13 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Tmac did a presser after training and rattled off a list of senior players who won't play.  Can't remember them, but no surprises from memory. I tried to do bunny ears on him while the cameras were going, but got slammed into a tree by Todd Viney. He's still got the mongrel instinct! I'm still lucky to have my jaw intact

He said Viney, Melksham and May won’t play this week. Would want to get a hit out JLT 2. 

 

42 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Don Bradman used to practice everyday hitting with a stump and a golf ball.

Most of the experts will say that a kicking style is set in concrete by the time the kids are 14 or 15, so good on Goody for identifying Christians kicking issues & secondly, actually trying to rectify them. This will more than likely emphasize the concentration side of the craft rather that changing his style.....Good work!

2 hours ago, Dr.D said:

I'm glad Binman isn't coach, he would've called training off coz it was too hot. Some of you guys were so precious in the JLT thread saying the richmond game should be rescheduled etc. Ridiculous! You asked for proof and whilst its not 40 (just a few degrees off) not only was training not earlier (in fact later) they weren't even doing a light session. 

We should have had a bet!

Which you would have lost by the way. 

You wrote that 'They train when its 40 degrees'

I wrote  'No they don't. Ever.'

It did not get over 35 when they were training. There is a very, very big difference between 35 and 40 degrees. 5 degrees to be exact. 

As i wrote previously if you can show me some evidence of the dees training in 40 degree heat i will be most impressed - not to mention very surprised. 

I will acknowledge i'm surprised they didn't move the training earlier (though i only said if the temp is mid 30s they often - not always - make training earlier).  Perhaps they were preparing them for Shep.

Edited February 28, 20196 yr by binman

1 hour ago, Moonshadow said:

Thought this was an interesting one. At the end of the session,  Trac and Goody did one-on-one kicking of a tennis ball.

A mate of mine leads a large group of Auskick kids at Arden St. He gets them to do this each week for the whole year to improve their ball drop, particulary following the ball down with their hand, position of head over the ball, height of ball drop and placement of ball on the top of the foot. Obviously a tennis ball has less forgiveness than a footy. A couple of mm either side and the tennis ball is sprayed away from the target.

Now I'm a keen fan of Tracc, but I've always had questions over the height of his ball drop and the position of the ball at point of impact with his foot.  When it works for him it looks sublime, but that's not always the case. All players can improve and I reckon Goody has taken a personal interest in improving Tracc's kicking action.

A big tick from me.

PS. I might add that Goody got it right more times than Tracc 

We do forget that Goody was a bloody fantastic footballer!

If he had played for a big Victorian club his name would be right up there with the Buckleys and Hirds of the games.

Ok....so when does the team sheet come out?

1 hour ago, Moonshadow said:

Thought this was an interesting one. At the end of the session,  Trac and Goody did one-on-one kicking of a tennis ball.

A mate of mine leads a large group of Auskick kids at Arden St. He gets them to do this each week for the whole year to improve their ball drop, particulary following the ball down with their hand, position of head over the ball, height of ball drop and placement of ball on the top of the foot. Obviously a tennis ball has less forgiveness than a footy. A couple of mm either side and the tennis ball is sprayed away from the target.

Now I'm a keen fan of Tracc, but I've always had questions over the height of his ball drop and the position of the ball at point of impact with his foot.  When it works for him it looks sublime, but that's not always the case. All players can improve and I reckon Goody has taken a personal interest in improving Tracc's kicking action.

A big tick from me.

PS. I might add that Goody got it right more times than Tracc 

Yeah this is nice, but why is it happening now and not since Dec 2014? And why the senior coach just with one player and not a dedicated kicking coach with every player? Filmed, broken down, reviewed, repeated. 

I’m a broken record on this topic but anyway, it’s a good sign they’ve recognized a problem, hopefully they get some improvement. 

Edited February 28, 20196 yr by DeeSpencer

1 hour ago, Moonshadow said:

Thought this was an interesting one. At the end of the session,  Trac and Goody did one-on-one kicking of a tennis ball.

A mate of mine leads a large group of Auskick kids at Arden St. He gets them to do this each week for the whole year to improve their ball drop, particulary following the ball down with their hand, position of head over the ball, height of ball drop and placement of ball on the top of the foot. Obviously a tennis ball has less forgiveness than a footy. A couple of mm either side and the tennis ball is sprayed away from the target.

Now I'm a keen fan of Tracc, but I've always had questions over the height of his ball drop and the position of the ball at point of impact with his foot.  When it works for him it looks sublime, but that's not always the case. All players can improve and I reckon Goody has taken a personal interest in improving Tracc's kicking action.

A big tick from me.

PS. I might add that Goody got it right more times than Tracc 

I like this a lot....a whole lot!!

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

I'll blame @Bitter but optimistic

Great reporting. Thank you.

People were speculating that we wouldn't be taking a strong team to Shepparton. Did you get that impression?

With Tommy Mc's answers and a couple of questions I asked, depends on your definition of strong, as I stated before, expect him to want to look at every player on the list who is fit and ready

 

 

Edited February 28, 20196 yr by Satyriconhome

 

 

4 hours ago, Demonland said:

I thought it was common knowledge that KK would struggle to make Round 1. I think we might even see Lever before KK.

On the Melbourne website it has KK joining the VFL team in round 1.

5 minutes ago, WERRIDEE said:

On the Melbourne website it has KK joining the VFL team in round 1.

The 1st Round of the VFL fixture is 7th April.  That's equivalent to Round 3 in the AFL.  Presumably KK needs a couple of weeks in the 2s, we're potentially looking at a recall, form permitting, of around Round 5, and even then he's not a walk-up start.

If Lever is back around Round 8-10, then what Andy said isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

18 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

With Tommy Mc's answers and a couple of questions I asked, depends on your definition of strong, as I stated before, expect him to want to look at every player on the list who is fit and ready

Saty, I apologise for my earlier post.  I read it that you were expecting Goodwin to be playing games, and possibly picking a smoky for Round 1 based on what he saw in the JLT games.

Reality is, he's got close to a full list, but match fitness is going to be against a fair few of them.  He'll need to play as many players as possible over the next 2 weeks to see who will be cherry ripe to go Round 1.

Not an ideal situation to be in, but we work with it, and hope we pick up a few wins in the first 4-5 weeks of the season, so that we are prepared for a season that extends deep in to September.

1 minute ago, The Chazz said:

The 1st Round of the VFL fixture is 7th April.  That's equivalent to Round 3 in the AFL.  Presumably KK needs a couple of weeks in the 2s, we're potentially looking at a recall, form permitting, of around Round 5, and even then he's not a walk-up start.

If Lever is back around Round 8-10, then what Andy said isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

Is that what theyre saying? I guess he did it in round 7 wasnt it? So its exactly 12m then.

McDonald made it clear that there were some ''rehab guys'' that he named who obviously wouldn't play on Sunday, plus he said there were a few guys who've done everything who'll be ''rested''.

I'm expecting quite a few of the (perceived) best 22 won't be playing.

4 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Is that what theyre saying? I guess he did it in round 7 wasnt it? So its exactly 12m then.

I'm pretty sure I hear Goody say that somewhere - maybe the interview on SEN the other day?

1 minute ago, ProDee said:

McDonald made it clear that there were some ''rehab guys'' that he named who obviously wouldn't play on Sunday, plus he said there were a few guys who've done everything who'll be ''rested''.

I'm expecting quite a few of the (perceived) best 22 won't be playing.

I would expect our JLT 2 team to be a significantly stronger, albeit slightly underdone side from JLT1.

11 minutes ago, ProDee said:

McDonald made it clear that there were some ''rehab guys'' that he named who obviously wouldn't play on Sunday, plus he said there were a few guys who've done everything who'll be ''rested''.

I'm expecting quite a few of the (perceived) best 22 won't be playing.

Lets hope so.

Would be happy to see the big Prussian getting a hit out, rest Max, and even Tom. 

 

Made the trek from The Manor to have a squiz at training. The blustery wind wasn't ideal and , unfortunately putting up with Moonie's bluster was less so.

Some observations

I wanted to have a look at KK but he was only doing a bit of running and some short kicking drills with Bedford and Chandler. I think he said he was about 6 weeks away from being right but I may have misheard that.

May Viney and Hannan were also on light duties but May joined in some drills later. He didn't look troubled but didn't seem overly switched on either.

I'm not a JKH fan but he did everything right when I was watching him - very sharp.

Weid was another who looked very good in everything he did - confident ball handling and good kicking.

Oliver must be just about right. He played wide in the simulations but laid a very strong tackle on some unfortunate and was also sure in his ball handling. 

I had never seen Pruess in the flesh and watched him carefully. He did a sure handed pick up and his long kicking seemed fine. In the drills where he had to short pass he was very deliberate. He found his targets ok but would too slow in a game. He'll usually be looking to get the hand pass off I reckon. At one point Pruess, Gawn and Bradke were doing throw in drills directed by Stafford. Obviously they weren't doing full on body smashing but they were jockeying for position. Preuss came out on top most times. As would be expected Bradke didn't get a sniff against those two.

Stafford also took Pruess and Gawn for some goal kicking practise. A few times he indicated modifications to grip and drop to them both.

It was good to see Bernie Vince assisting in some drills although he was far less vociferous than I would have expected.

Melkshake looked a gun. I watched him in one on one marking drills against Trac - he absolutely towelled him up about 4 times in a row.

Right at the end Nev had a couple of the young blokes to work on body positioning in the marking contest.  They showed great respect in the way they hung on whatever he said.

After that strenuous session Moonie and I had a couple of quenching libations at the old corner pub.

44 minutes ago, The Chazz said:

The 1st Round of the VFL fixture is 7th April.  That's equivalent to Round 3 in the AFL.  Presumably KK needs a couple of weeks in the 2s, we're potentially looking at a recall, form permitting, of around Round 5, and even then he's not a walk-up start.

If Lever is back around Round 8-10, then what Andy said isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

My comment was a little tongue in MFCSS cheek but yeah I have a sneaking suspicion that he might return later rather than sooner. Then again I'm a glass is almost empty kind of guy when it comes to the Dees and luck with injuries.

3 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Made the trek from The Manor to have a squiz at training. The blustery wind wasn't ideal and , unfortunately putting up with Moonie's bluster was less so.

Some observations

I wanted to have a look at KK but he was only doing a bit of running and some short kicking drills with Bedford and Chandler. I think he said he was about 6 weeks away from being right but I may have misheard that.

May Viney and Hannan were also on light duties but May joined in some drills later. He didn't look troubled but didn't seem overly switched on either.

I'm not a JKH fan but he did everything right when I was watching him - very sharp.

Weid was another who looked very good in everything he did - confident ball handling and good kicking.

Oliver must be just about right. He played wide in the simulations but laid a very strong tackle on some unfortunate and was also sure in his ball handling. 

I had never seen Pruess in the flesh and watched him carefully. He did a sure handed pick up and his long kicking seemed fine. In the drills where he had to short pass he was very deliberate. He found his targets ok but would too slow in a game. He'll usually be looking to get the hand pass off I reckon. At one point Pruess, Gawn and Bradke were doing throw in drills directed by Stafford. Obviously they weren't doing full on body smashing but they were jockeying for position. Preuss came out on top most times. As would be expected Bradke didn't get a sniff against those two.

Stafford also took Pruess and Gawn for some goal kicking practise. A few times he indicated modifications to grip and drop to them both.

It was good to see Bernie Vince assisting in some drills although he was far less vociferous than I would have expected.

Melkshake looked a gun. I watched him in one on one marking drills against Trac - he absolutely towelled him up about 4 times in a row.

Right at the end Nev had a couple of the young blokes to work on body positioning in the marking contest.  They showed great respect in the way they hung on whatever he said.

After that strenuous session Moonie and I had a couple of quenching libations at the old corner pub.

Is this really you Uncle ?

Not your usual salacious contribution, Uncle. Indeed you sound remarkably sane. 

Can only assume it was your alter ego at Gosch's 

Re: tennis ball and ball drop. I am gratified that at last this basic fundamental of good, consistent kicking is receiving attention. I highlighted Tracca's problem in another post in another thread recently.

One aspect that is not fully understood is the influence of the feel in the fingertips. It is uncanny how often good kicks are able to win the ball in awkward positions (the ball, not the player) and, because of the feel in the fingertips, instinctively adjust the ball in their hands to ensure a proper ball drop and a good kick to position.

Similar to tennis players who seem to instinctively and seamlessly adjust the raquet in their hands to hit the ball.

The best drill (in addition to the tennis ball) is a session of kick short kicks (10-15 m) at fast pace with a another person. This will force the hands to adjust quickly and surely. It's called muscle memory.

Long booming kicks at training is a waste of time to teach good kicking technique.

1 hour ago, Laughing Goat said:

Most of the experts will say that a kicking style is set in concrete by the time the kids are 14 or 15, so good on Goody for identifying Christians kicking issues & secondly, actually trying to rectify them. This will more than likely emphasize the concentration side of the craft rather that changing his style.....Good work!

It's definitely fixable. I went on a tour of the VIS facility in Footscray where they do biometric testing on kicking action. around a dozen probes are taped to the body and fed to a video/computer that shows exactly what is happening with the kicking motion, drop, body lean etc. Pinpoints exactly what should be addressed/fixed. This was back in 2011 so I imagine it has improved a lot since then