This tweet from melbournefc.com.au:-

The next open training session will be at Gosch's Paddock - Friday 6th January - 9:45am

Sadly for me, when I'm holidaying on the beach at Frankston, a mere 20-25 minutes away from Casey Fields, they train in town.

I hope there's a little more consideration at the club for the community at Cranbourne and all places nearby (including the bayside suburbs) next week!

In the meantime, hopefully the regulars will be out in force and reporting on the session.

I will be there again and will give a report later.

The life of a teacher!

I will be there again and will give a report later.

The life of a teacher!

Sweet. I look forward to reading it - some of us are still stuck at work

It looks like the first day at primary school! All the players walk out wearing their uniform and a mephitis backpack with a drink holder

Bloody I phone spell check, somehow melbourne became mephitis!!!

Bloody I phone spell check, somehow melbourne became mephitis!!!

Good thing you're a schoolteacher and you at least know what mephitis means.

I just hope that it's not contagious and none of our blokes get it badly enough to affect their season!

Anyway, I might head off to St. Kilda's training which is just down the road at Seaford to see if their players are recovering from the bout of mephitis they got last year after the 17 year-old schoolgirl incident.

Good thing you're a schoolteacher and you at least know what mephitis means.

I just hope that it's not contagious and none of our blokes get it badly enough to affect their season!

Anyway, I might head off to St. Kilda's training which is just down the road at Seaford to see if their players are recovering from the bout of mephitis they got last year after the 17 year-old schoolgirl incident.

You learn something new every day.

A mephitis is actually a striped skunk.

From Wikipedia -

The genus Mephitis is one of several genera of skunks, which has two species and a North American distribution.

WJ, you might be onto something. That 17 y.o schoolgirl caused something of a stink with the Saints last year. The players don't like their new training ground and Ross Lyon couldn't get out of there quick enough.

Watch out for any striped furry creatures when you head out to Seaford.

James Strauss, Jack Viney, Liam Jurrah, Mark Jamar and Jordie McKenzie running laps with Strauss and Viney looking strong.

Around 33 players out there today.

Rehab players running hard. Jurrah sprinting hard to stay with Viney/Strauss. In lines now. Forwards doing multiple leads and shots at goal. Tom McDonald and Sam Blease in that group.

Mids doing clearance work, mostly young players in that group.

Good news is Grimes doing the whole session.

GRIMESY!

Great news.

The players are now in groups of 6 doing some fartlek running and wrestling.

All in all a pretty tough session of close to 2 hours. Drills were fairly tiring too as there was not much rest in the drills.

touch wood!

Fartleck and mephitis? Very impressive report

Seriously, thanks for the report and to other Demonlanders who get down there - I'm in heaven, talking footy in January!!

touch wood!

Thats 2 of us!

Sorry to be pessimistic but he always looks good in January.

It is around May I start to worry!

First training session I have ever been to!

Warm up to start with. Williams, Lawrence, McKenzie, Jamar, Cook, Viney, Strauss in the rehab group over the other side of the ground doing basic ball handling drills.

Jamar just ran laps and more laps for quite a long while. Doesn't seem to tire or change his expression, which is actually quite scary!

In some of the kicking drills the skills seemed to be quite good, plenty of low, hard kicks that mostly hit their targets.

Damian Hardwick happened to walk past and check out the training for about 5 minutes.

Howie got his eye injured in a marking contest with Davis, quite an accident really, he seemed to land awkwardly on the ground. He left training a while later with a big eye patch on, but I think he'll be right.

The mid group did some clearance work from simulating ball ups or boundary throw ins. The intention was to basically kick the ball as soon as someone picked it up, with intense pressure. Nicho, Jones and Gysberts excelled in this and Couch was also pretty good. Without Beamer, Sylvia etc the midfield group was light on.

Watts and Clark took some impressive marks on the lead and against opponents in the forward line drill.

I took some photos and a few videos, so if you want I can try and upload them soon.

Where has JCB's report, he has been missing for weeks now?

Yeah Trenners, upload them ...

It was my first training session for the summer as well. I arrived just in time for the warm-up lap. There were 29 players in this bunch, and at least 25 coaches and assistants looking on. The crowd built up to about 70 later in the session, including Damien Hardwick (as already mentioned) and Justin Leppitsch, who stayed for 20 minutes or more.

Players not sighted included Green, Moloney, Rivers, Bate, Garland, Tapscott, Morton, Martin, Dunn, Davey, Petterd, Sylvia, Frawley, Gawn, Batram, Spencer, Magner (although the last three made an appearance at the very end of what was a 100 minute session).

Jamar, Williams, Lawrence, McKenzie, Jurrah, Strauss, Cook and Viney did not join in with the main group. Lawrence and Cook did a lot of sprinting, kicking on the run, under pressure and kicking for goal throughout the 100 minutes. Both trained at top pace and looked fit.

Jurrah ran timed 200's with Strauss and Viney for a large part of the session. Viney looks to have grown considerably and is no longer a boy amongst men. He led the running with this group. Jurrah kept up for 2/3rds of session... dropping of the pace slightly by the end.

McKenzie ran strongly throughout, mainly on his own.

Couch, Bail, Trengove, Gysberts, Nicholson and Jones did some contested midfield work with Royal. This was done with lots of body contact and blocking. No one stood out, but Nicholson held his own and Couch looked competitive in close.

Jetta wore the lime green vest throughout, avoiding body contact, but he impressed with his pace and intensity.

Sellar, Davis, Grimes, Jetta, Bennell, Tom McDonald, Tynan and Sheahan worked together in another group. Tynan was impressive and appears to be fitting in very well.

During the ball carrying, kicking to lead activities Clark impressed with his speed and kicking. Grimes was also skillful with ball placement in these sessions. Sellar, who is an impressive athlete, did quite well in contested situations. 

I was admiring how fit Howe looked (he may even have trimmed down) before he was injured in a contest with Davis. He did not reappear as reported earlier. It was during this activity that Leigh Brown joined an illustrious group of Demons, including Ron Barassi, Neale Daniher and doorman King who requested I remove myself from the vicinity!

Gysberts did everything well. He looks a little stronger, but his poise and versatility is impressive. 

Jack Watts worked hard, and on most occasions impressed with the ball. However, there are a number of talls in the squad now so Jack is no longer a standout.

The later running and strength activity was undertaken in three groups as follows.

Jones, Trengove, Couch, Nicholson, Tom McDonald and Bail worked together. They pushed hard and the only thing of note was that Couch dropped off the back of this group late in the piece. He was stuffed!

Grimes, Jetta, Clark, Bennell, Watts and Gysberts ran together with Leigh Brown, who blocked and bumped both Watts and Clark throughout the activity, simulating match conditions which was an impressive component of the new training regime. 

Tynan, Sellar, Fitzpatrick, Davis, Blease and Joel Mac made up the third group.

General observations:

Didn't notice Neeld at all. Misson was prominent in the warm-ups and track work. Royal was right into the mids group. Craig offered quiet support to individuals. Brown adds a lot in terms of the body work and the repetitive efforts.

I'll add anything that comes to mind later!

thanks for all the reports guys.

Waynewussell - I hope Leigh Brown didn't rough you up as well when asking you to leave

Love the effort guys!

Cheers for the report everyone. As always, much appreciated by us interstate Dee's.

waynewussell, can you please clarify who the illustrious Demon Daniher was? Is it the old coach now at the Weagles?

Was never a massive fan of Leigh Brown but enjoyed this!

Yeah, Danners had cause to move me when I got a little close at Trinity a few years back!

I made it down to training and can't really add much to what has been reported other than:

1. The drop in intensity compared to pre Christmas is noticeable.

2. Reports of Blease being out of place are very misleading. I admit to not studying training hard today as I was chatting to some friends but every time I looked up Blease was doing something good.

3. I know it's been said before but it was terrific to see James Strauss running as well as he was. The test, of course, will come when he kicks and needs to change direction quickly.

The photos I took from the session as promised ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fitzpatrick

 

Clarke shows him how it's done

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks trenners... good pics