Hulett injury has absolutely [censored] me off.

He pulled himself out of a small group drill to have his left knee/ankle assessed. Hard to tell what exactly. Then he limped back to the sideline from the middle of the oval. Had a bit more assessment and ran some very slow run throughs at a long way below 100% intensity. 

All of a sudden he's back in the main group for match simulation training. He gets chased under pressure and tackled and his leg rolls under him and is down in noticeable pain and takes a while to get up and gets carried off.

I just don't understand why in mid January you'd put a guy in to full match sim training when he's clearly not 100% and there hasn't been a great opportunity to test him? 

I get the desire to build more toughness in to players but this was silly. I'm angry.

Just now, waynewussell said:

Can only assume Hulett injured knee after I left

Afl website just changed there story from knee injury to ankle injury, journalism at its finest 

Just back from training.  Horrible to see Liam go down.  I couldn't tell whether it was ankle or knee but he went down and stayed down for sometime before being examined and carted back to AAMI.

The session was physically very demanding and different drills.  WW has done a great job describing who was doing what.  Hibberd and JKH in the main group and looking sharp.  The rehab group don't look far away and were doing a range of contact drills.

Standouts for me today were Max Gawn who just looks so fit, Oliver who was having no trouble with some of the running, AVB and Harmes who did well.  Oh, and Hunt. Boy did he look good using his pace and skills.  Hogan was also very good today along with the regulars like Lewis, Vince and Jones.  Petracca and Brayshaw were also in everything and Petracca's field kicking was excellent.

Any questions let me know.

1 hour ago, waynewussell said:

Just watched a very impressive full ground activity consisting of four teams (main group divided into teams of 9  - 10 players.) Two teams on at any one time, one attacking, one defending. Objective was to take the ball from deep in backline to a scoring opportunity at other end. All players had to take the game on... no prop and stop... Teams had to work the ball through by hand and foot, not too much run and carry. When each team exited the field they were required to sprint back to the defense goals by way of the boundary line. Goodwin would meet them there for observations about their previous work. Leaders in each group would also discuss strategies with team mates. Lewis, Jones and Gawn were driving their teams to 'win'

Who was the fourth team leader?

 

Thanks for the reports guys, hopefully Liam's knee ankle is just a high pain short recovery injury.

18 minutes ago, Vogon Poetry said:

Just back from training.  Horrible to see Liam go down.  I couldn't tell whether it was ankle or knee but he went down and stayed down for sometime before being examined and carted back to AAMI.

The session was physically very demanding and different drills.  WW has done a great job describing who was doing what.  Hibberd and JKH in the main group and looking sharp.  The rehab group don't look far away and were doing a range of contact drills.

Standouts for me today were Max Gawn who just looks so fit, Oliver who was having no trouble with some of the running, AVB and Harmes who did well.  Oh, and Hunt. Boy did he look good using his pace and skills.  Hogan was also very good today along with the regulars like Lewis, Vince and Jones.  Petracca and Brayshaw were also in everything and Petracca's field kicking was excellent.

Any questions let me know.

How has young Dion Johnstone acquitted himself to the standard?

2 hours ago, binman said:

Drove (crawled) past on punt road at 9:14am. Centre lane. Bus blocked my view. There were some men running around who looked like footballers. They were kicking footballs. One was Daniel Corss. He had a red MFC shirt on. 

Best training report I've seen all year!

There weren't necessarily designated leaders for the groups... just some obvious senior, excellent trainers who went about communicating the best way to implement Goodwin's focus. Dion Johnstone will impress with his strong overhead work and his goal sense

Shame to hear about Hulett and that the injury may have been preventable through better assessment and common sense. Hopefully it's not a bad injury that keeps him out a year.

Further thoughts... Wagner will feature in the 22 regularly, even with the inclusion of Hibberd and Melksham. Harmes looks set to go to the next level. Smokey 1 - Johnston. Smokey 2 - Filipovic

8 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

Further thoughts... Wagner will feature in the 22 regularly, even with the inclusion of Hibberd and Melksham. Harmes looks set to go to the next level. Smokey 1 - Johnston. Smokey 2 - Filipovic

where do you see wagner playing, wayne?

Fantastic reports.

How is Tim Smith going? Really hoping he can come in and make a huge impact straight up.

Hulett has been given the all clear.

Melbourne Demons forward Liam Hulett escapes serious ankle injury

11 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Hulett has been given the all clear.

Melbourne Demons forward Liam Hulett escapes serious ankle injury

 

Good news.

I see Wagner as a HB, he has excellent endurance, seems to have a firm grip on the game plan, has an excellent left foot and, to reiterate the Goodwin catchphrase... has composure under pressure.

Tim Smith continues to impress. He is very good with his shots at goal, had developed AFL standard fitness, seems to make good decisions related to game plan and has eccellent hands. I see him as a backup to Hogan and Kent/Watts

16 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

I see Wagner as a HB, he has excellent endurance, seems to have a firm grip on the game plan, has an excellent left foot and, to reiterate the Goodwin catchphrase... has composure under pressure.

so assuming the other hbf is not hibberd (because he's another lefty)  but hunt, where would you play hibberd (or hunt).   suppose one interchange would be a defender so one could be there.    to make it easier what would your whole backline (+ one interchange defender) look like?

32 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

so assuming the other hbf is not hibberd (because he's another lefty)  but hunt, where would you play hibberd (or hunt).   suppose one interchange would be a defender so one could be there.    to make it easier what would your whole backline (+ one interchange defender) look like?

Everyone seems to be assuming Jetta is a shoe in for a small back spot. I found the wording of Macca's update on him interesting...

It’s been a really good summer from Neville. He trained incredibly hard during the off-season break and has given himself every opportunity. He’s now part of a really competitive group of mid-sized defenders/wingers, so he’s up for the challenge of winning his spot and keeping his spot. He’s always been a gentleman and he’s still a gentleman, and he’s highly-respected in our footy club

21 minutes ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

Everyone seems to be assuming Jetta is a shoe in for a small back spot. I found the wording of Macca's update on him interesting...

It’s been a really good summer from Neville. He trained incredibly hard during the off-season break and has given himself every opportunity. He’s now part of a really competitive group of mid-sized defenders/wingers, so he’s up for the challenge of winning his spot and keeping his spot. He’s always been a gentleman and he’s still a gentleman, and he’s highly-respected in our footy club

Agree with you. 'Every opportunity'...

and what's with the gentleman rhetoric 

24 minutes ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

Everyone seems to be assuming Jetta is a shoe in for a small back spot. I found the wording of Macca's update on him interesting...

It’s been a really good summer from Neville. He trained incredibly hard during the off-season break and has given himself every opportunity. He’s now part of a really competitive group of mid-sized defenders/wingers, so he’s up for the challenge of winning his spot and keeping his spot. He’s always been a gentleman and he’s still a gentleman, and he’s highly-respected in our footy club

 

Jetta has had patches of games where he doesn't contribute a heap in attack and he isn't ideally suited to the zone system. So he's not quite a complete lock, but I don't see anything there that says he's out of favour either. Just the understanding that Hibberd coming in + Hunt, Wagner, Smith etc means he'll have to play consistently.

4 hours ago, waynewussell said:

Further thoughts... Wagner will feature in the 22 regularly, even with the inclusion of Hibberd and Melksham. Harmes looks set to go to the next level. Smokey 1 - Johnston. Smokey 2 - Filipovic

1

I've mainly seen him in rehab and light skills work, keen to see more. He's got a good frame for a young ruck, runs pretty well and his handballing and kicking is better than expected. What have you seen from him?

Our coach is also one fit man. He is running the tan most mornings - this morning he was doing repeat sprints up the Anderson Street hill. He looks fit enough to still be playing!

I see Hibberd as a versatile swing man in defense... He can get away with playing as one if the three key talls or a true flanker/disperser... Wagner is in the same mould, a little lighter perhaps, but developing similar skill set and the same courage running back. Filipovic reminds me of a young Martin... a very tall midfielder with a better kick. 

8 hours ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

Everyone seems to be assuming Jetta is a shoe in for a small back spot. I found the wording of Macca's update on him interesting...

It’s been a really good summer from Neville. He trained incredibly hard during the off-season break and has given himself every opportunity. He’s now part of a really competitive group of mid-sized defenders/wingers, so he’s up for the challenge of winning his spot and keeping his spot. He’s always been a gentleman and he’s still a gentleman, and he’s highly-respected in our footy club

There was a number of games last year where Jetta almost single handedly kept us in the game. He is now a top shelf small defender, and in my mind he would be the first back I pick each week. Extremely underrated 

boys seem to be getting smashed this pre season