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Woo hoo, they were looking good. Clean and doing the basics well in challenging conditions with a gusty wind a-blowing. Rehab had Lachlan Filopovic and Corey Maynard. Michael Hibberd was late on the track. He was running laps with effort, then did a little ball work but finished early. No sight of Dean Kent or Oskar Baker. The emphasis for the drill work was definitely goal kicking, with some tackling thrown in. The basics during ball work was very good, clean by foot and hand as well as decision making. No surprises for the line squads (Cam Pederson remains with the forwards). The simulations were based around rebounds off the halfback. Angus was a bit out of sorts. Goody dragged him and when he participated again he was switched on (responded well), Simulations included Joel Smith, Jayden Hunt and Jay Kennedy-Harris. After simulations the players gathered around with Jordan Lewis leading the talk. Bernie Vince on track. Stayed with the Casey Squad when they split during simulations, as did Jeff Garlett, Cam Pederson, Tom Bugg and Josh Wagner. A little physio on the field for Oscar McDonald and Angus Brayshaw, they will be right to go. Jack Viney, fitting in as if he had been there all year. Aaron vandenBerg, vocal and training well. Max Gawn doing everything right. Sam Wiedeman kicking beautifully, getting to the ball, marking and crumbing well. Christian Petracca at last kicking goals at practice (the coaches putting some extra time into helping him). Last to leave were Tom Mcdonald (kicking goals) and some backs including Neville Jetta (working with Dion Johnstone). Go Dees. From Kev Martin

May i just add that it is [censored] ridiculous how big Aaron Vandenberg is.. i have absolutely no doubt these blokes that get crushed in tackles by this brute would be feeling it the next day. Hes ours and i love it!!

Just welcomed a new Demon member to the world at just the right time that I can get to the game this Friday!!! Was due last Friday, arrived this morning, our 3rd child (2 girls, now a boy). Im taking this as an omen ???

Looked fit and well. Loved the little banter between him and Salem right in front of me though! Salem sprayed a kick on his right foot with Jetta right on his backside and Jetta yelled "ahh thats the pressure right there" Salem: "[censored] off mate!" ? He also pulled Dion Johnstone aside to do some one on one body positioning and contest work too. Ready to go.

I'm sure viney just let him pass so that they didn't create a blackhole

For those of you who listen to the Demonland Podcast you might be familiar with the bet I had with my brother in law and my nephews. At the start of the year (pre-Round 1) we made a bet that whoever finished higher would have the pleasure of eating a family dinner whilst the loser wore the winners guernseys. I wasn't confident when I made the bet. I knew we would improve but Geelong are Geelong and with the exception of 2015 they had finished in the Top 4 for the better part of a decade. I also had the 2 narrow losses to hear all about throughout the year and boy did I cop it. Not only did I have to hear the Cats song blasted through my phone but those losses were 2 8 point games in our bet. A win in either of those games would have given me victory a lot earlier. Listeners of the podcast would know how nervous I was of winning this bet particularly in the last few rounds when the Cats had an easy run home and we had the draw from hell. Well the result is history now as we all know the Dees did not let us down. Victory was mine but now we faced them in the Elimination Final and even though they would shortly be delivering on the bet it would all be for naught if I had to eat dinner with them in Melbourne gear whilst they gloated about their victory in the Finals. If the roles were reversed and I lost the bet but won the final I would have happily (sort of) eaten in a Cats jumper whilst I talked smack about their team. Anyway, that was a moot point because yesterday they delivered on the bet and I couldn't have been happier. I got to eat and gloat and watch them squirm in red and blue. Shoutout to my sister in law who was not part of the bet but wore the red and blue well.

Hibbo is fine Gawn is fine Nev is fine Salem is fine (for an Arsenal supporter) Nothing to see here And James Harmes carries off my bowler hat with style

Training fully and moving fine mate

Didn't we all.

Training thread in mid September! Love it.

Vandenberg just brushed Viney aside with ease.. The man cannot be stopped!

Bernie training fully with the backs.

Disagree mate. An enormous out if he doesn't get up. Smith can tackle and that's about it. Hunt can run and on his day defend quite well, but Hibberd is a mile ahead of either player. He refuses to be beaten in the contest and is one of our better kicks. With Hawthorn's small brigade, I reckon we'd miss him massively, not to mention the drive we get from him.

I have visions of a random Melbourne supporter whos been living in the jungles of Bolivia for the last 12 months logging on here and wondering why preseason training is starting so early this year.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-09-11/rawlings-named-vfl-coach-of-year "The Casey Demons senior coach was named head coach of the best 2018 VFL team on Monday night". Congratulations! Great to see more recognition coming to the Demon family. Jade may get a well deserved senior coaching gig in a few years on the back of this and earlier AFL experience. Reckon Roosy would give him a pretty good reference as he is the only pre-Roos coach kept on by Roos. (Mahoney moved into admin which he has also excelled at).

BREAKING NEWS: James Harmes out for the weekend with Nits.....

"Boooooooooooooo" - Every West Coast supporter.

At least hes yelling that at Jetta for once and not at Saty.

And thats a wrap! Happy to answer any questions.

Like many others he has developed some mongrel and is prepared to take it up to his opponents. i am proud that we have a team that is becoming as tough as nails that will not take a back step. We have become intimidating rather than being the intimidated. No more sissy's at Melbourne.

Absolute belter of a day here at Gosch Paddock! Crowd slowly building. Bit breezy though..

That's me done for good mate. Moving back up bush in a couple of weeks for work, so using up my annual leave right at this minute. Couldnt miss this opportunity today!

They're expecting 90,000 again. We got reserved seats in the MCC on Level 4. But I reckon I'll go early to get a Level 1 seat. I still think regular H&A attendees should get preference to finals seating, instead of all the bandwagoners...

Hunt had back issues over pre-season, meaning he struggled to build fitness and confidence in his body. He had back issues in his first few season on the list, so it's an ongoing thing unfortunately. Once fit enough to play, he struggled with confidence and then multiple other injuries. When fit and in form, he's in the top 10 players IMO. He's got a really high ceiling, as his running is used as hard to defend as it is to attack. He's got unmatched speed, a great leap, and plays with flair. He's one of the few players I feel could be really effective on a wing for us long term. Last season he was bordering on AA half back flank form, nearly as damaging as Hibberd. He's still young, and with less than 50 games to his name I wouldn't trade him unless he was part of landing us a bonafide superstar.

He's had the season from hell with his injuries and form, but I hope he backs himself in to stay and work his way back in to the side. He's got the attribute set to get back there. As Frost and Weideman have both alluded to in recent interviews, sometimes you just have to put head down, bum up, work hard in the VFL and wait for your time to come. As we've seen, injuries and stuff to senior players happen - if Hunt does that, he'll make it back. I'd be disappointed if he cracked the sads and asked for a trade, but I don't think he will.

Bernie now testing out the shoulder with a tackling bag. Reckon he'll be right to go this week.

I think many don't recognise how critical his running is. Covers more ground rhan anyone and gut runs to get across to outlet kicks and stop/slow transition. The whole team has improved this defensive running in tge back half of rhe season, which has been the key factor in our ability to restrict opposition scoring in the last third of the season (where have the calls our defensive unit is weak gone?). But in the first two thirds of the season anb was one of the few players willing or able to cover the sort of ks and do the gut runnning required for the dees to be competitive with the top teams. I have little doubt goody would have used anb as an example to his team mates as what is required at this level in terms of running and effort.

Watched him today at training. When they were doing a goal kicking drill from different positions and evading players to kick goals he was very accurate. The boy can actually kick. The knock on him is his tendency to bomb the ball, this can be fixed with some coaching I believe. Plus he genuinely wants to improve, you see it at every training session. He is a keeper in my mind.

Boy and some called us gutsy for looking to the game after the Hawks... what are the best spots for the GF parade by the way

Been told today by a very reliable source that Preuss to MFC is Definately on, confirmation to be made after finals.

Hibberds lap running was strong, and not idling by. Was taken out of main group early. His running strength suggest its precautionary.

Yep, I'd go a step further mate and adjust the definition of bandwagoner to those without an MFC membership. If you can afford MCC, you afford an extra $80 for MFC, like I do.

I think Jayden is certainly a keeper - I hope he turns his fortunes around in 2019 and becomes an important member of an improving team. I can see a role for him on the wing if he can work on his delivery inside 50

He needs to develop his game. Last year was his break out year and opponents didn't have much intel on him. Now opponents are aware of the damage he can do if left in space they have shut him down. He needs to add more strings to his bow if he is going to be a best 22 player. His attack on the ball and opponent is great, but he needs to add polish to his game so he isn't just about dashing with ball in hand.

I am absolutely confident he will be best 22 in the future. Seemed to have some injury concerns at the start of the season and in pre-season which killed his confidence. Think he was also rushed back too quickly against Sydney out of necessity and wasn't ready. I think he just needs to re-set come pre-season next year and work on doing the little things right. Confident that McCartney will get him back to his best.

Very calm and measured he is. But he looks like a man now. The way he moves and marks with his hands outreach reminds me a lot of Josh Kennedy from West Coast.

Don't really disagree but would like to give an alternative view: Re MFC members: There are many reasons why people can't get to games regularly. Some stories that touched me in the last week are: @Deebymistake who is a member and her story is in the 'First Finals' thread. She can now go to the Semi ?. Then @Neitz the Greatwho lives in Brisbane and buys an Armchair membership just to support the club. Brought his Dad down for the Elim. Finally, the delightful story and video of young Sam (son of @Demon Spofforth) who lives in Queensland. I'm sure there are many, many others who can't get to games but still support the club as best they can. Are you referring more to MCC members who have suddenly come out of the woodwork in droves? A friend expressed sympathy for them as they 'pay all that money for membership' then have to queue up or can't get a seat. I couldn't share the sympathy as they are go to MCG Away games for free, are able to get finals tickets for free or a nominal fee. Whereas paid up MFC members have to buy them at AFL prices. Even paying the $200+ per MFC membership for the Grand Final Guarentee only gives the right to buy a ticket; they still have to pay $xxx to buy the ticket. So after spending something like $400-$500 for a membership with GFG they still have to pay around $300-500 to go to all finals. No Guest passes for them either. Last week in the local Ticketek queue I met a 70+ year old lady whose family had been MFC Trident members for 38 years. That is some coin! But she was there in the queue just like everyone else. The real bandwagoners for me are those that don't buy an MCC or MFC membership of any sort, don't volunteer, don't donate, don't go to games but come out at finals time. Have little time for them. This is a long winded way of saying there are varying degrees of merit for priority purchase of finals tickets. Not sure game attendance is the best one. But I don't know what the answer is, either. Finals ticket purchases will only get worse as our membership increase (Great for the Club Revenue).

What a brilliant photo. Certainly a perfect way to sum up the moment

I think we'll go unchanged, but the only change that i could see happening is maybe JKH for Spargo, and Smith for Hibbard if he doesn't get up. Other then that i think we'll most likely go unchanged.

Did forget to mention that Joel Smith was actually part of the main squad along with JKH instead of the guys who played at Casey when they split off.

I can't explain how excited I am about this. I don't think I've felt as good about our footy team as I do now. Even in 2000 - that was a great ride, but it was against the odds and we were never going to beat the unstoppable Bummers in that year. This year, we've navigated just about every hurdle we needed to (can't beat top 8 sides being the biggest), we're in form at the right time, we play a style of footy that is built for finals, and we're every bit as good as any of the teams we're going to come up against. It's the polar opposite of how I felt in the run of games prior to the West Coast game, where the leadup to every game felt like a complete grind. Just waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the team to clear that final hurdle to prove they are as capable as we all hoped. Finally they got there with the West Coast win. The game's obviously not won yet though and by Friday afternoon I won't even be able to pretend to work anymore and I'll be on the brink of a good spew - standard fare for all of us this week I suppose. I'll be bitterly disappointed if we can't get it done, but we also have to understand that by this stage of the comp, every team will be as determined as we are, and there can only be one winner in every game. I believe we will anyway, we are good enough. Go Melbourne.

Love this kid! Will give you 110% every time. Sure some games he'll play better than others but his output is just immense. Good job sir!

I have some family firmly in that bracket currently. Scrambling to get them tickets because they couldn't be bothered getting a membership during the season. Pisses me off.

Did a job in Ocean Grove yesterday.... Should have taken the scarf with me to hang out the window as I drove through Geelong

Coaches votes:

Understand that mate and I'm sorry if you're in that category (this is directed at bandwagoners of which there are clearly plenty), but as someone who gives up 4 hours of his weekend every weekend and have done through some very dark times, it pisses me off to think I could miss out on a grand final ticket one day, because some muppet bandwagoner comes along for his or her first footy match for the year.

ANB was very good. Really set the tone early by causing Geelong to fumble the ball and strong legal tackles. Yes he had a trademark missed goal but he wasn't Robinson Crusoe and his other two misses were harder shots. He's a smart player. Stewart was going for exactly the same pass as 2 mins before and Alex read the play beautifully and chopped it off. That goal was fine icing. He's a vital cog - I've come to appreciate that.

ANB is underrated here for his workrate and pressure. Without guys lik him our system would not work. He also gets on the end of scoring chains and decent around goal.