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Showing content with the highest reputation on 22/11/19 in Posts

  1. This is a first time post. I visited from Adelaide today. I don’t read Demonland a lot other than at this time of the season, and really appreciate those who do training reports. But knowing people involved in the club, this is not the place to spend too much time in season! I thought I would add my bit to preseason, although it’s 3 hours later so I have probably already forgotten half of it and Kev above covered some of it. I arrived at 9.15 and the players were already warming up. I stayed till the very end, which was just after 1pm with the last 3 off the track being Steven May, Jack Viney, and Marty Hore. They finished with goal to goal repeat sprints, which at the end of a 4 hour session was impressive. Even more impressive is May was side by side with Viney doing 22-25 second 170m sprints after 4 hours of training. It was about 80% ball work and 20% running at training. They started in 2 groups at each end doing non contact match sim inside the 50 arcs. The emphasis was on kicking skills. Every turnover was called out loud and clear by the coaching staff, even if was a poor that bounced. While this was going on AVB, Petty, and Bradke were doing repeat 200-300m sprints around the outside. AVB was setting the pace and looked in great nick. When he was leaving training he was saying that if 2019 was different he would have played in the back half of the year like 2018, and he feels he is 100%. From what I can tell he is doing lots of running but perhaps they don’t want to risk a Spargo like step on foot incident yet. After the skills match sim it changed to full oval match sim with the non contact players standing out. Lever, Weideman, Jetta etc we’re not standing around, but doing a lot of explosive agility type work in the unused forward pocket. The match sim was interesting. It would start with a congested activity somewhere upfield with an emphasis on ground balls. The players would repeatable roll the ball into a scrimmage, and then try and pick up and get a clearance and when they did just roll the ball back in. It kept going until the coaches blew a whistle which signalled it was real, and from a clearance they’d try and get it inside 50 to a lead. It was pretty willing, evidenced by Tmac (I think) leading out at full tilt with Hore drifting back and KK trying to spoil. Hore and KK were both flattened. Luckily no major harm although KK left training to get his elbow seen to. After the full oval match sim they broke up into various groups doing different activities. Mainly seemed to focus on skills, although some players would be cycled through activities that looked a bit like trying to work on explosiveness. For example, 3 players would be on their stomachs, and the coach would roll a ball near 1 and call out. 2 would jump up, the closest to get the ground ball and the second to tackle. Seemed to be working on recovery, getting to feet, evading or tackling etc. Another group were totally focussed on kicking to the wing. Others were doing 150m sprints, and other doing stoppages again with ground balls. For the ground ball stoppages, the coaches were continuously calling out for longer handballs to the outside. At one stage, Stafford was working on goal kicking. Hunt and Weideman did a lot of work. Then they setup a spot 40m out and had a camera directly in front and one to the side. Stafford was managing, and had Petracca, ANB, Oliver, Melksham, and Fritsch filmed for about 10 kicks each. No one else. Petracca still has a lot of work to do and I’m sure his routine will be sorted. Was still walking up to kick. The rest looked pretty good, but all seemed to be told to get some forward momentum, or at least compared to Petracca seemed to be accelerating in to kick with pretty good results. Especially Melksham who didn’t seem to miss. Some of the highlights for me overall were Petracca. He is in ripping nick, and ran in a group with Brayshaw and a few others in the repeat sprints. He is in better running nick than ever, was right up the front, and looked to handle it better than Brayshaw. Another highlight was May. It looked like he had to do extra’s, and he did not lag behind in any of the sprints. His group included Max and he was side by side with him the entire way. He also looks in great nick. In one drill, there was a handball chain that ended with a player at 40m running toward goal. May drilled everything. The other was TMac. He has his running legs, and was continuously getting in good positions and marking in the full oval match sim. Viney is doing all the running and more. His foot is not a problem touch wood, and he is loving the program Burgess has given him. Already he feels fitter than ever, and he did the extras. Oscar Mac looks in great nick and to have bulked up a lot. In the inside 50 skills match sim his kicking is really good. I didn’t see him miss a kick, which I probably couldn’t say about most of the squad. Overall, and I don’t have much to compare against as I didn’t see training last year, the squad looks in excellent nick. I did talk to a few of the veteran supporters to ask how it compares to prior years. They all seemed to think it’s the fittest they have seen them.
    56 points
  2. It is the 9 to 12 schedule. A beautiful morning to train in. Marty, one of the support staff says they are different team this season. I agree with him, seems a change in the vibe out there. Hoping it can translate out on the field when it counts. In rehab was Aaron VandenBerg, Austin Bradtke and Harrison Petty. Their work load seems to have increased, harder running and ball work. Walking laps was Oskar Baker, Adam Tomlinson and Mitch Hannan. The main group had about 33 (?) players in it. Warm-ups were again inventive and different from the previous morning. They split into two groups and there were two stations. One being a congested game with no contact and fast ball movement. The other was using just over half the field with minimal pressure from four coaches and the players creating switches and corridors to move the ball into the forwards who would finish with set shots. They swapped stations. The players on light duties went over to the rehab area to finish off while the others competed in simulations. Light duties included Neville Jetta, Jake Lever, Kade Chandler, Sam Weideman and Joel Smith (seems to be on his own program). Bayley Fritsch, Tom McDonald, Ed Langdon, Steven May, Christian Salem, Corey Wagner, and Christian Petracca were the ones who stood out to me in simulations. Marty Hore and Kade Kolodjashnij had a collision when both defending a high ball. Looked more like both being winded, Kade left training. I hope as a precaution, he was wearing the 'red cap'. Charlie Spargo was the only one missing today. Steven May and Clayton Oliver trained well. Clayton with a bit of strapping on his left shoulder and at one time had the 'red cap' on. The training kind of petered out after they had a good chat in the middle. A group doing tackling, one on one, or two contests and a kind of leap frog activity. A group having their set shots at goal filmed in preparation for analysis. Some doing 150-meter sprints. A good first week.
    40 points
  3. Oliver and May both training and both appear to be fine. Oliver has his left shoulder strapped.
    31 points
  4. Dropped past for about 35 minutes. Nice day to be out there. All players are looking in very good nick. Not sure if they’ve all been in the gym this morning but they’re all looking very toned and ‘jacked’, even the newbies from last year. They were running a 3 quarter ground drill for the whole time I was there. Lots of shifts in direction and switching and always finding a man on a lead with a break on his opponent. Purposeful kicking into the forward 50, no long bombs into the forward line. Tom McDonald v May was pretty willing. May definitely doesn’t hold back at training. His kicking will be a weapon for us next season – kicks hard, sharp and low. Tommy Mac was moving really really well. Looks super fit and fresh and covered the ground quickly. Was surprised at how big O Mac is. He’s got massive thighs and he looks pretty powerful. He was very clean with his ball movement/passing and got a fair bit of it. Other observations:• May in full training, didn’t seem hindered at all • Trac looking fit and moving well. • Hibberd moving nicely. • Jonesy amongst everything. • Langdon looking sharp and is a busy player. • Lockhart got a bit of it in the back line and was using it well. • Weed is looking super fit albeit in the rehab group, hopefully they’re just treading lightly with him as I’m really bullish he can have a great year if he is injury free. • Only negative: ANB and Hunt both missed goals from 10m out.
    26 points
  5. So basically don’t tune into SEN between 12 and 3?
    22 points
  6. Another note to add: Was chatting to someone today that sees Joel Smith on a regular basis and in fact he saw him this morning. Direct quote: "He's absolutely flying, he's in great nick – completely 100%". Based on that we have to assume they're just loading him up really slowly hence why he's in rehab.
    21 points
  7. I would hate to be someone from the MFC reading this forum and what has been spoken about since the end of the season. For far too long we have been accused of being a club that sits on it's hands, does nothing aggressive during trade time and gets bent over at the trade table. Yet since the end of the 2019 '[censored]' season, the club has brought in Richardson, Burgess, Brukner, the dude from the Dolphins, outside run in Tomlinson and Langdon, took a risk on Bennell, invited a semi-proven forward in Mitch Brown to the club, shifted their position in this years' draft considerably for the positive and yet, you STILL have the nerve to bag the club for what they are not doing. Bloody hell! I am pumped to see the club take chances, admit fault, bring in a fresh perspective and potentially get us back to finals in 2020. There is no way in hell you would cop the level of criticism and negativity in your role as this club does. Sometime it feels like a whingefest and sooky la-la session and it's time to look at the glass half full. Because I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that not if but when we rise back up the ladder all you backstabbers will the first one to start back-patting like the tweed coated MCC do!
    18 points
  8. Can already see Marty Hore's plan to get a regular game, he was responsible for taking Spargo out as well
    16 points
  9. Jake Melksham is doing fine. Looks like hs is working a lot with Tom Mcdonald. They are often blocking and helping each other create separation and overlaps. In simulations they were often getting repeat entries, so they were kept busy.
    13 points
  10. Take 3, 10, 28 all to draft. At 10, take whoever is leftover out of Kemp, Stephens, Serong, Ash. Young is now off the cards for us it seems unfortunately. I’d be disappointed if we split pick 10 again into more lower picks, as I think we need elite talent and the pool generally thins out quickly heading into the teens.
    11 points
  11. This is a real worry. ANB really disappointed me with his conversion last year (7 goals 9 points). Winning time trials means naught if you can't get the ball and then butcher it when you do. Apologises for the veil of negativity in this post.
    10 points
  12. Gawn is about to turn 28. Jackson will play from ages 22-32 with Gawn aged 32 and either retired or right near the end. Dean Cox was 27 when Nic Nat was drafted. Only the rarest of draftees make meaningful impact in year 1. Walsh, Rozee, Rioli. Even guys like Oliver play good and bad games and limited minutes. They aren't as good as you think, often they are playing just to satisfy fans and so coaches can say they play the kids. From year 2 Jackson will be supporting a 29 year old Gawn. From year 3 Jackson will be supporting a 30 year old Gawn.
    10 points
  13. Do you think Richmond had a no tackling program. They won't do the back off thing easily, sometimes players are coming in in numbers and they are competitive beast. Win at all cost and all believe they will win the ball. Contact can be done in a safe way I think. That is bracing for it and taking the hit. Halfway and you will be hurt. We also want a players to get front and center balls from the pack, if the defender pulls out, then how do they develop that part which is very instinctual and one of the higher skill sets. It is a tough game and durability is one of the criteria that sorts the good players from the others. What would they do if they couldn't practice getting tackled. Pettraca standing up in them, Viney getting taken out but always able to get his arm free, Harmes fending off, (did a beauty today), Oliver with the ball gone before they get him. The concussion stuff should be a duty of care across all contact codes. In a perfect world they shouldn't hurt the brain.Tackling and getting tackled with correct technique should reduce harm. I have seen many concussion from poor technique. Tackling needs to be practice in a game senario. With full tackling the ball can come free and this unpredictable ball movement needs to be practiced with. Loose ball gets are an asset and often instinctual. Oliver slightly rehurt his shoulder in a drill. Kade Kolodjasni collision today was in the body. Kade Chandler tweaked his knee innocously. They have to tackle to reduce the harm from it. I understand where you are coming from, reducing injuries and protecting those with niggles. They play AFL a very hard game. Technical development then repetitions in real situations.
    8 points
  14. A problem with Demonland (and society) is that often people think down binary lines. The OP is a classic example. You are either a sycophant or as the OP puts it a "backstabber". It is possible that by applying critical thinking to matters of the MFC you can appreciate some of the good things about the club and recognise the not so.
    8 points
  15. not thilled with this constant trying to split the picks and take us further down the pecking order. we only have a very limited number of slots available. we should be taking the best players we can. Quality not quantity.
    7 points
  16. Jesus the combination of the @Duke and @kev martin of training reports are quite a lethal combo. Some of your best work you two.
    7 points
  17. They are being ultra cautious given his injury history You will find him in and out of the main group over next few weeks, just has to stay away from Marty Hore
    7 points
  18. Every recruiting manager always says “We were really surprised X slid to our pick, we are thrilled” which is part PR, but also illustrative that different clubs genuinely rate players differently. Moving down two spots is likely of limited consequence. If Melbourne KNEW for sure that 8 would bring a bonafide superstar, they would not risk moving down two spots. Pick 1 is not a guaranteed superstar, so of course pick 8 is not a guaranteed superstar. Melbourne will have players they rank between 6 and 12 in the draft (12 to include Green and Henry) and all this trade does is move down from getting someone Melbourne ranks 6-9 in the draft down to someone Melbourne ranks 7-12. Jason Taylor talks about players in the mix at a pick. It means for sure that they will have lost access to two players, but they either think the players are so closely rated it doesn’t matter as they are happy with anyone in the mix range, or they are very confident the player they would likely take at 8 will still be there at 10. In a long winded way, I’m saying Melbourne have probably turned what is to them something of zero negative value (move back two spots) and traded that to someone who did value the move up, plus got some other draft value while doing it. It appears quite shrewd and a win-win for Melbourne and I know someone who used to do phantom drafts. He did it by talking with recruiters about what they thought other recruiters would do. He had a very good strike rate. So even the consensus draft orders you see are generally based on piecing together second hand intelligence of varying team’s rating of players, not a genuine unified consensus of talent from best to worst. The variations in each team’s rating of players clearly gets bigger the deeper the draft goes.
    7 points
  19. I think you are now leading the most pessimistic poster on DL award. Have not seen one positive optimistic post yet.
    6 points
  20. Anyone have a close look at those red hats? Is it possible they have the words “Make America Great Again” on them?
    6 points
  21. I second that. The major point I took from his post was that VDB could’ve played the back end of the season if we were in contention. Hopeful signs that he’s a chance for rd 1.
    6 points
  22. After watching a few games of the u18s champs, the first bloke i took notice of was jackson, stood out like a becon , has so much upside, the next bloke i liked was weightman, classy and skillful, easily kicked the most goals through the champs. Others that stood out through my eyes were gould, green, kemp, henry, ash,al and roberton Seen a clip of Jackson playing basketball on you tube , wow, so much agility, skill and aggression, i get a sence he wants to be the best, and has that i f...ing hate losing mindset Big yes for me
    5 points
  23. I was talking to Brian an old footy type support staffer for MFC. He reckons they don't go hard enough at training. A real old schooler. I interpreted this to mean, without the high pressure that is reserved for games then how do you know how you will handle it. Those who perform under pressure are the gems. He also said that they don't play with enough instincts and instincts come from pressure situations. Can see both points of view, Brian's and DeeSpencer's (wrapping in cotton wool in early preseason). Last year we did a lot of turnovers when the pressure was on us. Plus we had lots of injuries. I think I am more old school. Let them go at it. Harden them up. From my experience injuries come from unexpected or unseen hits. If they expect the hits they will see them coming and protect themselves accordingly. High pressure training can only be a benefit for the real game. Like one drill today, without any pressure. It looked amazing, very clean ball movement and exact working to structure. Come the pressure and that completely changes. Running injuries, hammy's, calf, foot stuff is not usually from impacts but poor preparation. Concussion on the other hand? A big question mark in our game.
    5 points
  24. I don't really see how you are practising this properly without having contact, sure your kick or handball might make the target in training with token pressure but it's probably going to be shut down in a game.
    5 points
  25. Just my view but most of the 'potential' guns (that we can genuinly nab ie; where a bid is unable to be easily matched like Henry) will be gone by 10 unless they slide for some reason. Don't get me wrong there will still be plenty of talent about but i think an extra gun left our clutches with the pick swap of 8. Who knows though we might get lucky and find a gold nugget in the mix (assuming we keep 10).
    5 points
  26. Bring back Finey’s final siren. Now that was must listen radio!
    5 points
  27. Not a bad idea. He's never settled well into a position. Always played his junior footy and at Casey through the midfield as he's actually quite strong at contested ball. He would be one of the better tackling players as well, could really do a number on opposition midfielders his size.
    5 points
  28. The interesting part is why they have put him in the daylight hours graveyard shift of 12-3 when the slot crying out for attention is drive. Maher -- a natural for 12-3 where he doesn't need any content at all to gob off for 3 hours straight (some of his questions have been known to go for 2 hours) -- and Bob "Garrulous" Murphy are a dull listen. They have no chemistry and bugger all content except for that homicide basketball guy. I think Bob must be so laid back he's actually lying on the studio floor out of mic range and that's why you never hear him say anything. Dwayne won't be cheap and how many untapped rating points are out there from 12-3 anyway? He could skyrocket them up to the heady heights of 2.9 or 3.1. Macquarie was the much better listen in every slot, except for the bone headed brekky morons, until its unfortunate kneecapping.
    5 points
  29. KK seems ok, doesn’t seem to be favouring his arm, but he’s now walking back to AAMI. I missed the incident - hopefully wasn’t any head knock involved.
    5 points
  30. The Casey Demons are also chasing the signature of former Gold Coast Sun Jack Leslie who was surprisingly delisted at the end of the season. Leslie played some impressive games in defence and I wouldn’t rule out a future return to AFL. Post script: More on Mutimer here - VFL: Casey makes key signings Dandenong Stingrays players Jarryd Barker and Corey Ellison are also training at Casey.
    5 points
  31. Why are so sure we will go for Jackson? His draw backs for me are he is from WA so a better than average chance he will want to go home, If he is solely a Ruckman then he will probably take 4-5 years to be ready to Play seniors. I don't value Ruckman all that highly , the vast majority of GF winning teams in the last decade or so have been won by teams with average ruckman. How many times have we seen Gawn get a large number of hit outs to have 50+% of them sharked by the other team. If he is a genuine Ruckman / Forward who can score 20-30 goals PA then that may be a different story but I still don't like drafting Ruckman in the first round they are just not that important
    4 points
  32. Bloody good work Kev and greatly appreciated.
    4 points
  33. I can finally go back to listening to Gerard on 3aw Stopped listening after Hooksey died because Der Wayne is such a plonker
    4 points
  34. Here is a really unusual suggestion for pick 10. Seems to have been overlooked. Why don't we just pick a [censored] gun player
    4 points
  35. Hope we hold it, speaking to a few in recruiting and development in WA word is top 6 to 10 in this draft are rated a lot higher than the next 20-25 who they still feel are ahead of next seasons batch. I think the needs basis of the clubs in front of us will see one of Ash/Young (i expect GWS to take either at 4), Kemp, Serong or Stephens to be there at 10. I'm happy to take a Jeremy Sharp or Elijah Taylor with 28
    4 points
  36. Love it Kev. The training variation is a great idea. Anything can be thrown at you on gameday, so why train as a set routine. Mix it up, test the mind and prepare for the unexpected. Really like this.
    4 points
  37. Bear with me. The two later picks could equal pick 4. Any set worth more points than pick 4 would become more valuable to GWS, if we clarified we would be bidding on Green and assuming they planned to match...
    4 points
  38. Sarcasm aside I would assume the red hat is reserved for players as a precautionary measure. If the "injury" was more serious then he (clarry) would not be training. Hammy soreness would obviously not require a hat. If May was seriously hamstrung he also wouldn't be training.
    4 points
  39. If he is going to cross the psychological barrier re concussion he needs to be helmet free, talked to him about this Gus wears his because his Mum wants him to, but doesn't at training
    4 points
  40. Vanders was running laps with Petty and Bradtke. He is in pretty imposing shape, hopefully can get his body right. Smith was just on the sidelines - not sure if running or walking laps bit didn’t participate in the main drills.
    4 points
  41. This all feels like the club is trying to be too clever for its own good. Trading away future picks, splitting picks and then splitting them again, etc. We can't afford to take risks in this draft. Just pick the best player/s with the picks we have and move on. Stop trying to outsmart everyone else for minimal gains.
    4 points
  42. I've had a good hard look at myself.......................................and i like what i see. I'm a pretty good looking rooster.
    4 points
  43. I don’t get why we would do 10 & 28 for the cats 2 picks. Why wouldn’t we have just done 8 for those 2 picks? Same result...
    4 points
  44. 4 points
  45. I've been told by a few people that the player we have in mind for pick 10 is Dylan Stephens. we apparently are concerned with Ash's disposal under pressure? maybe some of the draft watches can confirm this. Caleb Serong is in the mix as well but Stephens is the one we really like. i don't see us splitting the pick again.
    4 points
  46. Not yet, I will see what I can find out. I do like the idea of it though! I just know they believe Jackson could be an absolute star, And while they rate Young highly, they see Jackson has a bigger ceiling. They also love Pickett and weightman and would love to get them both if possible, so I guess that could see the Geelong trade happen. If it doesn’t, we get someone at 10 who could be any of stephens, serong, ash possibly.
    4 points
  47. one thing l am pretty sure of is that by trading with Freo who now have picks 7 and 8 we would have ensured they won't get in the way of the player/s we are eyeing off at pick 10.
    3 points
  48. Taylor said in a recent interview that we won't slide from one of our top 10 picks unless we know that the player we want will still be available. Even if it's a gamble, it is very calculated. In his mind, pick 28 is virtually for free. Feel better ?
    3 points
  49. I tend to agree, but I am just passing on what I have heard around the traps. but there are other needs for those clubs, so there is a belief that stephens may fall to us.
    3 points
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