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PRESEASON TRAINING: Wednesday 22nd January 2025

Ghostwriter
in Melbourne Demons

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15 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Kozzy not present either. 

At this point it doesn't matter he can't play till April. 

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    32 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

    DA Tent ?? - Development Application or is it some camping arrangement ?

    The Demon Army tent wherein you’ll find the best-cooked snags on the planet, the freshest bread and the most addictive onions. 

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    Fritta playing more mid in full ground sim, wearing yellow vest which seems to indicate he can kick either way. Sestan nice spoil on Bowey, gathers ball and snaps truly 

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    Great tackle on Viney by Bill. Campbell takes screamer over Verrall, Howes marking well on intercept. McAdam caught by Hore, holding the ball!

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    45 minutes ago, old dee said:

    At this point it doesn't matter he can't play till April. 

    100%.

    No point burning the track down in January only to then eat a hot dog in the stands for the first 3 games.

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    Gigantic hit by Adams on Disco (I think) in a pack knocked the stuffing out of him. He was struggling to recover for 10 minutes.

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    3 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

    Gigantic hit by Adams on Disco (I think) in a pack knocked the stuffing out of him. He was struggling to recover for 10 minutes.

    Are his mirror balls still spinning?

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    I attended some of the training session this morning. Very impressed with with turnout of fans watching, including a reporter from the Herald sun. Bill Laurie was very impressive in match sim with some great efforts. Clarrie looks very fit, and keen to have a great season. Howes did some very good work in defence during match sim. Ghostwriter's sausage sizzle seemed to be always very busy. 

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    Glad I didn’t end up going since turnout was so big but looking fwd to some decent reports.. bit of aura around the group atm 💪🏻

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    35 minutes ago, Ditcha said:

    Bill Laurie was very impressive in match sim with some great efforts. 

    He also lit up a training session on Aust Day last year.

    There's something there but he just can't quite put it together at AFL level.

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    Just back from training, I left before they'd finished.

    I didn't take much out of today other than Pup did the whole session after an initial fitness test.  Chin did a mountain of running but didn't move his right arm and then did some gentle ball work not using his right arm.

    Tmac was there initially but didn't do any of the training that I saw but didn't look to have any injury. Sparrow and Kossie were no shows. I didn't see Knuckles either.  Kolt didn't participate in any of the training drills that I saw but did a lot of running and showed no discomfort.

    The full ground drills were 14 v 14 and there was lots of open space. As in other training sessions Clarrie and Duke impressed, Howes was involved and made very few mistakes and the usual suspects did well.  AJ also hasn't put a foot out of place this preseason and will be an interesting watch.

    Trac, Gawny, Fullarton, Woey, Lever and Jeffo ran laps.  Langford, Mentha and Lindsay didn't participate in full ground drills but did a far bit of boundary sprinting while the drills were on.

    I reckon there was a lot of management of players going on today after a big session on Monday in high heat. The only players who look a way off are Spargs who just ran and did agility exercises and Chin.  Lever still hasn't been involved in much and given that he is a player who needs games to find form could also be a question mark for the start of the season if all the other talls are fit.

    As already stated Disco copped a big hit in a marking contest but nobody went to him as he recovered on the boundary line and there didn't appear to be any long term damage.

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    Some other thoughts about training today.

    Melksham and JVR were the most effective forwards. Both seem set for a bright 2025. Fritsch was also good but played further from goal much of the time... still managed to snag 2 or 3!

    Billings and Short spent a lot of time on each other (on the wing I presume, although they roamed far and wide). I thought Billings had the better of the duel.

    Roy G was more involved today. Ricky Mentha was impressive in run and carry

    Jed Adams has definitely improved and is having more impact as a key back.

    Jack V is running with the ball more than previously, but his opponents know that they can catch him and did so on more than the odd occasion.

    The stand outs for me in match sim were Clayton & Caleb, closely followed by Rivers, Fritsch and Melksham.

     McAdam was offering good leads and took several marks in front of opponent.

    Bill Bailey is also having more input than previously.

    Tom Campbell is the dominant ruck with Max being on lighter duties.

    Langford and Lindsay did well with ball in hand but were not prolific (Clayton, Caleb and Rivers were)

    NOTE: Slarti just expanded on another reason why I didn't notice them!

    Edited by waynewussell

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    I think AJ comes straight in and does the 2nd ruck/fwd role. I know he did a bit of ruck work in the vfl but I haven't heard any reports of him doing any at training. 

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    Marty Hore making a starting back spot his own. Seriously impressive. 

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    33 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

    He also lit up a training session on Aust Day last year.

    There's something there but he just can't quite put it together at AFL level.

    I’m aware there’s not many fans of him on here, but don’t think many kids would get the pace of the game when they go from sub one week, to vfl, to a full game, back to sub, back to not playing at all due to being a carry over emergency. This isn’t just Laurie either, Woewodin in a similar position. Maybe neither will make it, but a consistent run of games (possibly even at another club) would show if they’re up to it whereas the chopping and changing of it makes it near impossible to get a fair crack at it in my opinion. (Yes I’m also well aware football isn’t fair😂)

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