SaberFang

Dawes, Salem, Kent, Dom, Toump and Frawley all practicing set shots at goal. Dawes has fantastic accuracy, hardly missing a shot.

Today's rehab group is Tappy, Hoges, Jones, Gawny, Dawes, Jamar. Clark running around the boundary of the rehab oval. All looking fairly sprightly.

Boys being very vocal in the middle now doing handball drills. Great to hear. Fairly big crowd today.

I definitely think from a list management perspective, we need to start solidifying long-term replacements for Clark, because I can't see him getting a full season for us without being injury prone.

Ten News will also have a feature tonight on our training at Casey. Getting some great exposure for the club and our sponsors this year. Will be even better once we announce our captain.

Great photos!! Excellent work Six

I'm sure he'll be crying into his giant pile of millions we had to pay him out for.

That's Billy Stretch, training with us for a few weeks and a potential father son selection for us at this years draft.

The man tried his best. Didn't work out. His disastrous reign led to one of the best things to happen to our club in years: Paul Roos. Can't complain about that. Without Mark Neeld that would never have happened.

Well he needed same-day surgery so I'm thinking it was pretty serious.

Well we all knew Dawes would miss pre-season after his surgery. Hogan's just out of action for a few weeks, and they're being cautious with Clark after his pre-Christmas injury. Can never be too careful at training. Just look at the Crows and Van Berlo, he won't even play this season after going too hard at training. That's the last thing the trainers want for Mitch.

Bingo. We need to know where our salary cap's at next year and beyond, so we know how much we can start offering our big guns. The club can lock in potentially great players at a lower cost if they are unproven. If these two have break out years and kill it on the field in 2014, they'll cost us more to re-sign after the season, leaving less money for the big contract re-signings like Chip.

He'll be gutted he can't get out in the 40° sun to work on general fitness with the boys, but as above, more time in the gym to keep building his body.

Is he even allowed to train with us? doesn't that violate some rule with future draftees, which Essendon was also doing last year?

Seeing some great camaraderie watching vision of our time trials. Watts collapsed at the finish line and Crossy goes over to him, grabs him by the arm and helps him up. Lots of team work, great to see.

I'm surprised Chapman wanted to go there at all, but then there's the Bomber Thompson connection and it kinda makes sense I guess.

Agreed, would be nice if they could find a bit of extra money to get a photographer or videographer in a few times a week to take training photos. I assume the boys are in Tuesdays/Thursdays doing gym work as well? Some behind the scenes stuff would be a real treat, and great publicity.

I'd rather a properly rested Dawes easing into the season mid-year, than a rushed Dawes getting injured round 1 and sitting out the rest of the season.

Looks like Ten News has a story on training starting back up today for the Dees (and other filthy clubs we won't utter), probably around 5:40pm.

I had to double take the other day when I saw a few of our new recruits partying it up at Falls Festival in Lorne. Happy to report they looked pretty well behaved, drinking water right before midnight NYE. Was going to ask for a photo but didn't want to be that guy.

Headed down for an hour to watch the boys. JKH was an absolute standout from where I was watching (doing drills with Harmes, who had some sloppy missed marks from easy kicks). JKH consistently goes hard at the ball, has a speedy pace, very clean hands, and a nice kick about him. Couldn't find much to fault him over. Would love to see him in round 1 next season. Dom Barry had a few sloppy disposals and botched marks as well.

Personally, I think the destruction of culture at the Swans will set them back out of the top 4 next season. Just my two cents. They were a far worse team this year than they were the year before, and they had Tippett for half of it.

Gotta start playing smart in the new world of free agency. The footy world was blindsided by the Buddy deal, but it won't be the last of its kind. Starting negotiations with players a year out from signing them will become the norm within a few years. So these are the players up for grabs next year: Brisbane Lions Ash McGrath Carlton Bryce Gibbs, Kade Simpson, Jarrad Waite, Andrew Walker Collingwood Harry O'Brien, Ben Reid, Dane Swan Essendon Heath Hocking, Leroy Jetta Fremantle Garrick Ibbotson, David Mundy, Luke McPharlin, Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands Geelong Steve Johnson, James Kelly, Trent West Hawthorn Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell Melbourne James Frawley North Melbourne Todd Goldstein, Lachie Hansen, Lindsay Thomas Port Adelaide Travis Boak St Kilda Sam Fisher, James Gwilt, Leigh Montagna, Nick Riewoldt Sydney Swans Adam Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe, Nick Malceski, Ted Richards West Coast Shannon Hurn, Daniel Kerr, Matt Priddis Western Bulldogs Matthew Boyd, Shaun Higgins, Will Minson, Robert Murphy, Tom Williams ------ Given Roos connection to Sydney, I'd say we could be eyeing more than 1 of those Swans FA's. Landing Waite would be a brilliant pick up. Thoughts?

Well we've got Billy Stretch under the F/S rule if we want him. Hopefully slips to a second round pick though, gives us a chance to pick up a gun in the first round.

Heaven forbid, do we not have far more important issues as a club right now than worrying about heavily hydrated players needing to urinate in public? It happens at every training session for every football club I've worked at during training sessions. It's obviously faster, and as pointed out, coaches would be none too pleased if players missed a drill just to relieve themselves. They're hardly doing it right in front of people and players use discretion about where they go. I'm much more concerned about players working on improving their heavily maligned skills than worrying about where to urinate. That's where their focus should be. As far as wasting even a cent of money on public toilets that could be spent on a million other things that actually help improve our club, well... get your priorities straight. Kids are not going to think twice about it, and families that get offended obviously don't understand much about elite athletes, hydration and training sessions.