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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.

Now.... When drafted.....

They've signed Crowley. The jokes just write themselves.

Labor run ABC ??- that's why the person who used to run the highly influential national breakfast radio news program had a 'promo' spot interview for John Howard every Friday when he was in the wilderness and she then went on to be a Liberal member of parliament in NSW with thoughts of moving federally, why Amanda Vanstone has a regular hour program, plus a couple of others similar, eg. TS. Just because the ABC reports differently than Murdoch doesn't make it labor. Just makes it not biased in the Murdoch direction. To avoid hijacking the thread further, I won't comment on anything in reply.

Dustin Martin knows a good one

It's just been suggested that there should be a Royal Commission in to the Administration of the AFL.

nothing as long as they are not funded by essendon, the afl or the aflpa (which is 100% funded by the afl).if supporters or independent benefactors wish to fund them so be it.

Pit bull puppies

Sitting next to Dion Prestia in a great Japanese restaurant in Surfers. Think we need a great Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, wink wink.

I liked the bit the other night when he said he believed the players hadn't taken illegal supplements but then followed it up with Only Steven dank knows what he gave to the players Hirdy. Just a [censored] small hole in your logic there buddy.

Re Hunt, as a footballer, he has what is called 'neat skills', ie clean hands, accurate kicking, injury issue has been stress fractures in his back, he couldn't do a lot of weight training, once he was injury free at the end of last season he was put on a intensive program to give him some size, I was shocked when I saw him at the start of the preseason -- he still looks facially like a 12 yr old schoolboy but now he has a solid AFL body which will allow him to compete, the coaches think there is still a lot of potential and improvement, so have given him a 1yr contract to see what eventuates

I was right on the money! Just heard KB say the AFLPA is considering taking the 34 players to an overseas (high altitude) location to train at a (non AFL) club! No mention was made of a coach but I suspect my prediction of a past AFL/VFL coach being included would happen. My thought is that the AFLPA are being very ingenious...34 players gives them the opportunity to play practice matches which not only keeps the players physically fit it enables them to stay match fit. I have to agree with Patrick Smith response that he finds the AFLPA trying to find every avenue to get around the CAS decision (because they don't like it) as obscene!

This has now been fixed.

I've emailed the shop to find out if there's plans to stock them. Will let you know.

Yes I would of loved to do a few more but my country calls... I managed to get to a few games toward the end of the year after finishing basic training. I'm on my way up to Townsville where i'm based and have been lucky enough to see a bit of the Demons train this preseason.

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.

I think moonshadow may have had his tongue in his cheek curry.....unless you also has yours in yours?

The best part of the pre season for me is to see Kent and Hunt participating in all the sessions, it is like having 2 extra new recruits

Great reports. Hunt's original utubes really interested me. They were Fyfe-like, ever wanting to get involved with the play including taking strong marks. Reports said that he was equally influential as Josh Kelly and our Christian Salem in APS football, then I saw him kick the winning goal against Carlton in totally wet muddy conditions at Princes Park 18 months ago and I knew he wasn't just some kid with great athletic skills as he definitely contributed to a couple more. This summer, to hear him getting more involved in the passages of play and seeing his face in all the pics has certainly been music to my ears and eyes. I certainly hope he gets that 'need to dominate' back into his AFL game when he settles in to regular games if he does because I want to see more of him. And I think Kennedy also brings something to us that we haven't had around the ball for a while; something small and snappy that we don't get in the same way from others.

These days, it's never about one person being The Coach. It's a team of coaches, a coaching department, and responsibilities within that team shift around according to capabilities and requirements. The person I'm happy about as having a greater role is McCartney. But also very happy to have Roos as The Coach. Having Goodwin taking more of a hands-on role comes down to great coaching and man-management by Roos (and Jackson).

Saad next! Marion Jones for sprint coach, Justin Charles for ruck coach and Ben Cousins for player welfare officer!

Interesting. Roos almost seems superfluous. Great management by Jackson. Goodwin gets to coach this year and Roos takes the heat. Perfect.

El chapo has joined the board.

Does anyone at the EFC get irony?????? These guys are mad. Their new coach was in charge of a club during a highly publicised drug taking regime. And they won a flag. Now the FIRST person they hire as a fill in player is someone who is coming back fom a drug suspension, Ryan Crowley. My God you couldn't make this stuff up

Meaning the same, but with ninja turtles or Elmo or something on them...

Sammy pulled out thought he might get hurt, and if he wasn't in the lead he would not chase.

loved the comment that worsfold wouldn't have time to understand and check supplements. lol, ffs he's a qualified chemist.

Hird wants it both ways: I wasn't part of the management chain for the "supplements" program and was in the dark about what was happening I know that the players didn't take anything prohibited

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

In an age where the media protect an entire team of convicted drug cheats and ignore world stories like ISIL kidnapping 400 women and children, is this really newsworthy material? It was the second story on tonight's news, so I guess it must be. What a time to be alive.

Hard to imagine Cross extending his playing career by one year to play with a team widely tipped to struggle and give up the start of what could be a very successful second career.

I had a chat to Jayden before Xmas, asked him what it was like to be able to play again, said his skills were rusty and his kicking needed a bit of work, spoke to recruiting team when he was drafted and they liked his neat skills and speed

Are you referring to that billionaire cadaveric ex-President of EFC?

i'm sure dean robinson could offer a good deal to manage their training

Is the car ok?

That would have been enough to cause this site to go into meltdown!!!

bomba thompson's role needs a lot more scrutiny. as i understand it, his role, at least partly, was to mentor hird who had no prior coaching or management experience nor coaching accreditation qualifications. not excusing hird for his bad decision making and failure to accept his responsibilities but i think thompson has got off very lightly for his role. of course it also goes beyond these two. there was a systematic breakdown of management and governance right to the top.

what happens when the player on loan does his knee in round 21? I'm looking forward to some monumental losses by Essendon, hopefully starting in round 2. I'm hoping for a non-competitive team of mercenaries jumping sideways to avoid contact and giving us all great comic relief after the crap they've dealt the comp over the last three years, led by that great clown prince Goddard. Watching Goddard walk off dejected after each loss will be great viewing for the more sadistic amongst us, of which I'm one. So no, Terlich is too good for them I say.

Yes I thought so, I think Incitatus could be a good bet for the next Senate election. It looks like Clive Palmer is for the high jump so there will be a vacancy in Queensland up for grabs! Why not a horse, couldn't be any worse.

Fantastic report Caligula. Thanks so much for the write-up, much appreciated

Trivial as it is, whydafuq did Hunt not represent the MFC in the GF sprint? We could've actual won something last year.

I must remember that.

Did i ask your advice? And did i mention anything other than photos that get sent via text messaging? you love all this stuff Stuie don't you... "Won't somebody please think of the children..."

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.

Society needs continual reminders about the horror of tattoos.

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.

I thought this thread would be about picking Essendon's list apart like a carcass. I'd be in Hurley's ear right now trying to lure him to the MFC. Of course some of our more sanctimonious supporters won't want a "drug cheat" at the club, but I'm far more interested in trying to win a flag.

The BS and circus sideshow of Essendon in 2016 is already a joke. Making it a 17 team competition whilst EFC sit on the sidelines copping their righteous whack makes more sense than anything to me. But unfortunately Gillon is in charge and Essendon's best interests appear to be much higher of a priority than anything else. Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Footscray and Melbourne also have players serving sentences for the ban but only Essendon (the offending club, the only club in the wrong) has the opportunity to recruit players outside of their list for the 2016 season. Because that really makes sense.

Round 2 scares me. They're away to gold Coast or someone r1 so it's their first game in melbourne We are notorious for losing games we should win They'll be up and about trying to have a crack Their fans will come out in support because they are deluded Not ideal