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Hi all. Training started around 10am and lasted about 60 minutes. It was a light session and not one of the most intense we have seen. The 6 day break and upcoming warm conditions could be the reason. Notable absentees from Sunday were Trac, Hunt and Vince. McKenna ran laps most session. There were 33-34 players in the main warm-up excluding Weid, King and Filipovic. They were in a drill together with Stafford, it lasted about 15 minutes and eventually joined the main group. In the first half an hour or so there were a lot of short drills set out concentrating on stoppages and rapid ball movement. Players were constantly changing groups. It was blustery out there at times and the wind favoured the end the forwards were stationed at. The centre bounce drill would involve the rucks tapping the ball down to the mids and then a pass on to the forwards. A lot of the forwards ran under the ball, not sure if they misjudged the flight or there was too much on the kick. It happened a lot actually in the short time. Hogan was the only one able to read the flight and take a few marks. Hogan moved really well, had a bandage of some sort on but was not hindered at all. Salem was another of the injury concerns that moved freely. There was no match sim drill with the short session. At the end players were given a 15 minute period of “ playtime” where they would try and kick snaps and torps through the goals. When most were leaving I noticed Maynard hunched over talking to one of the coaches. Also Hannan and Goodwin had a 5 minute one on one in the centre of the ground. Right in front of me Max kicked a 60 metre torp through the goals and Pedders yelled out “ Why couldn’t you do that on Sunday?” Not much else to report unfortunately as the session was over quickly. Hope this helps.

Based on Goodwins strike rate in this area of knowledge, Hogan will be out for a month.

The forwards were running under the incoming ball all game on Sunday so the drill is working a treat!

Yeah, it was an easy shot for Pedders, only 60 out on the boundary and the wrong side for a right footer.

Goodwin has come out and said he's 100% right for this week, just a little swelling they wanted to check out.

EDIT: Tweet isn't showing on the forum for some reason. Anyhoo, its just Goodwin saying that the scan was precautionary and Hogan will be 100% right this weekend.

Well, Pedders could've had the shot himself. Just sayin' !

Troubling. Everyone knows that 110% is the minimum acceptable number for any football player.

Don’t worry, just a minor niggle. Back this week or the next, if not, then the week after that and so on. Should be cherry ripe for round 23 at the worst.

Will post shortly.

He must be wise with the bickies he's paid. Good on him. Shows great common sense not to fall for the exclusive 'car' syndrome at his age.

Hogan is on the track. Was heading home if he wasn’t.

^^ I'd be concerned now @Webber

We lost to a team down a man since the first quarter and half our team didn't show up.

I don’t want to hijack a training thread considering there’s a dedicated Weideman thread already however, I don’t agree with your supposition regards him playing his ‘natural’ position as a forward and potentially negatively affect his development. He’s a growing lad and will at times be called into a ruck contest, probably more than Hogan and Tmac going forward. Also beneficial to give him some one-on-one work under a high ball even if it is only from a throw up.

I don't think he's all that far away from a trot in the magoos. He was poor on the weekend with only 3 touches in a half. Didn't do much in the JLT. Ended last season poorly by his own admission. Needs to regain his sparkling first half of 2017 form and we'll be the better for it.

Having digested Sunday's game over a couple of days, sadly I reckon this year's version of the Demons might have some significant problems. Inevitably we compare to last year to see signs of evolution, but such a comparison so far is worrying. Maybe the biggest flaw in our overall game last year was that we were consistently outmarked. Ends up that in 2017, we were 15th ranked for marks. Sunday gave me no reason to think this has been in any way corrected. Teams who can control the tempo of possession are going to expose us in the air in attack, and frustrate our marking efforts in the front half. Having no Tom McDonald, one of, if not our best marking target, doesn't help. Our best football last year relied on a fierce ascendancy at stoppages. Thus by controlling the ball at stoppages and by sheer weight of attack we were able to find a way to goals. However, we lack efficiency when the ball is ours, and are prone to turnovers. Being consistently dominant at clearances is much harder way to win games of footy than being better organised and better users of the ball. Psychologically it also requires key figures who can lead a team dynamic. Teams know that we are inevitably prone to lapses, and that we are more vulnerable without Jack Viney's lead from the front influence. Defensively we are too brittle, for periods that last too long. The second quarter was a reminder that teams can open us up when we lose defensive accountability. This is in part of function of the above, and that we struggle to regain possession when our high demand pressure game drops off. Selection. It doesn't matter how much Simon Goodwin says he picked Sunday's team on preseason form, any of us who have followed pre-season know that these are 'alternative facts'. How either Dom Tyson, Angus Bradshaw, arguably Billy Stretch and even Tom Bugg were not preferred to Corey Maynard and Josh Wagner (no slight on their efforts) rightfully had most of us baffled. The concern is that this is driven by a mysterious agenda, or at worst that there are personality or political issues at the club. I know barring a shoelace's influence, Max would've kicked that goal on Sunday, but that would have done nothing to alter my thoughts as above. It's hard to see us beating a hometown Brisbane this week, who showed last year that they can match it with us. On the other hand, we had at least half a dozen players on Sunday who were well below their best, and will hopefully wake up. Based on one telling game though, I'd say we're going to need some luck to make the eight, and some inspiration, and top four is at this stage fantasy land. Too soon?

That Carpark organization are absolute crimminals. I have just spent time at the Airport over the last 3 days. HIGHWAY ROBBERY is what they charge. AND the sole reason that a rail link has not been built Sorry but i despise that Carpark!!!!

What about MFC fans? We just get screwed as per normal?

Agreed. Does absolutely nothing else but play the seagull role and jag a few goals. We made him look like a superstar.

Out Hannan, Maynard, Wagner In Tyson , Brayshaw , Frost. Frost to give us another big body option down back and free up Lever

@Demon77 Thanks for great report. I'm curious about Weideman working out with the rucks. Reports were he has done a bit of that in Casey games. I would have thought we would let him settle into his natural position as a forward and once he has that nailed then develop his ruck skills. Trying to do both at AFL level is fraught and runs the risk that he won't reach his potential in either role. And I'm not sure he has the height or the build (at least not yet) to ruck. Wondering if you have seen him do 'enough' forward work in the preseason - we could certainly do with a forward who is ready to step in if needed. Cheers

Awesome stuff @Demon77. The big positive is Hogan moving freely and training without problems, meaning he'll be right for Saturday night and ready to kick a bag of goals.

Fascinating thread. Having only now had the chance to watch the game ( an unfortunate family bereavement just recently put footy on the back burner ) I fear I'm somewhat aligned with Webber in the main. I expected a far more composed and dedicated side than that which fluffed it Sunday. Selection ... very questionable in some respects. Before the bounce...before this season my thoughts went...We win round 1...off and running..some confidence..build on that refine... and we're a finals contender. Lose...and we're already playing catch-up footy....and that was exactly what we played Sunday after the 1st qtr. I think the club is well placed off the field in admin etc kicking goals there. I have a little sneaky that the FD world and relationships towards some players is not all honky dory. Im not convinced our game style can either be executed consistently, nor the coaches capable of sufficient and timely adjustment. Ill wait till about round 6-7 to start worrying. Im not overly enthused at the moment.

The two reasons we lost: 1 - Team Defence 2 - Ball use going inside 50 Our entire team defence both in the middle of the ground and forward of the ball was poor on the weekend and our ball use going inside 50 and some field kicking in general was awful. It played right into Geelong's hands. Those two points allowed Geelong to move the ball from defensive 50 to offensive 50 with ease and under very little pressure, which resulted in our defenders being caught out. Lever had some bad moments but was made to look a lot worse because of the break down further up the field. Other contributing factors to our loss/problem areas imo were as follows: Playing Maynard, a lack of foot speed through the middle of the ground, playing Hogan in the midfield and his leading patterns when forward and having a number of players underperforming. These things wouldn't have mattered as much if we'd played with a high pressure team defence and if we were efficient going forward. Selection this week: Having initially understood Wagner's inclusion for the reason that it'd release certain players from half-back and allow for more versatility, I'm now firmly in the opposite corner. Wagner was okay. Some poor moments and some good. Lewis however played his best football as a backman on the weekend and I think Brayshaw needs to come in for Wagner to play through the midfield at this stage and Lewis can stay back. We need natural mids through the middle of the ground with grunt and some run. Brayshaw is quicker than Lewis and can help in that area. Playing Hogan through the midfield on the weekend was an embarrassment as he made barely any impact at the contest and was next to non-existent in his defensive pressure or understanding of how to run defensively with an opponent. Maynard was just way off the pace and it's clear that Tyson needs to be the like-for-like replacement. I like that our side has flexibility and is versatile. But Goody is now flirting with danger playing so many through the middle of the ground who sometimes don't impact. We need synergy, consistency and continuity through that area of the ground. We were almost taking the [censored] on the weekend with how many were running through there. Ins: Tyson and Brayshaw Outs: Wagner and Maynard

The weed due to preseason injury is probably not ready for an AFL match. Hopefully Hogan will be alright.

ummmm, im just channeling a regular training reporter dude.

You mean like Mcdonald playing AFLX and Viney playing out the year? At this stage I have zero faith in the club's injury summary.

I am not talking about round 1. 1. The training camp fiasco 2. Trading Watts 3. Injuries to key players 4. Rumours of Goodwin not playing players out of spite 5. That second quarter performance I'm just saying that in past years when we've been in the news for similarly damaging things, we've struggled as a club to weather the storm. We beat Adelaide last year and should have beaten the Premiers. As it stands, getting to within 3 points of a top 4 team from the following year means jack [censored] if you don't at least play finals. I'm just concerned that the wheels will fall off.

Bummer. So Petracca at full forward this week? Or Weid? Or Pedo? Or Fritsch to do a Gary Ablett Snr and take half a dozen speccy's and kick 8 from FF?

Channel 7 said elbow problem. Sent for scans, looked in discomfort during light training. Arm bandaged. Standby to receive the worst prognosis possible for a sore elbow.

You're reading way too much into one game. And especially the first game. They'll learn much from this game, which is the first bit of relevant evidence they've been able to dissect for 6 months.

I don't thank Jordan at all for turning the momentum their way. I think we were 9 points up at that stage and looking the better side. [censored] leadership.

IN: Tyson, Brayshaw, Bugg OUT: Maynard, Wagner, Hannan

Channel 7 just needed a headline to start the week off - anything would do - I loved the fake look of despair and worry on Tim Watson's face, not terribly frigging serious at all - but importantly, although he knew he was being filmed and something of him was being covered/communicated, Jesse coolly walked to his car, got in and maintained his silent dignity. Good onyer, Mate.

They arrived about 5 minutes ago. Going through their warm up, about 34 in main group. Weid, King and Filipovic training together with Stafford. Can’t spot Vince though.

What Lewis was saying is that 'after a loss, you have to hurt, you have to hate losing' or words to that effect. He said it in the context of while players have different ways of dealing with a loss there were a few times last year when there was 'too much joviality on the bus' after a loss and he wasn't too happy seeing that [joviality]. He wasn't talking about 'faux' hurt he meant real deep down hurt. On this Lewis knows what he is talking about. He knows what a winning culture looks like. The 'not hurting' makes me wonder if we have been so poor for so long, last year players were satisfied with close losses or playing good footy for three quarters. Listening to Lewis I'm not sure the burning will to win was there. Sure everyone wants to win and we can't win every game but will our team do what it takes to try for a win each and every week? If they do it will go a long way to eliminating the fade outs for a quarter in games. Time will tell.

My word, there's a lot of teeth-gnashing, woe-is-me, sooky Demons supporters.

The other issue is geelong elected to isolate lever. They could have instead dragged lever up the ground and isolated tmac's younger brother one out against the much stronger hawkins. This would have stiil had the effect of limiting levers intercept role. But they chose to isolate lever against much smaller opponents than hawkins. Presumably because they thought this option would create more goals. What does that say about scotts rating of both players one on one ability?

we have been the worst at contested marks fo a long long time I cannot understand why this hasnt been addressed in selection and training over the years It is not exactly a new phenomena is it Webber? Not marking just increases the pressure at the contest until we lose it. Too many are committed to the contests making it easy for good sides to clear and transition to goal Our game plan is the problem in my opinion like the first five minutes of schoolboy football So bloody frustrating to watch

It's not just about speed. We regularly moved the ball fast into our forward line for our repeated inside 50s. It's pressure. Our biggest issue is that, when we have these 30+ point quarter losses, we're not applying pressure on our opponent. It's almost inherent - a side under proper pressure might win a quarter, but they're not going to win it by 30+ points.

Were you at the game? The structures that we got right after half time was Lewis as a spare defender. We had 7 v 6 down back and 6 v 5 forward for the entire second half. The associated changes that made that work were: - Harmes on ball to provide speed and run - ANB on a wing to provide run - Petracca forward to be a goal scoring threat and pressure I don't believe playing with a loose man back every game is a sustainable game plan. It's not the one we trained for all summer. It makes scoring incredibly hard for us as well as the opposition and teams with better goal kicking forward than Geelong will take more chances than they did. I think we have to start games with a 6-6-6 set up but it can't be the same slow to transition midfield and wide open vulnerable backline as the first half against Geelong. So we have to look at what worked in the second half and adapt that to a balanced team.

I keep hearing this line, be it from supporters, players or coaches. I disagree somewhat. One thing we haven't learnt (and are yet to overcome), are our single quarter meltdowns. There are articles floating around with accurate numbers so forgive me if I'm slightly off, but we lost the second quarter against Geelong by around 27 points on the weekend. Against St Kilda in JLT 2, we lost the third quarter by more if I remember correctly which allowed them right back into the game. And last year, we had 8 quarters during the year in which we conceded 30 points or more. We lost 7 of those 8 games. Whilst it is only round 1 as you and others have reminded us, I find it alarming that over an entire pre-season, this major flaw is still present during games. We had a warning sign against St Kilda in JLT after an entire pre-season in which we should have addressed the issue and two weeks later it happened again against Geelong in a real home and away game. The third quarter against St Kilda in JLT 2 was the first bit of relevant evidence we'd been able to dissect for 6 months, you're right. It was deja vu. Two weeks later the same thing happened. Would love an answer. Because it's a consistently worrying theme.

I thought your summasition of things was really good Webber. I too find the omission of Brayshaw and Tyson troubling for the reasons you outlined. I also have real difficulty seeing Maynard and Wagnar as superior choices.... no knocks on either as I thought both were servicable, but Tyson and Brayshaw can both be match winners. Brayshaw hadnt missed ONE pre season session and in his effort to keep that record intact had his wisdom teeth taken out later than he might have. So theres a real question mark there. The only thing I might add is that Lets not forget it was only round 1 and Geelong are a super well drilled team ( defensively and offensively) and finalist for the last 10 years so we were playing what I consider to be a settled top 4 side. When we worked harder to defend their short game in the 3rd and 4th quarters it no longer looked like the superior game style . It wasnt like we faded through all the effort , we were coming over the top of them.

Umpires have had far worse sprays than that what Lewis dishes out. The poor call of a free kick was the root cause so can we just keep blaming the umpire please.

Ump gave a pathetically soft 50m penalty that resulted in a goal. If it was given in the back half this thread wouldn’t exist. Ablett is a protected species but still some of our own supporters are happier to place the negative on our players. FMD.

Totally unacceptable from a leader, especially in light of his indiscretions last year. Deserves a big clip from the coach.

That is exactly why things are different now from any time in my life. We've had some superstars, but almost never in the midfield (as I've mentioned in other threads). I'll take Schwartz pre-knees, and Nietz anytime over MANY so-called great players. But we've never really had midfielders that are just 100% class from the day they arrive fresh out of the TAC cup. And even though we lost on the weekend, you can see what we have as clear as day. Strap in.

As a football supporter you have to be prepared that reaching that type of ongoing dynasty level like that Geelong side experienced may never happen. Since the turn of the century there's probably been four teams that were clearly stronger than the rest. In many season there hasn't been a standout side, the last few years included. This isn't an issue only for Melbourne supporters. Honestly mate, we all want to win a flag and watch our team dominate. The feeling of winning is truly addictive, that's why some people go mad seeking it (see: Australian cricket team). Just don't attach your mental health to this team's success or otherwise you will suck all the fun out of it for yourself.