2 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

Turns out his name is Geoff Ponsford and he’s the son of Bill Ponsford. It was such an honour to meet him.

He is a lovely man.

He used to walk the boundary as a trackie and had been doing that for at least the past ten years. Used to be followed around by his wife, now his daughter helps him out.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by Kev

21 minutes ago, Kev said:

Having only one oval to train on proved a problem this morning. The women had some confusion and couldn't get on immediately. They waited and waited, then were told the men had stopped only to make it on to the Paddock and wait again, since the men hadn't finished the sims (who also didn't get to have the normal goal kicking drills). They then walked the boundary and to the far goals to start some warm-ups. Ten to fifteen minutes of disruption.

This was unacceptable. The W have a preliminary final to play tomorrow and they were shunted to the side. It was more than 10-15 minutes of disruption. The boys were scheduled for an 8:45am start with a 10:30am finish at which time the girls were scheduled to begin. The boys were still out there at 11am.

I can tell you the W players and coaches were (understandably) not impressed.

14 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

The boys were still out there at 11am

Wow, I had to leave just after the Men's sims ended (why there is no training report for MFCW). I thought when the Men's sims finished they would be off, Eleven!

Imagine if the women doing a preseason, did that to the men on the eve of a big final.

If on the "other foot", I reckon Stinear would have walked them all over to the rugby field, so as to accommodate and empathise how rhythm and normalising is important to the build up. The MFC Women now have a little frustration to top off their preparation.

At least they may have an extra bit of team bonding. That team run, around the boundary, looked like they had connection with each other.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Kev

Addit: Apologies I have been spelling the name of Brody Mihocek the wrong way.

7 minutes ago, Kev said:

Wow, I had to leave just after the Men's sims ended (why no training report for MFCW). I thought when the Men's sims finished they would be off, Eleven!

Imagine if the women doing a preseason, did that to the men on the eve of a big final.

If on the "other foot", I reckon Stinear would have walked them all over to the rugby field, so as to accommodate and empathise how rhythm and normalising is important to the build up. The MFC Women now have a little frustration to top off their preparation.

At least they may have an extra bit of team bonding. That team run, around the boundary, looked like they had connection with each other.

The rugby field was in use already.

I had to leave at 11:30 and by that stage the W weren’t even in full swing yet. The boys are in week two of preseason without the entire squad present. Moreover, they started at least 20 minutes before schedule.

The stark difference between the men’s training in the past and training this year is great but not when it’s at the expense of a team on the eve of a prelim.

6 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

The stark difference between the men’s training in the past and training this year is great but not when it’s at the expense of a team on the eve of a prelim.

I would have loved the Men to give the Women a guard of honour welcome to Gosch's (as the crowd did), and then get out of the way.

Easy to brand, difficult to act. There is an obvious hierarchy and disconnect.

Nothing on the players, more the organisers and proactive decisions.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Kev

Ghostie’s Ponsford vignette is BOG for ages to come I reckon

Chapeau

9 hours ago, waynewussell said:

Henderson more likely trying to run out a glute issue

Glute issues can be stitcky…

23 minutes ago, Grr-owl said:

Glute issues can be stitcky…

I heard today that Henderson has a groin issue.

35 minutes ago, Kev said:

I heard today that Henderson has a groin issue.

They can be sticky too

9 hours ago, Demonland said:

Both. Hard to accurately gauge it though as not all listed players are present and therefore the end to end drills and "match SIMs" are less structured than they will be in a week or two. He, as a few others like Kolt, Culley, Langford and Bowey seem to always be in positions to be used as the link man across half back or in the middle.

As has also been noted there is a lot of quick ball movement and either long handballs to a guy running forward or hand balls amongst players running in waves that it can also be hard to gauge exact positions.

Its gonna take a while for this system to work with these young fellas. Despite what i might say in a post match day thread - you know the typical moronic doom and gloom stuff - in the cold, hard light of day, we have to temper expectations. 2-3 years max before we can really judge. The Hawks are just an example of how everything can just suddenly snap and go right. They are also probably the exception to the norm as 2024 was very much another year of expected bottom 4 before they even surprised themselves. To their credit they also backed it up again this year and are probably best set to take a real crack in 2026 if health doesnt come into play.

37 minutes ago, BigBadBustling said:

They can be sticky too

You really shouldn't be using the deepheat in that area Bustler.

10 hours ago, deelusions from afar said:

Got nothing against the guy but with 2/3 draftees this week small forwards, looks like its going to be even harder for Henderson to get a look in next year. Does he have enough upside to still make it?

In fairness I suspect that Henderson was always going to be a fringe fill-in player. Always not expected to be top 24.

That said depth is just so important as injuries are inevitable - Hendo is a mature bodied replacement.

2 hours ago, Kev said:

I would have loved the Men to give the Women a guard of honour welcome to Gosch's (as the crowd did), and then get out of the way.

Easy to brand, difficult to act. There is an obvious hierarchy and disconnect.

Nothing on the players, more the organisers and proactive decisions.

‘Nothing’ on the players? You are right it is more on the admin but some poster told me that the players go to games and that says they are ‘holding up their side of the ‘one club’ bargain’

Nonsense.

That read above was infuriating- they are doing their captains run before an effing prelim. They are sticking around to make sure ‘the boys get their kms in’ - get around the girls and then go do a run around the tan…

It’s nauseating.

11 hours ago, Demonland said:

One of a number of non-1st-4th years not present.

2 hours ago, Kev said:

I would have loved the Men to give the Women a guard of honour welcome to Gosch's (as the crowd did), and then get out of the way.

Easy to brand, difficult to act. There is an obvious hierarchy and disconnect.

Nothing on the players, more the organisers and proactive decisions.

Yep, small but very important thing. Culture! The men are working around the women's long-scheduled programme not the other way around. Poor leadership.

11 hours ago, Demonland said:

One of a number of non-1st-4th years not present.

Based on his Instas Riv still honeymooning. Steele also not present today....

Sounds like I could have made training today @Harvey Wallbanger ...