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Lever jogging laps. Jack Viney on the footies for some snaps at goal. Big rehab group of Nev, Vanders, Baker, Oscar, Tracc, Oliver, Hunt, Stretch, Harmes, Bull kicking and marking. All moving well. Harmes did repeat sprints with the runner who Brendan Mc at least has dubbed ‘rabbit’. Hore welcomed in to the main group with plenty of applause for a drill before returning to rehab. In to some 2/3rd of the ground up and back match simulation. I call this one the 3 team tango with 3 little mini teams. Spargo a nice stand up tackle an early highlight. Sparrow got the ball on the wing and tried to take on the Prooster and probably regretted it, got dumped on his shoulder. My guess is Preuss injures someone at some stage this year, I hope it’s not a bad result! They split in to a couple of groups. The one at the punt road end with a ground ball in the pocket, hands hands to 45 out, then a short hit up kick quick handball and a shot on goal from 20m out 45 angle. Quite frankly this was the worst drill I’ve seen in years. Jeff and Preuss were about the only ones who could kick a simple goal. Weid dropped 3 sitters on the hit up kick. The hit up kicks were often awful. Bedford has no momentum in his kicking action so his snaps and hit ups were awful, smoothing out his kicking action has to be a priority. It was just a bad drill. Not sure why it wasn’t stopped. Anyway about that time Rdb rolled in on a golf cart in a dark suit. Looked like the Pope (redacted redacted). The players were doing a tackling/grappling drill. Not sure who the coach taking it was but he wasn’t suffering fools. It was down for push ups repeatedly. Jones giving them a rev up. Lewis’ push-ups were ridiculous. Pretty much like this: Kade Koko took running shots at goal in this time. Looking smooth. Rejoined the group later. The kids went off for some development work. The main group in to some match sim. Spargo a highlight with clean use. Steve May looked buggered after a rep, nice to see they made him work. Fritsch and Kolo clean on the outside. Kade Kolo the won a contest and ran in to goal for the defensive team which had them up and about. May very vocal and supportive. Anyway, that was about enough for me.

Got there early so watched the re-hab group for a while.. I counted 13 including O'Mac, Petracca, Brayshaw, Melksham, Viney, Hannan, Lever, Stretch, Oiver, VandenBerg, Baker, Hunt and Jetta. Viney, Hannan and Melksham running laps and timed sections, with Viney running out in front by a mile and freely. I can't seen him not being back in the main group after Christmas. Melksham not as quick as Viney, but cannot see anything obviously wrong with him. Hannan looked like he was running on egg-shells. Nothing obvious but he pulled out of a couple of the runs to go to trainers, and then left the session early and before the main group arrived. Lever ran lap after lap, and was moving freely. Kicking with right foot with a trainer at times. Baker also running plenty of laps, and has put on serious muscle both in the legs and upper body after his early end to last season. Of the rest it would be hard to see anything obvious as to why they are not with the main group, perhaps with the exception of Oliver/Jetta after shoulder surgery, which requires a long period of no contact. Saw a little of Neitscke and Jordan in the drills. Pleasingly both kick well, sharp, low and accurate. Can they play football? Have to wait and see. Once again there was an academy kid on the track, who I can't find out who he is, but his kicking is elite and was training with the main group of players. There will probably be evidence later, but some bloke in a red suit and beard showed up. We all thought it was Saty in disguise!

Bit gloomy with occasional rain but all and all, a ripping crowd. Traditional australian breastfast of coffee with a sausage in bread went down a treat. Fair bit of aggression in some of the drills so far. Boys giving it their all. Even from the sidelines, you could feel the brute force of the bumps they were laying on each other. Hore and Hunt running laps. Preuss is far more imposing in the flesh than he is in photos/videos.

The man himself, Ronald Barassi is in attendance.

One more thing after a lead either Weid or Tommy doubled around and May stood them up with a big body check. Just a glimpse in to his physicality. He also tunneled through Preuss to set up the play that led to the Kolo goal against play. I would say it was a free kick but it’s still nice too see some grunt and pace defending a lead.

Some tackling drills at the moment. Massive cheer from the boys as the skinny armed Fritsch brings TMac to ground with a ripping tackle. Kudos to the new boy, Toby Bedford for attempting to bring down big Maxy. Kid has some guts! A well deserved cheer from the crowd follows.

It's taken me a while to come to this view but I reckon we should just let Andy do whatever he likes with the banner. He maintains the site for us and as such I think he should be given carte blanch to do whatever he wants with the banner. It's not like he's going to do something stupid and inconsistent with a Demons supporter site. Go on Andy, do your best. PS: Obviously he doesn't need our permission to do it. I just want the rest of us to respect his efforts and leave him alone to do what he wishes.

If you don't want to watch all 10 minutes here is the MFC Twitter breakdown.

Perhaps we need to invest in a couple of these.

Got there before anyone else at around 8:30 Where the rehab started with running laps. Lever led out the rehab group he oozes leadership. He just jogged laps. Hannan left before 9:30 everyone was in attendance. Viney and Melksham left pretty early too. Most of them done kick to kick and jogging laps as well. Baker jogged laps for a while too. Hore is only a week away from joining the main group so that's what the applause was about. Just before 9:30 the non rehabbers showed up. They went into game simulation with 3 teams yellow, white and blue. I saw Frost turn over a ball straight to Sparrow, JKH get caught holding the ball. Spargo done a terrific tackle on Sparrow to applause and Fritsch done a terrific tackle on T.Mac. The rest was pretty good standard. Bradtke has to hit the gym hard there is nothing of him. The big improver next year will be Nibbler was in everything and is fit and firing. Sparrow looks like he belongs didn't notice a lot about the other newbies. The rehab group is big but as Hannan said better in rehab now so your fit and firing in round 1. Nearly all of them should be back in the main group in the new year. Viney said he'll be back very soon and Stretch and Vanders said they will be back by January. It should only leave Lever the one to worry about after the new year. I was a bit preoccupied by autograph hunting on my away jumper. I was a bit disappointed that a lot of the players walked the other way of the autograph hunters. Maxy and Chunk were great were a fair few others, but I missed Maynard and T.Mac because they walked the other way, I somehow missed Keilty and Petty walked away from me and never sighted Goody or Jordon when it was time for autographs. The crowd was big due to the Barassi foundation where they spoke about the new facility at Jolimont. I saw Robbo, Greg Hutchinson (not sure why he was there) and of course the great Ron Barassi I was right near where that video of Barassi and Todd Viney's (who was also there along with Whelan who has put on the kg's) dog was waiting for autographs.

He is going to play a part.. there’s no doubting it. Dees have a plan for sure it’s for that feel of “underplay” in media whilst being a clear priority recruitment. Doesn’t he look well, oozes class & strength what a bloody legend! A real legend, not a token one like we see called too often these days. This appears to be a common theme form many, inc media but mainly demon folks! Was so excited to get Kolodjashnij (easy if you say it in your mind with “nij” at end haha) he’s all class w/footy in hand, quick, super endurance & will in my view be the boom recruit many didn’t see coming! *my auto correct just made many - May, talk about a timely typo” May recruitment massive but KK just as vital imho - If Lever remains injury free I can’t see us not making top 2. 22qtr streak only ended when he went down, technically. No coincidence it was weeks before we got form back. Add hunt & Bedford (I think he’ll overtake spargo for small fwd spot, and that Spargo will go more up ie higher or we play both beside TMAC Who knows.. But KK - May - Lever - Pruess - Sparrow - Toby - Hore all play senior footy next year (Kolo/May/Lever/Pruess bear 22 now) so pressure for spots is just insane! Try doing a best 22 - it’s ridiculous! Fingers crossed lady luck smiles on us of course as luck is always a factor but if you do a afl.com 2019 predictor - it’s hard to see us losing more than 6 or 7 I had to throw one to doggies just as a token upset and ended up with us 2nd behind Tigers who I had 18-4 us 17-5.. just ahead pies on %

Its only the first time I've seen them in person, but I've liked what ive seen from KK (still working on correctly spelling his last name) so far. Held his own in a few marking contests and has used the ball well.

I can barely contain my disinterest.

My bowler says it all Therr was some real agression out there today, reckon under instruction from the coaches Was near the Preuss premature burial of Sparrow, it was great to see, Sparrow bounced up and carried on Have a great photo of Weid being upended as well, will post some later on Insta and here

I believe details were sent to 'mailing house' this week so should be received next week, if aussie post has its act together. As an aside, based on the chat in this thread and the release of new Trident and Redleg memberships, lots of members have upgraded or added features (eg reserved seat, GFG). That is great news: not only have no. of members increased the average spend per membership is increasing. So a nice 'extra' impact on club revenues.

Brother of James training at Casey.

Yeah LDC, it's all a bit confusing for the filth. Mum and dad buy a family membership but they don't really know how many sprogs they have. Then son and daughter who happen to be married ( usually to each other) buy another one. Then someone gets locked up for doing burgs to pay for the memberships. Very confusing. Do the filth have a special prisoner category membership - limited games but you still get a beanie with a face mask?

I just watched the video ‘inside the top 4 picks’ posted by the AFL. On AFL.com.au if you can stand it. Some points: Carlton delayed making their first selection for several minutes for no reason. Gold Coast were about as interested as someone inspecting someone else’s tinea. They all think they are comedians. Saint reckon drafting King was worth 10000 members! Shows what a complete and utter toss-fest the event was. Poorly delivered viewing experience, and stage managed by idiots. THis should have been footage that should never have been allowed out. Awful stuff.

Goody looks like a kid that got a new bike for Xmas in that photo. love it.

Thanks mate. Not sure how much of a holiday I’ll have, a fourth little Dee arrived in the household a few days ago. Good times ahead nonetheless. Don’t worry, it’ll be August before you know it, hopefully we have sewn up a finals spot by then and you can relax.

What a waste of time and money. Why don’t they have a state of origin competition instead. Normal rules but shortened games of two 30 minute halves? Then you’d have something to Barrack for , and of genuine interest.

I'd agree with this. We have flawed / aging / injury-riddled players in depth spots, which is granted, what usually happens, but when you do a list of consistent role players or stars, it thins out at 26 or so. May, Jones, Salem, Harmes, Petracca, Lewis, Viney, Lever, Spargo, Brayshaw, Gawn, Preuss, Oliver, KK, Hibberd, Frost, Melksham, Hannan, Vandenberg, TMac, Weideman, OMac, Hunt, ANB, Fritsch, Jetta. Of course, our new recruits could change the face of this in the short term, although I doubt many of them will be able to have an impact in 2019. Hore and Sparrow potentially, but outside run is still a concern if KK, Hunt, Baker and Hore don't come on as expected. The article also rightly points out that we're placing a lot of faith in Weideman next year too. He's still a young player and I think we'll find consistency in 2019 is still an issue. I'll be interested to see if Bedford gets a chance at some stage in 2019 or whether he has to wait until 2020 and beyond for an opportunity, because we desperately lack pace at ground level in our forwardline. On the whole, our list is beautifully balanced, but there is quite a bit of assumption in that statement that is fairly questioned in this article.

T20 was born in England county cricket and remained there for a while before being introduced as a state based comp here in the form of BBL and of course the IPL. It was well and truly tried and tested before it moved to the top tier. The game needs to be trialled and perfected a lower levels with the public then demanding the game at the higher level. You can't force it on people.

Slide Show==> https://www.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=kdH4vW&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=1&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=2&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=2&clickable=1 Link== > https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-pHBdt8

Craig is a nice guy and did his best for us.

They have a $950 membership package which includes a 5 min dental check-up (1 min per tooth) and a tatt of a cartoon magpie

Yeah it's a good race the Villiers Stakes tomorrow DZ ... was looking for a value runner to include in a Box-Exacta so 'Aloisia' it is then! The horse hasn't been far away running against some very good company in Group 1 & Group 2 races so it has decent claims. 'Goodfella' is a particular favourite so it goes in. If the favourite 'Sky Boy' is run out of a place in the Villiers then the exotic dividends will pay extra well. That's what I bank on although I will still include Sky Boy. Have followed a similar path in the singular feature races at both Doomben & Ascot as well as the 1100m Sprint at Flemington where your choice 'Invincible Al' is running. Those are my 4 standout plays tomorrow.

Small world Macca. At my daughter’s primary school graduation tonight I met the father of one of her friends and he’s into horse racing. He’s part owner of a few and one is running tomorrow against Goodfella. Her name, Aloisia. He seems to have some good types. Will post when they are running.

'tiers' none of them has locked down a senior spot & with the exception of Hunt there have only been fleeting glimpses at senior level. I think Ronnie is not far off the mark with his comments on exposed form...lets hope with another season under the belt some of the above really make a statement and push up along with 1 or 2 of the new draftees. ...by the way, I think most teams would fall away after 24 - 26. You don't get to keep serious depth, if they're not getting a game they move on.

Ronny Lerner's best 22 plus 4 emergencies totals 26, any one of whom could competently fill a spot in the 22 and the team would lose little. In addition there is Stretch, Kennedy-Harris, Hunt and J Wagner who have shown that they can perform well at senior level. Plus there is hope for Preuss in a new team and game plan. All together a total of 30 who have performed at senior level. And that excludes any draftees and rookies who could develop. To say that the list thins out after the 24th player is itself a bit thin. Barring a catastrophic run of injuries to our key players, a team comprised of any combination of the 30 players would be competitive. We have competition and multiple options for most positions and no apparent serious deficiencies in any position. The perfect basis for major development. 2020 Go dees.

He's a ripper. My favourite player, as you may be able to tell from my avatar. The best forward Melbourne has had since Neitz, and one of the best in the comp. Any club who played their best defender on Jesse Hogan last year when they had a chance to put him on McDonald had no idea. It's going to be a challenge this year when every club sends their best to Tommy right from the outset; but one of the best things about him is his running ability. He gets up and down the ground so much that very few defenders can handle both aspects of his game. Goes alright kicking for goal too.

Best Bet Flemington Race 7 Number 9 Invincible Al ( Each way) $6.00W $2.20P I think the horse is due for a change of luck. He’s a good place price. Picking it each way as I think he can finish top 3. Also think he can win.

Enjoy the holidays. I haven’t had any in just over a year and am counting down to mine in Aug!

Same here Gorg....aaarrrghh. This was my first of six weeks off and I’m enjoying the live games again. Some crazy finishes the last few days.

Chargers win on last play. No Allen for most of the game and. rivers got hammered all game long. Ballsy call going for 2 instead of tying but it paid off. I was very tempted to tip them but chickened out.

You sure about that, Binman? If you're gonna use Saty, surely, to be effective, he needs to be perched on top of a step ladder...!!

Last year was crap, now it's just been upgraded to a steaming pile of crap.

This post was labelled "Is that Jesse Hogan or Steven May?"

Which one is you?

That’s a mighty big IF...

his recruiting whilst not great wasn't too bad. nothing like the Pendergrast years

I’d back in Sparrow to be as good or better than Jez McLennan

It’s that rare beast – an AFLW training report. Disclaimer: I’m terrible at recognising players without their numbers and haven’t put names to faces for the new recruits. So my observations are quite generalised. The main drill I witnessed was moving the ball from end to end, re-setting once the defensive team touched it. The players were divided into four teams for this, at first playing on two smaller sized areas, which saw lots of missed short kicks and drops marks (at least in the drill closest to me). Paxman stood out and was constantly in motion, even while the drill was re-starting. Then the area was expanded, with the four teams rotating on and off. They had more success with this, hitting targets better and switching with some fluency. Someone got put down in a hard tackle; after a short break, play resumed, so probably just precautionary checks. There were some nice evasive moves in this drill from players who were not familiar to me so that either bodes well for our new additions or poorly for my eyesight. Next up, they split into line groups – no positional surprises there in terms of this year’s players. Defenders practiced spoiling from behind; mids roved to L. Pearce and worked on clearing to outside runners; forwards practiced goal kicking. Rushed set shots was a major bugbear of mine this year, so I was happy to hear them being exhorted to take the full 30 seconds. Even still, some were taking them too quickly in my reckoning. Zanker has a great action and Cunningham struck a nice one from a fair distance. Back to the mids – away from the main group were Paxman, O’Dea and (I’m fairly certain) Mithen, practicing their positioning and bodywork at ball ups. Onto the most critical part of any pre-season training report: hats. A startling lack of hats – perhaps as summer players most prefer to practice as they play? There were some visors though, all facing forwards, none backwards. There were a couple of players running laps, my best guess would be Patterson and Emonson. Aside from that there were no noticeable players recovering or absentees, although now that I think of it, I didn’t notice Kate Hore or Talia Radan, who I guess is the first AFLW premiership player on our list. Daisy stood out as always but for different reasons than usual, of course. She was behind the boundary line when I first got there but was soon between the drills providing encouragement and feedback with the coaches. Overall, there were positive vibes. I wouldn’t say they’ve quite trained the house all the way down, but I hope to get along to a post-Xmas session to check the progress.

It would look to be a fairly real possibility at the moment, but I actually hope GC do survive and go on to bigger and better things. I think there lack of membership numbers at the moment would be related to their poor onfeild performance, but also possibly another hang over from last season, when the didn't play many games at Carrara due to the Comm Games. I do think it would be good for the growth Aussie Rules footy in general in Qld for the Suns to be successful, because living in Brisbane, I know there is a genuinely strong presence of grass roots footy on the Gold Coast, although I also understand that top level teams from different codes have also successively failed and folded there. One differentiator though I think is that the other codes (soccer and rugby league) haven't had either the finacial resources or long term commitment to keep unfinancial teams going there more than a few years. If the AFL can hang in there long enough for the Suns to have some on feild sucess, it could be key to growth and more established presence of Aussie Rules in this part of Queensland, by being the dominant locally present professional team.

The Preuss/Gawn combination to dominate the AFL, particularly in the drier months, and September. No team has the cattle to match up on them, so Viney, Brayshaw, Lewis, Harmes, Trac, Jones get silver service for the whole game and not just 70% of it. Max turns himself into a Paul Salmon style Ruck/Forward and kicks 40 goals for the year. Preuss has an outstanding year rucking and resting on bench. May wins all Australian, but Lever struggles with knee all year. Hunt returns to form off half back and gives us the run and carry we have been looking for, gets his kicking accuracy sorted out and kicks over 20 goals for the year. Dees win grannie by 37 points from the Pies going away in the second half!