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I went down and it was locked out for first hour but could see through fence then allowed in. Max Gawn ran laps — it looks like a 3 to 4 week injury. Andy Moniz-Wakefield ran laps. Blake Howes was taken off late as was on restricted minutes. Adam Tomlinson loudest on track and a leader - surprised me but won't be in best 25. Jake Lever on bike and walking up n down stairs, yelling out as he does. Melky copped a niggle so ran laps but is in amazing nick. Think he and Hibbo play Rd 1, Hibbo always surprises how well he still goes. Grundy and Brown need to go for marks and not just tap to mids at times. Gawn a lot better than Grundy, significant but last 3yrs tells you that. Clarry went off with a hand injury and came back on. Hope it's not related to last year Our mids look fit, Viney, Trac & Harmes. They will dominate again Bayley Fristch will have another great year, just reads it so well Trent Burgoyne didn't do a lot to notice Kozzie Pickett will play a lot of midfield, goody push him along, he looks amazing and training in there Tom McDonald in full training and forward, Petty back. Not many injuries and we are fit so lots of positivity to be had. U just want to be fit this time of year Matt Jefferson will be a player, took some nice grabs. Think Fritter and Jeremy Cameron for who he is like. Two years away. We are so mature and train well and physically strong, no doubt a Top 8 team when you watch them. Good voice n leadership Angus Brayshaw looks good but doesn't stand out. He is a match day gun though Lachie Hunter will be handy, he cheats out to space well Questions remain - can Kozzie give midfield more creativity but at what expense up forward Tom McDonald always important to us so if he plays does JvR miss? I don't think Goody knows who plays yet in key forward roles, I like JvR and McDonald and a bit of Gawn - no Brown. Will give good movement and contests and defensive work, plus Fritta Can u play Brown, Grundy and Gawn? I don't think so. Are Laurie and Spargo, Nibbler & Melky good enough to allow Kozzie to play mid or good enough anyhow to create a better mid forward connection on last year? Not sold on it We need a fit Lever. Can Rivers and Bowey step up? Hard to see Jordan playing if Hunter plays Can't see Woey getting a game as mids and wings bat deep Goin to see alot of same players, hopefully JvR plays but hard to see many other youngsters stepping up so can goody find the players motivation and some strategy improvements as with TMac (Brown or Grundy misses) that same team should win another flag in talent but also went 6-6 on way home and lost 2 finals. Fingers crossed, go dee's. well worth trying to get to training, it's good to see our elite athletes, everything is timed to the second and micro analysed with cameras drones etc

As mentioned previously, rehab consisted of Max Gawn, J Smith, AMW (looks laboured in his running) and Jake Lever. Max put in about 45 mins of light running and short passes without any venom in the kicking action and then disappeared into the rooms. I overheard Caitlin Nobes telling Tom Brown that Gawn’s hammy isn’t too bad. She also politely asked the CH 7 cameraman to not broadcast any of the recordings he’d done prior to her coming over. Adams and Verall doing some conditioning work and skills/positioning activities but did not join main group. All coaches in attendance apart from Choco Williams. Chaplin particularly vocal and demonstrative. Warm ups consisted of handball keeping’s off drills and then some end-to-end full ground overlap drills. Skills were okay in this but without any pressure I wasn’t expecting to see so many missed kicks and ordinary handballs. Main offender was Bailey Laurie in my opinion but there were several others. Match SIM then started with blues and whites. I couldn’t discern who was the first and second string groups were and they eventually switched it up anyway. Highlights - Jefferson has great hands and a well timed leap. He received praise from teammates and coaches on a few occasions. Pickett OMG he is sublime. Just cruises effortlessly when he has the ball and then cranks up his attack on the opponent when he doesn’t. Viney is in for a career best year based on what I saw today. In everything. Chandler will play plenty of footy this year if he can translate his training form into the heat of a game. Tomlinson was terrific down back and fair ripping it into anyone who was not doing what was required. Hibberd also very creative and was the main architect with switching the play across half back. BBB also performed strongly this morning and moved well. Howes looks a player. Lowlights - Laurie I thought was poor. Mainly handballs at teammates feet. Harmes lacked involvement in the match sim. Melky pulled out of match sim and ran a few 200m and was in discussions with staff about some niggle. Oliver was in real discomfort with that hand. He was point to the top part of his hand just below the wrist. I was thinking the worst given the carry on he was animating. Once he returned to the field he went straight back into match sim and got nicely winded but the hand seemed to be okay. Watch this space. Summary: Overall I was relatively impressed with the session. Grundy was moving well and the forward entry looked sharper with an obvious focus on neat entry into the 30m hotspot. There was a few Joe the Goose goals during the sim so it may be something in planning to create more of those opportunities. Melbourne traffic sucks. If I was a player I would quickly start to loathe the drive to Casey. No snakes seen. Any questions let me know and I’ll try to provide insight. Cheers 🍻

Gawn, AMW and J Smith in rehab group. Max running medium pace laps unhindered.

Howes trained fully. Lever was restricted to the bike and walking grandstand stairs. I’ll get back soon to you legends with a proper run down.

Oliver back on field.

That was an awful 7 minutes between posts!

Gus is training.

Thanks very much to all Landers reports. Im back from holidays and should be right to go with training reports next week at Casey. I can forsee a "TIME AND RELATIVE DIMENSIONS IN SPACE " report coming your way Cheers to all P.F

It’s Easter in January with many of our players resurrected during the course of the day. Max’s hamstring is low level, Gus is back in town and Clarrie looks okay. Glory be!

Good news for Max (and us). Low grade Hamstring strain.

Most important addition in last 24m and already showing having 2nd genuine wingman and one more elite i50 kick will do EONS for the fwd line And taking pressure off Langdon — 2 genuine wingers also means now JJ and Sparrow rotate through midfield to improve our rotation and ensure more explosiveness and horses for courses approach so the duality of this cannot be measured tangibly until about round 8-12 but if he is fit and plays the impact will be immense. 2 elite running, one good one great disp wingers whom BOTH are dangerous fwd and both run both ways is extremely exciting and offers as much as having TMac back, JVR playing & having Kossie play more of a blitzkrieg mid (5-6 CB att) and he and Fritta running back into 50 whilst others lead out — so many good things happening now we just need some luck

Just looks smooth. Handles the ball cleanly and his skills are looking classy. Also like the way he covers the ground.

Training reports suggest we have been practicing a set up similar to the Cats model of leaving space inside 50 with the ball kicked over the head of forwards who run back into that space to mark and have a shot on goal. In that set up Cameron essentially plays as a high half forward, not the KPP role he has played for most his career. That leaves Hawkins inside 50 - and any other tall marking target, such as Blicavs who might have pushed forward. Cameron suits the role super well because he is athletic, moves well, marks well on the lead out into space (which is the critical link up kick we employ too - ie long leads from players like Tmac from the half forward flank into space on the wing) and is a penetrating and accurate field kick who creates scoring opportunities. And importantly he can still compete, for example in pack marking situations, as a key position forward, when necessary (though that is clearly not a strength). Cameron is critical for the Cats in terms of how they transition the ball from their back half and enter their 50. That is the role i suspect they have Schache in mind for. He has the athletic profile and skill set for the role - and like Cameron, marks well on the lead, likes to have space and is a beautiful left foot kick. And i hope for Schache's sake i'm right. Otherwise, his chances of cementing a spot in the ones are minimal, as as you point out he is competing with TMac, Brown, JVR and the resting ruck for a spot as a key forward. He could certainly slot into Fritter's role as a medium leading forward, but would only ever do so as a fill in. And really, he'll never be a one on one key position forward (like JVR so obviously is for example), so it doesn't make much sense that they would have traded him to play a role he is, one, unlikely to get many opportunities to play and two is no good at.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty sloppy training session. Inferior to Friday. Mainly poor kicking. Jefferson and Farris-White both took great contested marks, which earnt them praise from the players. The highlight for me was there not being any wind the last two times I've been there. Extraordinary.

Definitely a thumbs up but couldn't understand a couple of the words

Interesting hearing him talk about his love for the tactical side of the game and then mentioning the the way Melbourne go about it which he wasn't use to. I'm really starting to look forward to him and Langdon as a weapon. Teams last year put a lot of work into negating EL, I can see oppo coaches being faced with a dilemma if Hunter returns to his best on the other wing.

Oliver's right hand or left hand today? The broken thumb last year was right. During the wet training session last Wednesday he copped a nasty whack to his left hand but seemed to recover enough to do the match sim Anyone got any info about Lever's injury and timeline to recovery? Thank for the reports fellas 🙏

Hence the preface re fitness 🤦‍♂️ This is a needs based acquisition, and Hunter has wanted out for 3 years. Already looks like a new man down at training and mark my words if he’s healthy you’re going to be feeling giddy despite your perniciousness!!! Lachie is seeing this preseason as a convalescence of sorts & his i50 disposal is top 10 in the game. If you can’t see that this is a need then.. well I don’t really know how to proceed. But to reaffirm my viewpoint, not for the sake of verisimilitude but for the opinion that (again — IF for/healthy as the aforementioned post stated) he adds real value & possesses much that we lack in some of the more nuanced skills. Not saying he’s guaranteed to make the greatest impact but as far as potentially plugging gaps go, he’s our most astute recruit since May!!!

Righto, I’ve committed to making the journey to Casey tomorrow. 🤞🤞 they let me in.

I've been to 3 or 4 sessions this year and two things are clearly evident to me: 1. The players and the coaches are really holding each other to account. Before, during and after drills there is always lots of animated discussion, finger pointing and head nodding. They obviously have very clear objectives of what they want to achieve in drills/match sim and they are not scared to have difficult conversations when needed. 2. There's a real urgency in everything that they do. Whether it's the intensity in a drill, the delivery of an instruction or the willingness to fix mistakes, everything seems to happen at a million miles an hour. I'm much more confident that the mindset of the whole club is in a better place than it was at any time during 2022.

On Friday, a supporter by the name of Gus, who's now either a volunteer or on the payroll and helps out at training, said next week's (now this week) training was at Casey on Monday and Friday and Wednesday was at Gosch's.

PHOTO GALLERY FROM TRAINING

I do apologise. It was far worse watching though I’ll give ya the tip.

That deescalated quickly.

I agree with this - if they are being asked to play the same role. To be honest i thought it was worth trying Tomo in that role last season. Unfortunately Weed wasn't up to it and i would have considered giving tomo a crack at it, such is the structural importance for us of that role. But as i said, Tomo is little undersized i think to be true KPF. Which is why i think a mobile forward role might be his best option. And to play that role he has to almost change body shape from previous years, become lighter and more like a 800 metre runner than a 100 metre sprinter (who are generally strong, power athletes). Or more like say Grundy than say hawkins - tall but lean. And he definitely has to improve his lateral movement and agility, something he has, like most players (eg Lever) struggled with post ACL. He doesn't look much different in this photo from training the other day, so perhaps I'm of the mark. But I'd be interested in the views of regular track watchers whether he is more agile and moving better this preseason - and what role he has been playing in match sims and in drills.

It's the time of year to be positive of course, but let's not forget that Hunter's last two seasons were pretty ordinary. So much so that most dogs supporters were happy to see him go. Some sort of improvement will be welcomed but let's not go over the top!

Well Red ...... it obviously depends which side of the fence it's on.

Well he is our Black Knight; "'Tis but a flesh wound", "Tis but a scratch"

AFL Training Sessions Date: Wednesday 25 January Time: 9:30am Location: Gosch's Paddock Casey Fields Training Sessions All Casey Field training sessions are currently closed to the public. Still expected to be Wednesday. I don’t think the tennis is a real encumbrance. But they have issues a little warning to our intrepid Casey watchers. I wonder if they’ll start locking the gate

Happy with a preseason practice match against the Tigers. We last took them on in a preseason game in 2021 (albeit that it was an unofficial game at Casey Fields) when they were the reigning premiers and we won narrowly to set the scene for our premiership. Encore!

I think we’ll see T Mc back as a pretty classic lead up CHF. With Schache purely for depth, he doesn’t have the speed or smarts to be Cameron. But with the resting ruck and likely one of JVR/BBB also up forward I’d be looking at Fritsch maturing and diversifying his game and moving from his stay at home role to mixing in a lot more high half forward. He’s the closest thing we’ve got to Cameron and someone who should have 15-20 touches a game far more often.

I died several times.

Interesting. Obviously Schache has untapped potential - but so do many players. I always thought he didn't have enough mongrel / aggression in him to play the role he needed to. Maybe the role you're describing allows him to make the most of his strengths. On Tomlinson, I do think he is under-utilised with his endurance. But I can't see him and TMac playing in the same forward line as they bring similar things (i.e height with endurance). I feel with a resting ruckman and BBB / JVR we would be too top heavy and the best teams will be able to run it out of their defence too easily.

Does not make any sense at all saying we recruited Schache for a high half forward role. We need pace on our FOrward Flanks like Chandler or ANB Kossie etc. not tall slower players to compete with our forwards already in Tmac BBB JVR or the resting ruckman or Schache in a KPF or forward pocket.

Not a single fried banana in sight. But I’m happy to say I didn’t sleep under a tree in the Frittata front yard. I slept in Fritta’s old bedroom and was woken this morning (a little hungover and waaaay too early, for mine) by being jumped on and face-licked by Oscar, the Frittata family pooch. Good times.

Not an easy rebuild.

I noticed that too when I went to training on the 9th of Jan. we lacked that last year after having it in 2021. Which I do get it, they did just win the premiership and it happens. This year we have a couple of players with points to prove/last crack at it Grundy - point to prove/at the back end of his career. Schache- last chance at it. If this doesn’t work out for him he’s career is done. Melks- Last chance Tomlinson - Last chance with us Chandler-most likely last chance with us I know last year we had a few players in the same position but I don’t think the other players were really motivated but I think they’re hungry again. Lever looks like a man on a mission and he gets really annoyed when he stuffs up and you can see it in his face he wants to make up for a mistake and that’s just at training. May is an competitive beast and hates losing Maxy looks to have found a new twinkle in his eye with Grundy’s inclusion. Tomlinson trained like a man that will not accept being in the 2’s anymore. JVR looked like a young man who knows it’s his time to shine. To me at training it was like they had last year off and they’ve missed it so much and never want to be away from footy again.. if that makes sense.

I’d be happy with just another one if I get to see it at the G

Well to be fair the first two played for them, the last lives there and Daisy has been to Geelong and patted a cat.

I think some in the media have slept on them a bit because of Hurts' health. I still think across the board it's a stellar roster and I've got their O-line as the best of the remaining NFC teams. Media blackout day for me today. Won't be watching on replay till about 5:30pm. For someone who grew up during the 49ers and Cowboys rivalry of the 90s this is just cruel, but it has to be done. My George Kittle jersey is layed out on the driver's seat of my parked car for luck.

That's some good critical thinking right there. Don't over do it though, otherwise you will just be thinking.

btw it looks as if only demon and tiger supporters can play "blue ball goes first, followed by the player with the red ball, then black, and finally yellow" makes sense too that the blue and red balls play first.

Hey, don't go expelling a Demon!

There’s still a possibility that another Dandenong Stingrays gun, Mitch Szybkowski, could end up at Casey. He’s been training for one of a supplemental selection spot at Essendon but he has some competition for a place there. The Bombers also have Oakleigh Chargers ruckman Hudson O'Keeffe and East Fremantle’s Jack Cleaver as well as former Magpie and Hawk midfielder Tom Phillips trying out for one spot.

The Casey Demons have a trio of Dandenong Stingrays players down at training in the hope of securing a contract and joining the VFL premiers in 2023:- • Melbourne Next Generation Academy and Vic Country player Finn Emile-Brennan (18, 181cm) averaged 22.1 disposals, 4.7 marks and 7.1 rebounds in 15 matches for the Stingrays and also played down back for Vic Country in the Under 18 National Championships; • Ned Moodie (18, 188cm) had 15.5 touches, 4.7 marks and 3.7 rebounds in 11 NAB League matches games; • Ziggy Toledo-Glassman (18, 192cm) picked up 10.8 possessions and kicked 14 goals in eight appearances. Was in the Vic Country squad. • We can also expect to see a number of 2022 AFL Demon draftees on display at Casey Fields during the coming season. In other news - • 2022 Premiership coach Mark Corrigan has taken up the coaching job at Geelong VFL and has been replaced by his senior assistant Taylor Whitford. • Some retired and delisted MFC players will be suiting up elsewhere. Leading goalkicker Mitch Brown will be with Southern league club Mordialloc while Fraser Rosman has signed with Port Melbourne for 2023 and Jake Spencer who was called out of State league retirement for a surprise appearance for the Demons just before the finals will continue on locally this year, switching to Northern team Montmorency. • Premiership defender Matt Buntine will remain on the list but expects to spend more time coaching at Casey Fields and playing VAFA for Caulfield Grammarians. • Casey listed mainstays Mitch White and Jimmy Munro who were captain and vice-captain in their 2022 Grand Final triumphs will be back to defend their premiership flags. Tom Freeman is also expected to re-sign despite playing just three matches last year.