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I made the trek up to the training on Saturday from the GC to finally see the boys up here for the first time in three years. Most things have been covered pretty well but I thought I would share some things that I noticed as repayment for the many training reports I have sifted through. I know everyone is always keen to hear about the new fellas so I'l start with them: Oliver: The kid has a massive frame and knows how to use it as evidenced by his crunching tackle on VDB (who looks like a bigger Viney at the moment having lost his excess fat), however, it looks like it will still take a while for him to look the part, happy with the aggression for now. He looked right at home during contested work and was really enthusiastic in defense as well when playing handball keeping's off early. He did look a little bit lost on the outside and knowing when to lead for a ball but he may just have been catching his breath. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this but he is one of the most energetic people I have ever seen when standing on the mark, this may be how he has increased his fitness. Weidemann: He's a pretty strong overhead mark and a fairly decent kick but it does seem that occasionally he loses focus and funnily enough it's the shorter kicks that go slightly astray, it looks a bit like his ball drop is still a bit high. He was a really great bloke and very happy to have a chat with the fans, he seems like he could be a potential leader at the club and a future replacement ambassador for Wattsy. Hullett: Everyone already knows he is a massive unit, he easily looks like 26 year old veteran entering his prime. Unfortunately, I didn't see a lot of him for some reason and i'm not sure if he was up the other end or doing other things. King: Still very skinny in the way that Oscar Mac was when he first started and needs to get up his fitness, one of the coaches kept on getting in his ear and the boys resting on the sideline were very encouraging while telling him where to run and when he put in the effort. Wagner: In my opinion he should get an upgrade at the start of the season, he reads the play quite well and had a pretty decent left boot. He was usually the centre of most drills and I found my eyes constantly being drawn to something he had done, not sure if it's just because of the blonde hair or not but he seemed a bit like the next VDB pick up with a bit less muscle and a bit more skill, he should cover for the loss of Melksham. Smith: I was really surprised when I saw this guy, from reports I expected a skinny kid who might look a little lost in training. He impressed me with his skills and seemed to be running really well. He has a good strength base to start from and his basketball background seems to have prepared him for football. He did not look at all out of place. Bugg: I'm pretty keen to this guy play, he was in all of the right places and found the ball easily. He did however take the completely wrong option out of defense at one stage kicking a long bomb to (i think) billy stretch on the sideline with big maxy 10 metres away who came thundering over with a massive spoil much to the fans pleasure, he completely crunched all in his path. He's very vocal on and off the ground and seems to have fit in very well pretty quickly. Kennedy: I think most people have covered it pretty well, his lateral evasive skills are excellent and his kicking wasn't nearly as bad as his 'highlight' reel made him out to be. Looks awful with the new shaven head but I can't hold that against him if he plays the way he trains. Some other observations: Maxy Gawn absolutely ragdolled Watts when he tried to run around him in the keepings off. Watts didn't seem happy and got up to push him back but I don't think Max noticed. Vandenburg layed a few very strong tackles and a big bump on Tommy Mc which is no small feat. I watched Trengrove pretty closely in the rehab group as I'm one of the many hoping he has a spectacular comeback. He looked very comfortable running and no longer looks like a sick cow during the sprints, while not the fastest, he certainly looks a lot quicker than he did pre-injury, more season debut Trengrove. I watched him do a bit of kicking too and seemed pretty comfortable but did not use his left. It was basically a kick to kick amongst the rehabbers and crossy, gawn? Hoges, spencil and King. He is also looking pretty big in the chunk style of body only taller. If I didn't know about his past injuries I wouldn't have thought he was that far away from a return to football, looks can be deceiving I guess. Chunk and Gus are ultra competitive during a drill at the end of training, a trainer would throw up the ball for spencer to tap down to two competing players. Chunk and Gus were only interested in versing each other. Chunk came out on top 4 - 0 last I heard and absolutely let Gus know about it chanting '4 nil, 4 nil'. Salem and Garland were up against each other and Salem was unhappy about having his arms held while behind Garland, it seemed a fairly even contest. Tommy Mcs kicking looks to have improved and he was switching the play really well, lets hope that translates to games. Gus and Terlich got blasted by one of the coaches for 'not running [censored] hard enough'. A bit unfair on gus as he was still bitter about giving a free away on wagner. A real stand out early on for me was JKH, he was really agressive in the drills and seemed constantly involved both defensively and offensively. Great hands in the hand ball drills. Kent also looked great, during a two on two drill he was dominating the others and wrong footed JKH and burst past which didn't look like an easy thing to do. Hoges left very early with the rehab group which included nibbler but both looked fine, might have just had a rest day. It was a bit of a shame I didn't get to see him but my sister ran him down in the car park and got a photo much to my annoyance. I didn't see Max king anywhere but it was hard to tell the difference between some with the hats on. Dom Tyson seemed to be on light duties and a fair few older supporters were asking me if I could see him out there, again, the hats didn't help. Our training gear seemed pretty flimsy, Salem, Bugg, Kent all had big tears in their gear or needed new singlets. Could just be the aggression? Let me know if you have any questions and i'll do what I can. P.S. I did not check for spelling errors, couldn't be bothered.

It's been a while since I've done a training report so I'm trying to make up for it with this fairly lengthy piece. I hope you enjoy. I managed to get down to training with a mate of mine who’s an Essendon supporter, but I’m trying to convince him to join the Mighty Dees. Funnily enough he did work experience with Melbourne back in 2005. Anyway onto training, It’s a muggy 27 degrees up here in Maroochydore (weather has been very average since arriving on Saturday). We got to training around 10.30am and walked to the back oval to find a few of the rehabbers in Trenners, Vince, Weideman and Mitch King having a kick around with Crossy. Trenners is moving really well and can see him joining the main group soon. On the main oval we had some more rehab guys in Dawes, Oliver, Frost, Jetta, and Smith doing some contested marking drills on the boundary. Dawes still can’t clunk a mark, but I was impressed with the way he was teaching Oliver how to use the body when contesting from front and back positions and creating space to allow the ball to drop at his feet. On the main oval now it’s a half ground simulation (blue vs green) and the guys in green are working really hard to get the ball out of defence using the boundary while the boys in blue are using short and sharp kicks, giving the defending team no time to close down on their opponents. The boys were being vocal but the coaches still wanted to see more aggression. Something that really impressed me was Hunt’s pace. He burst away from a stoppage play with Chunk nipping at his heels until space opened up and he eventually gained 10 metres on him and kicked long down the line. All the boys and even the coaches had a chuckle, looking around at each other as if to say (did you just see that?) After that the boys split up into groups, mids on mids and forwards on defenders. We watched the mids go at it for a while with Ben Mathews running the stoppage drills and McCartney keeping a watchful eye on the group in the distance, while Roos was standing on and electric platform lift getting a birds eye view with the filming crew. We overheard McCartney at one stage telling Whitey that he “wants to see good habits, and to keep a tighter check on his opponent”. Apart from that the midfield group were going reasonably well, but the coaches still wanted to see the players be more vocal and aggressive. At the clearance the guys were also getting way to close to the ruckman during the tap outs and weren't watching where the ball dropped causing fumbles or multiple turnovers. Mathews quickly clamped down on that and told them to “follow the flight of the ball instead of the position of the ruckmen and to give more space at the clearance”. Around 11.30am the boys all participated in the same drill (except for the rehab group) splitting into 4 groups using the whole ground. During this exercise the players would contest each other 1 on 1 trying to stop each other winning the ball and using their body to block their opponent from marking the ball coming towards them. They would continue this at full intensity and then break out into a full on wrestle and just when you thought they were spent, they had to sprint half the field to the next location. It looked exhausting just watching them. I don’t know how much of the session we missed but overall I’d give it a solid 7/10 in intensity. Players missing were Hogan, Melksham, Petracca, Newton and Max King. I think Hulett was having an off legs day (swim) like Hogan because we didn’t see him train at all. ANB spent most of his time between the exercise bike and the ice bins. Stretch had taping on his calf, Nev had his shoulder heavily strapped, Tyson had no tape on his knee which was good to see. I believe Watts was having trouble with his groin and was stretching out a lot, while Vanders hurt his foot and required icing. Players we were impressed with today were Kent, Frost, T-Mac, Bugg, Brayshaw, Tyson, Michie and Hunt.

I was there on Saturday as well, making the trek up from Brisbane. Pretty much everything has been covered by others and managing young kids made it hard to watch everything. But a couple of things that stood out for me were: Bugg looks the goods and saw plenty of it in the match sim drills. Going to be a shrewd pickup I reckon. Watts very vocal with encouragement and instruction. Some great foot skills on display as well but then a dropped mark at a crucial time. Was pretty wet though. Brayshaw and VDB running themselves into the ground to get to every contest and cover blokes defensively. Viney having quite a strut and smashing into guys wherever he could. Tipping him for a breakout year for my supercoach side. Gawn taking some good grabs in the wet conditions and showing precise skills for a big man. A clear standout. Wiedemann is skinny and got pushed around a bit by TMcDonald/Dunn but never stopped moving and doesn't mind flying for a mark. Jones giving Frost an absolute earfull for having a snap at goal rather than dishing off a handball to Kennedy in the clear. Frost looks huge though and has good pace. TMcDonald giving OMcDonald an absolute earfull for not filling the space that Garlett ended up leading into for an easy mark. My young boy learnt some new words. Goodwin and Rawlings very impressive with their instruction while Roosy sat high up in a crane taking it all in. Kent working hard to create an option for team mates and looked dangerous around goal. Really hope he stays fit this year. Overall, the standard was good given the weather but the odd mistake under pressure still there. Then again, I think that was the point of some of the drills they were doing. It was also very willing and physical (tackles/bumps/shepherds) and there would have been a few sore boys afterwards.

I saw a tweet "Cloke only meant to send the pics to his wife who was only 20 metres away but he sprayed his shots "

I was out last night so I missed the interview but having now watched it, I can categorically state that yesterday was the darkest day in the history of Australian journalism.

Not the two sharpest tools in the shed as we've all seen over their careers. BUT why is the blame being put on them for this? they've privately shared photos with someone who has then made them public. All of the negative attention should be on them rather than the players, especially given the focus on "revenge porn" in recent times. Yeah they're dumb for sending pics, but they've not done anything illegal or harassing here as all accounts say this was a mutual thing.

Society needs continual reminders about the horror of tattoos.

Brayshaw says Hi. Viney says SMASH!!!

She had no record of that question although James was sure it was on the list he provided.

With the Under 18 championships behind them and leading up to the 2014 AFL Draft there were six players who Tony Elshaug and his recruiting team believed had started to separate themselves from the rest, and who could wind up being worthy of the No. 1 slot. "The first four, in no particular order, were Angus Brayshaw, Paddy McCartin, Christian Petracca and Peter Wright. The other two - Isaac Heeney and Darcy Moore - were tied to Sydney and Collingwood, with Moore the son of two-time Brownlow Medallist Peter Moore and available to the Magpies as a father-son selection. Elshaugh talked through Brayshaw's form first, as some footage rolled on the war-room television. 'He's ready to go,' he said of the Vic Metro midfielder. 'He was ready to go three months ago when he was the best player against Collingwood's VFL team. He was in the leader¬ship group; he's an All Australian. He had three very good games and the others weren't bad either. He's tough, good at stoppages but he can spread and he's improved his endurance over time. He sees every¬thing around him, makes good decisions. His dad is Mark Brayshaw, who played with Claremont and North Melbourne and was the CEO there. His mum is a part-time teacher and he has brothers coming through the system as well. He's made of the right stuff.' 'Can you compare him to Josh Kelly?' asked Pelchen. 'They're very different players,' said Elshaug. 'Josh was an outside player trying to play inside, learning that. He's more of a silky-smooth player. This kid will drive it from the front and be a strong inside player.' 'He looks a bit like Josh Kennedy to me,' observed Richardson. 'He's a good size. 'He has some presence,' said Elshaug. 'He does most things well.' 'He doesn't play slow, put it that way' said Elshaug. 'He's not necessarily a quick player, but he doesn't get caught.' 'Does he look to kick quickly, or run with the ball?' asked the coach. 'Both,' said Elshaug. 'He can run with it and break away. He's got a pretty good all round game, but he's not Stephen Hill.' 'Is his endurance strong?' 'It's improved but he knows he needs to keep getting better," said Elshaug. 'If he got in the right shape and had no more injuries he’d run a good time trial at the combine, but I’m tipping he’s done most of his work already. I’m not saying he’s done, but he’s had a pretty big year to get to the point he’s at. He’s a good kid and he’s from a good family. They have strong values. His younger brother gave their mother a bit of cheek one day after a fun run, so Angus took him for a drive, dropped him off and said, "This is how far Mum had to run. See ya," and left him there. He’s been through school, he’s been through an injury. He’s handled everything that’s come his way so far. It’s hard to pick too many holes in him.'"

I thought we had laws (revenge porn) to prevent this thing from happening? If so, the woman's day would be complicit in breaking a law. The woman's day would've known that this woman broken the law, and then still went ahead and published them. Swan and co are the victims here, they may be flogs, and I'm not condoning their actions (it isn't a nice thing to go behind your girlfriend or wives back and trade pics, it is cheating in my eyes), but it doesn't give anyone else the right to share, profit and publish these pics. If this was to happen to Daisy Pearce and a few other female footballers, and a men's magazine published their nudes, we would all be outraged, and the PM would've had to come out and give a statement. Australia is becoming an absolute joke.

Add in Hird's references to Thymomodulin rather than Thymosin B4. Thymomodulin is used for conditions such as immune disorders, infections, rheumatoid arthritis and skin diseases. Thymosin Beta-4 provides a range of benefits including increasing lean muscle mass, helping to repair tendons and ligaments and increasing endurance. To paraphrase Hird, "why would Dank want to give them thymomodulin. It makes no sense".

Nice report CC but may I add that Jake Melksham is likely to be missing for quite a while.

Doesn't the ABC have to explain why it agreed to such an interview? Why was the interviewer not someone from an AFL background? Why not have a panel of interviewers? Why no follow-up questions? The ABC has given JH a platform, that is not its role. I would like an explanation.

Loved this Ted Richards (Swans) tweet:

Leave Ricky out of this. He's a good lad.

Melbourne's OH&S issues: players using wheelie bins as ice baths EFC's OH&S issues: year long pharmacological experiment involving thousands of off site injections of god knows what It's nice to not be the club in the news for all the wrong reasons.

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz! ZZZZzzzzzzz! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Actually think this counts as victim blaming. Where's the responsibility for the person who sold privately sent intimate images for money? It's no different to blaming a rape victim who shouldn't have been out at night by herself, put the blame and responsibility where it should be, on the person who actually does the wrong thing. We're getting nowhere as a society until we stop telling people to adjust their behaviour to suit those who do the wrong thing, rather than trying to stop the behaviour of those actually in the wrong.

Storm in a teacup really. Yeah, it's incredibly stupid to send nude photos of yourself, especially if you're an AFL player, but they've done nothing illegal. I love how the people who had the photos flogged them around to the TV stations first who all declined before the lowest of the low, Woman's Day, accepted them. They are just in it for a buck.

Questions that Hird knew were coming, and likely wrote himself.

Am currently in Japan. Seems the interview was as predictably uninformative as we all thought it would be. Back to the sumo wrestling.

Yes it is. Pathetic Interview. Actually shameful. I would expect any cub reporter would do better.

Paul Roos on Oliver this preseason: “Young Clayton has come down from the country. He’s got a good size AFL body, which gives him a bit of an advantage over some of the first-year players. He looks like he’s going to be a good runner too – he burst out of the blocks in a 300-metre run. But he’s learning good habits, like all of the young kids.” – Paul Roos They're just sifting through Roos critique and putting their own slant on it. They're offering nothing original or new. In other words, it's complete guesswork. The following is what that article says about Josh Wagner: Joshua Wagner: "Knows what he is doing, has a good left foot but needs to improve his running." This is what Roos said about Wagner on the club website: "he’s a nice left-footer with good skills and he knows what he’s doing.” – Paul Roos

Just when you thought Footballers could not get any more stupid along comes this pair. If they could not play football would you feed them? http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-01-18/swan-cloke-in-nude-photo-scandal

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Brayshaw

Brayshaw is looking the goods. He reminds me of a young Pendelbury, he's going to be a star for us. He's trimmed down quite a fair bit, I'd say he's lost about 3 or 4kgs but I love he's banter around the group. When the mids were working on their drills during Mathews skills session he kept on picking the same mids for the clearance work and Mccartney yelled out to Mathews "aren't you going to change it up?" and Brayshaw replied "he's got favourites, he's got favourites!" referencing Jones, Tyson and Viney. But yea, I watched him go 1 on 1 with Bugg for a while and he was just going all out against him trying to win the ball and stop Bugg from getting the ball. It was really good to watch.

Stuie I've been reading these forums a long time without a lot of posting. Do you actually like the footy? Or do you just hang for a good gossip to emerge from the football world?

No, he was hiding most of the time behind JKH.

Timing in marking contests is one of Hogan's strengths, but when up against the opposition's best, such as Hurley and McPharlin, he needs to learn how to stop them pushing him under the ball, which is what all defenders try to do. In one training session I attended a few weeks ago that's exactly what he and Rawlings were working on.

I thought he was being put out with the other rubbish for recycling...

Yep, the old blame the victim trick again. While I'd have thought that folk in the public eye might show a bit more discretion, at the end of the day it's their discretion to use and their right to decide who sees it, not the recipient of the photo.

don't think their partners would be in agreement, stuie. may not be illegal but i thought you had a moral compass

And http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-01-18/hogan-aims-to-build-every-session Extract: Overall, Hogan said his pre-season had been a positive one. “I’m working a lot more on my marking and trying to take it to another level,” he said.“My running and strength is something I’ve been working on and I’ve put on a little bit of weight, so running with that is going to be a little different for me. The way I read this he putting on weight is deliberate. WOW - Jesse taking his marking to another level will be really awesome to see! Opposition backmen: Beware!

That's why I did not even bother turning it on. Was always going to be a farce.

Holmes questioning was pathetic. Fairly disgraceful interview and frankly a total waste of time. Hird continues to lie unabated.

For those who would like to venture over to Demonology http://demonology.me/threads/mfc-training-sat-jan-16-maroochydore.2096/ there are two good training reports (Brady and Range Rover) plus pictures if you are a member

From Titus O'Reilly Tracey Holmes: Do you ever doubt yourself? Hird: Sometimes I think there are people I've forgotten to blame.

I just tried to watch on iView and didn't last beyond his first answer. Should be on reverse pay-per-view.

Seems more like a structural, rather than personal, arrangement. If you look at radio across the country, dual (or more) hosting seems more common in breakfast and drive than other timeslots. I assume revenues are higher in breakfast and drive, so minimal expense is put into the other timeslots. Hence, single operators between 9 and 4 pm.

Some well know footy commentators having a go at Hird: Dennis Cometti @DennisCometti7 Unlike Pinocchio, James #Hird's ears appear to grow with each lie #smug #cheapshot 1:54 AM - 18 Jan 2016 Dave Hughes ✔ @DHughesy Surely in this long promised tell all interview we are gonna get more about Stephen Dank than 'he made mistakes.' Surely? #hird #Abc24 Dennis Cometti @DennisCometti7 James #Hird chanelling Richard Kimble. It wasn't me, it was the one armed man #smug #hirdinterview Mark Robinson ✔ @Robbo_heraldsun Qs need asking. 1 Who told the players not tell ASADA about injections. 2 The text messages with Dank about Reid? Why the consent forms? Jon Ralph ✔ @RalphyHeraldSun It's OK Essendon 34 you can play this year because Hirdy only looks at the AFL tribunal finding, not CAS. Brilliant news Jon Ralph ✔ @RalphyHeraldSun Question that Tracey won't ask, but I wonder how hard Hird pushed Dank to testify, did he contact him to help clear the players? Surprised to see Dennis C speak up – he is usually very neutral on issues. Even Robbo and Jon Ralph are decrying Hird’s comments. Will be interesting to hear Patrick Smith and Caroline Wilson when they get back from vacation. Edit: Don't know if the above are the actual twitter for each person. Twits taken from different on-line news articles

No pressure was put on him to explain the untenable position he maintains that the players were not injected with performance enhancers but at the same time pleading ignorance about what was in the injections and why no records were kept. Holmes asked predetermined questions but at no stage did she challenge any of his responses.

The more he talks, the more Hird is trashing his legacy. A friend of mine who works as a writer and researcher in sports media, including footy, told me his view on the outcome of Essendon's doping saga was "nothing's changed". Meaning that the people at the top who should be banned and heavily fined have got off scott free, in most cases with substantial financial gain (eg. Hird $1 mill + paid o/s study when under AFL ban) or having moved on in their field of business (Robson, Evans, Bomber, etc) without penalty. He wasn't dismissing the guilt of the players, but pointed out they are the most vulnerable party in this debacle and are the ones being penalised. Even Dank can move on and make some money from the public speaking circuit.

"I don't believe it. Yes, there is a possibility [that the players were given illegal supplements] - no-one knows, except Stephen Dank, what they put in those injection." This sums it up for me. They are innocent But no one knows I mean seriously

Summed up beautifully....!! my first question would have been the Text Message "Get me the Good Stuff We are playing Carlton this week" did you send that to Stephen Dank...??

Fair is not what AFL is about anymore. Any given Sunday is a concept only. When you have the same teams in the Top 4 for many years, it becomes boring for the rest of the 14 teams and FAIR is no where to be seen. This is why attendances drop off and no-one talks about great games anymore. They talk about odds and who is up for contract. This isn't sport anymore, its business.

Yes, be grateful for the one we got, some of the ideas were 'horrendous', there was one suggestion that made the CS design look simple

Turns out he wasn't coach at Essendon anyway... Ha ha http://www.theshovel.com.au/2016/01/15/james-hird-denies-ever-being-coach-at-essendon/

True that the AFL and AFLPA need to ensure the health and safety of the current Essendon playing list (something which both appear to have been remiss about along with the EFC over the whole issue) but they are clearly playing favourite with the Bombers over almost everything else. Back in 2013 when the AFL sanctioned Essendon over governance following the partially completed joint investigation, it was made painfully clear that the issue of the actual possible use of banned substances was still unresolved. Now that this long running saga has ended and it is plain and obvious that they are culpable in conducting a programme involving the ingesting of banned substances by their players, the AFL is letting them off the hook with salary cap concessions, generous rights to recruit top up players and draft pick hand outs as a side benefit to having a weakened team due to the sanctions. Banned players can be paid their full remuneration. This was all announced on the day the sanctions were announced and with no consultation with the clubs although one of the offenders gets consulted and time to put forward a case (should he wish to) as to whether he can keep his Brownlow. Business as usual for the AFL. It hasn't learned a thing from the various scandals that have rocked the organisation in recent years. And the money keeps rolling in.