TRAINING: Monday 23rd January 2023

WIZARD333'S TRAINING REPORT

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'S TRAINING REPORT

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