I'm safely away from the heat of the action up on the Gold Coast today but I received this tweet from the Melbourne Football Club:

The weather's on our side this time so come to tomorrow's [Monday's] opening training at 9.30am at Gosch's Paddock

Looking forward to some great reports of today's action.

Haha here in caulfield, althought it's warm, there are dark clouds and it looks like it's about to rain heavily.

Had a a few droplets already.

Thinking about ditching work & heading over.

If I can, I'll take a couple of photos, etc.

Anyone down there for big mitchs run?

He had a walk around & did some handballing with Jones & Tapscott.

Didn't see him do any running, didn't even see him jog a lap.

But I was only there from 10-11, and he appeared to be moving unrestricted.

Looked in ripping shape too.

Looked in ripping shape too.

Well done considering he has had a foot problem - lots of time on the exercise bike one presumes!

He had a walk around & did some handballing with Jones & Tapscott.

Didn't see him do any running, didn't even see him jog a lap.

But I was only there from 10-11, and he appeared to be moving unrestricted.

Looked in ripping shape too.

I think I'd read around the place that today he was going to start running, but only on a treadmill.

I think I'd read around the place that today he was going to start running, but only on a treadmill.

They have access to an anti-gravity treadmill, so I would guess that will be the starting point.

They have access to an anti-gravity treadmill, so I would guess that will be the starting point.

What is an "anti-gravity treadmill"?

Have they sent our Mitch to the IIS for his pre-season? Altitude should help as well...

What is an "anti-gravity treadmill"?

Have they sent our Mitch to the IIS for his pre-season? Altitude should help as well...

It is like a harness you were to take some of the weight off impact, Freo have used one for a couple of years with their players who are coming back from injury, Big Sandy & Mundy are two I know of who used it and it helped with them maintaining some km's in the legs they would have otherwise been advised against doing

It is like a harness you were to take some of the weight off impact, Freo have used one for a couple of years with their players who are coming back from injury, Big Sandy & Mundy are two I know of who used it and it helped with them maintaining some km's in the legs they would have otherwise been advised against doing

What about Toody and Wendy? I guess they're not as important

There was a left footer there that I didn't recognise, so it looks like we've invited one person down to train - and no it wasn't Brynes who ran a few laps.

Blease ran with Bail in the 150m sprints and was only getting dropped in the last few and even then by only 1.5 metres. He has already significantly improved his engine from last preseason.

Had the morning free today so went down for a look. I didn't stay for the whole session, but here are a few notes of what I saw:

No Dawes, Rodan, Bartram, Garland, Barry, Viney or Sylvia.

Jones, Tapscott and Byrnes were doing laps.

They were later joined by Clarke for some handball drills.

After this Clarke did a bit of kick to kick with Leigh Brown, mainly with his left foot. Seemed to move ok, but when he had to break into a gallop to get to the ball he looked pretty ginger and limped quite a bit.

Hogan, Tynan & Evans did handball drills for about 30 mins, walked a few laps, then left. Hogan is a big lad for 17!

Main group did some warm up excercises and run throughs before splitting up in pairs for 10 x 200m sprints around the boundary.

Pairs were: Grimes/Howe, McDonald/Nicholson, Trengove/Magner, Blease/Bail, Watts/McKenzie, Dunn/Frawley/MacDonald, Couch/Jetta, Fitzy/Pedersen, Spencer/Gawn, Taggert/Strauss, Seller/Davis, Davey/Cheynee Stiller**

Each player was encouraging the other on, and trying hard to catch the pair infront of them. Neil Craig was standing at about the halfway point of the sprint encouraging those who were falling behind.

A few notes:

• Grimes and Howe look REALLY fit

• McDonald is a machine. Always a step ahead of Nicholson

• Trengove, Blease & McKenzie started falling a few steps behind their respective partners after about the 5th 200m

• Magner pushing really hard in the 9th/10th sprint and actually caught up to and passed Nicholson.

• Gawn pulled up halfway through the 4th sprint with Spencer. Looked to have aggravated his hammy. Went straight off for some rub downs/stretching before leaving.

• MacDonald fell a few steps behind Dunn & Frawley after the 4th sprint, and paired up with Spencer after Gawn left

• Pedersen was left behind by Fitzy in the last 3 or 4 sprints. He looked stuffed!

• Davey in the last pair for the first 9 sprints. Really blowing hard. In the last sprint he was put in the second last pair and was passed by Sellar & Davis.

After the sprints they had a bit of a warm down and some stretches before getting their boots and and splitting up in pairs for kick to kick.

As I was leaving they started doing some fairly high intensity match simulation drills. Will leave the reporting of that to someone else though as I didn't see much of it.

A few players broke away into a smaller group and didn't participate.

I counted five - Spencer, Fitzpatrick, Taggert were three. The other two I couldnt identify from a distance.

Training days

There was a left footer there that I didn't recognise, so it looks like we've invited one person down to train - and no it wasn't Brynes who ran a few laps.

Blease ran with Bail in the 150m sprints and was only getting dropped in the last few and even then by only 1.5 metres. He has already significantly improved his engine from last preseason.

Thanks BH. Love to hear Sammy improving his fitness. He could be a big improver playing on the wing at times

There was a left footer there that I didn't recognise, so it looks like we've invited one person down to train - and no it wasn't Brynes who ran a few laps.

Blease ran with Bail in the 150m sprints and was only getting dropped in the last few and even then by only 1.5 metres. He has already significantly improved his engine from last preseason.

People ask where will the improvement come from, if this is anything to gage for the rest of the pre-season campaign then it is small matters like this which will see us improve. Good to hear Sammy already ahead of where he was this time last year.

Big thanks to everyone for keeping us outside of Victoria up to date!

In the photos on the MFC website Dunn looks to have trimmed down a lot.

In the photos on the MFC website Dunn looks to have trimmed down a lot.

- moustache joke -

After this Clarke did a bit of kick to kick with Leigh Brown, mainly with his left foot.

Seemed to move ok, but when he had to break into a gallop to get to the ball he looked pretty ginger and limped quite a bit.

I wonder when Mitch Clarke will be at full fitness? Lets hope this injury doesn't have a major impact on his career going forward.

- Magner pushing really hard in the 9th/10th sprint and actually caught up to and passed Nicholson.

- Pedersen was left behind by Fitzy in the last 3 or 4 sprints. He looked stuffed!

- Davey in the last pair for the first 9 sprints. Really blowing hard. In the last sprint he was put in the second last pair and was passed by Seller & Davis.

Saw Magner on Chapel Street on Saturday night. Good to see he has good recovery skills ;-)

Pederson has some work to do in the off season. Wouldn't surprise me that his fitness level wasn't up to AFL standard.

Davey getting passed by Seller?? I know it was last sprint but Seller inst really the benchmark Davey would be wanting to reach.

Blease ran with Bail in the 150m sprints and was only getting dropped in the last few and even then by only 1.5 metres. He has already significantly improved his engine from last preseason.

I noticed this too & was rapt.

He stuck with Bail much better than I expected.

I wonder when Mitch Clarke will be at full fitness? Lets hope this injury doesn't have a major impact on his career going forward.

Saw Magner on Chapel Street on Saturday night. Good to see he has good recovery skills ;-)

Pederson has some work to do in the off season. Wouldn't surprise me that his fitness level wasn't up to AFL standard.

Davey getting passed by Seller?? I know it was last sprint but Seller inst really the benchmark Davey would be wanting to reach.

I think you will find rather than Pedersen not being fit, Fitzy is over all his niggles/illnesses and will grind anybody into the ground to prove he is ready.....don't forget they are competing for the same position.....besides that Fitzy is seriously fast

Great Report JTR.

Really on the mark with the groups.

I hope Davey's knee isn't giving him a lot of trouble again.

Jones, Tapscott and Byrnes doing laps.

They were later joined by Clarke for some handball drills.

Thanks JTR for a great report!

Can we assume these three (+ Clark) are a rehab group as Jonesy said he also wasn't doing the time trial due to some niggles. If so its a little annoying as I would love to see Tappy get a free run at pre-season for a change. Go dees!!!!!!

In the photos on the MFC website Dunn looks to have trimmed down a lot.

May have excused him for NOT trimming down but only for the month of Movember

Hogan looks a decent sized lad, but not quite as tall as I imagined.

Either that or Tynan has really shot up.

I didn't think there wasn't a great deal between the 2 in terms of height.

(Obviously Tynan was shorter, but I expected the difference to be much greater).

Hogan looked to have good hands, a good feel for the footy.

He moves well, and with confidence.

It may sound stupid to some, but I like the way he walks on the ground.

Almost a strut, but that is not the right word.

Grimes looks very very fit, but still Howe was beating him consistently.

Howe is an amazing athlete. Actually looks like a triathlete out there.

All he needs is a bit more bulk, and he'd be the prototypical footballer.

Was impressed with Magner's running.

Trengove didn't look like he was showing any of the effects of last season (OP, fatigue or whatever it was).

Magner still managed to get 5m on him at times.

Thanks JTR for a great report!

Can we assume these three (+ Clark) are a rehab group as Jonesy said he also wasn't doing the time trial due to some niggles. If so its a little annoying as I would love to see Tappy get a free run at pre-season for a change. Go dees!!!!!!

Tapscott may have been in a rehab group, and I know he has always been a solid lad, but he looked like a real specimen today.

WOW.

I would not want to get hit by him in a collision.

There was a left footer there that I didn't recognise, so it looks like we've invited one person down to train - and no it wasn't Brynes who ran a few laps.

Blease ran with Bail in the 150m sprints and was only getting dropped in the last few and even then by only 1.5 metres. He has already significantly improved his engine from last preseason.

It could have been Cheynee Stiller. He is now on our permission to train list.