Tough Kent

The ruck.

Take this with a massive, massive grain of salt. What a mutt this bloke is. A #whispers EXCLUSIVE “His head is that far up his own...” A club source today confirmed that the so called “infected dog bite” is a smokescreen for the real reason “CP5” will miss this weekend; he was dropped after concerns about his “arrogant” and egotistical behaviour #AFL 16 replies1 retweet18 likes Reply 16 Retweet 1 Like 18 Direct message AFL Trade Whisperer‏ @AFLTradeWhisper 14m14 minutes ago More Petracca underwent minor finger surgery this week and was medically cleared to play this weekend. The decision comes after repeated warnings from club officials, coaches and the leadership group. 2 replies0 retweets6 likes Reply 2 Retweet Like 6 Direct message AFL Trade Whisperer‏ @AFLTradeWhisper 12m12 minutes ago More The dog bite, while severe, was not severe enough to miss an AFL game.

Maynard, Bugg, Hannan, JKH. Our senior players and they all butcher the footy. Our list severely lacks class.

He was training with the forward group this morning.

Not yet mate. If you count Frosty there were 24-25 on the track. A few will be left out of that squad.

I got down to training this morning for an hour. It was a beautiful morning for it, if a little dewey which caused some handling issues. I spoke to Brendan McCartney briefly and he said the mantra this week was ‘Get in and bang some bodies’. Ben Matthews took the session. Here are some observations: - A few of the Casey lads were running when I got there. They play tomorrow so it was only the senior squad that was training today. -T-Mac did the majority of the session with the main group. The big fella looked fantastic and can’t get be too far away. -Jack Viney is moving well. Straight line sprints, lateral movement stuff, kicking in boots over distance. -Forgotten man Aaron vandenBerg was moving as well as I have seen him for a long time. He can’t be too far away from joining the main group either. -Sam Frost was training with the re-hab group. I’m not too sure why. -Jordy Lewis’ hand was heavily bandaged. He was the chief mover of the witches hat. -Hunt, Stretch, Tyson, Tim Smith and Weideman all trained today with last week’s team. There was no Bugg so I assume he has been dropped and will play tomorrow? I assume we’ll have two or three carry over players who will not play tomorrow and will be emergencies for the senior team. -No Balic, Hannan, Pedo or Maynard. -It was a spirited session. The boys looked keen for Tuesday.

I believe Balic pulled up tight in the hammy last week.

Just spoke to the bloke who is supposed to be calling the game for Casey FM (They thought they might go live in the second half but are still not operational) He was very impressed with Baker.

Believe it or not, the Casey FM van is bogged at the Coburg ground. That's why I'm listening to Bob Dylan instead of a call of the game at the moment.

It seems like our answer to surges at the moment is to throw numbers behind the footy. The problem with that is that the other side have all the momentum, smash us around the footy and don't let us clear our defensive 50. They get opportunity after opportunity to score. I'm not sure the coaches can do too much else at this stage. It's up to our leaders to say " [censored] this. I'm going to put my nose over the next contest. You're not getting past me." See Joel Selwood, Luke Hodge, Josh Kennedy.

Good luck to Wattsy, but if you want to build a game based around relentless pressure, ferocious tackling and every player playing their role you just can’t have a weak link in the chain.

Neal-Bullen gave his groin a tweak last week. Will not play Thursday and is racing the clock to play round 1.

I reckon you can add ANB to this list. He'll be touch and go for round 1.

Ollie has been told to play the game by his manager. Nothing surer he will be at Port next year.

Why does one feel the need to start a thread to tell all and sundry that we'll finish 10th??? #lookatmelookatme

Michael Hibberd not played International Rules tonight due to a very minor calf strain.

Jonsey actually took part in the City to Surf Fun Run last Sunday. He walked the 5 km with his family. I'm tipping there's no way this happens if he had even the slightest of calf complaints.

Bit of talk going around that young Jake is on $650,000. Good coin for a 21 year old, but certainly not going to throw things out of whack too much.

List update- Lumumba, Trengove, Hulett, Spencer, Kennedy, Watts* out Joel Smith upgrade, Lever, Balic* in. The Smith upgrade would be one of 3 compulsory draft picks. We have pick 28 and 35, so depending on what we get for JW, we probably won’t use pick 45 anyway. We have one rookie spot left and Corey Maynard becomes a category A rookie which means he can play round one. Did I get that right?

A few of the lads from the local footy club are regulars at the gym. They saw our two boys there.

I hear young Jake attended a boxing session with Jack Viney at Richmond Boxing this morning. Adelaide who????

You do deals in good faith. Never want to screw another party because you never know when it might bite you on the ass.

JL is a very accomplished boxer apparently. I reckon the kid will hold his own.

I'm not sure why people are so concerned with what we might potentially pay Jake. Todd Viney and his list management team plan for every conceivable senario years out from it eventuating.This will not be a panicked, spur of the moment decision.

Bernie has been a wonderful servant of our club. 100% the right decision at the time.