grazman

We've replaced the coaching staff in almost its entirety, we've adopted a new game plan, we've given players suffering from overuse injuries a chance to be ready to play during the season (not just the preseason and rds 1-4) and all I'm seeing on these forums is a bunch of pea-hearts and chicken littles whinging about how our year is over before it's even started because we haven't won a practice match. It's not me that needs a reality check. I went to see three matches last year against Geelong, Collingwood and the Swans. Two demonstrated just how bad we were (in terms of game plan and injuries) and one demonstrated the upside of our list. People were quick to bag Ross Lyon's performances last year, this year will be a much better indication of where he is at as a coach. I'm not advocating we'll win a premiership and we may not make the eight, but we'll be a much better side in 12 months time for having Dean Bailey and Co at the helm. We still need to improve in a whole lot of areas such as our player rehab, tackling, handballing and decision making, but these are all areas that are being addressed. (BTW the one team's performance I'll be very interested in this year will be Essendon. Apparently Hardwick was overlooked because he didn't think they were good enough to make the eight and needed some overhauling of the list. - Knights has gone pretty hard with the NAB cup... let's see how they're travelling by about rd 14)

What situation is that - favourites for the spoon... Like Hannabal said I wouldn't like to be stuck in the trenches with a lot of the posters on here.

Forgot to add Rhett Biglands to that list as well. That's 6 ACL's already.

No worries... no offence taken, and I understand what you're saying, but I think the AFLs position is to take the game to as many communities as they can - given that the premiership season is limited by H&A restrictions. Personally I'm not sure how much this might mean in revenue, but if we're relying on playing in Melbourne the day before a family day to sign up enough members then we're definitely talking about surviving rather than thriving.

I don't want to tempt the footy Gods, but here are the list of casualties for the year so far before a single premiership match is played: Nick Malceski Swans - ACL (Season) Paul Haselby Dockers - ACL (Season) Brad Dick Pies - ACL (Season) Kristen Thornton Swans - Knee (Season) Farren Ray Bulldogs - Cracked Fibula (6-8 weeks) Brad Fisher Blues - Broken Thumb (8 Weeks) Fraser Gherig Saints - Calf (3 weeks) - I'd think this is extremely optimistic. I see the Saints are saying Max Hudgton is OK, but he looked to grab his Hammy to me...

They've played Challenge Cup games at Narranderra before. They've also played them in Griffith as well. I think first and foremost is the prerequisite that the ground is up to AFL standard. The problem with Griffith as I understand it is that they play cricket on the oval as well. Having spent a large portion of my working life living in the Riverina I'd argue that support for AFL in the area is very strong and their contributions to footy in general shouldn't be undervalued.

Collingwood Carlton Hawthorn Richmond Essendon In Canberra it's Belconnen - They have Port Adelaide Colours - a Collingwood emblem (and mentality) and sing the Hawthorn song - now that's a team you can hate!

It probably just looked that way to me, because whilst the Saints did have a few youngsters, bye and large I could identify who most of the players were - so yep my bad. Looking at the list I saw Hudgton Gehrig, Kosi, Fisher Fisher Dal Santo Milne Blake Gilbert Baker Gram Montagna Fiora Charlie Gardiner I'm no expert on the Saints, so I won't argue the toss about who should be in their best 22, but I count 26. If CJ and PJ miss for us do we count them as part of our best 22? it's also debatable about how many games they can squeeze out of Gardiner, King and Harvey collectively, so once again my apologies, I should have qualified my comment as a near full strength side for a preseason match (most sides rest 5-6 senior players a game in the preseason) It's just interesting to compare the approaches. I'm not sure that restricting senior players programs and limiting their game time (putting them in cotton wool - according to the press) is a mutually exclusive term to having them prepared for the season proper. Yes they probably need some match fitness and need to play some game time, but the new NAB format isn't the best format to manage this - I'd go even further and suggest that the Saints really had nothing to gain by playing very senior players with histories of soft tissue injuries for extended periods in a preseason game, and a lot to lose. It won't be easy for either Gehrig or Hudgton to regain the fitness base they had. (As for Kosi, I don't think he was badly injured, but has he ever played more than two or three senior games in a row without being injured? - I won't be picking him for my dream team) Maybe we weren't fair dinkum about going all the way in the NAB, but if we get games into our younger players in the preseason, if our key players get enough match fitness to be ready for round 1 and if we've got as close to a full list as possible to choose from (remembering that Whelan was broken before the Preseason) then I'll be very happy.

Agreed. Double the number of weeks for a youngster and add 2 more.

Saints went in with a near full strength team to battle it out with the Cats today... So far in a match that's worth zero premiership points they've lost: Gehrig - Calf Hudgton - Hamstring Kosi - Unknown. Kosi should be right, but it's unlikely the other two will be ready for a while.

That's more than half our best 22 right there. Whelan has a calf/achilles injury.

Still injured. Achilles or calf. I don't think anyone's even seen him get into a trot this preseason. He'd be the biggest injury concern at the minute.

Absolutely Old, Before he can fix it, Bailey needs to know not only what is broken, but what he's got left in reserve and whether they'll be up to the task. Why risk your best players? You can't take anything out of the PS comp IMO. It'll all be completely different by the time the real stuff starts.

Sure, but what's the alternative - rush their rehab? From what I saw in Canberra and considering they played the practice match the following are ready to play now: Carroll, Moloney, Davey, Miller and Frawley. That they didn't is because the club is being conservative - Bailey wanted to look at the players he hasn't seen before and that's fair enough. In the Age the other day he said Riv would probably be 100% by this coming weekend and in Canberra said that if Morton does everything right then he's in line to play about week 3 or 4. The only players I have doubts as to their ability to recover for the season are Whelan and Grimes. Neita will be fine and they are just rapping him in cotton wool, Brock and Ricky will be fine for rd 1 and so will Bruce probably. Bartram is pretty much training at 75-85 % now. CJ trained strongly in Canberra and had a bandage on the next day so I'm assuming it's nothing more than a precautionary measure for a slight niggle as he's moving freely. The only players I'm unsure of in terms of injury are Dunn and Wheaters.

I don't see the point in guessing with this sort of stuff - which is what you appear to be doing. I'd say very few of your prognosis are anywhere near accurate.

I guess when the real stuff starts we won't have Bode and PJ taking the kick outs... well you'd hope not.

I think it must be Spencer DD.

CJ had a compression bandage on his thigh prior to the scratch match in Canberra. I'd say he has a slight strain as he was walking laps, but was smiling and not inconvenienced at all during the rehab session. Unlike others I'm not worried about our injury situation at all. The club is being very conservative with rehab,- from what I saw in Canberra the likes of Bartram, Moloney and Petterd are all on track. I'd hate to see any of their long term recoveries compromised by a desire to win a match that doesn't actually deliver any premiership points. On that basis I don't know why people would leave out Jamar of the squad of 26 - I would have thought it's exactly this sort of match he needs to play in and do well. - As our first competitive hit out with a new coach I'd expect that all of our blokes would want to really play well to push their case for a round 1 inclusion. I think from what we've seen in preseason so far you can mark down PJ as a forward with most of the rucking duties shared between Meesen and Jamar. I think if White plays it will be as a forward with only limited time in the ruck. I think Garland and Miller will play as backs. FWIW I can't see the cats risking all of GAblett, Mooney and Bartel in this match. B: Cheney Miller Bode Frawley Garland Bell Green Sylvia Bate Davey Holland Newton PJ Robbo Yze Meesen, McDonald Jones Int: The rest with McNamara and Zomer to miss.

It'd be worth turning up earlier. Training on Wednesday was listed for the same time, but when i got there at 8.45 they'd already started.

It's probably just me, but when I quickly look at the title of this thread I could swear it says an 'an old lady who could surprise us' ... probably just me.

No idea... usually the private schools have restrictions on their students in relation to having to play for the school, but the important point to note is that he's a listed Melbourne player so he won't be playing any footy without the club's permission. I gather from the way Dean Bailey was talking yesterday, the club is really taking a big picture long term approach with Addam. I don't think it will hurt his overall development at all to be playing both PEGS and Sandy.

Nick Smith. This particular moniker was coined due to his permanent status on the injury list with 4-6 weeks beside his name.

Thanks oldfart.... was that you I was standing next to at the ground... I was the pelican wearing the suit (I skulked away from work) Thought I'd just add my 2 cents worth - unlike DOF I wasn't there the whole session as I got there about 8.45 when they'd almost finished warming up and then had to skulk off again about 9.40 to a meeting, when I returned about an hour later they were leaving the ground... As already stated Brock didn’t participate at all, but didn’t appear to be carrying any injury, I didn't see any strapping on his knee. He participated in the U16 coaching clinic the day before and was moving freely - he looks considerably taller this year for some reason - probably the cactus he's got growing on his head. I did spy what looked like a packet of antibiotics on the bench next to him, so I suspect it’s not a major issue. Absent from the session were Cameron Bruce and Paul Wheatley- DOF has better eyes than me cause I didn't spot him at all. Adam Maric was also absent, DB telling us the previous evening that it’s his first week back at school. My apologies in advance at not being able to pick out some of the newer recruits. Cale Morton was there, and I’ll say straight up that everything we’ve heard about him so far is accurate. He moves beautifully and has great foot skills. Got tackled in one of the evasive drills by Jeff White and looked to make amends very quickly- looked to be filthy with himself. I was able to pick out Stefan Martin and Shane Valenti (who will be ready to step straight into senior footy straight away in terms of body shape anyway) There were plenty of others there that I couldn’t pick. One whose nickname is ‘pencil’ accurately describes his body shape. There’s a lot to get excited about by Aussie W. Very quick and clean skills and I’d hazard a guess to say if he plays like he trains then will get a run sooner rather than later. For those interested there also appeared to be a couple of Chinese trainee’s involved with the whole session. Others not to participate in the session were Lynden Dunn who walked laps – not sure what the problem is, but hope it was merely precautionary. It looks like he’s been hitting the gym pretty hard as he is a very big unit now! I didn’t see Wheels train at all and he was later icing his calf. Neita did leave the training about half way through to ice his knee, but this appeared to be precautionary only as he was moving freely and didn’t appear concerned or inconvenienced at any stage. The good news was that Ricky Petterd joined in most of the drills after doing some rehab work and Bartram completed all the drills that I saw. Col, Riv, Beamer, Flash and Ooze all trained strongly and looked to be over their complaints from last year. I’m no great judge of training sessions, but if I had to rate the session, I’d say they were probably working at about 75% of intensity, and probably about the same for skills. As pointed out in every report so far, there’s a lot of emphasis on pressure/decision making in the drills, and it’s obviously still a work in progress for some of the boys – but still it’s pleasing to see Robbo have to handpass! All in all a solid session from the boys. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll get to see much of the practice game on Friday, but I’ll do my best to skulk away from work again.

Has Joe ever been a CEO?... whilst I appreciated his support of the club I knew the post was BS when it suggested he'd come back in a 'hands on" role. You may as well suggest that Dick Pratt fills out his own tax returns.

Prior to the draft it was known he was a massive Eagles fan and was being compared to .... yep you guessed it Ben Cousins.