DemonWheels

A few words from Harley’s old coach Ross Lyon: ”But Lyon had caught up in Melbourne with another recruit and (now ex) Docker that struggled to get on the field in Harley Bennell, who has been listed by Melbourne. He said Bennell was sprinting in a way that he had never managed as a Docker. Lyon said Bennell, who had a succession of calf injuries at Fremantle, was "going really well" in Melbourne, having had successful surgery to his calf. "He's excited. He's sprinting. He's sprinting at levels he never was able to achieve at Fremantle. Up on his toes sprinting," Lyon said. Source: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/recruiting-jesse-hogan-a-whole-club-not-just-coach-call-lyon-20200309-p548cl.html

The game must get pretty tiresome if you live in it with that amount of detail as shown with so many coaches and reviews and meetings and rules about where you should be once the ball is turned over at point A, etc. As much as I love it I think that would ruin it for me.

Can’t recall ever having them so might need to give them a shot.

I loved coming home from school in winter and pouring hot milk over a bowl of Weet-Bix, make them all mushy and throw on some sugar or honey. TV on, kick back. Simpler times.

Why are so many expecting North Melbourne to make the 8? Am I missing something?

They’re amazing highlights. Fingers crossed he can get back to that level this year.

Weid is reminding me a lot of Gawn prior to his break out game against Geelong. Reads the ball, gets to the rights spot, beats his man... does all of the hard stuff... drops the ball. In the space of one match, Gawn changed that and hasn’t looked back. - I feel this so much that I’m just letting your words repeat themselves again. Carry on.

Our kicking skills need some work

I’m probably getting a bit too excited for just a practice game, but I can’t bloody wait. Might have also had too much coffee. Is it beer O’clock yet?

That was sensational. I could watch hours and hours of that. Such a fantastic insight into the personality and characters of the players, coaches and the club in general. Its amazing really how simplistic it all is. For some reason a big part of me thinks that the club operates like a big corporate and would speak that way but it’s really just a footy club with players and admin that attend and operate 7 days a week.

Must be something in the Gatorade over at Tullamarine.

Hate it.

Had a quick chat over Christmas with a relative of mine that is closely tied to the Petracca clan (specifically the older brothers). Reckons the penny has dropped and he has taken massive strides forward in maturity and ownership of his career/goals/fitness and wants to leave no stone unturned to ensure he reaches his potential (also with a mention to this being the last year of his contract, not that he wants to move but wants to build on what he’s done). Broken up with the Mrs and been spending all summer committed to the cause and working bloody hard.

In lieu of any real training reports at this time of year I can provide a little eye-witness report from this morning. Jack Viney and Jake Lever completed at least an hour of solid and intense running at an oval where I was also doing some group fitness training – so I was able to watch them pretty closely for the 60 mins while I was there (in breaks between my own intense workout of course!). 100m sprints, 50m sprints, shorter and more dynamic agility work, then some kicking of the footy. Was very impressed with the sprinting they were both doing given their recent issues of the last few years. Both looking very smooth and quick, not hampered at all, from what I could tell. Jack especially looked really smooth, fast and lean. Not much else to add but from my perspective they both look in tip top shape and appear to be two very highly driven individuals. On the morning of NYE there was also a slightly larger group with Lever, Salem, Jetta and Weideman at the same ground but they were finishing as I arrived so didn’t see how they went on that occasion.

Love it. Can't wait to watch him. I genuinely miss the excitement that Wona, Davey, Jurrah, the Wiz, Pickett, Whelan, Garlett brought to our footy club with pace, hardness, skill and brilliant footwork. Looks like this kid has it in spades. The extra dimension we have missed after drafting so many of the same players for years. Now we (hopefully) have a quality one to make a difference.

I knew they'd throw some highlights in that I hadn't seen but these are really impressive. Pretty happy with this pick. Could be a generational player. Could easily go the other way. Like that we're being brave.

Another note to add: Was chatting to someone today that sees Joel Smith on a regular basis and in fact he saw him this morning. Direct quote: "He's absolutely flying, he's in great nick – completely 100%". Based on that we have to assume they're just loading him up really slowly hence why he's in rehab.

Dropped past for about 35 minutes. Nice day to be out there. All players are looking in very good nick. Not sure if they’ve all been in the gym this morning but they’re all looking very toned and ‘jacked’, even the newbies from last year. They were running a 3 quarter ground drill for the whole time I was there. Lots of shifts in direction and switching and always finding a man on a lead with a break on his opponent. Purposeful kicking into the forward 50, no long bombs into the forward line. Tom McDonald v May was pretty willing. May definitely doesn’t hold back at training. His kicking will be a weapon for us next season – kicks hard, sharp and low. Tommy Mac was moving really really well. Looks super fit and fresh and covered the ground quickly. Was surprised at how big O Mac is. He’s got massive thighs and he looks pretty powerful. He was very clean with his ball movement/passing and got a fair bit of it. Other observations:• May in full training, didn’t seem hindered at all • Trac looking fit and moving well. • Hibberd moving nicely. • Jonesy amongst everything. • Langdon looking sharp and is a busy player. • Lockhart got a bit of it in the back line and was using it well. • Weed is looking super fit albeit in the rehab group, hopefully they’re just treading lightly with him as I’m really bullish he can have a great year if he is injury free. • Only negative: ANB and Hunt both missed goals from 10m out.

I was thinking it was numb because he'd been surfing, not because of re-injury. I've had a few dislocations and fractures in my fingers and they've reacted the same way for a long time after. Might be wrong though!

Based on that highlight reel it would be a tragedy (in football terms) if he doesn’t get back to playing and reach his full potential. Fingers crossed and good luck to us all!

He’s not super slow at all. Albeit I feel he lost a bit of pace this year like most of our team. Not sure there are (or have been) too many specialist taggers that have ever been super quick. If they were they wouldn’t be taggers. Cameron Ling was a great tagger – not quick – as one example.

Needs to start eating properly again. Feel like he hasn’t played to his potential since we heard about the ‘fasting’ he does. Would also like to see him used purely as a tagger which would create a bit more variety in our centre square make-up. We’re a bit vanilla in there at the moment and a different approach from just one of the very similar type/style players would be worth looking at.

Love him BUT needs to kick it further and not ALWAYS play the safest option. Bite off a bit more and he could be seriously damaging.

Great interview, thanks for posting.