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Arrived just before 10am and the team was starting to prepare for the session. They did some fun warm-up exercises in their respective lines to begin with. Noticed Kozzie was part of the forward group. Players on modified duties were Salem, Spargo, Verrall and K Turner with the former two running laps mostly. The serious stuff begun with some kicking and handball drills at high speed spaced out over 50m or so. The next exercise consisted of two groups split into white v blue. Basically kick to a pack and which ever team won the ground ball would try and attack with precision at high speed mainly looking for a player over the back. When this ended some of the squad mainly the whites went in the rooms, that included Brown and Melksham. The rest stayed out for some match sim. I counted about 26-27 players left. Harmes, Joel Smith and a kid in the 17 jumper with long hair (no idea who sorry) were included in the sim along with the main extended listed squad. Match sim was 13v13 and was at high intensity and fast. I have no idea how the scores were kept but it was Blue 4.20-44 to White 3.25-43. I only saw one goal and it was from Dunstan after some good ball movement. Blues won the match with the last play because Langdon marked a Chandler pass inside 50, I guess hitting a target counts as a score. Highlights in the sim included a Sparrow tackle on Laurie and Grundy taking a couple of pack marks. After this they split into their lines again for some extra work. Petty was with the forwards as was J Smith. The backline only consisted of May, Lever, Turner, McVee and Hibbo. Rivers was with the mids as was Gus. Lever, Gawn and Viney trained fully and seem ready to go. Brown also trained fully. I wasn’t going to post the following but we had reporters there asking MFC officials why Oliver didn’t train. I’m sure it will be reported he was absent. Viney and Gawn stayed out for extra work with Stafford as I was leaving. Kozzie, Trac, Grundy, Fritta and Harmes stayed out for goal kicking practice and there was also a cheer in the end of session huddle. There were a few other observers there so if I’ve missed anything maybe someone else can post it.

The banner for ANZAC eve will be something to behold! Best I don’t post sneak peek pics, but on one side there’s a line from The Ode of Remembrance. The front of the banner is the pièce de résistance: the ANZAC emblem in the centre with “Lest We Forget” under it. Richmond’s half is a branch covered in wattle and our half is an aeroplane covered in poppies. The wattle and the poppies are huge and all handmade. The 3D effect should look spectacular but that’s never known until such time as it’s seen from afar. I’m guessing it will though. 🙂

whoever he is, give him a Sandman and a blueheeler and he could work on any building site in the 1970s

A loss to the Dogs tonight would be perfect. With games coming against Brisbane (gabba), Hawks, Swans (SCG), Geelong and then us they could potentially be 3-8 after 11 rounds and season over. Love this death ride.

If he's not %100, he's one bloke who must be rested. He cops a hammering every game, so you'd think a week off would be beneficial. He would be a huge loss, but FMD, if we can't beat the undermanned tiggers without him we're kidding ourselves about being serious contenders.

I say move it to the G and still give us the half a mill

looks like him TALENTED TEEN WEIGHS CRICKET INTEREST HARRY DeMattia can lay claim to a unique lead-in to this year's Coates Talent League. The Dandenong Stingrays prospect was a substitute fielder for the Australian cricket team during last year's Boxing Day Test match, taking the field at stages across the contest against South Africa. Harry DeMattia (right) during the 2022 Boxing Day Test. Picture: Foxtel DeMattia, who plays for premier cricket club Melbourne, followed up his Boxing Day cameo by playing at the Victorian underage cricket championships. But now DeMattia, a powerful and versatile prospect, is fully invested in his footy campaign playing in the under-18 competition. Last week the 184cm prospect kicked three goals from 14 disposals against the Geelong Falcons, and he will play a mix of different roles this season with his good kicking and speed. He ran the 20-metre sprint in 2.92 seconds at the recent Coates Talent League testing day. DeMattia faces a decision on his sporting future at some stage this season but has AFL clubs interested after a strong start to the year. Harry DeMattia playing for the Dandenong Stingrays. Picture: Jazz Bennett "He had a foot niggle in the pre-season but he was still around the group all of the time and he trained at a high level in the rehab group," said Stingrays talent manager Toby Jedwab. "The role he's got lined up is as a high half-forward and he can also play half-back and he has gone into a midfield rotation as well. He'll play a bit of everywhere through the season." – Callum Twomey

Yes, I have. Eyes on the ball doesn't mean he doesn't know what he is doing. Peripheral vision. In the last few weeks two of Geelong's ruckman have been injured by counterparts kneeing them in the ribs while eyes were on the ball. Last year Cox had his eyes on the ball when he kneed Max in the back causing him a season long term injury. Cox didn't come close to marking the ball.

TMc should be given some leeway for last week after Draper took a running leap from 10-15 mts away and kneed him in the back. And if Brown isn't fit enough then we have little choice but to play TMc...I'm not sure Schache is the answer. Just hope TMc's back has recovered and does not affect his mobility. BTW, Draper is turning into a thug. He was the ruckman that crunched Grundy's knee last year with a resultant PCL injury.

Yes.. he’s moving really well and so is Lever. Hibbo not looking hampered either.

It's time for the Western Bulldogs to rocket back up the free-kick ladder. May the umpires miss every one of Libba's throws! C'mon doggies!

Supporters seem to have short memories. McDonald kicked four goals and received coaches' votes just two games ago. If we were to drop players just because of a poor game last week, there are about a dozen others equally at risk.

Someone was asking about the starting time of the ceremony on Monday night, @Jaded No More iirc. The order of events…

Nothing we don't realise ... https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/apr/20/the-rise-of-loud-and-opinionated-afl-media-is-reflective-of-a-wider-malaise

He didn’t exactly keep the statisticians busy against the Dogs or Lions. Kicked a total of 1.1 across both games. So far his one standout match was against a depleted, flailing team. Of course I want him to do well, but I can understand where people’s doubt is coming from.

They are booing a guy who came to them from another club, for a few years and then left, while at the same time, they are paying a young bloke they pinched from another club, a million a year, for atm very little return, in a move that has probably destabilised the club. Well done Dockers and your fans.

Jesus christ you say some absolute tripe but this is by far the worst take ever.

I bet Sean Darcy was a 12-pound baby. He would’ve been that toddler who accidentally patted a kitten or puppy to death.

Well done. Did you catch any chips?

Well if the HS is reporting it, then nothing is surer that he’ll play

And the other relevant contextual info is the club's media team offer up people to be interviewed - as opposed to being a guest on a conversation hour type podcast format. This is an important distinction, because the expectation from the club and player is that it won't take more than 15-20 mins, is not onerous and follows an interview style structure. Staff and players participate because they are obligated to do so as part of their responsibility to do media. If players report back that interviews took too much time or were a hassle (eg having to organise a PC to video conference from, organise a decent mic and camera etc etc) the club would simply stop offering people to DL to be interviewed. Sometimes Andy might (and does) request to interview a particular person, but has no choice in who the club ulitmately offers. It would be great to always speak to natural story tellers and conversationalists like Maxy, but Andy gets who he gets. And even if he does snag a great story teller, he still only has 15-20 mins. That is one Gary Pert answer. And almost always the club randomly contacts Andy out of the blue and offers someone to be interviewed, hence the sporadic frequency of the interviews and mix of guests. Often only a couple of days’ notice is given and Andy might be given only a few options for the interview time. I'm guessing very few players would agree to doing an hour or so conversational style pod like the one Tmac did in the preseason (which is terrific by the way - but I’ll bet my bottom dollar the club did not organise that, but rather the pod went straight to tom, who they may well know.) Andy can’t go direct to players, even those DL sponsors, and ask if they want to do a pod. Well, he can, but the player would say speak to the media team, who may get their noses out of joint and stop offering players and staff up for interviews full stop. Another issue is the club also sets the platform for how the interview is actually done - they give Andy a mobile phone number to call at an agreed time. So, no podcast equipment at their end, no proper mike set up and no video conferencing tech (meaning the interviewer and interviewee can’t see each other). It also means no control of the physical environment at the interviewees end. Compare that scenario to the set up for guests on the Gus and Gawny podcast - the guest is with them in a room that has been optimised for sound quality etc (by the by, from the handful of their pods I’ve watched, they don't really engage their guests in a conversation - but rather, just ask a series of often silly questions). An example of the environmental challenges is during the Brodie Grundy interview he was doing some sort of building or gardening work whilst talking on the phone. It was quite annoying as you could hear all this really distracting background noise. Similarly, Selwyn Griffiths was walking when being interviewed so there was heaps of distracting background noises (eg traffic). To those challenges add the time restriction and the fact that Andy has usually not met the person. Given all these factors, it is all but impossible to build the kind of rapport needed for a quality conversational style interview. By the by, to be clear, it is brilliant the club put people forward to be interviwed and those they have have all been really fantastic, including the judster. They have so little time between games and the stakes are high so the club and the players and staff should be applauded for giving up their time and bringing such a great attititude.

Now I know why my application for DA membership was rejected.

Congrats to Angus and Danielle on their engagement.

Just for the record, 'bold' players' contracts have or will expire in the next few years. Salem and Fritsch contracts expire in 2026. May, Gawn and Viney will be 33, 34 and 31 when their contracts expire in 2 years. Except for McVee, JvR, Spargo and Sparrow the other players, including our stars will be over 30 in 4-5 years. Now there is nothing wrong with players over 30 but have too many and we may end up like 'dad's army' Geelong in 4-5 years. Especially so if they are our engine room: Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Grundy. I would be surprised if quite a few of the players mentioned (May, Gawn, Viney, Nibbler, Sparrow and maybe Spargo) are on our list in 4-5 years. While it is sometimes good to lock away players we need to refresh the talent and age profile otherwise the 'age' cliff can arrive very quickly. Some might say who cares if we win a few premierships in that time. I do. We need to set the list up for long term contention and success. One could argue that long term contracts reduce our flexibility. I just hope all those long contracts are not back-ended.

While Bompt plays for the Bulldogs they'll always be a Premiership threat. He is a champ for sure.

Excellent start to the weekend. Tmrw I hope Sydney beat Geelong. Only because I hate Geelong that much.

Of course it’s not his fault. One player is never the reason for a side being terrible. But it is his fault he chased money he didn’t deserve and Freo had to dump 5 of their starting 22 players to make it happen. It definitely explains part of why they look so awful. They went and got a player they didn’t need, to play a role that doesn’t suit him, and gave away their whole salary cap and draft haul to make it happen. Absolute stupidity. I would be furious if Melbourne traded 5 players to bring in a ruckman… and then forced him to be a forward… and then had 0 draft capital heading into a strong draft.

Got the trifecta. Dogs to cover their line. Dogs to win by more than 39. Freo in disarray.

They're jeering Rory when they’re 56 points down with two minutes to go. [censored] imbeciles.

So neither W.A. team is fielding a competitive AFL side this season and neither will make finals. That's upsetting

Freo board on BF is getting pretty ugly.

Luckily for Freo they have there first and second round draft picks and can pick up some talent and climb up the ladder.

Dogs up by 19 What could go wrong

it's nice having two games i genuinely care about each week - the dees and flagmantle's 💀🏇

The Bont is really a star. he is the only bloke in the league that comes close to Clarry and Trac. he has it all. if he played in a team with a solid defence he would be unplayable

He seems like the kind of player who will slide a bit due to size.... maybe a pick around 10-15? I wouldn't be surprised to see us go hard at this draft and trade up to have 2 picks inside the top 10-15. For example, let's say the dockers finish 11th which is their current position (highly likely given their draw) then we will have pick 8. Gold Coast currently have pick 3, however I expect they will win enough games to finish around 14th and will hold pick 6. Given they have a big key forward academy player who is a potential top 3 prospect we may be able to work a deal with them where we give our first round pick, Freos second and a future 1st for this pick plus some extra picks coming back. This would give us picks 6 & 8 in the draft, plus later picks to match a bid on Kynan Brown.

Apologies for the lack of Casey Training reports Demonlanders but, travelling up the East Coast for a couple of months with Mrs Fence. I had a vision last night and I thought that it might be relevant to tie it into a segment , hence this post. Remembering Looney tunes cartoons were a favourite of mine coz you got variety and some good laughs. I thought about it and came up with this idea, LOONEYMOVE F.C. The chance to suggest moves and strategies which might be right out of left field, interesting or just plain Looney!! I was thinking about that when I see that Clarry Choo Choo spends around 83% on the ground in a game. Why not keep him on the ground for around 90% of the time and throw him to Full Forward with Kozzy at his feet and play other 4 players in forward lines as High half forwards for a period of time. So there it is... LOONEYMOVE F.C and indulge in some discussion re players positions and Strategies around our great Footy club. Of now to cook the Fish caught this morning at Batemans Bay P.F

@Tough Kent theorised in one of the previous training threads that it could have been Harry Demattia from the Dandenong Stingrays. Was apparently signing things in Dees gear at the Kids clinic too

We apparently have his brother in our Academy squad. Expecting a new rule that bans any brother of a player who was in MFC Academy and is playing at another club, from going to the MFC.

Exactly. IMO he is more a keeper than Sparrow. ANB is getting older and Melk is on his last legs. We need to play him and keep him. He won’t be replaced for what we get for him.

If we are serious about keeping JJ it wouldn’t take much on our behalf. We just need to play him in the seniors. He deserves it.

3rd or 4th round pick probably. He's a pick 33 who hasn't placed in a BnF or anything of note to increase his value. We'll realistically get a pick in the 50s-60s for him. For JJ's sake, he'd be better off moving to another club. He's performing better than others getting a game at AFL level every week, yet is being bounced between VFL and sub. He's capable of AFL level and should be getting a game every week. If we can't offer him that, then he's better off leaving. Can't keep them all!

Right? I TOUCHED YELLOW AND BLACK CREPE PAPER!

5 days later coming off a knee injury?

That's all good and well if you have a guest for an unspecified amount of time to talk about anything. We have a very finite time with guests we get from the club. These type of guests are interviews. It's not a conversation. We simply don't have the time to build the rapport with someone you've just called on the phone and have 15 minutes to get all the questions you want to ask. You're also confusing the podcast with an interview. They're two different things. It would be a completely different situation if you had Judd on the podcast and were talking about a game of footy and each person is giving their take on something. That is a conversation and even if Judd (or another player) was shy and nervous after a while he or any player in that situation would loosen up. The podcast above is not that and it's not meant to be. It's an question and answer interview. You also don't know what you're going get with any new player. They're people too who may be shy or not have experience talking with the "media" or doing interviews. They're not all like Max who you could definitely get on and just shoot the [censored]. Have a look at any interview Clarry does. He's not very good in that situation and he would probably be the first person to admit that. Not many people are naturals at that. I saw clips of him on a longer form podcast where it is more of a conversation and he seemed a lot more relaxed and natural. Totally different from anytime a reporter throws a microphone in his face. To reiterate any of the interviews that we do on the podcast are not like this and due to the time constraints cannot be like this particularly with players who aren't experienced and are uncomfortable in that situation. There just isn't the time for them to be comfortable especially because it is not done face to face and is done over the phone cold. I wish it could be a longer form more relaxed situation but that's just not possible.

I think it's clear they'll try and stretch Richmond's lack of notable rucks and injury hit back line by including Gawn over Brown. I imagine Gawn will play more forward and Grundy majority ruck given Gawn's lay-off. I'm still worried that we're bringing him back too soon and I'm not sure we just wouldn't wait another week. Richmond are without Tarrant, Gibcus and Broad. Gawn's height will be a nightmare if he plays. We better bring heat and intensity all game otherwise Richmond will hang around and their crowd will help keep them in it. Ruthless Melbourne. Let's show it eh?

Yes he is all shirk and no shiner (just made that up) But he can do it on average 35-40 times where no one is pressuring him. He does a lot of damage with the pill too. close to 900m gained on the weekend. You can go at him all you like, but the kid is getting it done. As for Kane - he is a one-eyed supporter, same as Bucks, Dwayno, Gerard and many other nufties in the press. He just goes more than usual. Dont mind him to be honest. As for JHF, im not for the booing, but if he didnt see this coming, then sheesh. The AFL need to tighten this up. If you are dropping top 10 picks on a player then you have to get some security on your investment. Its a professional sport and if you are not prepared to leave your home state, then dont put your hand up to play football and go work at the local library.