Better late than never … and quite frankly, there’s very little to report other than that training took place at Casey Fields this morning, that Tracc was there nursing his rib injury and that some photographs are on the club’s social media including this one of Clarrie in Raging Bull stance that gives rise for confidence ~

The other news is that the club has a new train on player in 185cm Dandenong Stingrays midfielder Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves (love the hyphenated name which is just so fitting for the MFC).

The 2025 draft prospects training at your club this week

H-H has been with the Stingrays program for a couple of seasons and was a regular them last year. He should feel at home training with former teammate Harvey Langford. As far as I know, he’s not tied to the club in any way and if that’s the case, he’s available to all clubs in this year’s national draft. 

Gosh that Clarry picture is exciting; he's looking great!

Meanwhile at a top secret training ground deep in the south eastern suburban corridor.

The new game plan was being put thru it paces.

Edited January 13Jan 13 by Tarax Club

The Herald Sun’s Josh Barnes has posted an article on Code Sports entitled “Track Watch: Christian Petracca trains days after cracking ribs at Melbourne training”. Summary -

• Christian Petracca was on light duties but showed no signs of discomfort from his cracked ribs at Melbourne training.

• there’s no plan in place to return the Norm Smith medallist to full training but he will be able to keep his fitness up as his ribs recover.

• the club didn’t hesitate in getting into contact today, stepping into physical centre bounce and defensive set up drills involving heavy tackling.

• other players in the non-contact group were skipper Max Gawn, defender Jake Lever and Taj Woewodin. 

• players who impressed were:-

* Kysaiah Pickett – was impressive in bursting out of the middle of the ground in a centre bounce drill.

* Tom Campbell – with Max on the sidelines, he showed his deft ruckwork in the centre.

* Shane McAdam – was hampered physically to start this pre-season but he showed a flash of his goalkicking ability with a nice dribble goal from deep in a pocket.

• Christian Salem limped off the track at one point, pointing to his lower right leg and seeking attention from the medical staff.

Omg Salem cooked?

 

Ton Norris reports 

Melbournes season is almost over as Christian Petracca is targeted by his teammates and suffers an other injury to the ribs he used to attack DArcy Moores knee. This would never happen at Collingwood he said, Brayden would have shepherded me through the sessionand ensured injuries are only suffered to opposition players. Meanwhile Clayton Oliver was seen at training building himself up for the expected trade to Geelong, it is recognised that his age does not suit the profile of the cats so he will undertake some aging  process programs to ease his move. MAx Gawn of course is now falling apart from the jaw down and the ageing Christian Salem was again on restricted duties. While Melbourne could have some elite younger players it is likely they will all leave as they develop skills that will be ignored by the coach. Goodie looked resplendent in his wedding outfit but it frankly shocked the younger brigade who were disappointed not to have been consulted on the preferred wedding destination of BAli. Theres so much dysfunction at the club I dont even bother to go to their training sessions or speak to anyone where all my reporting acumen would be wasted says Ton.

Really hope things come to fruition this year, I’m already talking mad sh*t at work about the climb back up

2 hours ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Gosh that Clarry picture is exciting; he's looking great!

I thought the same thing- starting to look chiselled in the way he does when in top nick.

That includes his face looking more chiselled, which jumped out at me in one of the photos posted from Gus's wedding. 

Great signs- in particular that he looks in better nick than he did right before their break (suggests clarry worked hard over the four week break and avoided too much Xmas pudding).

1 hour ago, Rigatoni Rigoni said:

Really hope things come to fruition this year, I’m already talking mad sh*t at work about the climb back up

A road i have travelled many times with my mates over the years. 

Fair to say it's mostly been a very rocky road.

I plan to keep my car in the garage for a few months this season. 

Well, I plan to try.

42 minutes ago, binman said:

A road i have travelled many times with my mates over the years. 

Fair to say it's mostly been a very rocky road.

I plan to keep my car in the garage for a few months this season. 

Well, I plan to try.

Question   why ?

Getting older, as everyone does,  you only have so many seasons left. I enjoy immensely talking rubbish about football. Sometimes with advice from demonland I make sense, passed my dad was getting close to what my old mum was.

Enjoy the journey, just need to ignore comments that are pure vexatious, meant to give angst, or are by trolls. Others have their opinions I read them all,

Most have some % that I think might be relevant, but I feel good about this year really good.

I like your stuff.

1 hour ago, binman said:

I thought the same thing- starting to look chiselled in the way he does when in top nick.

That includes his face looking more chiselled, which jumped out at me in one of the photos posted from Gus's wedding. 

Great signs- in particular that he looks in better nick than he did right before their break (suggests clarry worked hard over the four week break and avoided too much Xmas pudding).

What I’ve noticed in this break even after all the weddings etc he’s back into some sort of training the following day. He’s clearly focussed on coming back strong which is exciting. 

22 minutes ago, 640MD said:

I like your stuff.

I also like the opinions of a number of others, and some opinions I respect and some that just never make much sense, others seem to post just to get some negative reaction.

The you said , I said, carp is like dead fish. But the training reports and close relationships with players gives insight .

Love the training reports. Not much else to focus on at this time year. But most of us are Demons for ever.

3 hours ago, dpositive said:

Ton Norris reports 

Melbournes season is almost over as Christian Petracca is targeted by his teammates and suffers an other injury to the ribs he used to attack DArcy Moores knee. This would never happen at Collingwood he said, Brayden would have shepherded me through the sessionand ensured injuries are only suffered to opposition players. Meanwhile Clayton Oliver was seen at training building himself up for the expected trade to Geelong, it is recognised that his age does not suit the profile of the cats so he will undertake some aging  process programs to ease his move. MAx Gawn of course is now falling apart from the jaw down and the ageing Christian Salem was again on restricted duties. While Melbourne could have some elite younger players it is likely they will all leave as they develop skills that will be ignored by the coach. Goodie looked resplendent in his wedding outfit but it frankly shocked the younger brigade who were disappointed not to have been consulted on the preferred wedding destination of BAli. Theres so much dysfunction at the club I dont even bother to go to their training sessions or speak to anyone where all my reporting acumen would be wasted says Ton.

I’m sorry, are you reporting as Ton? Or is this a piece quoting Ton?

It jumps around a bit and I, and everyone else who needs a consistent structure in their comedy, are concerned.

2 hours ago, rpfc said:

I’m sorry, are you reporting as Ton? Or is this a piece quoting Ton?

It jumps around a bit and I, and everyone else who needs a consistent structure in their comedy, are concerned.

Ton is as mythical as his inspiration.

I best cease my poor attempts to construct frivolous reportage.

56 minutes ago, dpositive said:

Ton is as mythical as his inspiration.

I best cease my poor attempts to construct frivolous reportage.

No no no, keep working on it!! Practice makes perfect, besides which, the bar for perfection here, is set pretty low. Now, have at it!!

With the train-on players, I thought we had an association with Gippsland Power, which was why we had Duursma a couple of years ago? Don't we also have a number of players going on to play at Casey from GP?

According to this it's Hawthorn:

Through Hawthorn's link with Coates Talent League club Gippsland Power, Duursma will be at the Hawks. The youngest Duursma sibling starts his under-18 season as a pick No.1 contender after an exciting two seasons playing a range of different positions, including as a tall defender and forward as well as a midfielder.

 

14 hours ago, binman said:

A road i have travelled many times with my mates over the years. 

Fair to say it's mostly been a very rocky road.

I plan to keep my car in the garage for a few months this season. 

Well, I plan to try.

Get it out on the driveway man (Binman) and start revving the engine!!!

You need some full contact to be ready for round one!

9 hours ago, hardtack said:

No no no, keep working on it!! Practice makes perfect, besides which, the bar for perfection here, is set pretty low. Now, have at it!!

6 hours ago, Roger Mellie said:

With the train-on players, I thought we had an association with Gippsland Power, which was why we had Duursma a couple of years ago? Don't we also have a number of players going on to play at Casey from GP?

According to this it's Hawthorn:

Through Hawthorn's link with Coates Talent League club Gippsland Power, Duursma will be at the Hawks. The youngest Duursma sibling starts his under-18 season as a pick No.1 contender after an exciting two seasons playing a range of different positions, including as a tall defender and forward as well as a midfielder.

 

Doesn’t really matter because the link is fairly tenuous and there’s no tie unless the player in question is an NGA or in the father/son category or the family comes from Samoa.

Rookie Me Central write up on Melbourne’s train on player -