6 hours ago, Deefiant said:

But have you thought about T.Mac? He may be injured but I think we're on to a winner here. Trust me. 

T.Mac is cooked, almost cremated AND was training with defence where he just looked O.K. It must be Shache's time now surely!

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

I can't recall hearing a reason but he has been doing a separate modified program away from the main group for the past few months at training. Over the past weeks he has slowly been integrating into the main group initially for the warm up drills and then doing a modified program when the contact drills began. Yesterday was the first time I have seen him in the contact drills but before the end he left the field (not necessarily because of anything sinister) to ride the bike in the shed.

I have not seen him much in a match situation but from limited viewings at trainings he has a great pair of hands, takes a good grab and has nice skills and a good kick. Can't comment on whether he has any mongrel in him but he laid a nice ferocious tackle at training yesterday. He got a lot of kudos from his teammates for it and I can only surmise that it was the type of congratulations you would receive if it was the type of actions the team wanted to see more of.

My guess would be his fitness is not yet at AFL level.

I only went to two VFL game last year , Coburg mid season and the blues later in the season - he looked gassed late in quarters in both, particularly the Coburg game. 

A modified program might suggest they are focusing on building his aerobic base (the same might be true of Mcadam). 

I suspect Jefferson dominated at junior level as key forward who was strong, had good hands, good one on one and and read the ball well. And his lack of aerobic tank was not exposed. 

But the days of a key forward being able to get by just on physical strength, clunking a few marks and slotting sausage rolls are well and truly gone.

Hawkins is a good example - for the first two thirds of his career his role was pretty much to stay inside 50 and play the big gorilla, wrestling role. And he was just about the best at it too. 

But in the last few years he dropped weight and clearly improved his tank and running ability, getting up and down the ground much more. Arguably his 2022 season was his best.

But last year he had an interrupted preseason and started the season nowhere near peak aerobic fitness. Forced to go back to his stay inside 50 style, he was nowhere near as effective as he had been.

The same could be said of Tmac coming back into he side late in 2023.

And Jefferson ain't no Hawkins (yet?). 

Edited February 7, 20241 yr by binman

The McAdam & Tmac issues sound more precautionary than anything, though Petty sounds a while off and I hope we don't rush him back.

Assuming all three aren't available early in the season we almost have to play Schache, as we can't have JVR playing as the sole key forward and also back up ruck!

1 hour ago, binman said:

My guess would be his fitness is not yet at AFL level.

We’re committed to bombing it to a contest in the F50 with the intent to either mark it or bring it to ground AND we have a high number of F50 entries every game.

Isn’t a stay-at-home forward (who is either strong in the contest OR has a good pair of hands) exactly what we need to be developing?

Seems a missed opportunity to me that they’re not using the pre-season to get contest after contest (against the best defence in the league) into him.  

If he can’t run out games in the early part of his career, you always have the opportunity to sub him off. 

 

48 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

We’re committed to bombing it to a contest in the F50 with the intent to either mark it or bring it to ground AND we have a high number of F50 entries every game.

Isn’t a stay-at-home forward (who is either strong in the contest OR has a good pair of hands) exactly what we need to be developing?

Seems a missed opportunity to me that they’re not using the pre-season to get contest after contest (against the best defence in the league) into him.  

If he can’t run out games in the early part of his career, you always have the opportunity to sub him off. 

 

With all team defensive systems and zones teams in 2024 simply can't carry a 'stay at home forward'. They haven't been able to for at least 5 years. 

This is an (educated) guess - but i reckon ten years ago of the 22 players in each team, perhaps as few as half of them would run more than 10kms in a game.

Now EVERY player, barring injury or being subbed out, runs north of 10kms a game - including the key forwards (I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that the key forwards cover more distance than even the key defenders).  

You could see the impact of basically carrying Hawkins for the first third of the season on Geelong's ability to defend. It was made worse by Cameron's injury issues and reduced running power. They simply could not defend the ground and as a result repeatedly got opened up.  

Edited February 8, 20241 yr by binman

With all these injuries to our forwards, just as well we have Joel Smith. Oh, wait a minute…

Guys let's not derail the Injury Thread with discussions about our forward line woes. Talk about them in the Forward Line Woes Thread.

 

Pic 9 of the 7 Feb training gallery appears to show Tom Fullarton running and doing ball work. What's latest on his hammy, then? Presumably he was cleared of tendon tear?

7 hours ago, picket fence said:

T.Mac is cooked, almost cremated AND was training with defence where he just looked O.K. It must be Shache's time now surely!

Defence ,running in a straight line is Tom's only chance..and he's probably depth down back anyway.

1 hour ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Pic 9 of the 7 Feb training gallery appears to show Tom Fullarton running and doing ball work. What's latest on his hammy, then? Presumably he was cleared of tendon tear?

No tear, a sprain to some degree. Was doing run throughs at 3/4 pace without discomfort yesterday, hopefully not too far away.

Have we been given any news from the club RE Petty's latest setback?

Melbourne swingman Harrison Petty is battling a nerve-related injury to his toe as he battles to be ready for the Demons’ season-opener against Sydney in three weeks.

The Demons will kick off their pre-season clashes with a Casey Fields contest against Richmond on Sunday but Petty has not been involved in recent intraclub scrimmages.

The star Demon, set to be a huge part of the club’s forward line this year after the club denied him a trade to Adelaide, missed the final with a lisfranc fracture in his foot.

The Herald Sun understands the fresh injury is to the opposite foot to the lisfranc issue but means Petty has been held back instead of building connectivity in the Demons forward line alongside Jacob Van Rooyen.

I suspect that is really good news. I hope it's not a serious nerve injury, and SOOOO glad it's not the Lisfranc. And he has shown when thrown into the forward line before that he doesn't need much time to establish "connection".

MFC ( denied) him a transfer to Adelaide.

Is that correct? Petty actually wanted to leave us with 2 years left on his contract. Thats not how i read it.

Why leave. He doesnt even come from Adelaide. Just the money?

wait…. he has nerve related issue on his OTHER foot as well as a lisfranc? i’m confused. Anyone with any info here? 

15 minutes ago, deebunked said:

MFC ( denied) him a transfer to Adelaide.

Is that correct? Petty actually wanted to leave us with 2 years left on his contract. Thats not how i read it.

Why leave. He doesnt even come from Adelaide. Just the money?

For his parents to watch him play in Adelaide I'd assume they'd need to fly (6 hours by car).

There is an airstrip at Wundinna but flying would be by private aircraft. 

I'm not sure a move to Adelaide would make it all that more convenient for his family.

BTW Travis Boak is a friend of mine. He misses his mum Chicki terribly given that he lost his dad to cancer when he was 17 yo. 

Trav is incredibly loyal to Port  and has never contemplated moving back to Victoria.

Port have been terrific in regards to Chicki - flying her and Trav's sister Sarah to Adelaide at any time.

I suspect the MFC has, and will continue to be, supportive of Harrison in regards to catching up with his family.

The events of Oct 17 last year were a beat up by Ch9 Adelaide - click bait.

 

35 minutes ago, deebunked said:

MFC ( denied) him a transfer to Adelaide.

Is that correct? Petty actually wanted to leave us with 2 years left on his contract. Thats not how i read it.

Why leave. He doesnt even come from Adelaide. Just the money?

You are incorrect. He lives at a SA country town about 500 kms from Adelaide where his parents own a farm. 

AFC Crows yelled out his name and tried to get him after we sought McAdam. We held Harry up hopefully for next year as well. 

Time will tell. 
 

53 minutes ago, Ollie fan said:

I suspect that is really good news. I hope it's not a serious nerve injury, and SOOOO glad it's not the Lisfranc. And he has shown when thrown into the forward line before that he doesn't need much time to establish "connection".

Call me a pessimist, but given what I have seen at training, I think he is in a lot of trouble!

19 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Call me a pessimist,

Okay, you're a pessimist.

6 hours ago, M_9 said:

For his parents to watch him play in Adelaide I'd assume they'd need to fly (6 hours by car).

There is an airstrip at Wundinna but flying would be by private aircraft. 

I'm not sure a move to Adelaide would make it all that more convenient for his family.

BTW Travis Boak is a friend of mine. He misses his mum Chicki terribly given that he lost his dad to cancer when he was 17 yo. 

Trav is incredibly loyal to Port  and has never contemplated moving back to Victoria.

Port have been terrific in regards to Chicki - flying her and Trav's sister Sarah to Adelaide at any time.

I suspect the MFC has, and will continue to be, supportive of Harrison in regards to catching up with his family.

The events of Oct 17 last year were a beat up by Ch9 Adelaide - click bait.

 

It's only a seven hour drive to Melbourne, it was never about going home it all about the money 

I can’t be the only one that thinks letting Harry go mightn’t be the worst idea.

The money he no doubt will command is much too high from his output so far. Throw in his penchant to get injured, why not go and get someone with more runs on the board, proven fitness record and for the same or less $.

crom offered him ~$7m over 7 years to be their #1 key defender for the rest of his career

it'd be more than enough to turn anyone's head

25 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

I can’t be the only one that thinks letting Harry go mightn’t be the worst idea.

The money he no doubt will command is much too high from his output so far. Throw in his penchant to get injured, why not go and get someone with more runs on the board, proven fitness record and for the same or less $.

Weren't they only offering their pick 13 or 14 though? That's no where near enough for him, would rather take the punt on him getting healthy again, that pick would've been pushed out to 20. If they had of offered something better than that you'd think about it but pretty sure they lowballed us 

52 minutes ago, Jeremy said:

Weren't they only offering their pick 13 or 14 though? That's no where near enough for him, would rather take the punt on him getting healthy again, that pick would've been pushed out to 20. If they had of offered something better than that you'd think about it but pretty sure they lowballed us 

Ha, yeah. Offer a player a $7-mil 7yr deal that you only rate as being worth pick 13. Pull the other one Riccuto.

2 hours ago, Jeremy said:

Weren't they only offering their pick 13 or 14 though?

Peter Bell must’ve been heading their trade table 🤮