Great to hear that JKH is firing on all cylinders this pre-season. Garlett is by no means a lock in our starting 22 so there's definitely opportunities for him. Could be a Hunt like season coming up for JKH if the coaches give him the tick of approval.

3 hours ago, Copuchas said:

main group and looked great.  No residual bandaging or anything.

Quite the comeback.

So where's the real Jay Kennedy - Harris? 

10 hours ago, Deeoldfart said:

Greatly appreciate the effort Ken!  Are you in 'hangover training' in preparation for a visit to the G late in September?

The hangover won't start until October 1st :-)

4 hours ago, Demon Jack said:

Great to hear that JKH is firing on all cylinders this pre-season. Garlett is by no means a lock in our starting 22 so there's definitely opportunities for him. Could be a Hunt like season coming up for JKH if the coaches give him the tick of approval.

I must say i haven't heard a lot about Jeffy.  To this who have been to most sessions, is he looking sharp and interested?  JKH must be looming as a definite rival for the crumber spot.

As with a number of positions in the round 1 team, I think a lot will depend on form of JKH and Jeffy during the JLT series. You perform and carry out your role properly and you will get a good chance of being named first up. Just the way it should be. Developed good depth in a number of positions on the list and in a good position injury wise at this stage of the pre-season.

I don't see JKH competing with Garlett - he's there to be an outside run player moving up thru the midfield more than Jeff's more forward arc role

Copuchas and Jock Strap have covered it better than I can, so just a few extras from me.

- Mitch White hurt an ankle at one stage while with the rehab group. I didn't see the incident but he hobbled around on his own for a while. No assistance from any medical staff though.

- The rehabbers did a lot of 'quick hands' drills. One drill had the receiver on his knees with his partner only a few metres away kicking it at him. Just after the trainer said 'let the kicker know if you want it harder' BenKen said "yep, harder" and the very next was a low bullet that got him right in the nuts much to the amusement of Kent, Smith, Hullett, White etc.

- One other drill that I don't think has been mentioned was a simple kicking drill with the aim to move it on past a man (dummy) on the mark quickly. Three players in the line, 20-25m apart with a silhouette/mannequin marking the man in the middle. He'd receive a kick from one end, wheel around, and kick it past the mannequin on the mark to the player at the other end. It looked pretty good but it really looked like a man on the mark who actually moved would smother/impact a lot of the kicks.

- I only saw the blues vs whites that Copuchas described well for a few minutes but for me it really highlighted the gap between the best and the newbies. Viney in particular was everywhere and just drew the ball, while a few others really pushed low percentage kicks which didn't come off. Dec Keilty did a great smother on Frost right at the start and his team were told in no uncertain terms to give him some praise.    

- while Kent wasn't required to push himself in the rehab group when they wound up they all had a ping at goal (you can see the 50m arc in the photo) and he nailed his from right on the boundary on the 50. I agree with the comments that he looked close. Certainly no obvious restriction.

 

 

38 minutes ago, DemonAndrew said:

I don't see JKH competing with Garlett - he's there to be an outside run player moving up thru the midfield more than Jeff's more forward arc role

So has Jeff done enough?  

1 hour ago, monoccular said:

So has Jeff done enough?  

I'm one of Garlett's biggest critics but it took all of about 5 minutes in the intraclub the other day to see his speed is still a cut above and he gets to the right spots. I'd like to see some good form in the preseason games but I still think he's close to a lock to start the year - especially with Ben Ken and Kent in rehab - and then it's a matter of if he performs.

Petracca playing as a deep forward and opening a half forward spot might be the most logical way if you had to replace him. JKH and a lot of the others are better up the ground players and young Dion Johnstone is unlikely to be ready even if his tackling looked great in the intraclub.

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I'm one of Garlett's biggest critics but it took all of about 5 minutes in the intraclub the other day to see his speed is still a cut above and he gets to the right spots. I'd like to see some good form in the preseason games but I still think he's close to a lock to start the year - especially with Ben Ken and Kent in rehab - and then it's a matter of if he performs.

Petracca playing as a deep forward and opening a half forward spot might be the most logical way if you had to replace him. JKH and a lot of the others are better up the ground players and young Dion Johnstone is unlikely to be ready even if his tackling looked great in the intraclub.

Dee Spencer, I am also a fan of Garlett and while I like his work around goals i think he adds a bit when he has his short runs in the middle.

5 hours ago, CHF said:

Dee Spencer, I am also a fan of Garlett and while I like his work around goals i think he adds a bit when he has his short runs in the middle.

I think unless Jeffy has an incredibly poor JLT lead up, I'd expect him in the line up to start with. Still it's really good to hear JKH put in a solid pre-season, will be interesting to see where he lines up in JLT. 

9 hours ago, monoccular said:

So has Jeff done enough?  

Subject to form (obviously), I see Garlett as a lock for his position each week, much like Gawn and Hogon.

He has no obvious competitors on the list for his role IMO, perhaps subject only to what I'm reading about Dion Johnstone.

Kent, JKH and BenKen are not natural competitors for Garlett's role. They are half forward type players (with clear midfield capabilities) who can play an important role in the forward line (in terms of their ability to contribute scoring and defensive pressure), but they are not crumbling forwards in the mould of Garlett.

Johnstone will have to be pretty damn good as a first year player to dislodge Garlett in the season proper. I expect we'll see a bit of him in the JLT series though.

 

Selection is going to be extremely interesting - 45 players on the list.  Hibberd won't play JLT 1 and nor will Kent, Kennedy, King or White.  I doubt that Hannan is yet ready or Filipovic.  Tyson also improbable.  That still leaves 37 to choose a 29 man squad from with a further 3 to be cut.  Lewis will play apparently and so will Melksham (Peter Ryan article AFL.com).  I'll be surprised if Jones plays and they may not want to risk TMac's shoulder.   There's an interesting trade-off of refining the modified game plan versus injury risk to proven performers (Gawn, Jones, Viney, Vince) plus getting exposure in to the newbies (Keilty, T & J Smith, Maynard, McKenna etc).  

14 hours ago, Kumamoto_Ken said:

- One other drill that I don't think has been mentioned was a simple kicking drill with the aim to move it on past a man (dummy) on the mark quickly. Three players in the line, 20-25m apart with a silhouette/mannequin marking the man in the middle. He'd receive a kick from one end, wheel around, and kick it past the mannequin on the mark to the player at the other end. It looked pretty good but it really looked like a man on the mark who actually moved would smother/impact a lot of the kicks.

 

Seems a bit silly. Are we so short of people that we can't have a real human on the mark to make sure the players aren't fooling themselves they got around the man on the mark.