TRAINING: Wednesday 5th February 2025

[Demonland 73,341]

Demonland Trackwatchers were out in force as the Demons returned to Gosch's Paddock for preseason training on Wednesday morning.

GHOSTWRITER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Kozzie a no show.

Tommy Sparrow was here last week in civvies and wearing sunnies. He didn’t train.

Today he’s training but he’s wearing goggles so he’s likely got an eye injury.

There’s a drill where Selwyn literally lies on top of Tracc, a trainer dribbles the ball towards them and Tracc has to get up and out from under “the pack” to get the ball.

Taj absent today because he was “feeling crook” this morning. Nothing serious. He’ll be at training on Friday.

Spaz wearing goggles while training coz he doesn’t want dirt to get in his eye. His eyelid was split during training last week when an unnamed teammate accidentally stood on his face. He’s had plastic surgery (you can’t even tell) and is mindful of keeping it clean.

DEESPENCER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Backs: May, Petty, Howes, Windsor, Salo

Mids: Gawn, Riv, Viney, Sparrow, Billings, Lindsay 

Fwd: Disco, JVR, Fritsch, Sharp, Langford, Langdon

Sharp busy, Langford found good space for 2 snags, Fritsch a class above, Disco with a nice grab. Salo with a lot of the best patches of ball movement with some Windsor moments too.

White backline: T Mc, Adams, Hore, Bowey, Sesto, AMW were under the pump.

Jeffo juggled contested mark on the wing, in to Andy, picks out the Yze lead to the picket who nails a tight shot under plenty of Viney sledging.

I don’t think the Jeffo, Aj, Yze, Ricky Mentha, Roy George forward line will get a run at Afl level but they’ll be fun at Casey.

Spargo and McAdam doing laps with Conca.

Fullarton, Tracc, Chandler doing another stuff.

McVee, Lever, Verrall and Kossie unsighted. Plus Kolt and Luker.

Shuffled the teams and pulled a few out so it’s opened right up. Clarry prolific, Langford still finding the ball. May has dominated defensively in both drills really.

Ollie Sestan is a lovely user at half back, not sure if the rest of his game will stack up but his kicking is lovely.

Jeffo (I’m watching closely) with a beautiful turn of pace, run through a couple of tackles and corridor kick.

Tall backs and Forwards did some marking work

Mids some rough stoppage on the wing stuff.

Laurie copped a nice one from Rivers in a tackle and went off with a blood nose 

Some different running, sprints for some, longer runs for others. Lindsay dropped by Bowey and Howes in a longer run.

Judd McVee is out there, did I completely miss him?

Tracc’s doing set shots. 

Yze, Culley, Roy and Mitch KS were the fill in players today. 

Right now, I think the likelihood that Tracc starts forward and the emergence of Langford means they’ll go small.

And without Kossie I think we’ll see Langdon in a forward and possibly even a fraction on ball. Sharp looks the favourite to start in the defensive forward role.

C: Lindsay Rivers Billings
HF: Sharp JVR Langdon
FF: Fritsch Turner Tracc
Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney 
Int: Langford, Chandler, McAdam 

Sub: Sparrow/Kynan Brown

Assuming Tracc, McAdam and Chandler are right to go, but we could see Langdon or Sharp slide back to the wing to open another forward spot and we could go tall to spread the load on the big guys.

DITCHA'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

I attended some of the training session this morning. During match sim, I was very impressed by Fritsch, Windsor, Langford, and Billings. Trac still training on sidelines, but looks close to returning to main training. Meltsham was running laps in rehab due to hamstring injury. Spare and McAdam running laps.

HARVEY WALLBANGER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Absent: Tholstrup, Verrall, Kosi, Woewodin and Kentfield. Intel - Kosi having family time.

Rehab: Petracca, Lever, Spargo, Melksham, McAdam, Fullarton, Chandler

Also present:  Train-ons Jai Culley and Roy George plus two young academy/father/sons (sworn to secrecy re the latter)

Activities of Chandler and Trac suggest they are very close to resuming full training - both wore the yellow caps when doing drills (no match sim for them). McAdam indicated to one of his teammates that it may be hamstring again - but he did a lot of full speed running, so perhaps precautionary today. Lever to'ed and fro'ed back to AAMI. Didn't do much at all! Spargs still doing straight lie running but indications of a little more movement than in the last two months. Melksham just lots of medium pace running.

Low-key session with a bit of match sim in the middle. Petty and TMac still training back.

Draftees continue to impress, i.e. Langdon and Lindsay, and don't forget AJ Johnson. Very involved in a lot of the action. Surely all three play against North on the 22nd. A lot of switching in the simulation - fascinated to see who joins Langdon and Windsor, with Sharp, Billings and Lindsay all playing wide roles on the switch.

Hopefully the absentee numbers and rehabbers reduce over the next few weeks such that Spargo and Thosltrup are the only "medium-termers" with a question mark over Kentfield of course, due to his pneumonia.

Oh and Jed Adams got a huge group clap at one stage - we speculated that it may be a training award of some description?

FRITTA AND TURNER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Another lovely day at the track with a good collection of track watchers.

Kossie, Verrall, Kentfield, Kolt, Woey not in attendance.

Lever, Spargo, Melky, Chin, McAdam, Fullarton, Trac in rehab or a modified program.  Lever went back to the 'sheds' for awhile then came back to ride the bike next to melky.  Chin much better since last I saw but still feeling shoulder.  Trac had the trainer lying on top of him, then got up, win the ball and do some dodging and weaving.

Campbell gives Max a real contest in the ruck. TCs body looking more AFL and Max was moving the best i have seen this preseason

Fritta and Turner looked magnificent, naturally.

Our talls, Roo and jeffo looking good. Roo seems to have his mojo back. 

Billings really stood out, with his run and linkage play.

Langford should play round 1.

Clarry puts on half a litre of sunscreen at every opportunity.  And always doing something with his boots.

Jai Culley looked good, got the appaluse of his team mates.  Had a slight problem with a blister.  Noah Yze was also there with another unknown.  Noah has reasonably broad shoulders but skinny arms.

No sausages.

KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Beautiful morning at the paddock. The full field drill was skilful and done with plenty of vocal support.

One drill was a completive one on two contest, defender double tackles, was encouraged.

The sims started with Goody going slowly through the intention and set up. Then they competed in 3 or was it 4, 6 minute sets. Tackling was a lot more gentle than previous hit outs.

May looking very fit, and getting intercepts and fists to many of the opposition's forward pushes.

Tmac covering the ground well and vocal in the backline as was Petty.

Max is running very hard and creating mismatches in the forward area.

Langford found space on the lead and twice finished nicely.

They played the boundaries, out of the backline, when looking central only half came off.

Chaplin working on the forwards defensive setup.

Mids separated to drills. Under the guidance of Radford, Whitford and Jones, they worked with Gawn and Campbell, most of the plays ended with a contested scramble.

Forwards and back tall's, worked mainly with one on one or off the bag for marks and the follow-up groundball.

Running was emphasised, as they develop match fitness. Those that didn't do the k's in sims, ran extra sprints. Some backs and forwards had more running sets.

My impression is that there is so much pressure for spots, and they are getting competitive.