grazman

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.

Thanks Fork. As a fellow interstater I can share your enthusiasm. Fortunately the Dees will be up here in Canberra in a couple of weeks and the club's done the right thing and sent out letters inviting members to attend the training sessions. It's all looking encouraging. Good to see Beamer, Col and Riv all up and about.... now just to get Flash, Wheels and Bartman back on track.

I wasn't saying that experience was the only characteristic of a leader - there are many more obviously. To a large degree it's the way someone is raised that fosters leadership. I disagree that leaders are born. To argue that is to suggest that leadership can't be taught. If that's the case, a lot of organisations are in real trouble. As with most things in life, what really matters is a willingness to learn and adapt.

Players often say that a new coach is a good opportunity to wipe the slate clean. I think everyone that is ready to slash their wrists ought to have a long hard look at how Dean Bailey has approached everything so far.... He's a very smart operator. What has he lost if the likes of Yze, Robbo or Miller don't measure up? Most of the people on here have written them off anyway. They either step up to the plate and take on the responsibility or it's situation no change.... the media beat about the age of the leadership group is crap... in virtually every field of endeavour you care to name - leaders are the one's with the experience.

I imagine that the footy department and finance department may have completely different expectations for the coming season. Fiscally speaking its usually best to go for the more conservative estimate in trying to calculate the bottom line. In footy terms Bailey has consistently stated that he isn't setting limits on our on field performances.

I think you're right Nasher, and I think Fan is too, I think back to 2000 and think Neale missed one of the fundamental reasons why this was his most successful year. Rather than try to build on what got us to the grand final he adopted a negative mind set of avoiding being belted again.... anyway I digress, you can achieve very good results by playing younger players, particularly like in 2000 when our hand was forced by the loss of key older players. U23s from that year and the games they played were: Bruce (19), Farmer (22), Green (19), Grgic (21), Johnstone (13), Collins (13), Nicholson (15), Robertson (24), Simmonds (21), Wheatley (12), Whelan (16), White (23), Yze (24) { McDonald (17) and Woewodin (24) were 24 years old} That's a very large chunk of your side.... So to answer your last question... I'd be very disappointed if a number of our U/23s don't go past our over 30s to become the core of our side (only Bruce, Green, Wheatley and Whelan are true mid age players on the current list) ... history alone would dictate theres a good chance that a number of older players are likely to be struck down with injury. I am very excited about the prospects of our juniors. I rate many of them more highly than others I guess...I certainly think there's better quality there than in 2000.

I'm glad you rate Brisbane Vibes (and I know it's not just because you're a banana bender) - I do too. I think they're a real smokey, but I think their weakness maybe one of our strengths and that is their U/23 runners. Experience is invaluable, but old legs are easily tired and easily injured. I think Danners problem was that he became so focused on trying to replicate a winning premiership formula he lost sight of the intrinsic strength of our list. I simply raised the Geelong comparison, not because I think our lists are the same, but to demonstrate the old adage that a week is a long time in footy, a year is even longer. It's still January and I'm getting excited already.

Fortunately for Geelong, their football department had a bit more knowledge than the average punter at the start of 07 when a lot of their supporters were calling for major overhauls of their list that lacked any quality leaders, that were too slow and had only won two finals matches since 2000. I wonder how many during the course of the year admitted to eating humble pie? I'm not necessarily expecting to see us make the finals this year (though it wouldn't necessarily surprise me) simply because a new coach brings new game plans and philosophies that can take a few players a bit of time to adjust to and for it all to gel. As Fan has very nicely pointed out though, injuries do count. Interestingly we weren't the worst club on the injury front, Brisbane lost more games to players injured than we did, but I suspect we lost more players injured during matches than anyone else. In modern footy losing more than one player a match injured is just going to smash you out on the park.

The fact that so many rookie's are still coming through and surprising clubs is testament to just how much of an inexact science recruiting is. I like that we've taken three talls with our last picks, obviously not all will make it, but it's a low cost option for high risk "types". I also like that Valenti was at least given a spot on a list to try to take the next step. I know some don't rate him, but at least he's got an opportunity - who knows he may surprise a few.

All the very best Craig, I think it's an understatement to say the Tigers need someone of your calibre to help them sort out their problems. I sincerely doubt you'll post on here again now you've crossed the road, and we'll all be the poorer for it.

That was Dean Wallis.

Wheels 45 seems to be all over this. I’ve never seen either Grimes or Rance play, but if what Wheels is saying is right then I’m happy we didn’t take Rance or any other NQR KPP. There’s a reason why Rivers is a better backman than Carroll and it’s got nothing to do with size, or courage or speed and everything to do with awareness and balance. Given that, I’m more than comfortable looking at McNamara’s bio and that we picked him and not some of the others. Just another quick point on our KPP forwards. I’m not desperate for a power forward like others are. We now have Morton, Bate, Dunn and maybe Newton who can all run through the midfield or play forward. I think people are still hung up in the 70s when they talk of Forwards. I’m very excited about the flexibility that we’ve built into both our midfield and forward structure.