TRAINING: Friday 12th December 2025

The temperature was rising throughout todays preseason training session at Gosch's Park and two umpires were in attendance to officiate the first official Match Simulation of the Preseason.

DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

PRESENT:

1. Steven May

2. Jacob van Rooyen

3. Christian Salem

5. Xavier Lindsay

6. Caleb Windsor

8. Jake Lever

9. Jack Steele

12. Koltyn Tholstrup

13. Jai Culley

14. Changkuoth Jiath

16. Bailey Laurie

19. Xavier Taylor 

21. Matt Jefferson

22. Blake Howes

24. Trent Rivers

25. Tom McDonald

26. Jed Adams

27. Max Heath

28. Brody Mihocek

29. Tom Campbell

30. Harry Sharp

31. Bayley Fritsch

32. Tom Sparrow

33. Latrelle Sumner-Pickett

34. Kalani White

35. Harry Petty

36. Kysaiah Pickett

37. Kade Chandler

38. Oscar Berry

40. Riley Onley

42. Aidan Johnson 

44. Luker Kentfield

REHAB:

4. Harvey Langford

7. Jack Viney

10. Daniel Turner

11. Max Gawn

18. Jake Melksham

20. Thomas Matthews

23. Shane McAdam

43 Jack Henderson

45. Andy Moniz-Wakefield

ABSENT:

15. Ed Langdon

17. Jake Bowey

39. Ricky Mentha Jnr

A number of train on players present today including Toby Sinnema. This could mean Bowey could be placed on the LTI List.

It’s also possible that these guys are not necessarily train-ons to replace Bowey but rather, Casey players to make up numbers for the Match SIM.

Two umpires here today so looks like there will be a serious Match SIM at some point.

Max, Disco, Langford and Melksham kicking around the footy and all running well. None should be too far off resume regular training.

AMW has joined Max, Melk, Disco & Langford in a small version of a circle work like drill. All moving very well.

Players have split into 4 colours Blue, White, Pink & Orange and are being addressed by the two umpires.

Two half court Match SIM games (length ways) umpired by one umpire each:

Orange vs Pink and Blue vs White

A mix of all positions amongst the teams. About 8 or 9 on each team with Casey/Train-On players making up the numbers.

Plays are just started randomly from a position with the goal to score at your end

Very quick ball movement is the order of the day for this simulation.

Match Ups have changed.

White vs Orange and Blue vs Pink

White:

Jefferson Berry Culley Petty Fritsch Heath Howes Rivers Casey Player

Orange:

May Kentfield CJ Pickett Kolt Kalani Chandler Casey Player

Blue:

Trelly Sharp Campbell Sparrow Lever Onley Laurie

Pink:

JVR TMAC Taylor Salem Windsor AJ Steele Sinnema Casey Player

McAdam running laps with Reece Conca.

It doesn’t appear as if Langdon is present today. It was previously reported that he copped a knock last week and was in concussion protocols.

Gawn, Melksham, Langford and Disco running repeat 150m fast run throughs along the boundary. You can tell that all 4 are champing at the bit to be out there. Soon.

AMW & Matthews running laps separately. Matthews appears to be running more comfortably than he was the other day. AMW as reported, is very close to resuming full training which should be after the Christmas break. Matthews will still be a little further away from resuming as he has just started running.

Viney & Henderson smashing the bikes

Now they’ve split into two groups (Blues & Whites) for what could be the Match SIM.

CJ is not participating in the Match SIM and is now jogging lap with one of the trainers.

MATCH SIM

Mids:

Blue: Kozzy Campbell Sparrow Kolt

Wings: Onley Culley

White: Heath Windsor Steele Chandler Rivers

Wings: Sharp & a Casey Player

Forwards:

Blue: JVR Fritsch Kalani Kentfield

White: Mihocek AJ Jefferson

Defenders:

White: May TMac Howes

Blue: Lever Petty Adams

HALF TIME:

White: 6.2.38

Blue: 3.1.19

Sharp and Windsor (both White) in everything.

Kozzy (Blue) getting a lot of the footy too.

CJ heading back to the rooms. He participated in the mini SIMs before doing some running with trainer and now heading back to the rooms after not participating in the full Match SIM. Watch this space.

3 QTR TIME (Full Time):

White: 7.3.45

Blue: 6.3.39

Culley (blue) finding space in the forward line.

Trelly (white) like Kozzy has such good footy IQ and instincts and knows exactly what he is going to do with the footy before he gets it.

GHOSTWRITER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS

Max, Disco and Melky have been out here for a while already. They’re following instructions from Selwyn.

Tmac just arrived. He’s usually first out. He looked a bit puzzled when he saw the other three already out there. I’ve never seen someone put their boots on so quickly - not sure he even tied the laces.

Five or six Casey players are here today. One is wearing Bowser’s jumper and one is wearing Ricky’s jumper. Neither Roo nor Ricky are here. They’re close to well enough but Wheels said they’re keeping them back from training partly because of the heat.

Clearly the club are all across Demonland…

Nothing to worry about re Disco. His hammy isn’t a concern, they’re just being super cautious with him. He’ll be “running today and running fast” according to Pete our head physio. Pete says at this time of year they don’t want anyone trying to be a hero. I have nfi what that means, I just nodded like I understood.

Ollie Green and Louie Hodder (no relation to Courtney but wishes he was) are two Casey boys here. And of course Tobes. Lamond is also a Casey player who’s here

Edit: Ollie Green isn’t Brad’s son, they just share the same name

There’s only one Casey player whose name I’ve yet to find out*. Latrelle is wearing #39 but so is this Casey boy, just to add to confusion.

* It’s Paddy Cross.

ON THE CASEY/TRAIN-ON PLAYERS FROM WHISERPING JACK MENTIONED BY GHOSTWRITER:

Oliver Green, aged 19. was on the Casey list this year. He originally was with the Sandringham Dragons and played mainly on a wing in amateur football in 2025.

Louis Hodder, aged 18, is a small forward from the Dandenong Stingrays (176cm).

Just had a chat with Kingy. We talked about training. I told him that of the players I’ve asked about training so far the consensus is that it’s brutal, intense, very challenging, etc. I even told him one player called him a [censored] psycho. He loves it. He said that tells him he’s doing things right. But I also told him that these same players all said while it took some getting used to, they actually love this level of intensity and they feel so much stronger and fitter.

I told Kingy that thus far there’s been no S&Gs out there. Not a single shc!tt or giggle in sight. He said, “Oh there’s S&Gs, most definitely there is. But that’s when we’re over there” and he motioned towards AAMI. He said he doesn’t just let them engage in S&Gs, he encourages it because there has to be a healthy balance.

Then, back on the serious training subject, he told me some of the things he tells the players. This was my favourite: he tells them “Yes, it’s bloody hard, it’s brutal, I’m pushing you then pushing you again, and again. I’m pushing you to your absolute limits. I’m doing everything I can to get everything possible out of you and that’s because I want you to be bulletproof and, more importantly I want you to KNOW you’re bulletproof.”

Talk about inspirational! It took every fibre of my being to resist jumping the fence and slam tackling anyone in my path then running 50 laps for fun. But then I remembered I’d likely pull a hammy just trying to jump the fence so instead I just pictured myself doing it.

Further on the subject of Vines seemingly having a weight lifted from his shoulders, despite being injured, he definitely is different now. And he’s not the only one. I see a similar thing with Melky, Max and Tmac. They seem to be less burdened, if you will. I spoke with one of the medics and he said it’s probably because of all the changes and that Kingy has a reassuring way about him. This makes sense.

I was introduced to our new “psych” as he calls himself. His name is David. He’s about 6ft5 and very softly spoken and gentle-natured. I felt like I’d had a professional session with him, minus the $600 fee 😁

David only started two days ago which means we’ve been psych-less since Stephen Rendall left months ago. Maybe we haven’t had a desperate need for one, therefore not in a hurry to fill the position 🤷‍♀️

It was the (now) usual tough session. The boys actually pulled up well, despite the heat. Knackered of course but they still looked pumped.