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I'm surprised theres such a strong reaction. He signed a 4 year deal with a degenerative knee condition. A lot of us on here knew at the time that anything we got in the fourth year would be a bonus. It was a shame that we couldn't get what we needed out of him last year when we needed it. He was a 200cm proven key forward who was available. He got a 4 year deal that we knew he probably wouldn't see out to the end. We got a kpf for a good price when we needed it. He was very important in 2021. Its worked out to be a pretty good deal for both parties. He has had a fantastic career, he is a fantastic person.

JVR, Petty and Fritsch will have to bear the goal scoring load this year. Any contribution we get from BB this year will be a bonus. Whatever's happens, we'll always have 2021. BB was fantastic in the finals series.

Interesting comments on KFW. He’s a young kid who hasn’t played much footy and it shows. But I’ve been told by people who know him just how dedicated he is to achieving an AFL career. His body is bigger than last year, he’s taken serious time off his 2km time and he’s much more involved at training. The club will have to assess whether he has the skills to make it but if they think he has he could be a very good long term prospect. It may take him another 3 or 4 years to get there but he’s a big boy who shows good agility and would be a cheap long term investment as a category B rookie. One thing for sure, he won’t die wondering if he could have made it.

I don’t think anyone has mentioned it but Noah Yze was training today, and for a kid who has another year before drafting, he sure fitted in as much as any of this years draftees. He is a good height and we were trying to compare him to others around . He appeared to be just below Steve May in height. Importantly he knows how to play football. And will be an easy F/S selection given what we saw.

Are you serious?

Sadly, I know firsthand how they would be feeling right now, and at the same length of gestation (20 weeks). It’s an acute sadness that never goes away. I’m also surprised he is able to attend training, because merely being able to function after only three days is a huge achievement. 😢

Benny was restricted to only 7 games last year. Him not being there was not the issue. Forward line only became a problem when we started losing the pieces towards the end of the year. We were the highest scoring team for most of the season. In saying that I hope we haven’t seen the last of Benny.

Got down there for 90 minutes. Others have covered key moments very well, so I will put in a few observations that haven't already been reported. The full ground activity is non-stop running, a real stamina test. Players are called to play on if they pause for longer than three seconds. The intensity is sky high. The physicality is brutal at times. McAdam came off second 'beast' when trying to block a rampaging Rivers. He had to take time out for a short period with a saw jaw. Rivers was exceptional with strength on the burst, and ball carrying finesse. Fritsch slung Bowey roughly to the carpet (immediately apologised) but Bowey had bounced up like a rubber ball and tore through the middle with perfect delivery. Bowey's speed on the run from defence was sensational, time and time again. Howes and Windsor are putting tremendous pressure on the selectors at this early stage. Howes took an excellent high mark in defence, then ran back with the flight for a magnificent spoil in the very next rebound. He is taller than I thought. McDonald is fitter than he has been since 2021. He is match ready, wherever he plays. Spargo was another standout in the end-to-end match sim, making excellent position and displaying outstanding short kicking skills (nothing new there, but he is another that looks very fit). Was impressed with Fullarton again. We have a live one there! He is athletically gifted and shows the 'clevers' with ball in hand. Max was taking big clean marks down the line and dispersing with excellent foot skills. After each period of 'play' the teams (Blue and Grey) huddle together for evaluation and tactical discussion. I was near the Blue huddle and May, Petracca and Brayshaw did the (straight) talking. Other senior input I noticed... Lever tutoring Jefferson on marking technique and Melksham advising McAdam on positioning. I left feeling that we will play a very fast, very effective game style in 2024, with very good list depth and several emerging young guns on the rise!

Tom McDonald will be remembered by many supporters when the sun sets on his footy days. As a very competitive back man, a match winning forward and a great contributor to rise of the MFC.

Thanks for this. The highlight for me was the last sentence. I'm sure I'm not alone in enjoying the simplicity of the verb "to learn" rather than the use of the tortured expression "They continued with their learnings". (I almost feel sick writing that.)

Forking hell.

Great Stuff GTG :) - red circle is likely the only gate open for ground access - yellow circles are the two dedicated parking bays - green circle is likely the “primary” part of the ground for spectators/fans i.e. it does not sound like the big grandstand section of the facility is open for fans to mingle - not sure how accessible players will be for photos and signatures but we hold hope they will be more than willing to as I suspect there will be a good turn out for a Casey Fields training session! BYO food, drink etc. No shops close by. Cheers

Take a train and get off at the wherethefukarewe station.

I concur. Both have bulked up considerably - particularly KFW. I think it's harder to assess young rucks in training situations, particularly on a day when there weren't any ruck drills. But Verell certainly looked the more natural footballer, which of course is not surprising given their backgrounds. But KFW had one big advantage over Verell - he is taller. And he will get bigger still too. Verell will too of course but nowhere as big (ie in terms of height and muscle) as KFW who will be a monster if he stays in the AFL system. A year at Casey will give us a clear idea if KFW will make it I think. On a semi related note, Schache was standing only 25 metres away from me at one point. He was next to Max and there wasn't much between them height or size wise. It made me wonder why they haven't tried him as a second ruck option - perhaps they have and it wasn't his go?

So sorry to hear, WCW

I’m excited about Billings. Gun junior who struggled in the poor environment of the Saints. I reckon he might prosper with no expectation and with our superior program. No doubt his skills are excellent. just needs the right environment

Sending love to Tom and his wife who are mourning the loss of their third child, a little girl named Goldie, who was “born sleeping” on Sunday night and “became our angel above.” 💔

Thank you to all the track watchers for providing us with these excellent training reports. For all of us interstaters it is mana from heaven at this time of the year.

Looking forward to this session - got a group of about 10 family, friends and kids heading out! See you there and Go Dees! Casey Fields Friday January 26 9:30am - 11:30am

I’m at Gosch’s Paddock today and I will attempt to bring you a running commentary of my observations. I will collate all my musings in this post at the end of training. Collation of all the Training Reports

Ed Langdon anyone?!! Jesse Hogan for pick 6 (which we used to get Steven May) was a great success for them too!

Hang on I’m just ringing Schultz, Acres and Henry to see if they agree with you.

Of course Drysdale Demon has to face palm a comment that's clearly a sarcastic response.. just another day where anything and everything offends this fella. Can't wait for the reports @Bleasey as that @Gawndy the Great , us folks certainly appreciate the time and effort, especially making the trek out to Casey.

LDC count myself amongst you, but we are a disappearing breed. Perhaps the Gideons could co-dispense dictionaries. Wide reading l have found does encourage independent thinkers.

A very good point. And there's perhaps no better example than the best ruck i have seen play - Maxy.

I'm just one of a number of English language pedants on Demonland. I'm confident you haven't seen the end of any lessons.

Has there ever been a ruckman that has been better than just ok while still growing?

R.I.P Goldie. Sincere Condolences to the McDonald family. ❤️

The mids/on-ballers were very interesting today. They restarted the sims about 5 or 6 times, each time having a different and surprising addition or two. Langdon had a go (ran the legs off Tracc), also Laurie, Spargo, Gus, Hunter, ANB, Billings, Bowey, and of course, Tracc and Vines. Another poster said Kozzy and Rivers also played through the centre. Sparrow didn't play in the sims. They really are trying to find the best and variable fit. The kicking drills used today emphasised the ball being kicked in front of the leading player. Some still missed this simple instruction. I think it is not so much of not having a forward strategy, but more of, some not being able to execute the right action. They continue to learn.

Seems like there were lots of Demonlanders there today! It was certainly a good crowd. I was there as well for about 30 mins while the full ground drills were taking place and have to agree with most of what has been detailed already. Probably the biggest take-out in terms of players was Billings. He was busy and was getting the ball to distribute into the forward 50 consistently, ensuring his kicks were to leading forwards and to their advantage - low and hard. But for the most part I came away a bit disappointed with all other entries heading into F50 as most players in possession would virtually send a long kick into the forward line as soon as they passed the middle of the ground, giving defenders every chance to spoil and not really using the extra players around them to just get 20m or so closer and allow for a second lead (or even a proper extended lead) from the forwards. Still feel it was a bit ‘kick and hope’ in most scenarios and didn’t feel there was a discernible strategy going in BUT keen to hear from others who were there if they saw the same? I understand it was not a full match sim so maybe it wasn’t a focus but surely we should be taking every opportunity available to improve that aspect of our game.

How come you didn’t post this when you first met me?????? 🥺

Hot morning, minimal wind, general impression is they are working well as a unit, and the intensity was there. Most were out early, teaming up in various groups. Some goal kicking, others running and direction changing carrying water filled bottles, rucks were drilling together. Rehab, Lever (later on the bike with Melky) in runners, not really training, but helping Jefferson out. Melky still doing leg exercises to strengthen the injured area. AMW running with Mentha. BBB down for a short run, Salem working very hard by running extensively. Sparrow did everything except the sims. The scoreboard is up and running. Whistle goes and they are into it with minimal warm-ups. They are into 3 stations, exercise, handball, and short kicking with good execution. Competitiveness starts with 2 handball games. Some have yellow bibs and start out of bounds, they then run on into the game, and attempt to break lines. Mcqualter runs one group. He appears to love them winning at what they do, really encourages them to win and be hyper-competitive. When they had a break it was Woey who did a fair bit of talking, McQualter took a back step. The sims were next. The attackers were very good at first, but as they tired, the defenders started to dominate. We look good when we spread, and when they get the overlap with smart play and good timing. Interestingly, they ran a few through the on-ball position, Langdon, Laurie, Spargo, Gus, Hunter, ANB, Billings, Rivers, Kozzy and Bowey and the usual players. They ran on the wings, Hunter, Langdon, Windsor, K.Brown, and Woey. May dominated with his reading of the play. Max is looking fit. Spargo missed a few easy passes, but his excellent tackling made up for it. Fritsch was tackling well and seems to be honing his defensive game. JVR creates competitiveness when the ball is forwrad, also taking a few marks and creating separation on some leads. Chandler getting front and centre. McAdams in the forward area and doing well, had a head clash which seemed to have slowed him down. Then into goal kicking. Williams moved the mannequins out near the 50 to challenge them with longer kicks, not too successful. Finished with running. At one stage in the goal kicking Tracc was dry retching, later during the running he left the field for the sheds (unusual) escorted by training staff. Couldn't tell if it's a soft tissue injury, as his gait is always a bit funny. I expect he was suffering exhaustion, due to the training load and the heat.

I went down to training and even with old man eyes JVR was a standout from over 300m away. Has much playful competitive energy too. A reasonable crowd there to watch, even a kid in a Pies jumper; certainly a change from 10 years ago when there wasnt many more than a fella in a rain coat standing next to a tree. As I walked the boundary I heard some very familiar DL voices so I propped there for awhile and listened to the chat. Just a few of my observations; Bowey forward having shots on goal; Lever giving an instructional drill whereby you start with your back to the play then turn quickly to get the ball; Jefferson lying on the ground with someone on top and trying to get up; Salo just jogging forever with no sweat; Melky looks great. And they did this drill where you shake your hands in the air and run forward as if wearing flippers. Looked damn silly. Saw Richo and Perty as well. Go Dees

Are you off your meds or maybe still at school ? Tom was actually our best key defender in some of our worst ever teams where the defence was constantly under pressure.

I also headed down to training this morning. Pretty much all of it has been very well covered by previous posts. I wouldn't call the full ground drills match sim. It was under pressure and with tackling but there were less players on the ground and no stoppages. The focus appeared to be more on ball movement and transition running forward and back. When reading comments on this part of the training it should be taken into account that while it looked a bit like match sim it was more full ground ball movement under pressure. The drills have been well set out here so just some observations on certain players: JVR - yes it's only January ball movement training but I thought he had more presence and strength in aerial contests than at this stage last season. Last January you'd see him jump at the ball and be brave and aggressive but it didn't really seem like he'd actually clunk the ball in the pack or be in best position to mark it. This time I thought when the ball was in his area he actually looked like being the dominant force in the pack and the most likely to impact. That said, with Lever not training and May not involved in JVR's contests, he wasn't exactly playing on the cream of the crop defenders which he will face during the season. Fritsch - seemed to be on a tackling rampage. I thought he was very physical with his tackling, bringing blokes to ground on a number of occasions. Not sure if just a one-off or he has targeted this as an area to focus on but it was noticeable. Billings - as others have said, he excelled in the ball movement in finding space and then arcing onto the left and kicking long and accurately to teammates on the lead. He showed real class. But again 14v14 in 30 degrees in January is a far cry from the cauldron of the MCG on a cold day in July. I think he has the potential to really add to our side as our midfield mix could really do with a long-kicking left footer. It can help change the direction of play and with switching. We have Hunter and Viney but both are not long kicks and the former almost invariably looks for the 20-30m chip option. -Salem - just did running on the side but I agree with others, he did seem noticeably leaner than last year. -Tholstrup - he just has a great presence about him. Presence is such an intangible thing that is hard to explain, but he has it. He's a good size (both in height and thickness) and looks like he could develop into a really powerful player when he puts on more muscle. Had a few wobbly kicks during the day but he's a player that you seem drawn to watching and I'm looking forward to seeing him play matches (most likely starting with Casey). -Kozzie - does some things no one else on the list can. A pick up, sidestep and acceleration away from the constant almost in one move. -May - speaking of presence. Whenever there was an aerial contest in his area, you just knew he would mark it or impact the contest. A tremendous footballer.

Plus Fullarton is available, Tom Mac is fit again, Verrall and Jefferson may be improvers, as may the smaller Seston and Schache is break glass. Disco is another that could be tried up forward if we are desperate.

Stick a fork in him, he’s just about done I’m afraid. Forward line is going to be a problem yet again this year.

I think he's Nev's cousin, Daz.

A very good point. Most of the work rucks do is around the ground as opposed to the centre square (80%?) where relative strength is a huge factor (and height). KFW was getting pushed around at thrown in and around the ground stoppages at Casey last year. That will happen less and less, particularly because there's not that many mid twenty ruck behemoths running around in the VFL anymore with so few stand alone clubs. So he'll get more taps - and more contested marks too for that matter.

Thought that was in New Zealand?

Hope you're reading this Alan Richardson..

Why so?

Post match player interviews are inevitably boring. However our AFL players come across as JFK and Martin Luther King compared to the tennis players. Malthouse was a disgrace in his surly post match interviews...plumber turned pseudo nuclear physicist/philosopher I feel sympathy for players that would prefer not to do them.

I watched him closely on Monday, he will make it IMV😁

KFW will make it, bookmark it English mrk2

Yes, absolutely all our love and also condolences, to Tom and his wife and family.

I'm just back from training and it's really interesting reading others views of today as they differ from mine a bit. JvR said in a recent interview that today is ball movement day and Friday's are match practice so take that into account when you hear about players scoring goals. It's non stop movement and there is plenty of space and lots of room in the forward line and there are goals scored all the time. It's not "match practice" and the tackling is done with care. For me it's more like intensive circle work but maybe I'm wrong. Perspective at training is always interesting. Bowser has been mentioned a lot particularly for his disposal but I thought he was a bit off today missing some kicks he would usually hit, but he was very involved and very focused. He's agile and tough. Yze was very involved and looks a good prospect. Got lots of the ball and didn't look out of place out there. But my standout for the day was Jack Billings. He's a Moneyball pick and he'll be a beauty. His kicking today was better than anyone out there as he hit up hard targets all day. He's clearly fit and covering the ground well and will be regular best 22 from round 1. JvR is looking very imposing taking contested marks and finding space well. He's put on some bulk but it hasn't impacted his speed or spring and he is still super aggressive at the ball. His kicking is also very reliable. Windsor was more involved today than I've noticed on other days and certainly has a turn of pace although on one occasion when he was out by himself and running down the wing McAdam nearly caught him. Unlike others I don't see him as a round 1 candidate but who knows. All the older players were involved in ways you'd expect and I endorse the comments made about Viney and Trac. I saw Petty in the match sims early but he either didn't get much of it or didn't do much of it because I didn't see him involved much. I hope others can clarify his day. It was a tough day today, hot, humid and they ran for a full two and a half hours. There was also a good crowd, amazing what happens when you advertise training and give people a bit of notice.

I asked Chatgpt for 500 words of Star Trek fan fiction to honour Pickett Fence but what it produced was too magical to share. Melk looks just about ready to go! I'm sure they'll hold him back but he's doing a lot of moving around and kicking. Lever on the bike. BBB in the tent. Jeffo doing a bunch of whatever. AMW with a really solid running sessions, had Ricky Korda Mentha with him for a bit. Sparrow in and out of some running. Totally agree that Salo looks fitter than he has in a long time. Not sure if he's lost weight or if he's just added a lot of core strength. He did a huge session of sprints and longer runs. Petty was in full drills early then taken out. Hunter in full stuff until about half way through the match sim when he went for some run throughs. After some warm up drills the first competitive one they went in to was a 2 way handball drill, split in 2 different groups. A middle group with an extra mid going both ways and then a group out on the wing that had 3 different back flankers taking turns to run off the back off the drill for overlap. It was Rivers, Bowey and McVee. I was impressed by Laurie's quick skills at times but he's a guy who takes it on and will make the occasional error. Petty was in the drill and looked strong and agile. Riv and McVee have great moments of burst off the line. McAdam's a bit iffy at times but there's other moments where he just plants the foot and is gone, he has incredible acceleration. Billings struggled a little in this, he found the contest a bit hot. Then it was time for a couple of periods of 14 a side match sim. Starting midfields of Viney, Pickett, Spargo in white and Tracc, Laurie and Billings in blue. With Windsor and Brown on one wing and the starting wings on the other. The first period was high class. Howes hit up Fritsch with a couple of beautiful kicks. A Seston dart in to corridor found Fullarton and on to Billings then Chandler close to goal. Spargo hit up Viney charging through the middle, who spread it wide to Windsor on a forward flank, he rolled inside and actually missed Koltyn who picked it up on the bounce and dished a handball to ANB for the snap. The second period was a bit messier as teams stepped up their pressure. Verrall nailed Spargo in a tackle. JVR out marked Adams and T Mc with relative ease. After about 4 errors in a row Tracc swooped on a contest and cleanly set up a goal. Melk was on the boundary with plenty of advice for the guys coming off and had a long chat to McAdam. Then it was more 2 way handball. This time it was Howes, Gus and Bowey in the orange bibs. I noticed Laurie in pink going both ways in the other group. And then handed over to Viney. I mostly watched the close group but I did look up to see JVR just destroy a Viney fend off and eat him up in a tackle. Fritter also sling tackled Bowser in to next week but let go before any damage done. I saw more tackling from Fritsch today than I've ever seen his career. Might've been one more match sim period in there somewhere then I left as they were moving in to more craft stuff with the talls working doing some lead up contest work, wingers and new guys some ground balls and the rest kicking goals on the run from 40.