4 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

… and the ANZAC jumper.

I agree there are too many jumpers, especially when the non-traditional ones change every year. I was at Fritta’s house once when he wasn’t home - not weird, I was with his mum. She slid open a wardrobe door; it was a sight to behold. There must’ve been 50-60 jumpers all with #31 neatly hanging in order. Too many!

Sounds like your statement to Police when arrested for having Fritsch's jumpers in your possession.

10 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

“ONLEY FANS”

As picked up several days ago by @Mouseymoo .

Saturday at 09:54

So I guess now we're all considered Onley fans?

On 25/11/2025 at 19:54, Superunknown said:

Always did. I used to do 50-60 days a year at Hotham or Falls from Melb inevitably via Milawa or Gapsted (and others). Met (is it Ben?) from Bright Brewery way back when he was starting out (fellow snowboarder). Bunnings up here stocked his stuff for a short period recently which was a treat.

cheese too!

Up in the northern rivers now so those days are sadly gone

Might have been Ben from Bridge road Brewery. He is a snowboarder and was one of the first small brewers in the area.

He has also always mentored and supported new brewers in the area including Bright brewery, he was always happy to help them with advice and supplies while they got started. He has now expanded into Brunswick and an outlet at the airport.

10 hours ago, Go Ds said:

Okay, I cant say I agree. I'm not sure why we need more than the traditional, the away and the indigenous jumpers.

This isn't a new phenomenon.

Clubs have been training in training jumpers for as long as I've been alive.

I can't think of any sport where players train in their game day attire.

Just now, Demonstone said:

As picked up several days ago by @Mouseymoo .

You’re still sh!ttty that I beat you in the latest quiz, ain’tcha! 😂

30 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

As picked up several days ago by @Mouseymoo .

Saturday at 09:54

So I guess now we're all considered Onley fans?

Haha they either read Demonland or we both came up with the same joke.

Training finished up at 11am followed by autograph signing with the local primary school kids. I’ll be doing a training report later. Just having a quick bite in Bright with the wifey. Any questions people want to know, feel free to ask away.

3 minutes ago, Where Demons Dare said:

Training finished up at 11am followed by autograph signing with the local primary school kids. I’ll be doing a training report later. Just having a quick bite in Bright with the wifey. Any questions people want to know, feel free to ask away.

at the Brewery ?? .. or the Star

5 minutes ago, Where Demons Dare said:

Training finished up at 11am followed by autograph signing with the local primary school kids. I’ll be doing a training report later. Just having a quick bite in Bright with the wifey. Any questions people want to know, feel free to ask away.

how did mcadam look?

18 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

at the Brewery ?? .. or the Star

At the Brewery 😜 enjoying a cheeky Hellfire amber ale.

18 minutes ago, biggestred said:

how did mcadam look?

He was in rehab the whole session doing repeat 120m boundary running at 80% pace. He probably seems the furthest away from all rehabbers in joining the main group.

21 hours ago, hardtack said:

I know photos can sometimes distort reality, but if Tom Matthews (that’s him at bottom right, yes?), is only half the physique he seems to have in that photo, then he is going to be a lethal weapon!

The club photoshopped my body into that shot.

On 25/11/2025 at 12:13, Dee Boys said:

Any Dezi Freeman sightings?

Yes. According to the Herald Sun, a bloke named Stuart who is a prominent Melbourne businessman is convinced that he saw fugitive cop killer Dezi Freeman in South Africa and has challenged the police to prove him wrong.

"I am 99 per cent certain that it was Dezi," Stuart said.

There go our chances of picking up Dezi in the SSP.

4 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

… and the ANZAC jumper.

I agree there are too many jumpers, especially when the non-traditional ones change every year. I was at Fritta’s house once when he wasn’t home - not weird, I was with his mum. She slid open a wardrobe door; it was a sight to behold. There must’ve been 50-60 jumpers all with #31 neatly hanging in order. Too many!

Just as long as Fritta hadn't been at Ron Barassi's mum's house. 😂

@Where Demons Dare did the new recruits train in the full ground drills?

2 hours ago, Where Demons Dare said:

Training finished up at 11am followed by autograph signing with the local primary school kids. I’ll be doing a training report later. Just having a quick bite in Bright with the wifey. Any questions people want to know, feel free to ask away.

Would be very keen for you to go through each of the 5 new boys and provide your first impressions. Also, how far does Matthews look from joining the main group?

28 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

@Where Demons Dare did the new recruits train in the full ground drills?

They were involved in a fair bit of the drills, but obviously they're still very green trying to soak it all in. Matthews was doing rehab with Viney and Henderson the whole time, so he didn't participate in any drills. Interestingly they had Mentha with the new guys as well observing. They also did repeat 120m boundary runs when not participating in drills going at 80%. They would run for 20 seconds and rest 40 seconds and repeat. Berry was in charge of the countdown and Onley led the way every time.

22 minutes ago, Back pocket said:

Would be very keen for you to go through each of the 5 new boys and provide your first impressions. Also, how far does Matthews look from joining the main group?

Will do, I'll add it into the report.

4 hours ago, beelzebub said:

at the Brewery ?? .. or the Star

The Star is a bit average.

We arrived in the quaint little town of Myrtleford at 9am with a small crowd of primary school kids and roughly 15-20 onlookers. The boys were already into their drills with two different groups on either side of the wings, roughly 15 - 20 players either side.

Rehab:

Viney, Matthews, Henderson, AMW, McAdam, Jefferson and later Bowey who looked quite ginger (pun intended). Viney and Matthews doing repeat walking up and down a flight of stairs with some black devices in their mouths. Not sure of its purpose but it could possibly be to ensure they breathe through their nose? They then followed up with hand and eye coordination and reflex drills (juggling, ball tossing to one another in rapid fire) at which point Henderson joined them. After that finished the 3 of them spent the rest of the session doing weight training. The other rehabbers in AMW, McAdam and Jefferson were all doing repeat 100m boundary runs for the majority of the session followed by some touch work (reflexes) where a trainer would bullet kick to Hendo or McAdam who were standing 1 meter in front of each other and they had to trick each other into marking or letting it go so the guy behind him marked it, if the ball dropped the guy in-front won. It was amusing to watch. Hendo got the better of McAdam. Jefferson integrated into the main group with some drills.

Main training:

I was mainly focusing on the big group in-front of us, where they would use just the arcs from back 50 to fwd 50 working on ball movement. In this drill it was a 5 v 7 match up with the bigger group attacking and the smaller defending transition. The bigger group would use either corridor or wing, there was no real preference. I was paying attention to the new kids on these drills and was really impressed with Onley, he's a great size and so agile. Taylor was a bit disappointing with his kicking, he shanked quite a few kicks.

The next drill was 5 v 3 using 3/4 ground ball movement drills, taking the ball from the back 50 to a forward marking close to goal.

Mihocek, Tmac, Adams and Campbell doing 1v1 marking/spoil drills on each other while a trainer kicked in a high ball deep in the fwd 50.

The next drill had the boys doing quick handball movement where it was a 2 v 3 match-up with the trainers acting as the defenders and there were 3 attacking players who had to get past them within a 25m coned off area. Once the attackers had reached the end of the cones the next 3 were straight into play. It was non stop and the boys were pretty gassed by the end of it. Culley, Langford, Pickett and Windsor were the best in these drills.

The boys then went on to do 9 v 9 full ground ball drills trying to score end to end. There was a passage where CJ took on Kosi through the corridor thinking he could break away but was quickly taken down by Kosi. CJ was filthy with himself. The boys laid some crunching tackles during these plays. I saw JVR take down May and then quickly get up to pressure the loose ball in play and take down the next player. I was impressed with JVR's repeat efforts. The boys were absolutely gassed from these drills at it's the closest to match sim they could replicate. A lot of the boys were on their haunches sucking in the big ones trying to recover. I don't think I've ever seen Kosi so gassed he and many of the boys took a full minute to get back up.

The players then broke into their lines with their respective coaches (fwds, mids, defenders) I was paying close attention to who was in each group. Mentha and Laurie was in the fwds group and Chandler gave Laurie a big hug saying "welcome back, we missed you". Sharp, White and Latrelle also in the forward line. Rivers, Taylor and Turner in defence. Tholstrup and Culley with the mids.

As the training was drawing to a close, the entire main group would do 80m - 90m repeat sprints that they had to complete in 10/11 seconds and rest about 20-30 seconds before going again. They did about 10 of these repeat sprints.

Now that training was finished, Kingy brought the group in for a quick chat and then sent the players off to sign autographs and to some meet and greets with the locals.

Observations:

Draftees -

• Onley looked really impressive, I thought he moved very well and was so agile for a big mid. His kicking was a bit hit and miss. One definitely to watch.

• Taylor still very green, but he did some great tackles and pressure during ball movement drills. Kicking was a bit iffy today.

• Latrelle integrated well with the group, he moves well and has great pressure, he looks the most likely of our first draftee to break into the team.

• White was really good, he already seems like a regular player. I think doing the pre season last year with Melbourne has helped him to fit in right away with the team.

• Matthews was obviously doing rehab but is a good size and didn't look that much smaller than Hendo or Viney. He'll be good for us.

• Berry looks to be a medium defender in size and build. He'll need a bit of time to catch up to the AFL standard fitness levels, but I'm hopeful he'll strengthen our backline in time to come. Has leadership qualities.

That's about all I can think of for now. I hope you guys enjoy the report.

Cheers.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Where Demons Dare

Legend @Where Demons Dare

I think even I'm on my haunches just reading that....

Sounds like a taxing day for the players.

In regard to Bowey, he was limping quite heavily and tried to jog it off with a trainer. Possibly ankle related, he spent the last hour in the rehab group.

1 hour ago, Ugottobekidding said:

The Star is a bit average.

Do an OK Parma ( imo )

Granted better places to eat... becomes harder to get a table from this time of year on through summer.

Beer and big chips... at Brewery 😉

Bit agricultural though ...just my taste

Just an after thought, I'd love Melbourne to come to Wodonga and train at the state of the art facilities at Baranduda fields. There's a huge Melbourne following up here for some reason. A lot of ex-melbournians have moved to rural cities including myself, and I think it'd be great for the MFC to have a bigger presence in this area being so close to Bright. Albury/Wodonga love their footy, and the MFC should be doing community camps up here and building our supporter base.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Where Demons Dare

Great report WDW - thank you!