TRAINING: Monday 23rd January 2023

[McQueen 17,864]

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Any signs of Lever or Howes?

Howes trained fully. Lever was restricted to the bike and walking grandstand stairs. 
 

I’ll get back soon to you legends with a proper run down. 

[Demonland 72,189]

 

[Wizard333 42]

I went down and it was locked out for first hour but could see through fence then allowed in.

Max Gawn ran laps — it looks like a 3 to 4 week injury.

Andy Moniz-Wakefield ran laps.

Blake Howes was taken off late as was on restricted minutes.

Adam Tomlinson loudest on track and a leader - surprised me but won't be in best 25.

Jake Lever on bike and walking up n down stairs, yelling out as he does.

Melky copped a niggle so ran laps but is in amazing nick. Think he and Hibbo play Rd 1, Hibbo always surprises how well he still goes. 

Grundy and Brown need to go for marks and not just tap to mids at times. Gawn a lot better than Grundy, significant but last 3yrs tells you that. 

Clarry went off with a hand injury and came back on.  Hope it's not related to last year

Our mids look fit, Viney, Trac & Harmes. They will dominate again

Bayley Fristch will have another great year, just reads it so well

Trent Burgoyne didn't do a lot to notice

Kozzie Pickett will play a lot of midfield, goody push him along, he looks amazing and training in there

Tom McDonald in full training and forward, Petty back.

Not many injuries and we are fit so lots of positivity to be had. U just want to be fit this time of year

Matt Jefferson will be a player, took some nice grabs. Think Fritter and Jeremy Cameron for who he is like. Two years away.

We are so mature and train well and physically strong, no doubt a Top 8 team when you watch them. Good voice n leadership

Angus Brayshaw looks good but doesn't stand out. He is a match day gun though

Lachie Hunter will be handy, he cheats out to space well

Questions remain - can Kozzie give midfield more creativity but at what expense up forward

Tom McDonald always important to us so if he plays does JvR miss? I don't think Goody knows who plays yet in key forward roles, I like JvR and McDonald and a bit of Gawn - no Brown. Will give good movement and contests and defensive work, plus Fritta

Can u play Brown, Grundy and Gawn? I don't think so.

Are Laurie and Spargo, Nibbler & Melky good enough to allow Kozzie to play mid or good enough anyhow to create a better mid forward connection on last year? Not sold on it

We need a fit Lever. Can Rivers and Bowey step up?

Hard to see Jordan playing if Hunter plays

Can't see Woey getting a game as mids and wings bat deep

Goin to see alot of same players, hopefully JvR plays but hard to see many other youngsters stepping up so can goody find the players motivation and some strategy improvements as with TMac (Brown or Grundy misses) that same team should win another flag in talent but also went 6-6 on way home and lost 2 finals. Fingers crossed, go dee's. well worth trying to get to training, it's good to see our elite athletes, everything is timed to the second and micro analysed with cameras drones etc

[McQueen 17,864]

As mentioned previously, rehab consisted of Max Gawn, J Smith, AMW (looks laboured in his running) and Jake Lever. Max put in about 45 mins of light running and short passes without any venom in the kicking action and then disappeared into the rooms. 

I overheard Caitlin Nobes telling Tom Brown that Gawn’s hammy isn’t too bad. She also politely asked the CH 7 cameraman to not broadcast any of the recordings he’d done prior to her coming over. 

Adams and Verall doing some conditioning work and skills/positioning activities but did not join main group. 

All coaches in attendance apart from Choco Williams. Chaplin particularly vocal and demonstrative. 

Warm ups consisted of handball keeping’s off drills and then some end-to-end full ground overlap drills. Skills were okay in this but without any pressure I wasn’t expecting to see so many missed kicks and ordinary handballs. Main offender was Bailey Laurie in my opinion but there were several others. 

Match SIM then started with blues and whites. I couldn’t discern who was the first and second string groups were and they eventually switched it up anyway. 

Highlights - Jefferson has great hands and a well timed leap. He received praise from teammates and coaches on a few occasions. 

Pickett OMG he is sublime. Just cruises effortlessly when he has the ball and then cranks up his attack on the opponent when he doesn’t. 

Viney is in for a career best year based on what I saw today. In everything. 

Chandler will play plenty of footy this year if he can translate his training form into the heat of a game. 

Tomlinson was terrific down back and fair ripping it into anyone who was not doing what was required. Hibberd also very creative and was the main architect with switching the play across half back. 

BBB also performed strongly this morning and moved well. 

Howes looks a player. 

Lowlights - Laurie I thought was poor. Mainly handballs at teammates feet. 

Harmes lacked involvement in the match sim. 

Melky pulled out of match sim and ran a few 200m and was in discussions with staff about some niggle.

Oliver was in real discomfort with that hand. He was point to the top part of his hand just below the wrist. I was thinking the worst given the carry on he was animating.

Once he returned to the field he went straight back into match sim and got nicely winded but the hand seemed to be okay. Watch this space.

Summary:

Overall I was relatively impressed with the session. Grundy was moving well and the forward entry looked sharper with an obvious focus on neat entry into the 30m hotspot. There was a few Joe the Goose goals during the sim so it may be something in planning to create more of those opportunities. 

Melbourne traffic sucks. If I was a player I would quickly start to loathe the drive to Casey. 

No snakes seen.

Any questions let me know and I’ll try to provide insight.

Cheers 🍻

[Jaded No More 68,915]

Anyone with any inside info on what is going on with Lever? 

[rjay 24,928]

3 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Melbourne traffic sucks.

Sure does, I try to avoid driving during the day unless I absolutely have to.

[Demonland 72,189]

Good news for Max (and us). Low grade Hamstring strain.

 

[dazzledavey36 54,937]

Great reports @Wizard333 and @McQueen. 

Disappointing to hear about Laurie. Starting to have concerns considering he's a first round pick. I suppose you can't win them all.

Also interested in your comment regarding Howes @McQueen. Having only seen limited vision of Howes he's the one player on the wheel list who intrigues. What makes you think he'll be a player? Athleticism? Good footy IQ.

Howes excites me, but he's a mystery for me as well.

[Deebauched 1,220]

53 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Good news for Max (and us). Low grade Hamstring strain.

 

Max could always get work in Pattaya if he retires.  strewth!

[Gator 17,350]

All in all, I thought it was a pretty sloppy training session.  Inferior to Friday.  Mainly poor kicking.

Jefferson and Farris-White both took great contested marks, which earnt them praise from the players.

The highlight for me was there not being any wind the last two times I've been there.  Extraordinary.

[McQueen 17,864]

52 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Great reports @Wizard333 and @McQueen. 

Disappointing to hear about Laurie. Starting to have concerns considering he's a first round pick. I suppose you can't win them all.

Also interested in your comment regarding Howes @McQueen. Having only seen limited vision of Howes he's the one player on the wheel list who intrigues. What makes you think he'll be a player? Athleticism? Good footy IQ.

Howes excites me, but he's a mystery for me as well.

Just looks smooth. Handles the ball cleanly and his skills are looking classy. 
Also like the way he covers the ground.  

[McQueen 17,864]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

Perhaps a policy of no-live takes from training is best. Demonland user heart related issues may drop as a result 😄

I do apologise. 
 

It was far worse watching though I’ll give ya the tip. 

[chook fowler 19,459]

28 minutes ago, Gator said:

All in all, I thought it was a pretty sloppy training session.  Inferior to Friday.  Mainly poor kicking.

Jefferson and Farris-White both took great contested marks, which earnt them praise from the players.

The highlight for me was there not being any wind the last two times I've been there.  Extraordinary.

no wind correlates to the absence of bacon and egg rolls.

[DeeZone 9,841]

Thanks Demonland, Wizard333 , McQueen and all posters another great read and love the different perspectives. I have a good vibe about Howes as well and concern with Laurie’s body language. Good article in the Hun today re: JVR they consider that BBB will find it difficult to displace him from the 23.!!!

[Demonland 72,189]

 

[Stiff Arm 4,419]

Oliver's right hand or left hand today?

The broken thumb last year was right. During the wet training session last Wednesday he copped a nasty whack to his left hand but seemed to recover enough to do the match sim

Anyone got any info about Lever's injury and timeline to recovery?

Thank for the reports fellas 🙏

[Demonland 72,189]

 

PHOTO GALLERY FROM TRAINING

[Bystander 903]

When would you expect the first practice match to be ?

[Apocalypse XXXI 243]

It’s Easter in January with many of our players resurrected during the course of the day. Max’s hamstring is low level, Gus is back in town and Clarrie looks okay. 

Glory be!

[adonski 12,134]

5 minutes ago, Bystander said:

When would you expect the first practice match to be ?

 

 

[DEE fence 5,015]

8 hours ago, McQueen said:

Oliver back on field. 

Was about to ban you from attending training.

[Fanatique Demon 2,646]

Thanks, all.

[Whispering_Jack 30,117]

I’m guessing that the remaining training sessions this week (Wednesday and Friday) will take place at Casey Fields to avoid the tennis crowds. 

That practice match in March vs Richmond should also be at Casey.

[kev martin 9,892]

26 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

I’m guessing that the remaining training sessions this week (Wednesday and Friday) will take place at Casey Fields to avoid the tennis crowds

According to the website, MFC, training is at Gosch’s on Wednesday 

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/training-times

AFL Training Sessions

 

Date: Wednesday 25 January

Time: 9:30am

Location: Gosch's Paddock

 

 

[picket fence 17,169]

Thanks very much to all Landers reports. Im back from holidays and should be right to go with training reports next week at  Casey. I can forsee a "TIME AND RELATIVE DIMENSIONS IN SPACE " report coming your way

Cheers to all P.F