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They are out for a run just as it starts raining. It didn't last long, ended up a reasonable session weather wise. Light duties, BBB, rehab Farris-White, Melky, Salem and Spargo, all with private trainers. They are all playing soccer, huge amount of noise. 36-40 (difficult to get a count) in the main squad, biggest I've seen it in ages. Choco is barking out the orders. Goody has intense body language as he observes. Bowey in a lime green cap, and in the sims. Oliver is ball handling, required some re-taping after the first drill. McVee, McAdam, and AMW step away from the main squad, and are now with the trainers (light duries, goal kicking and easy laps). Melky joins the main squad. They are now into full field drills. Precise kicking, hard calls, drive the ball through the centre, and run. They rotate through the whole area, goal to goal, and both wings. Structured sims now. 9 against 18. Woey in the backline. Sims finish, and McVee, McAdam, AMW, join the group again. Salem, Spargo do easy, repetitive 200 metres runs. McQualter has them in the middle, chatting away, Chaplin then does some demonstrations. May and Goody chip in. They appear to be getting into the nitty gritty. They break, some continue talking, some off to kick goals (16 of them), others leave the field, the low ball getters as well (Laurie, Vines, River, Howes, Sestan, Woey, Hore). Goody one on one talk with Langdon. Choco with the goal kickers, mainly Fullaton. Then Tracc goes over for some tips but Choco stays with Tom. Oliver on the boundary by himself, sprinting. Now hard running laps. Choco now with Sparrow for some 45 metre goal kicking. Last out there is Petty and over walks Choco to help with his goal style kicking. Takes them from all the angles. Hits most of them. Just noticed Viney, still working with a trainer, as well as Melky and Salem. Oliver still lapping.

This is great. It's only a small thing, but it shows how far Clarry has come. Last year he was arguing with the fitness staff, now he is helping pick up the equipment after training. Doing all the team things. Well done to him!

Oliver after laps, he did some sprints, and more laps. Ended up on his haunches, gathering wind, a trainer comes over and they do a slap handshake. He finishes by picking up the equipment with the crew. It is nearly all packed up, except Salem still running laps. Had a chat to to one of the crew, reckons McVee is fine, just light duties, and they have a main session Sunday out at Casey. Salem and Oliver walk off together.

I spoke to Clarry last night. Said he is a stone cold certainty to play.

People can’t decide if they want the Pies or Port to lose? Watch our final last year against the Pies if you need help

Brand new attitude. He's not the first or last to have to make some self evaluations. It's still a road back but he's putting in some decent yards.

Salem being able to run just over a week after doing a hamstring is a good sign.

The intel I have is that Clarry won't be risked next week!

Put 2021 instead!

It's not coincidental that both Melbourne and St Kilda looked exhausted from the first quarter of their third match after consecutive 6 and 5 day gaps. That's accumulative fatigue playing out right there. Not heart, not effort, not game plan, not coaching, not personnel.

If Brisbane is going to claim Fitzroy’s flags they can sit top of this table with 933.

Not sure where you got that info from. Adelaide did have picks 11 and 15 at one stage but traded them (and a future 2nd round) to GWS for picks 8 and 17. The only report I saw that mentioned picks was from SA reporter Theo Doropoulos who said pick 14 and McAdam had been offered by the Crows. IMO Petty will leave at the end of this year and we'll be lucky to get a late first round pick. Petty's never going to be a KPP - forward or back.

BT quote of the round/season so far…. ”Taylor Walker. So intelligent.”

One must NEVER even consider the option of wanting Collingwood to win HATE😡

What a great report, from the writing to the content. Thanks as ever Kev

Not taking a pot shot at you BBP, but your post highlights a real bug bear of mine. As even occasional dl posters would know, I'm of the view that the impact of fatigue (what ever its causes may be) on performance is routinely ignored. And if it is ignored, any subsequent assessment or analysis is fundamentally flawed. My bug bear is this perspective (not mine specifically, but in the general sense) is often misrepresented. The suggestion or implication being that fatigue is used as an excuse and that other factors (eg coaching, tactics, flaws in method, strength of opponent etc etc) are ignored or given short shrift. A related bug bear is the conflation of reasons for poor performance with excuses for poor performance. Saying fatigue was a factor in our loss to the lions is not making an excuse, it is suggesting a possible causal factor. So, for example, there are a number of posters, me included, who have suggested fatgue was a factor in our performance against the lions. But I have not read a single post that solely or mostly blamed our recent schedule for our loss to Brisbane. Personally I'm of the view it was a significant factor, but of course far from the only factor. I'm probably an outlier, but I also think it was the most significant factor - because pretty much any other factor is exacerbated by fatigue. For example, in the simplest terms we lost because the lions were much harder at it than us, as evidenced by being smashed for cps, pressure and tackles. No argument there. But logically, tackling, applying elite pressure and winning contested possessions is a real challeng if across the board players are fatgued. On the saints performance I 100% think fatigue was a significant factor in, and one of the reasons for, their performance. I would argue if someone doesn’t, then, to be completely frank, they do not understand AFL football circa 2024. But is fatigue an excuse for their performance? No. And in fact, if you accept fatigue was a factor in both ours and the saints performance, there is another data point to consider. Playing a team at their level, the saints were completely and utterly woeful. Beaten in every quarter, never in the game, they were ultimately smashed by 10 goals and despite being one of the most defensive teams in the AFL conceded a crazy 124 points. Even factoring in the fatigue it was a shocking performance. Coming of our 5 day break, we were able to beat crows on their home deck despite completely hitting the wall in the last quarter. Impressive. We then play the lions, and whilst we had a seven day break, we were clearly feeling the impact of 4 games in 19 days and were obviously fatigued. Like the saints, we also played a team at our level, one that was up and about and as evidenced by their numbers, not fatigued. Despite that we kept one of the best offences to 82 points and only lost by 22 points. Sure, we played poorly, but analysed through that lens, suddenly the performance does not look so bad.

Players have got to have their lives too. I doubt a cooking demo does anything but make him happy.

You can't look at that in isolation. Compare the team we played against, who were coming off a bye and then playing a dead rubber against North. We had back to back away games, both very tough contested games that went down to the wire. Brisbane had a week off, and then played a game that was over at quarter time. In a competition as even as ours, that is a massive advantage!

I feel like I've been to every one of those 764 floggings.

I did my hammy when I was 14. Still waiting to get back to full pace.

Rachele single handedly cost his team the 4 points with his dropped sitters and poor decision making when the game was on the line.

I reckon if Carlton were trying to get the win instead of Adelaide, there would have been about 5 frees paid in that last minute or so.

That duck of the shoulder and throw the head back from Tex Walker was embarrassing.

sensible given op and then another 10 days until we play geelong

Just realised I am a year behind @Demonland Put 2023, instead of 2024 in the title.

Laurie was doing plenty of structured positioning in the stoppages during sims.

I am happy with that. Hope they give Laurie a full go in the midfield.

Great report.Thank you.

What I got from that is that Jacob is a great kid. He's got the right attitude and the raw talent that, with time and development, will see him become one of the best KPF's in the game. It's great that he'd love to play with Petty, but I have a feeling he will make it work with whoever he partners up forward in the years ahead.

I like to track JVR’s progress with Tom Hawkins. TH debuted a year younger but their stat comparison for their first two seasons are quite interesting. Both similar specimens at comparable age and development. Games, TH-19, JVR-26. Disposals-TH-196, JVR-227. Goals, TH-25, JVR-36. Contested marks, TH-23, JVR-22. Tackles, TH-24, JVR-57. There is a significant divergence in contested marks and tackles but these numbers reflects more how the game was played then and now. I can understand why the club has given JVR a long contract extension. His upside is huge.

The AFL just needs to get better than this. It’s a real reason why teams just can’t get up for a game. It’s not a good advertisement for The game watching 2 completely one sided games last 2 Thursdays that really should have been neck and neck talent wise.

The pain of Scotty Thompson gone missing? He was an absolute champion in the making.

Draper unequivocally dived on the ball. That is the most blatant free possible. All the better - need Crows to finish bottom 4 in case they come for Petty.

Ugh. Brad Scott makes his brother seem likeable.

I hate footy so much. [censored] Essendon. [censored] them forever. They make me physically ill.

If I were Nicks, I’d be furious at the players for the way they played in the last few minutes. Selfish plays and the amount of times the players played for frees was ridiculous.

Can we stop playing music after goals. It's not basketball or the big bash fgs

It seems that @Demonland has been lurking around in his DMC DeLorean again. I have elicited a promise from him that he won’t get ahead of himself or go back in time for now. We’re back to taking things one week at a time.

I believe the soccer genius you refer to might have been Niall Quinn who played Gaelic football and hurling as a youth in Dublin, including the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Final in Croke aged 16, in 1983. He once captained an Irish GAA youth side on a tour to Australia, and was offered a professional contract to play Australian Rules Football with Melbourne, but opted for professional football, in England where he played with Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland, and was ex-chairperson of Sunderland FC. He played for the Republic of Ireland from 1986 to 2002. Quinn was a 193cm striker and I believe that had he chosen to play our football, he might have been a key forward or defender and taken us one step up the ladder in those years in the late 80s and 90s when we came close to challenging for a flag. Needless to say, I remain disappointed that Melbourne has apparently chosen not to test the waters in this arena in recent years. Without the likes of Jimmy Stynes and Sean Wight, the club might well not even be in existence today.

So... who else is riveted by the prospect of tonight's game? Adelaide v Essendon to for the levitating potato cup.

I get that od. But i read your post as weed's journey provides evidence that not all players who show potential fulfill it. Sure some were hot for weed. But the heat dissipated pretty quickly. In his third season at the club JVR has only given fans more reasons to be confident he will be a star. Get on board OD, the kids a jet.

With the premiership & without Covid

Port every time @danielE288. Five good reasons: Hinkley's not a bad bloke (even though his pres is a complete @#$%). Who doesn't like Trav Boak? If we finish top two and they finish third or fourth, we pull their pants down in the first week of the finals at the Temple. Filth sitting 2/6 is a delight to behold. And any result the AFL doesn't like is the result I do like.

I'm off to the game too given we have a bye and I'm an AFL member. It's far too early to ladder watch so I reckon we go for Port and leave Collingwood reeling at 2-4. They'd have to then go 14-3 to make top 4. Have no interest in hearing that obnoxious Collingwood chant tomorrow. Hearing it at Gather Round after their poor win against Hawthorn was plenty enough.

Thanks Kev agree with Salems Lot felt like I was there great reporting on fairly miserable morning.!!

Let’s not get carried away now. 😅

Glad to see the flags added - that's new isnt it? Reminds me, still want to get my 2021 one signed by May and Kozzie and framed, beautiful top

The Dees podcast all over the impact of the five day break. Saints were really lethargic reinforces why Dee’s were so flat. Five day break really warp the competition.

Every year we have a shared banner with Richmond for ANZAC eve. We also make the banner with them. Last year we made it at our location, but because it’s their home game this year, they’re hosting us at Punt Rd (tonight). The Richmond folk hand-paint their banners. (Bless them 🥹) Apparently this can take (and has taken) up to eight hours. EIGHT HOURS. 😳 I expect to leave banner-making covered in paint (coz clumsy) but it sure as hell won’t be at 1am! Both MFC and RFC agree on the content, with AFL approval, but the ‘home’ banner-makers choose the design and construction methods. Not bragging (except bragging so much it legit hurts) but it won’t be nearly as impressive as last year’s. 😉