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Those who I didn't see train with the main group: May, Jones, Spargo, KK, Hannan, Tomlinson, Nietschke, Baker, Smith, Bennell Noticed Spargo, Jones, Hannan and Tomlinson on far side with rehab group. May have been a few others but couldn't see from the other side of the ground. Started with a few kicking drills. First drill was just step to the side around the man on the mark and hit a pass about 20m away. The second had a player kicking to a leading target with three guys around the kicker (one on each side and one behind). One of the three players would then apply pressure. I thought this was quite clever because training often has fake pressure (as in you know where the pressure is coming from) whereas in this one, while you knew there would be pressure, it appeared as if the player didn't know if it was coming from the side or behind. The next kicking drill was in a small group in a confined area with a few defenders/pressure players. It was basically get it and kick straight away, requiring a quick decision where to go and the need to balance and execute quickly off just a few steps. They then did some match sim but not with the full group and only in half a ground. There was a bit of pressure but it wasn't a full-on match sim which I saw a few times prior to the Christmas break. Again there was a lot more kicking than handballing. Conditions were fairly difficult with the heat and a strong wind. Just before I left they continued with the half-ground quasi match sim, but this time it started with a stoppage on the wing. Here there were a lot of groundball gathers and quick handballs, and then finally they would be told to release where a handball would set up a free player who would then clear the stoppage with a kick towards half forward. For these guys to run a 3km time trial in that heat and then train for a few hours after that - AFL footballers really are exceptional athletes. Not many individual observations different to what has been reported pre-Christmas, but one I did see was Luke Jackson take a set shot on goal during match sim. He has a nice set-shot kicking action, relaxed and pretty uncomplicated. It was close to goal but the action seemed fairly sound. People have queried whether as a basketballer he would need to learn to kick but to me (and yes it's only training) I wouldn't have even noticed he was new to footy based on his set-shot action.

I headed down to training early as we usually hit the track well ahead of schedule. Vanders was the first to arrive and did a slow lap with a few leg stretches as well. Saty was next but I didn't take much notice of him but he seems to have eaten well over Christmas. Jones, Hannan and Tomlinson arrived and wondered over to rehab with Baker joining them a few minutes later. Bennell was there doing nothing and did so all day. I didn't see him do any training at all. KK and May were missing as well as Joel Smith. The main group arrived about 5 minutes later and did some gentle running and exercises and then over to the tan for the 3K trial. Needless to say ANB led them home with Bedford only 15 metres behind. Nibbler looked as though he'd at least done the run this time compared to the first 3Ker when he seemed to hardly break into a sweat. Cory Wagner, Langdon and TMac were next in (from memory) and over the next few minutes they all arrived. Preussy beat Max home and all the mids were well bunched. Back to Gosch's for what is now called a craft session with the players breaking into about 3 groups and doing drills that have already been documented. Then finally we got a three quarter ground match sim drill but it didn't seem flat out to me and there was little if no tackling although it did get a bit willing at times. It was hard to pick a standout with lots involved at various stages. TMac, Weid, Petty, Fritsch and Melk were the main forward targets and they rotated throughout the drills. Overall players to impress me were Pickett who kicks just as well on both feet, Vanders who seems to be "right", Trac (again) with a mention to Weid who handled the ball well and kicked with confidence. At the end there was a goal kicking competition involving Trac, Fritta, Jordan, Preuss and Hunt. They took shots until they were eliminated and I won't tell you the answer just yet - I'll let some healthy speculation take place. All in all a warm up session I'd say. Conditions weren't easy but they weren't terrible either.

Today was a "quiet" return from the Christmas/New Year break, compared to the exhausting, relentless sessions that we saw before the break. Having said that, the players had already run a 3 km trial before starting the main exercises which lasted until nearly midday after a 9.30 or thereabouts start. The rehab group consisted of Tomlinson, Jones, Spargo, Baker & Hannan, who all seemed to be running freely with Jones and Tomlinson certainly at full stretch. They must be very close to return to the main group and with multiple pre-seasons behind them it would seem not so critical to their overall fitness. Viney, Jetta and VDB were running their own 3km around the oval ( perhaps they arrived late to go with the main group) but they still had to do it. It really gladdened the heart to see VDB absolutely "street" the other two, and was a good 300m ahead of them at the end. Not sighted today were Joel Smith, May ( who apparently was in the gym inside) and of course KK ( mmm..) and Neitschke. I can't say that I noticed Marty Hore either, but others may be able to confirm that. Bennell turned up for 5 minutes, but didn't participate (mmm...) Brayshaw was wearing the number 43 which confused the watchers for a while, especially with a hat on to disguise himself even further. We even saw "the invisible man" Kyle Dunkley, called such because he will get 25 touches in a game and nobody notices..... he does the same at training! And that is the main observation from today. Of the 44 on the list 35 were on the track in full training. What a comparison with last year!! It means that the coaches can run nearly 2 teams in match simulation, something that was never done in 2019. Now I haven't much to report about the actual session, because it was just a series of drills with a small half ground match sim for only 15 minutes or so. Scoop Junior has covered off most of this in an earlier post. Just another observation in that Chandler has stacked on the muscle, and was heavily involved in all the midfield exercises. In sharp contrast Preuss has lost a heap of weight and for those that can't get to training, when you see him during season proper you will simply not recognise him from before! It was good to see Lewis and Stafford running goal kicking practice at the end with a final competition to see who didn't miss. I won't steal BB's thunder, so he can let you know later......

Had a bit of a wander around the park and took in a bit of the training this morning. @DeeSpencer, Jetta, Viney and Vanders were running fast laps earlier (while the main crew did the tan)...it looked as though Vanders was absolutely streeting them but turns out he was on a different program running sets of 2 laps while Jet and Vin were running continuos. Must say he did look in great shape though. Just a few general observations. Tomlinson is huge. Jackson moves well, positions himself well and is a nice kick. if he gets an early call up it will be as a forward, maybe with a run through the middle. In the ruck craft sessions Max moved him off his line way to easily but that's to be expected, a kid v the best in the game. For the time being Tomlinson may have to do the relief ruck work, not my ideal but we do what we do. Rivers has an AFL ready body, if he has a good preseason will play early. Tracs strength and balance are going to come to the fore this season...expect him to move up another notch, holds position nicely whilst fending off and taking the ball. Very hard to take off his line. Pickett offers us what we don't have up forward, don't be surprised if he plays first game. Good to see the numbers out on the track and looks like Tomlinson and Jones are not far off full training. They seemed to be putting in longer and harder work in the rehab group.

I too spent a nice morning perched on the Goschs fence trying to follow a lot of players and a lot of coaches in a lot of activity across the ground. Based on prior reports I was disappointed in the sessions intensity until I found out that they did the 3km time trial prior. Not much to add without repetition. I will say the three players who stood well above my expectations based on output and execution were Bedford, Dunkley and Weid. Special mention to Vanders who was in everything and moving at a fair tick, if he stays fit he will break some bodies in 2020.

Chatted to jones, Tomlinson and Hannan today. Looking at main group in the next week for Jones and Tomlinson. Hannan about 3 weeks.

Sparrow is a solid player both physically and as a footballer. He moves well, his kicking is solid and his hands are pretty clean. I'm unsure of his lateral movement (not a negative, not a positive) because I've just not noticed it and I'd want a bit of evidence on that before I form a solid judgement. In my view it's a critical attribute. I do know there was some disappointment that he got injured last year as he would have got some game time in the seniors. All in all he's really just beginning. He had a good preseason last year and a few games in the seniors (due almost solely to injury) and then just went at Casey. My suspicion is he'll be a good solid player who might find a permanent role over time and will be good depth. He's done nothing to hurt his chances this PS but he hasn't jumped out of the box either. For me the one that has progressed from last year and has some really good AFL attributes (speed, kicking, good lateral movement, clean) is Chandler. It's very early days but he's my smokey based on "dancing with your sister" training. I agree with BRFE that Bedford has come on - looks like he's got some self belief this year - and has gone from a really long shot to much better than that. He's got great endurance (second in the two 3K time trials) and his skills are neat. The reality is that if we stay reasonably fit there are lots of players you'd like to see get games but many won't. Jordan, Chandler, Sparrow, Rivers, Jackson, Pickett, Lockhart, JSmith and Dunkley all show a bit. The fun will be to see which ones get a go and take their chance.

What station is this on......

VDB was my standout at training.. before I left after an hour. He still needs to work on building up his calf muscles but he looked clean, crisp and extremely fit and strong as he was fully involved with all training exercises. Kickett will be a crowd favourite with his sublime skills which were on regular show despite the difficulties brought by the strong wind. Lever and Brown look like porn stars with the hair growth on the upper lips TMac seems to be a few kgs lighter whilst his brother seems slightly more robust. Petracca definitely wins the body of the day award.. he looked ripped beyond comparison with anyone else at the club.

The session was definitely low/medium intensity - as in minimal physical contact or tackling etc. Drills seemed to be focused on threading zone traffic by hand and maintaining possession. Both leaving defence and full field drills. They Practiced overhead marking. Forwards and defenders. Each full field drill ended with ball kicked to a leading forward inside 50, with the marking player completing the shot on goal. Not sure if this is to keep goal kicking front of mind in training. A heap of running. The 3k time trial and then most players did repeat 100 metre sprints later in the session while others did the 3/4 field drills. Wind was atrocious at times so foot skills harder to judge - they seemed to handle it ok, but not great. Bennell walked around the whole session and acted as a witches hat in drills. Obviously being encouraged to get amongst it but clearly under instruction to not run and not kick as yet. Forget anything but 2nd half of the year at best. May missing is a concern to me also given his history.

Did Tyson do anything Joe?

The 3 most common deep forward targets that I noticed were T Mc, Melksham and Fritsch. They are also our 3 most dangerous one on one forwards. If Jackson gets a game at this stage I can't imagine he'd be any kind of target. He looks best when allowed to move around in space. Whilst the main group was doing match sim he did ruck training with Preuss, Gawn and Bradtke and held his own.

He is chasing the small fwd possie, Pickett was ordinary today in the match sim and came third last in the 3k, it will probably come down to Corey Wagner and Bedford first up with Chandler keeping them honest

No, trained fully with no concerns.

I heard from the family member of a player that they didn't just do 100 x 100's on the last day of training before Christmas. That wasn't enough for Burgo he added a little kicker that brought tears to my eyes just hearing it. Every 20 x 100's they did a 2.2km time trial. Looks like if they survive Burgo they'll survive anything.

Jones, Hannan, Baker, Tomlinson, Spargo in to some kick to kick. Viney, May, Jetta, Vanders floating around waiting. Not sure what they are up to. Main group looks to be arriving now

So somewhere between 8 and 14 wins eh @Macca? That's a pretty short neck you have there. And a "happy to be wrong" reserve parachute at the end for icing.

Got down there today early for a short time. Everything has been covered by others but I can add that watching Baker in the timed sprints he was just going registering 5s plus while Jones was a consistent 4, as was Tomlinson and then Hannan 3.8 etc. Then the rehab group did some agility work moving quickly between cones, but not Baker who just sat to the side. At the end he was in discussion with a physio and looking at his groin muscles. May have a touch of OP?

3/4 ground match sim now. Mids deliberately mixing handballs and throwing the ball at each other’s feet under pressure to similate a stoppage. Then break in to match sim. Vanders, Fritsch, Nibbler involved

Max gets the short kick in the corridor and goes long to Melk who nicely bodies Oscar out of the way on this one. Next one up. Chandler crumbs back to Vanders in the wing spot, in to Dunkley, out to Weid who hits Jackson on a nice lead.

Hitting the fat side flanker - has been Melksham and Fritsch - seems to be the aim of the kicking half ground match sim

Given they were all in their bralettes and not jumpers I have a suspicion the main group have come from the tan

Maybe you could donate to keep your player out? For example, if we reached 100k, Max Gawn Stands out for the next best, and so on? I reckon supporters would dig deep to keep their players out of this time waster.

Just watching a replay of the opening game of the 2015 season and can't help but be impressed by this man's performance. I know he retired in December 2016 citing Concussion Issues but I wonder does anyone have any inside info on whether there was more to the story. I loved him as a player, he looked totally committed to his new club on this showing and I hope his post AFL life has been happy and fulfilling. Also, does anyone know what he's doing these days. As an aside, of the team that played that day the following remain: Jetta, Brayshaw, Jones, Vandenberg - he made a mighty debut - Tom MacDonald, Viney and Salem. Retrospection can become a disease, but I do wish Howe, Hogan, Watts and Kent were still playing for Melbourne.

2019: Watts 2 games 0 goals. Kent 13 games 12 goals.....not much in the way of goal kicking sources.

MFC's official training photos are on the improve, but not sure why they would include photos of players drinking water. Last time l checked you get zero Champion Data points

Jordan lewis on SEN late afternoon was asked about Smith and stated that he had a cut on his foot that kept him off the track today.

Didn't want to post this as I thought it might get the Oscar bashers salivating...was standing near where it happened. Melk had back position, Oscar in front and the ball was put up to Melk's advantage, nice bit of body work to edge Oscar under the ball. Given that everyone was going through the motions I wouldn't write a lot into it.

Very good indeed! Preuss was the only one to get the last goal from a tight angle about 35 metres out. Jordan skimmed the inside of the post according to the players. I didn't think it did but goal review wasn't installed!

More like Jett Jackson ?

Hell!!! I think I would rather drag my nut sack across broken glass. That would have been hell doing a time trial between the sprints.

OK. I'm going to bash my head against a brick wall for twenty minutes then come back.

For an example of some of the dodgy fund raising, minor but poignant. Yesterday I took my car in for a service at a dealership. I was told if I forgo the washing of my car they will donate $10 to the bushfire appeal. I told them no, wash my car and I will happily donate an extra $50 myself and why they don’t just donate the money without any pre conditions on customer largess? They are a big organisation. They are saving more money and time by not washing my car and $10 donation per car is a pittance for them. Can I be sure they will be actually donating the money? More likely are being self serving and taking advantage by donation shaming.

Thanks for the reports all! Might be because running on grass is better than the tan? Both softer and also level? Did all 3 then complete all the craft session? Think Viney could have a big year, with his first decent pre-season in years.

As our most successful coach since Norm Smith I think it would be fitting if Swooper was made a life member at the club. He coached 167 games for 90 wins and five finals series including our first in 24 years, as well as 2 night flags when that was actually a real competition. I know 10 years service is the mark, although Brian Wilson was admitted on the basis of 150 games played after falling short of the 10 years service. I think Swooper's contribution was enormous and it'd be nice to see him acknowledged now he's well into his mid-late seventies.

Thanks for that BB now some will think I am being sarcastic but I am not, good to see you were happy with the Weid's performance today. We need him to be consistently in the best players in 2020.

Next one: Weid on the flank, handballs up to Chandler who’s surveying options and RUN DOWN by Bedford.

Rivers laces 40m pass to Sparrow who kicks long to set up the drill. Wagner centers, Kossie plays on, shakes the man on the mark, puts the handball in front of Viney who sets it up to T Mc. (Who spills the contested mark over Rivers). Match sim. 10 on 8. Bibs moving it out. Blues moving it back in.

No KK, no Bennell, no Neita and as far as I can see so far no Joel Smith. May walked back to AAMI as training started. A rather rusty kick to kick to start with in blustery conditions. Kossie P struggling to hit a target so far.

I've come in late on this discussion 'Macca', but I agree that our list has been substandard. That recent list of our top 10 players of the last decade pretty much showed that up as a fact. The Champion Data rating last year was a joke... I do like the way we look now and they have us at 12...a better list than the one they rated as best in the AFL. Part of the problem has been development, coaching etc. but you still need quality to work with. The trading and additions we've made over the last couple of years have strengthened the list...we just need to get and keep them on the park. I know you're not a fan of our forward set up and for good reason...it's our weakness. I think Fritsch could be the wildcard here but he is going to work best as the 3rd forward in a traditional set up...Tommy is a number 2 at best and we don't have the Key...It's going to have to be manipulated to work. We don't have the players to play a traditional forward set up...maybe with the mid sizers we can make something work. Goodie is going to have to earn his money and pull something out of the bag... As the thread is about the Captain...I've said it before but Gawn as sole skipper for me. ...but I don't think it will make a world of difference. Get good cattle, coach them well and keep them on the park.

I don't know what to say except that you are missing the point. Raw talent and recruiting it is only one part of it, having strong on field and off field leadership is another part of it, having a great development program is another, so too is having a strong coaching group. You can add to that having a system based approach that allows a 'one soldier down, the next steps in' approach. You can also layer a great medical and fitness group. Further still you need strong sports psychology or a culture that keeps everyone focussed and positive through personal and group though patches. All of those factors play into success, both one off and sustained. Sure, you will struggle to win without talent, but you'll struggle to win without the other factors also, and you'll need to align many or all of those to create a dynasty. As an aside, great teams make individuals look elite. Very few do it on their own in team sport. Sure there are the freaks but many of the teams that are successful over a period of time are not that way because of individual talent. They make each other look good because they are predictable to each other and drilled on where to be and when so they can receive or block. Talent helps big time but so does all the other stuff. It is just to simplistic to focus on just one aspect.

I don't need a 'gimmicky' football game to motivate me to contribute to a worthy cause. Thanks to the outstanding work of the NSW RFS, and a decent slice of good fortune, our tiny property in the Snowy Mountains is still intact (albeit surrounded by miles of gut-wrenching desolation). Sadly, there are many thousands who are far less fortunate!

In terms of talent and leadership an interesting situation is evolving at Philly in the NBA. Simmons is one of the most talented players in the world. A lock for the all star team for his career. His skill set is extraordinary. In terms of talent he has been compared to le bron. But the knock on his game is leadership and his refusal to take his game out of his comfort zone by not taking jump shots. On leasership he has been criticized for not stepping up in big games and passing in clutch moments instead of say driving to the hoop. Embid is also supertalented. Incredibly skilled and strong. Not the same knock on his leadership but there are some question marks. There are no other natural leaders. Philly had the talent to win the title last year. They got pipped by the ultimate winner who boasted arguably the best leader in the NBA, Leonard. Leonard was brilliant all finals series and against Philly put his team on his back, culminating in a freak clutch three pointer. Nothing between those two teams talent wise. Leadership was the critical difference. Phillt have the talent (which of coure is critical) but unless Simmons and embid step up and lead their team the way say Giannis does they are not winning it the title this year either.

No, not at all Drafting is flawed so I have often advocated swapping draft picks for proven talent There's my answer and if you want proof of what I have got to say on drafting do a search on my posts and topics on drafting. It is entirely possible to bring in lots of A grade talent without ever drafting those types of players. Leadership groups, captaincy & even coaching are overplayed and overrated in footy. And often the actual talent on a list is overrated to a point where we end up blaming the coaches, captains & leadership groups. Like a dog chasing its tail. It has happened here on this site a stack of times but my original point stands ... we have never gone close to having a great list in my time following the club. And that is why we don't win big.

Talent isn't a top end draft pick number either Although you'd never know it on this site ... the buy-in and belief systems in drafting is astonishingly over the top No amount of great coaching from any number of great coaches would have turned Toumpas, Gysberts, Morton, Cook and a stack of others into decent players They along with numerous other top 20 picks were good under 18 players only And the facts and results bear that out.