The final Open Training of 2018. 

We'd love to hear some reports.

Bit gloomy with occasional rain but all and all, a ripping crowd.

Traditional australian breastfast of coffee with a sausage in bread went down a treat.

Fair bit of aggression in some of the drills so far. Boys giving it their all. Even from the sidelines, you could feel the brute force of the bumps they were laying on each other. 

Hore and Hunt running laps.

Preuss is far more imposing in the flesh than he is in photos/videos.

Edited December 13, 20186 yr by Demon Jack

Some tackling drills at the moment. Massive cheer from the boys as the skinny armed Fritsch brings TMac to ground with a ripping tackle.

Kudos to the new boy, Toby Bedford for attempting to bring down big Maxy. Kid has some guts! A well deserved cheer from the crowd follows.

The man himself, Ronald Barassi is in attendance.

Edited December 13, 20186 yr by Demon Jack

1 minute ago, Demon Jack said:

The man himself, Ronald Barassi is in attendance.

Invite him onto the Demonland Podcast please.

5 minutes ago, Demon Jack said:

The man himself, Ronald Barassi is in attendance.

 

9 minutes ago, Demon Jack said:

Some tackling drills at the moment. Massive cheer from the boys as the skinny armed Fritsch brings TMac to ground with a ripping tackle.

Kudos to the new boy, Toby Bedford for attempting to bring down big Maxy. Kid has some guts! A well deserved cheer from the crowd follows.

Great work DJ.

Who's impressing you the most out of all the new recruits so far?

 

 

7 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Great work DJ.

Who's impressing you the most out of all the new recruits so far?

Its only the first time I've seen them in person, but I've liked what ive seen from KK (still working on correctly spelling his last name) so far. Held his own in a few marking contests and has used the ball well.

Edited December 14, 20186 yr by Demon Jack

 

Lever jogging laps. Jack Viney on the footies for some snaps at goal.

 

Big rehab group of Nev, Vanders, Baker, Oscar, Tracc, Oliver, Hunt, Stretch, Harmes, Bull kicking and marking. All moving well. Harmes did repeat sprints with the runner who Brendan Mc at least has dubbed ‘rabbit’.

 

Hore welcomed in to the main group with plenty of applause for a drill before returning to rehab.

 

In to some 2/3rd of the ground up and back match simulation. I call this one the 3 team tango with 3 little mini teams.  

 

Spargo a nice stand up tackle an early highlight. Sparrow got the ball on the wing and tried to take on the Prooster and probably regretted it, got dumped on his shoulder. My guess is Preuss injures someone at some stage this year, I hope it’s not a bad result!

 

They split in to a couple of groups. The one at the punt road end with a ground ball in the pocket, hands hands to 45 out, then a short hit up kick quick handball and a shot on goal from 20m out 45 angle. Quite frankly this was the worst drill I’ve seen in years. Jeff and Preuss were about the only ones who could kick a simple goal. Weid dropped 3 sitters on the hit up kick. The hit up kicks were often awful. Bedford has no momentum in his kicking action so his snaps and hit ups were awful, smoothing out his kicking action has to be a priority. It was just a bad drill. Not sure why it wasn’t stopped.

 

Anyway about that time Rdb rolled in on a golf cart in a dark suit. Looked like the Pope (redacted redacted). 

 

The players were doing a tackling/grappling drill. Not sure who the coach taking it was but he wasn’t suffering fools. It was down for push ups repeatedly. Jones giving them a rev up.

 

Lewis’ push-ups were ridiculous. Pretty much like this:

 

 

 

Kade Koko took running shots at goal in this time. Looking smooth. Rejoined the group later.

 

The kids went off for some development work. The main group in to some match sim. Spargo a highlight with clean use. Steve May looked buggered after a rep, nice to see they made him work. Fritsch and Kolo clean on the outside. Kade Kolo the won a contest and ran in to goal for the defensive team which had them up and about. May very vocal and supportive.

 

Anyway, that was about enough for me.

One more thing after a lead either Weid or Tommy doubled around and May stood them up with a big body check. Just a glimpse in to his physicality.

He also tunneled through Preuss to set up the play that led to the Kolo goal against play. I would say it was a free kick but it’s still nice too see some grunt and pace defending a lead. 

Got there early so watched the re-hab group for a while..

I counted 13 including O'Mac, Petracca, Brayshaw, Melksham, Viney, Hannan, Lever, Stretch, Oiver, VandenBerg, Baker, Hunt and Jetta.

Viney, Hannan and Melksham running laps and timed sections, with Viney running out in front by a mile and freely.  I can't seen him not being back in the main group after Christmas. Melksham not as quick as Viney, but cannot see anything obviously wrong with him.  Hannan looked like he was running on egg-shells.  Nothing obvious but he pulled out of a couple of the runs to go to trainers, and then left the session early and before the main group arrived.

Lever ran lap after lap, and was moving freely.  Kicking with right foot with a trainer at times. 

Baker also running plenty of laps, and has put on serious muscle both in the legs and upper body after his early end to last season. 

Of the rest it would be hard to see anything obvious as to why they are not with the main group, perhaps with the exception of Oliver/Jetta after shoulder surgery, which requires a long period of no contact. 

Saw a little of Neitscke and Jordan in the drills.  Pleasingly both kick well, sharp, low and accurate.  Can they play football? Have to wait and see. 

Once again there was an academy kid on the track, who I can't find out who he is, but his kicking is elite and was training with the main group of players. 

There will probably be evidence later, but some bloke in a red suit and beard showed up.  We all thought it was Saty in disguise!

1 hour ago, Demon Jack said:

Bit gloomy with occasional rain but all and all, a ripping crowd.

Traditional australian breastfast of coffee with a sausage in bread went down a treat.

Fair bit of aggression in some of the drills so far. Boys giving it their all. Even from the sidelines, you could feel the brute force of the bumps they were laying on each other. 

Hore and Hunt running laps.

Preuss is far more imposing in the flesh than he is in photos/videos.

He is going to play a part.. there’s no doubting it. Dees have a plan for sure it’s for that feel of “underplay” in media whilst being a clear priority recruitment.

1 hour ago, Demon Jack said:

The man himself, Ronald Barassi is in attendance.

Doesn’t he look well, oozes class & strength what a bloody legend! A real legend, not a token one like we see called too often these days.

1 hour ago, Demon Jack said:

Its only the first time I've seen them in person, but I've liked what ive seen from KK (still working on correctly spelling his last name) so far. Held his own in a few marking contests and has used the ball well.

This appears to be a common theme form many, inc media but mainly demon folks! Was so excited to get Kolodjashnij (easy if you say it in your mind with “nij” at end haha) he’s all class w/footy in hand, quick, super endurance & will in my view be the boom recruit many didn’t see coming!

*my auto correct just made many - May, talk about a timely typo”

May recruitment massive but KK just as vital imho - If Lever remains injury free I can’t see us not making top 2. 22qtr streak only ended when he went down, technically. No coincidence it was weeks before we got form back. Add hunt & Bedford (I think he’ll overtake spargo for small fwd spot, and that Spargo will go more up ie higher or we play both beside TMAC Who knows.. 

 

But KK - May - Lever - Pruess - Sparrow - Toby - Hore all play senior footy next year (Kolo/May/Lever/Pruess bear 22 now) so pressure for spots is just insane! Try doing a best 22 - it’s ridiculous! 

Fingers crossed lady luck smiles on us of course as luck is always a factor but if you do a afl.com 2019 predictor - it’s hard to see us losing more than 6 or 7 I had to throw one to doggies just as a token upset and ended up with us 2nd behind Tigers who I had 18-4 us 17-5.. just ahead pies on %  

 

 

 

Must agree on KK. Top 10 pick and if over his injuries/head issues then he will be the recruit of the year in my opinion. Saw a couple of his early games on GC and he is all class with some grunt.

Things looking and sounding good.

 

Just now, Satyriconhome said:

 

Which one is you?

Got there before anyone else at around 8:30 Where the rehab started with running laps. Lever led out the rehab group he oozes leadership. He just jogged laps. Hannan left before 9:30 everyone was in attendance. Viney and Melksham left pretty early too. Most of them done kick to kick and jogging laps as well. Baker jogged laps for a while too.

Hore is only a week away from joining the main group so that's what the applause was about.

Just before 9:30 the non rehabbers showed up. They went into game simulation with 3 teams yellow, white and blue. I saw Frost turn over a ball straight to Sparrow, JKH get caught holding the ball. Spargo done a terrific tackle on Sparrow to applause and Fritsch done a terrific tackle on T.Mac. The rest was pretty good standard.

Bradtke has to hit the gym hard there is nothing of him. The big improver next year will be Nibbler was in  everything and is fit and firing. Sparrow looks like he belongs didn't notice a lot about the other newbies.

The rehab group is big but as Hannan said better in rehab now so your fit and firing in round 1.

Nearly all of them should be back in the main group in the new year. Viney said he'll be back very soon and Stretch and Vanders said they will be back by January. It should only leave Lever the one to worry about after the new year.

I was a bit preoccupied by autograph hunting on my away jumper. I was a bit disappointed that a lot of the players walked the other way of the autograph hunters. Maxy and Chunk were great were a fair few others, but I missed Maynard and T.Mac because they walked the other way, I somehow missed Keilty and Petty walked away from me and never sighted Goody or Jordon when it was time for autographs.

The crowd was big due to the Barassi foundation where they spoke about the new facility at Jolimont. I saw Robbo, Greg Hutchinson (not sure why he was there) and of course the great Ron Barassi I was right near where that video of Barassi and Todd Viney's (who was also there along with Whelan who has put on the kg's) dog was waiting for autographs. 

7 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Which one is you?

My bowler says it all

Therr was some real agression out there today, reckon under instruction from the coaches

Was near the Preuss premature burial of Sparrow, it was great to see, Sparrow bounced up and carried on

Have a great photo of Weid being upended as well,  will post some later on Insta and here

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

 

your summer cut, saty?

and i'd get either that beard washed or don't get selfies with a santa - lol 

This post was labelled "Is that Jesse Hogan or Steven May?"

 

38 minutes ago, Demonland said:

This post was labelled "Is that Jesse Hogan or Steven May?"

 

If they are going to kick over a dummy they might think of getting one with arms above its head.  And go real high tech and have the arms waving about.

4 minutes ago, sue said:

If they are going to kick over a dummy they might think of getting one with arms above its head.  And go real high tech and have the arms waving about.

Perhaps we need to invest in a couple of these.