Demonland

He didn’t appear to be hampered in any way during training. He was very angry when he came off and I thought it was because it appeared that he copped a cheap shot in the guts as well as a knock. I’m pretty sure he was talking on the boundary line with Selwyn Griffiths who didn’t seem too concerned about any ailments that might sideline Trac.

I agree I thought the tackling at times was fierce particularly in the keepings off drills. I don't think of Bayley Fritsch as a tackling machine but he laid a couple of really hard tackles today.

I've been to 3 sessions this preseason and I think they've all been very physical. Today was indeed very physical. This year is definitely more physical than previous seasons.

DEMONLAND'S TRAINING REPORT It’s a beautiful sunny morning at Gosch’s Paddock and I’ll be bringing you some observations from training. REHAB: Viney, Melksham, Joel Smith, Salem, Woey, Verral No Shows - Steven May & James Harmes Players warming up with kick to kick. Stafford taking the Rucks (Gawn, Grundy, Farris-White) in ruck craft drills. Verral acting as the umpire throwing the ball up. Lever, Petty & Hibberd running laps to warm up. White: Grundy Farris-White Clarry JVR Schache Fritsch Sparrow Howes Hunter Rivers Hibberd Tomlinson AMW Deakyn Smith Laurie Blue: TMac Gawn Lever Bowey Petty Brayshaw Petracca Jordon Viney (no number today) Brown Kozzy Melksham Nibbler Joel Smith Sestan Dunstan Langdon Kye Turner Jefferson Chandler Kozzy Clarry training with the main group. I didn’t notice any strapping on his hand. Interestingly Viney in the rehab group not doing anything. Boys playing a game of soccer. No Steven May No James Harmes Melksham involved in a goal kicking on the run drill. As already reported Lever is back in full training and does not look to be hampered by anything. Running and kicking freely. Looks in great nick. Max also running freely with no apparent lingering effect of his hamstring injury that sidelined him a few weeks ago. Clarry back in full training marking and handballing with no apparent discomfort in his thumb. Melksham and Joel Smith are participating in this no contact full ground drill Viney & Woey doing work on the rowing machine. They’ve broken up into the white versus blue keepings off game with a pink vest in the middle that plays on both teams. Kozzy in pink in one group. Lingers in pink in the other. Spargo now pink. Now Bowey One group keeps changing the pink vest. Lingers still the pink vest in his group. No one ever anywhere near him. Sestan does appear to have one quad bandaged. Moving freely though. Sparrow is a tackling beast. Has put on so much size. Looks like Match Sim is about to start. Clarry is wearing the flouro yellow hat. Assume this is meant to denote no or limited contact and isn’t a fashion statement or screen from the sun. Kozzy just carved his way through traffic with ease and such poise. I’ll eat my hat off his not playing more midfield minutes. Long beautiful kick from Trac off half back to TMac who turns and kicks beautifully to Jefferson on a lead. Disco Turner takes an intercepting screamer in the middle of Gosch’s Paddock. Rivers looks super fit. Hunter is going to be so important for us on the other wing. Constantly with the get, give and go again. He and Lingers on opposite wings is a weapon. Max playing last line of defence. If we kick to Brown in front on a lead so he can mark out in front he will be unstoppable. Hibbo came off second best in a marking contest with Trac and limping with some discomfort to his left leg. TMac, Brown & JVR all look in great nick out on the track. Would not want to be a round 1 selector. Jefferson obviously won’t play for a while but he is an exciting prospect for the forward line. Brayshaw came off and is getting his wrist strapped. He’s back out training now. Some great tackling from Fritsch today. Feel for Tomlinson. Works his guts out but I feel he has moved down the pecking order. Already hard to break into the defence with Petty, May & Lever and with Disco Turner impressing and Jed Adams doing his apprenticeship you feel he might not get the opportunity baring injuries. It’s evident that this year we’ll be bringing the ball back into the guts more rather than always predictably going along the wings and kicking into the forward pocket. Brown, Hibbo, Adams & Moniz-Wakefield no longer participating in match sim and are running half laps at a quick pace. Hibbo’s thigh has been bandaged indicating a corkie. Running with a slight limp. Melksham on the bike and Woey doing weights. Lever also left the match sim and is doing gym work in the makeshift shed. Ben Brown practicing snaps from the boundary. Howes also working out in the outdoor gym now. JVR cleaned up Petty in a contest. I like his mongrel. Petty eventually got up but he felt it as did the spectators nearby. DEELIGHTFULPLAY'S TRAINING REPORT Just about to rock up after 10 hours on the train to Melbourne. Don't think I'll be much good for insights but will add anything that catches my eye! Lingers is back from wherever he was After some light drills, the boys are playing soccer Joel Smith practising some goals, and then rehab group sets up for some agility drills Most boys now doing the three station kicking and grabbing on the run drill Rehabbers doing ground ball / low kick drills Salem walking laps with a trainer Tomlinson disposing well in kicking / full ground drill I second Demonland's comments about Clarry - saw him do some one hand grabs and then handball with his left hand (which was the injured one iirc) Some nice tackles by Jordan and Hibbo (in the group that has Spargs/Kozzie in pink) Burgoyne also did some agile handballs but later got caught Sestan tried a tackle on, then a few moments later got take down in a ripper tackle from JVR Hunter just did some nice running on the wing to link up with Tomlinson Gus shouting for corridor set up but then match sim ended. Might be a sign of more flexibility in game plan this season? Edit: match sim started after minute resetting Schache tries one handed grab while being pinned, Hunter swoops in and grabs the crumb before neat pass out Disco took a nice contested mark but fumbled disposal Chandler did great intercept on Grundy kicking to Hunter Seems like match sim is done - scoreboard reads 115 Blue to 99 White Tommo was great today in both match sim and drills but it's a packed field ahead of him Nothing we don't already know, but gee Bowey is a clean kick Chandler really working in this match sim, had a few good marks where he's run hard to win them Max and Grundy face off, Max successful but Hunter snatches the pass out (Max the only blue) Kyah faces off Petty for a mark and then "goals" (as far as there's such a thing in these match sims) to shouts of delight from some of the boys. Nice to see him coming along! Choco supervising and kicking points haha Trac limping off over to the shed but not sure what caused it - nothing immediately prior that looked like it could cause damage Squad now lined up down the centre on either side, with individuals coming down the centre to kick for goal head on. Heckling on the approach and shouting encouragement after. Didn't go for too long, was using Choco's striped balls I didn't notice Deakyn much but Schache went well in the match sims. Few good marks and nice positioning at times. DEESPENCER'S TRAINING REPORT Pert, Lamb, Richo, Kelly OD..good crop of admin here on the outer wing Lot of quality in the blue team. Chandler, Dunstan, McVee the only non best 22 starters. Jeffo rolling in too. White has Oliver, Grundy, Hib, JVR but otherwise seems the lesser side and Fritsch Lovely spoil by K Turner on JVR, then recovery and handball out infront of Langdon. AMW closed quickly and disrupted the handball though. More of that from Turner and he’ll get the last list spot K Turner switch to JJ. JJ hits corridor kick to Max. Gets the handball, hits Jeffo on the wing, he rolls to Spargo. Spargo plays on, bounces, hits up Dunstan 35 out filling in from midfield. That’s the game plan. Nasty clash between Hibbo and Hunter after a Tracc marking contest. Hibbo in a bad way He’s up and gingerly walking it off. And jogging back to position. The pig lives! Kyah banana! Young fella kept involved running down the flank, Nibbler kick missed JVR, Kyah pounced, stepped through traffic and nailed the snap from 40 out. Exciting Blue team are dominant forward of centre (having BBB, TMac, Tracc and Pickett) but being held inside d50 at times leading to long bombs. The lack of May and Salem is showing. White a bit the same, but Sparrow long to JVR seems an effective match up. Andy Moniz-Wakefield was filling in on a wing and I think JJ had 15 touches on him, but when he did get around the contest he looked handy. He’s wearing bigger shorts than Eddie Betts Messy low intensity start to this sim. Adams now doing sprints with Hibbo, AMW, BBB who have been pulled out Good stint in that drill from Jeffo, finding space on Disco by timing his leads and leaps. Very very messy period of match sim. Honestly I would’ve called it off and given them a bake. No doubt they’re running on fumes down rotations but there’s a lack of off ball running to create switches and corridor looks. You can’t beat a zone purely by accurate kicks, you need guys moving in and out of gaps. Not sure why the coaches are so keen to keep practicing JVR and Petty crunching in to each other over and over again. Not sure if it was the defensive pressure dropping off but they just finished a much sharper period with far more corridor play. Pretty willing session from what I saw between 10:05 and 11:20. One big full ground drill that seemed to be a mix between 3 cone kicking, some defenders involved and hit up kicks. I couldn’t work out who went where so good on the players getting this one sorted. Otherwise periods of match sim for about 10 minutes at a time mixed in with some high tempo small handball drills. Standouts: Fritsch, playing as a lead up target on team white and just racking it up in the corridor and facilitating nicely. Sparrow, showed an exceptional turn of speed to take the game on and used it well. Tracked back in defence hard. Looks ready for more midfield time Oliver was Oliver. Gawn dominated the air early. Grundy got involved at ground level, he links up in traffic very naturally. Liked the work of JJ on one wing, and Langdon had the better of Hunter on the other. From the young guys Jefferson was really good. You can see the way he reads the play and times his leads. Even showed the ability to push back in to a defender then hit up. Only one mark that I’d even remotely call contested but plenty of others with natural extension towards the ball. Then he makes calm decisions with the ball. Kyah also had a good day. He’s a proper tall ruck so can make an impact at marking contests even if he’s still learning positioning and timing, then he has the athleticism to get back on to the ground ball first. It will be 5 years until we know for sure if he’s any good but early signs are he has the tools. Schache has moments were his tank to present to space really looks the goods and his skills are solid. But he got worried out of a chest mark when 3m clear on a lead and he had a one on one with Gus that was halved but they were side by side competing. Not sure his fatal flaw has improved. Deak Smith had some willing contests but didn’t stand out. McVee throws in some classy moments with a cheeky underground handball and the likes. SLARTIBARTFAST'S TRAINING REPORT Just back from training and having read the posts by others there isn't a lot to add. I've not noticed Jefferson much to date but he was very good today. He marks the ball at his highest point timing his jump really well. He was a lot more involved in the match sims and disposed of it well. It's the first time I've really thought he's shown something in the match sims but I think he'll be good. Schache was disappointing for mine today. I noticed a few skill errors under little pressure and he just seemed a bit off. For mine he's well behind BBB, TMac and JVR. Deakyn Smith didn't do much but he's only just got back into the match sims and like most of the younger players he just wasn't involved. When you report on training sessions it almost goes without saying that blokes like Clarrie, Gus, Trac and the other mature players do well. So I tend to concentrate on the younger players or those who I think might push for selection. The two standouts for me today were Kade Chandler and JJ. Kade was so clean with the ball, I didn't see him fumble once and his disposal by hand or foot was pretty good although like everyone he missed the odd target. JJ was in everything and got leather poisoning. I think I'm like many who really like him but struggle to see exactly where he fits in but on his performance to date during PS he is best 22 and my observation is his best position is midfield. He's clean with the ball, he's brave, he gets it and he makes good quick decisions by hand. I just wonder if we should start to spread the load on Viney, Clarrie and Trac and start to give kids like JJ and Tommy S a bit more prime time mid roles. It would give the top boys a bit of a cop out and it would make the opposition concentrate on more than the big three. Others to impress today were Bowser who I thought was very good, Riv who looks in good form, JVR who continued his good form and for a bit of a smokie, JFW who I reckon is well ahead of where they thought he would be. He's nowhere near senior level but for a young kid who hasn't played any real footy he shows quite a bit, and encouragingly plenty when the ball hits the ground. My boy Olie Sestan did some nice things too but his fitness needs some real development. And for Dazzle, Joel Smith started to do more than just running the boundary with some gentle agility work. The match sims today weren't a fierce as some others I've seen and it was more ball movement today. Players were not finishing forward plays with shots for goal and the tackling wasn't as intense. It was a solid session going for well over 2 hours. JOEBOY'S TRAINING REPORT My first preseason venture out to training today, and I believe there’s going to be major headaches about filling the 2 key forward positions Brown is moving very freely and looks strong TMac is probably the pick of the bunch looking leaner and moving unencumbered JVR is everything you want from a KPP with skills, agility, and ‘attitude’ aplenty Fritsch of course picks himself KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING REPORT Beautiful morning for it. They are getting to the stage where there is plenty of push. The drills and sims were done with intensity and voice. There was an extra sim's session, making 4/5 in total for 6 minutes each, with hardly a rest during, as the ball kept moving. Goody was encouraging them to all run the transition hard. Most had to push hard up the field. At times, it looked like our backs ran so hard they were playing as forwards. They were often getting their passes over the backs to the forwards leads. Seems like they are working on creating an open forward line. Some defensive structure to hold the ball in the forward area worked well. By the end, many ended up on the haunches. They have stepped up the tackling in the handball games, they were also encouraging them to break the tackles with fends and steps away from the defender. A bit different from last year, in that they don't separate into their lines (forward, back, mid) very often. Thought Burgoyne did well, got plenty of it by running hard and getting separation, also used his shimmy/step to find clear air. K.Turner was always chasing and couldn't get in it. D.Smith was looking good, beat his opponent a few times and laced the ball to the next player. Moniz-wakefield missed a few hit ups, wasn't alone, as a few of the 1 to 3 year players did the same early in the sims. Jefferson has amazing long arms and his hand are gold. Needs to bulk up, but is looking like a potential. Spargo was in everything. Petracca getting lots of intercepts. Oliver and Kossie the stand outs. Tmac is looking powerful and getting some good acceleration. Lever left early and with no May there, our lack of backline structures made it easy for the forward thrusts. Petty up one end and Tomlinson the other didn’t get much support from the others, especially with the forward push, they were frequently isolated without the usual zoned area. Not sure if the cohesion between the group of best 30 and the rest is great. At one stage, Lever asked judd McVee what his name was in a drill. Hoping it was tongue in cheek. Hunter got hit in the collision with Hibbo who corked his thigh, got it strapped and was running it out. Lachie then smothered a ball off Max's boot with his head. He didn't appear dizzy, but that was the end of the session for him. Maybe getting the concussion tests. Our intensity is causing many niggles early on in our preseason. Talked to a volunteer, he tells me the practice match out at Casey will be curtain raised by the, Casey Demons team versus Richmond VFL. You can read the entire training thread here: https://demonland.com/forums/topic/54834-training-wednesday-8th-february-2023/

I haven’t had a minute to compile my observations but will get to it in the next hour or so.

I didn’t notice Deakyn that much today. I have been impressed with Schache over the few sessions I’ve been to this preseason. I noticed he dropped a few marks today which was unusual because he has been pretty clean with his hands to date.

Laurie did a few nice things. You don’t notice him much. His disposal was a lot cleaner than I and others observed a few weeks ago. I’d think there are a number of players ahead of him in the pecking order. Baring good form in the twos I can’t see him cracking into the side just yet.

I believe he did in the earlier full ground drills which weren’t contact but then not in the full match sims with contact. Also when they separated into two groups for the keepings off drills there was a third small group that did the same thing without contact. He was in that group along with Ben Brown, Clarry, Chandler & AMW and perhaps one or two others. They were further away so I wasn’t paying as close attention.

Looks like he copped a cheap shot in the guts from Rivers in a marking contest. He wasn’t happy with it. Limped off but seems fine.

That’s a wrap from me. I’ll compile my posts and add some other observations later. Feel free to ask questions.

JVR cleaned up Petty in a contest. I like his mongrel. Petty eventually got up but he felt it as did the spectators nearby.

Howes also working out in the outdoor gym now.

Ben Brown practicing snaps from the boundary.

Lever also left the match sim and is doing work in the makeshift shed.

I’ll be happy to answer questions on anyone I haven’t mentioned.

Melksham on the bike and Woey doing weights.

Hibbo’s thigh has been bandaged indicating a corkie. Running with a slight limp.

Brown, Hibbo, Adams & Moniz-Wakefield no longer participating in match sim and are running half laps at a quick pace.