or something along those lines. Trengove stayed behind after to have some goal kicking practice

Anyway, my highlights of the session were:

Mitch Clark, Dunn, Jones, Watts (only did about half the session though), Martin and that mysterious 'Leroy' guy.

Low-lights:

Gysberts and Morton still skinny. No recruits there to see.

All in all, it was a good session.

LOL........and if he was any lighter he would have blown away in the breeze

And definitely wouldn't be able to see him if he turned sideways!

Good report Freak. The big blonde guy is Leigh Williams. He also looked good on Monday.

Awesome report, thanks Freak.

That Leroy guy was Luke Williams.

I am always surprised by the number of people that assume everyone gets heavier as they get older.

Some people stay skinny all there lives.

It just may be that Gysberts and Morton will stay they way they are forever.

There have been some very good skinny players over the years.

Bartlett and Tuck come to mind, a couple of skinny hacks who managed 300+ games and numerous premierships.

If they can play well I do not care how skinny they are.

I am always surprised by the number of people that assume everyone gets heavier as they get older.

Some people stay skinny all there lives.

It just may be that Gysberts and Morton will stay they way they are forever.

There have been some very good skinny players over the years.

Bartlett and Tuck come to mind, a couple of skinny hacks who managed 300+ games and numerous premierships.

If they can play well I do not care how skinny they are.

Robbie Flower comes to mind

Robbie Flower comes to mind

How could I have forgotten him!

Any in the last decade?

Any in the last decade?

Not sure stinga I have had my head in my hands too often to notice.

How could I have forgotten him!

Because you're "OLD" Dee

Firstly, thanks Joeboy and Freak for your reports. They're most welcome and very telling.

Secondly, to those who think we have Luke Williams training with us, you must have gone back a few years in a time machine.

The Williams we have on the Permission To Train List is Leigh Williams from Norwood in the EFL.

Luke Williams played for us in the early 00's under Neale Daniher and was much loved on Demonland - especially those of us who attended games at Trevor Barker Beach Road Oval where (alas) he performed at his best.

Any in the last decade?

Would rather play in this decade if I were a skinny kid(which I'm not). At least "dipper, Dermie ect would not be chasing me

Because you're "OLD" Dee

Unfortunately you are spot on Chippy.

now who am I?

what day is it?