Scoop Junior

I went down today in what were pretty ordinary conditions - hot and windy. When I got there, they were doing repeat simulations of a stoppage on the wing and then moving the ball inside 50. There seemed to be an emphasis on handballing out of the stoppage, usually there were 3 or 4 handballs to chain out until a player received it in space and could then carry the ball forward. I thought the handballing was sharp and accurate but it is training against your mates in December. I thought Clarry got some great reads off hands in the stoppages and did step through the stoppage to come out the front rather than just give it off as soon as he got it. Langford also had two lovely reads, getting the first possession on the move from the stoppage. On the second occasion, he won it and stepped his way through the traffic to clear out the front. After that, they did some tackling on the far side of the ground. This was followed by more simulations, this time moving the ball from half back on a slow play. The emphasis here appeared to be on kicking a way through when the oppositon's defensive structure was set. There was barely any handballing in this drill, with almost all of the movement short kicks. There seemed to be a desire to kick on 45s and particularly a 45 into the corridor if an option opened up. Eyes seemed to look for the corridor, but if no option presented, it was then moved out wide. There were no long bombs or kicks over the mark. Not suggesting this is a game plan thing - more likely it was just a drill to practice short kicking in tight areas. Then finally, before I left, they split into 3 groups. The small backs did more 45 degree kicking, with Brown and Windsor in this group. The mids did ground ball work and the forwards had goal kicking practice. From what I saw, Spargo ran along the boundary at a good speed. Lindsay and Fullarton also did boundary runs. Not sure what happened with Disco but he also did boundary runs and didn't appear inhibited. Lever looked further behind in his rehab. Petty was with the backs during the sims, along with TMac and May. Also not sure what happened with Melk but Chandler dinked a kick into space and Melksham was running on to it (with the flight of the ball). He made a long sustained sprint to get there and then pulled up and grimaced a bit after it. I didn't see him grab anything but it was the sort of action where you can twinge a leg muscle. As others have said, thought Kozzie looked great running through the middle. On one play him and Trac fought for the ball on the ground. It was closer to Kozzie and he grabbed it, bounced up to his feet and sidestepped another player almost in one fluid movement and then cleared it. Tough session in that kind of heat - these guys really are impressive athletes.

Went down a bit later and most of it has been covered. -Two main drills that I saw were 1) stoppage at various parts of the ground where someone would collect the ground ball and then the focus seemed to be on spreading and moving the ball out of the area and eventually to the forwards. 2) kick from half back on the Punt Rd side of the ground where the kicker would try find a teammate to hit up. It was very difficult as the defensive side was playing a hard one-on-one style meaning it was difficult to find a free player. Also, the play seemed confined to the Punt Rd side, so the option of switching the play to the fat side was not there. It was essentially trying to pick a way through on the skinny side of the ground. Lots of turnovers but I don't think any team finds this an easy thing to do. -Rivers was with the mids in the stoppage drills, as was Bowey. While Bowey does tend to go to the back of stoppages as a half back maybe this was an indication of spending some time further up the ground? -Great to see Trac and Clarry in the stoppage drills. Trac just looks in sensational physical condition and his burst and lateral movement looked like it hadn't missed a beat. Clarry to me seems in better shape than last year but he does look a bit thicker through the upper legs than the others. Not sure if that's just his shape but he does look bigger through there than what he did 3-4 seasons ago. The key for him is whether he can get that burst out of congestion back that he was missing this year. That's what elevates his game to the next level. -Lindsay is not built like Langford but he is definitely not a bag of bones as some draftees are. He has some upper body size and at about 6"0 has decent height for a mid. Certainly a stronger build than say Windsor had at the start of his first pre-season last year. As for Windsor, he is such a beautiful mover. In the stoppage drill, when he got the ball he just burst away and they struggled to keep up with him. -Langford has that prototype big-body midfielder frame. He still has some filling out to do but the frame is there to really develop into a powerful unit. -The amount of running they do under the sun in 30 degrees is really quite incredible.

I don’t really rate that pressure stat. I’ve seen teams with high pressure stats hardly lay a glove on the opposition. I think the eye is the best test of pressure and GC waved the white flag in the second half - particularly in the last quarter. There’s a reason Dimma labelled it their worst performance of the year (and they’ve had some shockers). It wasn’t just their pressure, other parts of their game including their centre clearance work were woeful. Again not taking anything away from a really good performance by us with an under-strength side, but my comment was in response to the notion of ‘that’s what happens when you take the game on’. We aren’t going to face that level of inept opposition every week.

It’s always a bit easier to play with more freedom when there is little on the line. But while we did play well, I don’t think there was any radical change in game plan or methodology - we simply played a side that offered virtually no resistance after half time. I couldn’t believe how pathetic the Suns were in letting us do as we pleased after half time. It was bordering on a training drill. It wasn’t a true reflection of the usual pressure you face week in week out in senior footy.

Jordan Boyd just got away with a fine on the basis of his incident being high contact, careless contact and low impact. It was initially assessed as medium impact and downgraded to low at the Tribunal. On any view of the footage, Melksham's impact with McGovern is significantly less than Boyd's impact with Mansell. It would be somewhat astounding if Melksham could be classified as medium when Boyd was classified as low. That is even if the incident can be deemed a reportable offence, as there is an argument he is initiating body contact with his opponent in a bid to manoeuvre him out of the contest and then contest a mark, which he does do straight after the incident. However, Boyd plays for Carlton. So I look forward to the MRO / Tribunal bringing back the nebulous "potential to cause injury" concept to try upgrade the impact from low.

Agree. I was fortunate enough to attend both the Port Adelaide and Adelaide games this year but it's unrealistic to expect people (and especially families) to be able to head over and pay exorbitant prices for flights and accomodation every year. It's just another example of the AFL monetising the passion of fans and using them. The game is nothing without the fans but the AFL do no more than pay lip service to the interests of fans. They've now already started the Opening Round concept, which is just a mini-Gather Round in NSW/QLD and yet another round of footy taken away from fans. There has already been talk of another Gather Round in Perth. It's infuriating to hear those going for free (AFL, media, etc.) laud the concept. Who wouldn't want a free weekend away watching lots of footy? Maybe ask the fan who has spent $5,000 on flights and accomodation for the "privilege" of taking their family to the footy if they are in love with the concept. Yes, I get the AFL needs to make money for the benefit of the game. But it's a question of balance and how far do you go to make money at the expense of fans. There's always the ability to make more money but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Having a whole round of footy in another state is totally unnecessary for me.

The problem here is you are applying the wrong rule. The above rule is for deliberate rushed behinds, not out of bounds.

What difference does it make. We would've missed the target even if we kicked it to him.

When I first heard he had a knee issue it cast my mind back to Luke Molan who did an ACL, collarbone and got concussed in a single contest.

There is very little if any difference between Pickett’s incident versus Adelaide and Newman’s incident last night. Both were low impact but both stuck out the arm and made contact to the head. One is graded as medium under the nebulous “potential to cause injury” clause and the other is graded low. I really don’t see any difference in force between the incidents. You don’t want to think different players are judged differently (depending on prior conduct or the team they represent) but for those that think that is the case, this is about as compelling a piece of evidence as there is to support their position.

Exactly. It’s a nebulous concept that not only vests too much discretion in the MRO (sometimes it’s applied, sometimes it’s not) but requires the MRO to make an assessment it’s not qualified to give. What qualifications does the MRO have to assess whether an incident has more or less potential to cause injury? I’m pretty sure the MRO doesn’t have biomechanics expertise to make a proper assessment. It’s simply a way for the AFL medical/legal team to ensure they get the result they want to protect themselves in potential future litigation. FWIW, I don’t have a problem with Picket getting a week. I just don’t like this “potential to cause injury” and its indiscriminate application. That impact was simply not medium, it was clearly low. I’d rather they just say we are punishing the action instead of this contrived grading of medium impact based on potential.

I was at both games and must say I didn’t have any issues with Port or Crows fans. Maybe it was because I sat near the cheer squad so we had strength in numbers, but apart from the booing from Crows fans about the umpires (bizarrely when they were getting everything their way) it was all fine. Certainly nothing like Blues and Pies fans in the finals last year which was about as bad as I’ve seen it.

Well said. Not only did they target Gawn off the ball a few weeks ago, but I remember their game against Collingwood at the MCG last year where Clarke and Papley himself tried to rough up Nick Daicos off the ball, sparking a melee in the first quarter. Very hypocritical from Sydney.

I think it's disappointing there is no single family day this year. Yes it's chaotic and there are huge lines but the fact is the kids look forward to it. The splitting up of the family day in three events doesn't really work IMO. Firstly, the Melbourne-Richmond game is 7 quarters of footy. I will go and watch it all but I don't think I can take my kids - it's not really reasonable to expect young kids to stand at Casey (presumably in the heat) watching 7 quarters of a practice match, with possibly the last 3 of those quarters not consisting of too many Melbourne players. The training sessions in school holidays are not accessible to everyone, as lots of families will be away over the school holidays, in contrast to the usual family day in March when kids are at school. As an adult it doesn't really bother me, but I think we've missed a trick here for the kids.

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.