Anyone head down and have a look today?

Very annoyed at the club over this. I spent the weekend checking the website for times and locations and up until 2am today (last time I looked) it was still saying Friday the 11th. I check this afternoon and discover that they have updated the site after the fact so it now says the next session is on Monday the 14th at 9.30. This was one of the few times I could actually have gotten out to see the boys train and I missed out because they can't keep their website up to date.

Not a particularly gruelling session today, as the boys were off the track by 11.15. A couple of observations:
-The rehab group consisted of Sylvia, Tapscott, Clisby and Stark. They ran multiple laps and never reached any great speed.
-Dunn and Gawn did some speed work separate to the main group. They both moved really well. Dunn later joined the main group.
-Hogan and Toumpas also worked separate to the main group. They did lots of ball work, repeat running. Hogan went on to run 5 x 200m at good speed. Hogan's hands out in front were incredible. He just did not drop anything, particularly balls kicked to him at good speed.
-Trenners was the only player I didn't see.
-Mark Neeld was also nowhere to be seen. Neil Craig ran the majority of the session.
-Two lads from the AIS Under 18 group joined in some of the training today. I didn't get their names, but one was from Vic Metro and the other was from Vic Country.
-Three AFL umpires took control of some of the full ground drills, and spent some time explaining decisions they made, and bouncing the ball at stoppage works for the mids.
-As is Neeld's game plan, the players spent a lot of time chipping the ball around the boundary line in full ground drills. They were really careful about not coughing the ball up. In fact, at one stage Tommy Mac turned the footy over coming out of defence. Craig stopped the play and made him take his kick again. Tom turned it over again, at which point Craig roared at him and made him take his kick a third time!!!
-Jack Grimes took part in the whole session and looked pretty sharp. It was good to see.

Players that caught my eye:
-Dom Barry was lightening quick, and used the footy really well. A couple of times he jumped out of the way to avoid body contact, but you'd expect that from a 67kg kid.
-Jack Viney won heaps of the footy in contested and full groud drills. His break away speed was pretty good, as was his ability to hit a target by foot.
-Chris Dawes moved well and took a couple of solid overhead marks, including a one-hander against Sellar. He looked a bit unsure about where to lead at times, but that will come as he gets to know his teammates better.
-Cam Pedersen worked hard and used his voice well. He leads at the footy and hopefully he will provide a good target for our mids.
-Tom Gillies was surprisingly mobile for a big fella, and was able to match up on smalls and talls. He made some good decisions with the footy.
-Sam Blease was in everything. At one stage he took a mark, and Jack Viney was right on top of him. Blease looked at him, turned around and took off. Viney chased him hard, but Blease left him for dead. I had to chuckle to myself. Bleasey also kicked 4 goals in an up and down the ground drill.

Enough waffle from me. If you have any questions, just fire them through.

Thanks everyone for the updates. Keeps everyone @ home or at work (like me) excited and looking forward to the NAB Cup and more importantly Round 1.

Very annoyed at the club over this. I spent the weekend checking the website for times and locations and up until 2am today (last time I looked) it was still saying Friday the 11th. I check this afternoon and discover that they have updated the site after the fact so it now says the next session is on Monday the 14th at 9.30. This was one of the few times I could actually have gotten out to see the boys train and I missed out because they can't keep their website up to date.

I have to agree on this one. I asked the club on Twitter, and kept checking their website to see if training was on this morning. Nothing. The only reason I found out it was on was because I rang the club at 9.05pm. FYI, training Wednesday is a closed session and Friday will be at Casey. At this stage.

I have to agree on this one. I asked the club on Twitter, and kept checking their website to see if training was on this morning. Nothing. The only reason I found out it was on was because I rang the club at 9.05pm. FYI, training Wednesday is a closed session and Friday will be at Casey. At this stage.

Closed session, where?

Closed session, where?

The girl didn't say. How you'd close off a session at Goschs' is beyond me.

Players that caught my eye:
-Dom Barry was lightening quick, and used the footy really well. A couple of times he jumped out of the way to avoid body contact, but you'd expect that from a 67kg kid.

78 kg

But yes, his challenge will be adjusting to the physical contact of AFL footy.

possibly inside aaMi park but not sure...

78 kg

But yes, his challenge will be adjusting to the physical contact of AFL footy.

Theres no way that kids 78 kg.

The girl didn't say. How you'd close off a session at Goschs' is beyond me.

They hand out blindfolds to passers-by.

Theres no way that kids 78 kg.

I agree.

Theres no way that kids 78 kg.

He's listed as 78kg on the club website. Neeld said recently he was 67kg. I'm sure the truth would be somewhere in the middle.

Theres no way that kids 78 kg.

That's from AFL.Com.

With no other "facts" it will be what guides me.

Theres no way that kids 78 kg.

He's listed as 78kg on the club website. Neeld said recently he was 67kg. I'm sure the truth would be somewhere in the middle.

That's from AFL.Com.

With no other "facts" it will be what guides me.

Thanks for the Neeld quote above I couldn't remember what he said but remember it being in the 60's, he also said something about needing to put some weight on him so maybe the 78kg is a bit overstated.

-Dom Barry was lightening quick, and used the footy really well. A couple of times he jumped out of the way to avoid body contact, but you'd expect that from a 67kg kid.

Have noticed the same and it's the only knock I have on him. Will be interested to watch him on match day.

Facebook says Wednesday is open session at 9:30 at Gosch's Paddock

I went down there with a mate and it was our first training session ever. I had to email the club last week to see if training was on as I had to get work off.

We didn’t get down there until 10:30 and they finished at around 11:30 which was a little poor. The pies next to them were training for quite some time afterwards.

From what we saw the main group were doing match simulation, the skills were ok, but a little sloppy at times. After a few people knocking Dawes last week, he looked in pretty good nick this time around. As people have mentioned before, all the players and coaches are really vocal. People screaming for the ball and congratulating nonstop. You can also hear the coaches giving constant advice during each play.

We went over to the far side of the ground and watched Toumpas and Hogan doing short kicking to each other. It’s been said before, but Toumpas has a very “delicious” kick on him. Then both of them took in turns at kicking at goal from an angle. They were very accurate and rarely missed. They both smashed out a bunch of push ups which Toumpas did with ease compared to Hogan who was a little slower. Most people have already mentioned how big Hogan is for a 17 year old, but I was also very impressed with Toumpas’s size. He is a big boy, looks very fit, and has the body to go round 1 in my opinion. After that, Hogan ran laps.

Most of the time we were there Gawn ran constant laps, and you could hear everybody yelling encouragements to him as he ran past them. He is a giant, and has a very big body. Disappointing he isn’t training with the main group though.

From the time we were there we didn’t see Mitch Clark, Sylvia, Tapscott, Trengove or Barry. We did turn up late however.

After the match sims, they all went into their line groups (backs, mids, fwds), then broke up into heaps of little groups.

Forwards were leading out of the square, as another player would run in and kick it from outside 50 to them. It was a pretty basic exercise, but we still saw a few fumbles. Fitzpatrick was one we saw drop a very basic one, but you could see he was dirty on himself for it. Blease, Davey and Burns all looked pretty solid from what we saw from a distance. We actually thought Davey looked in really good physical condition. He was moving well and still has a very solid kick on him.

In what I thought was a strange drill, JMac and Strauss were being thrown the ball, and they would take in turns just fisting it unopposed back to the coach. It really wasn’t the most impressive drill.

On the other side the backs were getting the ball kicked to them and they would have to body the other player out and spoil. It was on the other side of the ground so I didn’t get a great look at it.

We also noticed Watts kicking is still one of the best in the club. It was good to see him in the main group after reports he has been in the rehab group.

Not long after a lot of the players started to walk off, but a small midfield group remained. One coach would throw it in the air to another coach, who would tap it down to 2 players. One of the players would grab the ball and bolt as hard as possible to a cone about 20 meters away. I liked this drill as it would be awesome to see our mids try and break the lines more and take the game on. From memory the group consisted of Viney, D-Rod, Jones, Couch, Jordie and Davey. They all looked pretty sharp in this drill.

Then everyone headed off, but Jordie and Couch stayed out on the field doing some kicking and close handballs to test Couch’s reaction time. Neil Craig also took Viney out one on one and did some kicking for goals, etc.

We managed to talk to Neil Craig who asked us how long we had been Dees supporters, which we said all our lives, and he said hopefully they can bring us some success soon. He seemed like a really nice guy who was more than happy to chat with us. He said he thinks Viney will be good to go round 1, and talked up Viney and Toumpas and said they will bring us a lot of success and exciting footy. He said he doubts Trenners will be ready to go round 1 as we would probably already expect.

We also managed to have a quick chat to Viney. Such a big unit for his age. He was happy to chat, but it felt like he was giving us the standard footy player answers “yeah the boys are putting all the effort on the track”. We told him Craig said he should play round 1 (sorry Craigy, we leaked your inside information to the player instantly haha), and Viney was pretty excited by the news. Also asked him how Mitch was going and he said he isn’t with the main group but hopefully he won’t miss too much as he is important to the team.. obviously.

So while we didn’t catch much of the day, it was good to finally see a practise. There were maybe 8 people watching all up? I guess the tennis and the fact that the club didn’t advertise on their website kept numbers down.

The Joel Mac & Strauss drill is designed to practice ball control when fisting it away.

Ergo, when spoiling, the aim is not to punch it away indiscriminately, but to spoil and simultaneously direct the ball to advantage.

It might be a bit obscure, but I can see its worth as an acquired skill.

Thanks cooko, how sharp did the filth look by comparison ?

Once again cheers to all for the updates

They both smashed out a bunch of push ups which Toumpas did with ease compared to Hogan who was a little slowerThey both smashed out a bunch of push ups which Toumpas did with ease compared to Hogan who was a little slower

Just in regard to the above, without being critical would expect this as having seen Hogan in the flesh he is pushing a fair bit up even at his age

Thanks cooko, how sharp did the filth look by comparison ?

No worries, I was on the otherside of the oval so didnt really see them from where we were (plus my eye sight isnt the greatest). From what I saw they were spending most of the training focusing on match sims. We did have 2 ferals walk passed us and say "geee i dont want to take any photos of the demons"

..then dont walk passed our ground dip S***!

Once again cheers to all for the updates

They both smashed out a bunch of push ups which Toumpas did with ease compared to Hogan who was a little slowerThey both smashed out a bunch of push ups which Toumpas did with ease compared to Hogan who was a little slower

Just in regard to the above, without being critical would expect this as having seen Hogan in the flesh he is pushing a fair bit up even at his age

yeah that is true, it was just a passing comment. I wouldnt take much from it, as Hogan may have been running laps early which i didnt see, so he may have been more tired. The point i was trying to get at is that Toumpas looks really really fit.. I love him..

Great report guys, I couldnt get down there,maybe next time I can drop in and check them out.

That's from AFL.Com.

With no other "facts" it will be what guides me.

You sure must be gullible, or incredibly trusting if you would beleive one word coming out of AFL HQ after all the BS emanating from their ...... the last few months. :-)))

You sure must be gullible, or incredibly trusting if you would beleive one word coming out of AFL HQ after all the BS emanating from their ...... the last few months. :-)))

Now monoccular take a deep breath

Your paranoia is showing