Stopped by for a quick look at about 10:40 for just under an hour.

Couldn't see Lumumba, Kent or Hogan (obviously in WA).

Clarry and Matt Jones doing run throughs. 

Salem, Viney and Brayshaw in full training.

A lot of time divided between their groups working on craft. 

Forwards marking on the speccy bag and kicking goals. Ben Kennedy the highlight. He really launches at the footy and took a heap of mark of the week contenders. Macca and Wattsy were having a laugh about some of Macca's kicks being on the money and Watts' marking attempts.

Mids mainly doing stoppage work. Ben Newton looks a little quicker and stronger than last year, I think he'll get a chance soon. 

Backs working on their spoiling and intercept marking.

Vanders trained fully and did some extra touch work at the end. JKH was doing everything as well.

Grimes trained with the forwards from what I saw. Don't want to derail the thread but maybe if Kent is sore then Grimes could be an option on the wing/rotating forward to give us a hard working defensive player and push Harmes forward. Just a thought, might be as simple as just wanting to try something different for him.

If Hogan is having the week off - I'm not sure he is - then there wasn't any indication from the player group or Weideman or Hulett  themselves that they were in line for a debut.

I spoke to Vanders, one more week of full training and then play, had an ankle that just wouldn't behave, all fine now   In the marking drill  they grabbed the boxing coach (can't remember his name) who was minding his own business leaning on the fence to man the bag   Liam Hulett had  3 goes at killing him. Agree about BenKen can really get airborne      when he was leaving training  he stripped of his top  pullled on his backpack and marched off leaving the Trac to politely enquire " what the [censored] are you doing"  

The whole mood of the squad was focussed and upbeat

Agree with Newton, another one whose core has been rebuilt whilst he was off legs

How did ANB look and any idea if he will get a crack at it?

Had a random wednesday off from work so popped down for a bit as well. Couple of other observations

- very big technique focus, across the board.

- Salem did everything. He seems good to go

- agree again re newton - he must be very close. so too ANB. he seemed to be doing a fitness test (he had a glove on, dont know if that is stylistic thing or an injury related thing) style drill along with Brayshaw, but he seemed to be out there longer. ANB looked fine and I would be staggered if he and Newton weren't in the 25 named on thursday and given we are travelling back from interstate, if we make changes for people to be rested i think those two might come in given the way they were training. They both also did did the run through's with a group of players who all played in the seniors last week (incl Viney, Jones, Tyson, Petracca, Garland, Jetta, Pedo). Salem did those too.

- Gawn just dominates at training. at any stoppage where two teams were practicing, whichever team had Gawn would win the stoppage. Every time

- Hullett is massive. Rawlings was really pushing him and Weed. Good to see

- Tommy Mac doing some really good work along with Jetta on coming across as the third man. Oscar Mac did an agility test at the end of the session and seemed to come out of it well.

- Watts actually has presence at training now. its amazing the difference from a couple of years ago. 

- Highlight was petracca being pulled back onto the track by Viney at the end of the session to do some one on one contested ball work. it was amazing to see, and would make any dees supporter as happy as a pig in mud. petracca held his own, but geez viney goes hard and doesn't care about size of his opponent.

Thanks

Good to VDB and JKH back in training.

VDB fully fit can be a tough guy for opposition match up planning

JKH must really PHFO and prove something if he is to remain on the list past his contract, which I think is this year.  I still like him but others have passed him whilst he has stagnated.

That footyfeed thing on the AFL site seemed to indicate that Oliver looked sore or injured. Anyone know anything on that??  Didn't look like he was running very freely.

3 hours ago, monoccular said:

Thanks

Good to VDB and JKH back in training.

VDB fully fit can be a tough guy for opposition match up planning

JKH must really PHFO and prove something if he is to remain on the list past his contract, which I think is this year.  I still like him but others have passed him whilst he has stagnated.

This team is ridiculously hard to make right now. I don't know how we fit Newton, ANB, Vanders in. It's starting to get depressing knowing that we have to turn over a bunch of players at season's end who actually are alright. JKH I had in my 22 at the start of last season. Now he's probably not top30.

9 hours ago, Dappa Dan said:

This team is ridiculously hard to make right now. I don't know how we fit Newton, ANB, Vanders in. It's starting to get depressing knowing that we have to turn over a bunch of players at season's end who actually are alright. JKH I had in my 22 at the start of last season. Now he's probably not top30.

Signs of a better club.

10 hours ago, Dappa Dan said:

This team is ridiculously hard to make right now. I don't know how we fit Newton, ANB, Vanders in. It's starting to get depressing knowing that we have to turn over a bunch of players at season's end who actually are alright. JKH I had in my 22 at the start of last season. Now he's probably not top30.

Its the nature of the new beast. There will be list turnovers  as a matter of course. Still, we might get to the stage a-la Hawthorn etc that keep it to a minimum,  trade  our picks for a needed role player etc.

The more competition for spots the higher the bar is raised. The quality of depth is vastly improving. 

All good foundations  for a real crack

Better players are worth more points come trade time. Its win win for players like George Horlin Smith at Geelong and maybe ANB and Vanders as they get to play 1sts with another team. For us if we have enough points from a couple of good trades, we can get a Dion Prestia (possibly) without losing a top 15 player.

Any group meetings finished with a round of applause? 

If ANB or Newton was coming in then surely they would be worth a clap

 

14 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Its the nature of the new beast. There will be list turnovers  as a matter of course. Still, we might get to the stage a-la Hawthorn etc that keep it to a minimum,  trade  our picks for a needed role player etc.

The more competition for spots the higher the bar is raised. The quality of depth is vastly improving. 

All good foundations  for a real crack

I'm not saying I would have it any other way. lol

Was there training today (Friday) and if so was anyone there?