The first thing to say is that the club had access to only half the ground as Collingwood was training on their ground and Melbourne Victory on the Punt Road half of ours (Jana Pittman was trying to do repetitive sprint training around the outside of all this with her three coaches).

Clearly, this can't be allowed to go on much longer. Does anybody know when the Pies get access to their ground on the old Olympic Park site? The sooner the better as this will fix it.

The other day when I was at training, MV was traing at the Pies ground, but presumably there is an arrangement whereby they get priority over everyone else - yet another example of our second class status compared to them.

To the football. I must say, this, the last session before the two week break, was one of the hardest I've seen. For most of the time I was there, the guys were in two groups doing defensive press drills, and ball and kicking practice, but it was done at a high level of intensity.

Off to the side were Jack Viney, Colin Sylvia, Kelvin Lawrence and Mark Jamar doing sprint time trials and generally doing light drills on their own but rarely touching a football. Joel Macdonald was doing quite fast 300m sprints by himself.

At the end of the session they broke up into three groups of about eight and did repetitive runs throughs of about 100 meters but did it in a square where they would run on one side of the square, then jog to the other, then repeat it in the opposite direction. They continued this until each group were left with one, two or three participants.

The ones left were Jones/Green, Garland by himself, and Nicholson and Bate. Others to stand out were Fitzpatrick (who seems to have a big engine for a big guy), Dunn who has been hard at it all preseason in my observation, and Mitch Clark.

Overall, an encouraging end to the first part of the pre-season.

Good to see Green is up there with the fittest in the group.

I arrived at 11 just before they started running the 'square'. They worked really hard (I thought) and it looked bery gruelling. Davey was struggling throughout but he kept at it....more credit to him as did Watt. Howe was also left behind a bit at the end and I thought Nicholson copped an injury of some sort, perhaps lower back or upper thigh towards the end. I also passed another player at the end of the session with a very bad limp but couldn't work out who it was.

Didn't see Moloney. Bate is looking remarkably fit alongside Jones and seems to be giving himself every chance of either making his mark here.

The first thing to say is that the club had access to only half the ground as Collingwood was training on their ground and Melbourne Victory on the Punt Road half of ours (Jana Pittman was trying to do repetitive sprint training around the outside of all this with her three coaches).

Clearly, this can't be allowed to go on much longer. Does anybody know when the Pies get access to their ground on the old Olympic Park site? The sooner the better as this will fix it.

The other day when I was at training, MV was traing at the Pies ground, but presumably there is an arrangement whereby they get priority over everyone else - yet another example of our second class status compared to them.

To the football. I must say, this, the last session before the two week break, was one of the hardest I've seen. For most of the time I was there, the guys were in two groups doing defensive press drills, and ball and kicking practice, but it was done at a high level of intensity.

Off to the side were Jack Viney, Colin Sylvia, Kelvin Lawrence and Mark Jamar doing sprint time trials and generally doing light drills on their own but rarely touching a football. Joel Macdonald was doing quite fast 300m sprints by himself.

At the end of the session they broke up into three groups of about eight and did repetitive runs throughs of about 100 meters but did it in a square where they would run on one side of the square, then jog to the other, then repeat it in the opposite direction. They continued this until each group were left with one, two or three participants.

The ones left were Jones/Green, Garland by himself, and Nicholson and Bate. Others to stand out were Fitzpatrick (who seems to have a big engine for a big guy), Dunn who has been hard at it all preseason in my observation, and Mitch Clark.

Overall, an encouraging end to the first part of the pre-season.

Thanks DP.

I think it will be another 12 months before Collingwood get onto Olympic Park.

It's still a construction site, so a lot of work still needs to be done.

I may be wrong but isn't our Summer Training base Casey?

If so, then all training from January will be there.

Chippy, you may well be right about the summer traing base being Casey, but there will be overlap once the NAB Cup starts with the soccer season. There is a brand new ground across Swan Street next to the tennis centre. I wonder why they ( Melbourne Victory) are not using that, or maybe they will in the future when this situation occurs again in February.

Just announced on twitter:

Liam Jurrah has had surgery on his wrist, albeit minor. He is expected to be back training fully with the main group mid January.

Chippy, you may well be right about the summer traing base being Casey, but there will be overlap once the NAB Cup starts with the soccer season. There is a brand new ground across Swan Street next to the tennis centre. I wonder why they ( Melbourne Victory) are not using that, or maybe they will in the future when this situation occurs again in February.

Once Jan/Feb comes about and Neeld is trying implement Game Plans, rest assured he wont be doing it out in the open in front of the opposition.

................ Others to stand out were Fitzpatrick (who seems to have a big engine for a big guy)..............

I guess with Gawnius Maximus out for at least a while, he may move up the big man queue a bit.

Chippy, you may well be right about the summer traing base being Casey, but there will be overlap once the NAB Cup starts with the soccer season. There is a brand new ground across Swan Street next to the tennis centre. I wonder why they ( Melbourne Victory) are not using that, or maybe they will in the future when this situation occurs again in February.

This is why the Docklands Project WILL happen within 3-5 years...Once the Chinese Sponsorship money comes on board i am hoping!!!

Good to see Green is up there with the fittest in the group.

Greeny is a proud man and has been a good servant to the club all his knockers should not count against him bouncing back this season!

This is why the Docklands Project WILL happen within 3-5 years...Once the Chinese Sponsorship money comes on board i am hoping!!!

+1

This is why the Docklands Project WILL happen within 3-5 years...Once the Chinese Sponsorship money comes on board i am hoping!!!

-1. Docklands isn't a home for Melbourne, it just won't fit with us. We need to get on the front foot about taking over Collingwood's oval and shuffling them off to Olympic Park, they surely have to give up something for turfing Athletics Victoria out of an iconic venue.. Then we can wiggle our way into even better off field facilities at Gosch's paddock after we've secured an oval.

Greeny is a proud man and has been a good servant to the club all his knockers should not count against him bouncing back this season!

Agree.

Greeny's set shot accuracy or lack of didn't help last year but I expect him to feel a lot less pressure with the addition of Mitch and with no guarantees of the Captaincy he has the best possible opportunity to get himself set.

Agree.

Greeny's set shot accuracy or lack of didn't help last year but I expect him to feel a lot less pressure with the addition of Mitch and with no guarantees of the Captaincy he has the best possible opportunity to get himself set.

Green's problem certainly is pressure, but not the pressure on him, but more his lack of forward pressure. The game will be past him if he can't figure out how to hold his feet, chase and tackle effectively. Being super fit is a good start.

-1. Docklands isn't a home for Melbourne, it just won't fit with us. We need to get on the front foot about taking over Collingwood's oval and shuffling them off to Olympic Park, they surely have to give up something for turfing Athletics Victoria out of an iconic venue.. Then we can wiggle our way into even better off field facilities at Gosch's paddock after we've secured an oval.

Interesting take on matters!

Can anyone tell me how much running and the type Sylvia has been doing while outside the main group?

Could it be an effort to build his tank, and unleash him onto the midfield?

Neeld did great things with Collingwoods midfield and Sylvia has all the talent to be a really great midfieldeer rather than forward flanker type, would really make our midfield look better.

thoughts?

Would like to see Sylvia on a wing or forward flank. Despite his body he plays better as a finisher than right in the guts. Can impact the score board and has good delivery. We have plenty of bigger bodies to put around the ball now.

Would like to see Sylvia on a wing or forward flank. Despite his body he plays better as a finisher than right in the guts. Can impact the score board and has good delivery. We have plenty of bigger bodies to put around the ball now.

Agree about him being a finisher, but he also delivers the ball so well by foot, and has alot more class than most players bar Trengove in the guts.

Green's problem certainly is pressure, but not the pressure on him, but more his lack of forward pressure. The game will be past him if he can't figure out how to hold his feet, chase and tackle effectively. Being super fit is a good start.

Lack of real physical pressure generally.

He only seems interested in putting 'Perceived' pressure on. This is a poor example IMO to the rest of the team.

OK, it's not good to get sucked into a takle that takes you out of the defensive structure but when its on hit 'em hard FFS.