Good news.

Jack Fitzpatrick and Jesse Hogan at full training this morning.

Mitch Clark and Chis Dawes expected next week.

The cavalry is arriving

Round 1 forward line vs the AInts'

HF - Howe Dawes Watts

F - Hogan Clark JKH

Fitzy off the bench as backup ruck/ forward

Goodnight St Kilda

Looks good but I am thinking Watts on the wing (Mid), could be Vince, Kent, Trengove at HF

Thanks ATJ. Made my day.

Looks good but I am thinking Watts on the wing (Mid), could be Vince, Kent, Trengove at HF

Yes, I would think if fit, it will be Kent in place of Watts at HF

Looks good but I am thinking Watts on the wing (Mid), could be Vince, Kent, Trengove at HF

I could have put a bunch of names there, doesn't really matter as that spot is interchangeable

Goodnight St Kilda

How many times have us supporters fallen for the round 1 trap.

Could've sworn we said the same thing about smashing Port and Brisbane in the previous round 1 games.

I think St Kilda in round 1 will be a very tough assignment - one that might be a bit too difficult for us seeing that it's at Etihad.

Edited January 31, 201411 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

With thanks to tasmanlvr over at BigFooty...

TGIF! A morning at Gosch's to start somewhat of a lukewarm morning which should get better.

Are we already at the end of January? Two weeks until NAB Challenge, guys!

Imagining that James Frawley's contract talk will dominate discussion at Gosch's this morning. Inb4 nine year, $10 million deal which is also heavily backended.

Overheard: so I learned that it's Alex Georgiou's birthday tomorrow, and it was mentioned, to which he responds 'Is it tomorrow?' Classic Georgiou.

Jesse Hogan and Jack Fitzpatrick rejoin the main group! Brilliant news!

Rehab: Viney, Riley, Clark and Terlich, who had a huuuuuuuge knee strap on Wednesday. Dean Kent also doing little despite wearing training jumper.

Stretches and runthroughs to start with.

Solid crowd building up at Gosch's.

Short kicks following the stretches.

Bit of grappling and upper body drills.

Jack Trengove getting a bit of attention to his hip. A bit precautionary I expect.

More wrestling exercises. One of the most impressive things you notice is you hear the contact that the players make 50m away.

King, Spencer, Jamar and Gawn isolated to work with new ruck coach Greg Stafford.

He's a big boy!

Stoppage drills, boys split into two. One team wearing bibs, defending, while the other has the footy.

In one group Chippa breaks the lines and make everyone look like they are moving in slow motion! #pleasestaychip

There's also a forward group. Dawes/Hogan/Fitz.

Brett Allison barking out instructions nearest to where I am. Chippa looks motivated ...

Mitch Clark leaves training early. Not ideal. Hopefully he comes back.

Variation of the drill now, one forward at each end, Fitz and Hogan. Cam Pedo looking alright, takes a nice mark.

Hopefully we see more of that and less of him squibbing it this year (coughcoughroundone)

Pickles Evans is also working hard, laying tackles at will. Will be interesting to see where he fits as he was best 22 before copping that toe injury last year.

Extension of the drill but situated inside 50. Ball movement is QUICK. Boys look like they are following the three-second rule. Get the ball, find an option, use it. I like it.

Switch/down the lone/handball/kick inside 50 drill now.

Nathan Jones basically hitting every target, Dom Tyson to Fitzy is something I want to see in round one if Clark isn't playing.

There's something about Salem that looks different ... he looks a bit more built than when he was drafted. Looking good.

New drill now. Starts on the wing and involves handballs before delivery inside 50. Dawes/Hogan at one end and Gawn/Fitz at the other end.

Gee Toump looks good. Delivering some really sharp kicks.

Dom Tyson needs to work on his goalkicking, missing a few bread and butter 25m shots on the run.

Interesting hearing Paul Roos yell out 'HALF TIME!' it's now obvious. Training is being treated like a game.

On resumption its basically a similar drill but involves a player in the middle marking, swinging sround and delivering to a forward.

Refreshing to see Jonesy get louder and louder on the track. No doubt the captaincy has got him going.

Full grounder drill now. You beauty.

Match sim!!! It's great to see two ruckmen at contests with Gawn fighting with Spencer.

Dawesy getting in front of Tom McDonald and marking everything. I could watch that all year.

Ball use out of defense has been excellent!!!

Alright, an alternate drill now ... out of defense, through the middle, kick up forward. Nice.

I love seeing blokes sprint THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE GROUND in this drill just to get the footy. I love it! And I haven't seen it for ages, if ever. Especially not under the "talent manager".

I see the white training jumper for the first time in person. And I'm 110% done. It's just so beautiful. :')

PROPER MATCH SIM. ALMOST AN INTRACLUB!!!

Jack Watts first centre clearance of this mini-intraclub.

Mini-intraclub is pretty much equal teams. I like it.

Clisby with kickout duties. Interesting. Ball use is good. Toumpas is getting the ball a bit which is what I like to see. Jack Watts with two clearances (albeit from a free kick). It's good to see that hardly an inch is being given defensively, but that decision making is also good from the team with the footy.

Just saw Hunt blow away Roh Bail getting the footy. He is QUICK.

Dom Barry getting a bit of the footy. Good signs.

JKH tackles a bloke and sets up a goal with his defensive pressure. It's déja vu from Wednesday.

Same occurrence at the same end no less.

Dom Tyson turning blokes inside out. BREAKING ANKLES OUT THERE DOM. I LIKE IT A LOT.

Jones bumps Grimes after he gets rid of the footy. I swear Jones just wants the captaincy on his own, still not satisfied with co-captaincy.

Thing that frustrates me with Watts, gets the ball a fair bit but not really following up. Staying behind the ball.

Haha Roosy: 'NEXT SCORE WINS! NEXT SCORE WINS!!!'

Cross is getting plenty of it, as is Kent. Tyson's getting it too. Exciting!

I think the game plan is more defined now - there's still a lot of switch play but the build up is more patient, concise and decision making is far better.

It looks like they are finishing up. Few are staying out to improve their skills a bit.

How many times have us supporters fallen for the round 1 trap.

Could've sworn we said the same thing about smashing Port and Brisbane in the previous round 1 games.

I think St Kilda in round 1 will be a very tough assignment - one that might be a bit to difficult for us seeing that it's at Etihad.

Could not agree more, come round 1, ill be hard pressed tipping my beloved Dee's.

With thanks to tasmanlvr over at BigFooty...

TGIF!

Thanks mate, excellent work, great read too.

How many times have us supporters fallen for the round 1 trap.

Could've sworn we said the same thing about smashing Port and Brisbane in the previous round 1 games.

I think St Kilda in round 1 will be a very tough assignment - one that might be a bit too difficult for us seeing that it's at Etihad.

lol

Believe me, i have no confidence going into round 1 despite what my post said

We have been burned too many time, better to have zero expectations this time around

With thanks to tasmanlvr over at BigFooty...

Thanks Roger, great work.

How many times have us supporters fallen for the round 1 trap.

Could've sworn we said the same thing about smashing Port and Brisbane in the previous round 1 games.

I think St Kilda in round 1 will be a very tough assignment - one that might be a bit too difficult for us seeing that it's at Etihad.

how long before the inevitable " WE GOT THIS" thread starts

Love to know whether Fitzy/Hogan/Jamar/Dawes finished the whole session including the full match simulation stuff. Looks like our list is pretty close to full fitness with the exception of Garland and Riley. Clark is meant to resume full training next week and Viney is OK.

Does anyone know if we are having an Intraclub match next week?

Love to know whether Fitzy/Hogan/Jamar/Dawes finished the whole session including the full match simulation stuff. Looks like our list is pretty close to full fitness with the exception of Garland and Riley. Clark is meant to resume full training next week and Viney is OK.

Does anyone know if we are having an Intraclub match next week?

Sounds like we just had it.

Love to know whether Fitzy/Hogan/Jamar/Dawes finished the whole session including the full match simulation stuff. Looks like our list is pretty close to full fitness with the exception of Garland and Riley. Clark is meant to resume full training next week and Viney is OK.

Does anyone know if we are having an Intraclub match next week?

All four did most of the session but not the full on intraclub. Intraclub I hear is the week after the Richmond game. Like, a full on intraclub, not the mini-intraclub we had today which was enjoyable to watch.

Edited January 31, 201411 yr by tasmanlvr

Hey Tas the reports are fantastic, thanks so much for sharing them - love your work.

I assume Jordie just cut them up again, IMO the best trainer we've had over the last few week looking at it holistically.

Thanks.

Interesting that they'd have their first official intra club game after playing Richmond.

Hey Tas the reports are fantastic, thanks so much for sharing them - love your work.

I assume Jordie just cut them up again, IMO the best trainer we've had over the last few week looking at it holistically.

Thanks.

Jordie's been solid. Just keeps on keeping on. Hasn't stood out for me as much as others (I'm loving Dom Tyson's work at the moment, Nathan Jones had a great session today etc.) but he is a very hard worker.

Another positive, all the rucks now in full training and under Stafford , competing against each other and all looking at the number 1 spot,

Thanks Tasmanlvr...great report..

Did Trenners get back into it for the intraclub? Plus any reports on Vince or Michie getting the ball.

Tyson didn't impress me too much in the circle work drill on Wednesday. He almost seemed bored with it. So glad he got involved in the match simulation.

Sounds like the plan is to be pretty fresh for the Richmond game but that's fine with me. It'll be early Feb, way too early to get carried away.

Great report Tasman. A few highlights for me this morning:

- Hogan and Dawes look in great knick. Both worked hard the entire session displaying repeat efforts and strong hands.

- Dom Tyson looks so composed. He may have missed a couple of running shots on goal but his field kicking was outstanding. He punches the ball low with his preferred left - even over 50 metres.

- Viv Michie, much as above. We know he's only played half a game at AFL level but he has all the attributes if he can find the ball in the big league - he's well built and a nice kick.

- Christian Salem is more solid than reported on here perviously - actually quite well developed for a first year recruit. He has the best kick on the training track - a really fluent motion, seems to kick the ball out of his hand rather than dropping the ball on to the boot.

- Viney, Terlich and Riley worked hard over the full session, still running hard at the 2 hour mark of training. The way they were moving they can't be to far away from joining the main group. Seven weeks until round 1 and the list is looking healthy!

- It is only training but they are doing it with much more intensity than last year. The drills are a lot more pressure based including full tackling - hopefully training under these conditions transfer to working through congestion game day.

Interesting that they'd have their first official intra club game after playing Richmond.

This sounds like Paul Roos, he structures preparation that gets his teams right for the season not pre-season. The Richmond game is early then a two week break till Geelong. It might be a case of Richmond get a good hit out for most players then get back to an intraclub to fine tune then hopefully we go close to full strength against Geelong and Hawthorn.

Tas, with Watts at centre bounces did he crack in or skirt the pack?

Also was Dawes at CHF or FF?

Wow pretty hard to top that huge report. But anyway, I went today.

-Clark hung around for a very short time doing light drills before heading off.

-Viney, Terlich and Aiden Riley (I think) were doing running drills on their own. First time i've seen Viney in the 2 weeks i've been watching the Dees train but he was running superbly.

-Garland was the only complete no show I'm 99% sure, though Dunn gave false hope by wearing no.20 during the sessions

-We did some great running and pressure drills, such as running in 4s and doing a condensed game of only handballs in a coned off area

-Having the intra club game at the end was fantastic, I noticed Jamar and Gawn stood on the sideline while Max King took the ruck for one team, interestingly. Watts started on the wing in the game and I think had the most possessions, ran well and looked very hard to match up on. Tactically we seem to be doing a lot of short kicks across goal in defence, but centering the ball once inside 50.

-Kennedy-Harris has real potential. Competes well in all the main drills and can find the ball. Looks like his set shot kicking needs a lot of improvement though, as he was working hard on it at the end

-I've been so impressed with Daniel Cross, his experience and maturity really show. He's a better kick than I thought too. From what i've seen, he is always the last to leave training. Can't wait to see him play.

-Hogan and Fitzpatrick didn't completely do the full training. Towards the second half they started running the boundary. I think Dawes was in many of the main drills. It's also worth mentioning that Salem often stands out on the main drills, but others like Harmes and Hunt were in the thick of it today and quite impressive.

It was a really good session

With thanks to tasmanlvr over at BigFooty...

TGIF!

...... must resist.... try.. to.. resist!!!! Stop getting me excited!!!! MUST NOT GET.... ah f it! this got me waaaayyy to excited:

"I love seeing blokes sprint THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE GROUND in this drill just to get the footy. I love it! And I haven't seen it for ages, if ever..."