Jump to content

Featured Replies

Posted

KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING REPORT

A wintery morning, coldish and windy. Great morning for the time trials, headwinds on one side and a tail on the punt rd side.

Clarry smashed it. Goody was over the moon, they embraced several times. He is set for a ripper. Looking thin, nearly wirey. He is also showing some leadership qualities.

Others out front were Adam Tomlinson, he was in a different group to Clayton but gee, beat Tmac by at least 25 metres. ANB caught the front group.

Some bad news, Hibbo was having difficulty with his Achilles, left training.

Petracca was the only one missing.

So many new players out there. Here are some new numbers, 6 Grundy, 12 Hunter, 19 Schache, 26 Jed Adams, 28 Verral, 33, 38, 39, 43 (Burgoyne?), 45, 46 Sestan, 47 Jefferson and 47 Farris-white. Plenty of train ons.

Clarry has the hair bun. Langdon has crewed. Salem white.

After the time trials, they got into their boots, and it began.

Competitive right from the start. Into two stations, two players competing for position as the ball is thrown in the air, the other was soft tackling as the front player picks up a ground ball. Moved into three stations, short kicks, and the other two I can't remember. They transitioned to handball games with 6 on two in bibs. They then went to two stations, a sim with minimal tackling, (Hunter caught my eye with great outside run and kicks to advantage, Kossie and Sparrow as well). The other was a hard tackling handball game in restricted space. The tackler was not brought to the ground, but was expected to break and get the handball (plenty of noise as they prove to each other their shimmy and ability to stand up).

They went to their lines. Looks like TMac is with the back-line, as is Woewodin, and Salem stay there as well. Tomlinson doing some work with the rucks and the back-line.

Forwards bringing the ball to ground and snapping.

Some mids and forwards kicking down an alley, with a camera under the supervision of Williams for goal.

They then got their runners on again and hit up 10, 150 metre, in under 20 sec sprints.

Deakin Smith, and Moniz-wakefield, Verral, and Adams on a modified program.

Grundy and BBB working together in their individual program.

They have moved a gym under the shed where Joel Smith and Angus Brayshaw did light duties and were joined with some of the new players.

There may have been some drills I missed, it was a long session and with so many players out, there it was hard to follow. 

Addit, had a good look at Farris-white kicking when on the run and it was ok, hit lots of his targets.

DWORSHIP'S TRAINING REPORT

A few other random observations,

BBB looked to be moving untroubled by his knee, although it was lightly taped. At one stage he was doing a lot of one on one twisting and turning with a trainer.

The funniest thing I saw was a drill that Grundy was supposed to be involved in but he was off with the fairies and Clarry had to yell at him and then take him through the drill he was supposed to do. It would have made him feel better a short time later when Choco introduced a couple of drills that were obviously new and everyone struggled. The drills were all about quick and sure ball movement and as soon as they all had got the idea Choco just started barking at them "faster, faster, faster"

On the injury front; Joel Smith appeared to be feeling his groin a lot but I've never watched him that close so maybe he has a habit. Clarry had to get the Ventolin puffer out at one stage so him leading his group in the trial is even more impressive. Clarry also left the drills at one stage and was having some discomfort around the wrist and thumb area (hope that's not from the break last year). He got it taped and went back out so should be good. Disco came off and had his left boot off and looked to have tape high on his heel but was more than likely for a blister. Of more concern to me was the the tape down the side of his foot and supporting his big toe. The trainer was manipulating the toe and asking him how it was but he did go back out. Finally, I'm not 100% sure that Pig's issue was the achillies as I saw him pointing to his calf. Could be both. Regardless he has a bit of time before the season start.

All in all I was pretty happy with what I saw for the first session back. For those of us who have been observing training for 20yrs, some of us would remember us not looking this good at the start of round one.

I almost forgot, during one of the avoiding/breaking tackle drills Melky tried to side step Grundy and Grundy rag dolled him. He put him down gently but it was great to see.

PST2023-04.png

 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

Featured Content

  • PREVIEW: Gold Coast

    The Gold Coast Suns find themselves outside of the top eight for the first time since Round 1 with pressure is mounting on the entire organisation. Their coach Damien Hardwick expressed his frustration at his team’s condition last week by making a middle-finger gesture on television that earned him a fine for his troubles. He showed his desperation by claiming that Fox should pick up the tab.  There’s little doubt the Suns have shown improvement in 2025, and their position on the ladder is influenced to some extent by having played fewer games than their rivals for a playoff role at the end of the season, courtesy of the disruption caused by Cyclone Alfred in March.  However, they are following the same trajectory that hindered the club in past years whenever they appeared to be nearing their potential. As a consequence, that Hardwick gesture should be considered as more than a mere behavioral lapse. It’s a distress signal that does not bode well for the Queenslanders. While the Suns are eager to remain in contention with the top eight, Melbourne faces its own crisis, which is similarly deep-seated but in a much different way. After recovering from a disappointing start to the season and nearing a return to respectability among its peer clubs, the Demons have experienced a decline in status, driven by the fact that while their form has been reasonable (see their performance against the ladder leader in the Kings Birthday match), their conversion in front of goal is poor enough to rank last in the competition. Furthermore, their opponents find them exceptionally easy to score against. As a result, they have effectively eliminated themselves from the finals race and are again positioned to finish in the bottom half of the ladder.

      • Haha
    • 4 replies
  • NON-MFC: Round 15

    As the Demons head into their Bye Round, it's time to turn our attention to the other matches being played. Which teams are you tipping this week? And which results would be most favourable for the Demons if we can manage to turn our season around? Follow all the non-Melbourne games here and join the conversation as the ladder continues to take shape.

      • Haha
      • Like
    • 284 replies
  • REPORT: Port Adelaide

    Of course, it’s not the backline, you might argue and you would probably be right. It’s the boot studder (do they still have them?), the midfield, the recruiting staff, the forward line, the kicking coach, the Board, the interchange bench, the supporters, the folk at Casey, the head coach and the club psychologist  It’s all of them and all of us for having expectations that were sufficiently high to have believed three weeks ago that a restoration of the Melbourne team to a position where we might still be in contention for a finals berth when the time for the midseason bye arrived. Now let’s look at what happened over the period of time since Melbourne overwhelmed the Sydney Swans at the MCG in late May when it kicked 8.2 to 5.3 in the final quarter (and that was after scoring 3.8 to two straight goals in the second term). 

    • 3 replies
  • CASEY: Essendon

    Casey’s unbeaten run was extended for at least another fortnight after the Demons overran a persistent Essendon line up by 29 points at ETU Stadium in Port Melbourne last night. After conceding the first goal of the evening, Casey went on a scoring spree from about ten minutes in, with five unanswered majors with its fleet of midsized runners headed by the much improved Paddy Cross who kicked two in quick succession and livewire Ricky Mentha who also kicked an early goal. Leading the charge was recruit of the year, Riley Bonner while Bailey Laurie continued his impressive vein of form. With Tom Campbell missing from the lineup, Will Verrall stepped up to the plate demonstrating his improvement under the veteran ruckman’s tutelage. The Demons were looking comfortable for much of the second quarter and held a 25-point lead until the Bombers struck back with two goals in the shadows of half time. On the other side of the main break their revival continued with first three goals of the half. Harry Sharp, who had been quiet scrambled in the Demons’ first score of the third term to bring the margin back to a single point at the 17 minute mark and the game became an arm-wrestle for the remainder of the quarter and into the final moments of the last.

    • 0 replies
  • PREGAME: Gold Coast

    The Demons have the Bye next week but then are on the road once again when they come up against the Gold Coast Suns on the Gold Coast in what could be a last ditch effort to salvage their season. Who comes in and who comes out?

      • Haha
    • 316 replies
  • PODCAST: Port Adelaide

    The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 16th June @ 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect the Dees disappointing loss to the Power.
    Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show.
    Listen LIVE: https://demonland.com/

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 33 replies