Wiseblood

I'll never understand why people put any credence in this - who gives a stuff what opposition supporters think? I couldn't care any less if I tried. Plenty of ways to challenge yourself. A needless boot camp isn't one of them.

I've read every post, from both sides, in this thread and I still can't see what the fuss is all about. If this was the third or fourth time this pre-season that we had heard about problems at training, players partying too hard etc. then I would be worried. But we've been super quiet and the players have been committed to training and looking after themselves. What more could we want? The boot camp was a mis-step, but a very minor one. If that's the only negative we see from our pre-season then, in my book, it's a success.

Cherry picking? Please. Don't make me laugh. The players have raised concerns about a camp that causes injuries and hampered conditioning last year, and they have every right to do so. If a large majority of the players walked away from that camp and felt worse than they did before, then something is wrong. The players aren't complaining about anything else - many have come back in peak condition, we have minimal injury concerns and it sounds like they are extremely happy with how the pre-season is tracking. Why cancelling a needless camp is classified as 'cherry picking' when to put in effort is beyond me. This is no different to teaching a student - you need to find out what makes them tick and how to get the absolute best out of them. Goodwin has learned a valuable lesson as a young coach and he now knows that a camp run by people outside the footy world is of no benefit to the team. Onwards and upwards.

Classic SWYL. Forget the hard yards, effort etc that they have been putting into the real stuff so far this pre-season. The players want to look after themselves after the camp bombed last year and now all of a sudden Goodwin has potentially 'lost the playing group.' Merry Christmas one and all!

This is a classic Demonland thread. Usual posters are negative, usual posters are positive and we have a smattering of slightly humorous comments in between. This will go round and round in circles for weeks over the off season. Well done everyone!

That surprises me a little. The players are the ones doing the training - if a large chunk of them felt the boot camp was unnecessary, then it's unnecessary. I'll say it again - it's not as if they are changing training, not turning up for something etc. They just felt that, for their benefit for the season ahead, the boot camp wasn't a worthwhile thing to do. It's a total non issue.

It's such a non-issue. Seriously. The players saw it coming up and were worried about things going pear-shaped as they did last year. They didn't want to ruffle any feathers, so they went to the AFLPA so find out the best course of action. They went through the right channels and the club called it off. Imagine if they hadn't listened and forced them to go. THAT would have been far worse. The players aren't complaining about anything to do with their training loads, tactics, positioning etc. They just didn't want to do a boot camp that they clearly saw no benefit in. That's fair enough in my opinion.

I reckon no news is good news with Trac. He gets talked up so much by all parts of the footballing world that I think it will be good to see him have a really solid, quiet off season where he continues to build his tank and his ability to play more midfield minutes in 2018. What a weapon he can be if he is able to add this to his repertoire over the off season! Thanks again as always @DeeSpencer, your reports and insight are much appreciated.

It really is strange stuff, Doc. We had so many injuries to key players such as Gawn, Hogan, Viney and Jones, yet we seemed to manage okay. We might have run out of steam in the latter stages of the year, but we still managed to beat some pretty good sides. Why he feels this will change next year, and why we are different to others in terms of how the injuries will affect us, has me baffled.

This seems like an 'I'm still annoyed about them trading Watts' type of comment from the Ox. It's strange. He says we'll go south if we get injuries to Hogan, Weideman and Lever - any side that loses some of it's important key forward and defensive players will struggle, but he fails to recognise how we battled plenty of injuries last season and were still competitive throughout. Weird stuff from the Ox.

Well said mate. I also like the fact that, if they do get a run in the seniors, that they have the proper leadership and support around them to succeed.

I'm just excited that we've got some terrific young talls on our list who can develop over the next 2-3 years and potentially play plenty of games together in our backline. It's bloody great stuff!

In the grand scheme of things I think that can be forgiven - you were right on the money, mate. Cheers for the info. Harmes taking the #4 guernsey is a big ball - I like his confidence in asking for it and backing himself in, but there will be some pressure that comes with it. Hopefully he can rise to that.

Going by what @DeeSpencer had to add, it looks as though Vince may well be training with the backline again this year. Maybe he and Lewis will spend time rotating through the middle and the half back line... ?

Hopefully some of what Lewis brings to the table will rub off on them over the next 2 years. As you say, Lever has been identified as someone with excellent leadership qualities, so having Lewis down there also allows him to continue to develop those as he settles into the playing group. Hopefully we have things in place where Lewis isn't left out the back against someone who can exploit the fact that he isn't the quickest bloke on the park. The last thing I want to see is a little fella burning him off as he runs into a few open goals.

Are you that keen? I'll let you know what they did. The kicked a few balls around. Did a few handpass drills. Some are in the rehab group, others did the main session and did some full ground drills. Everyone looked unbelievable.

Does that really need answering? He is a terrific scout from his armchair.

Out? We still have picks from the second round onwards. You are putting too much emphasis on the draft. You can improve your list in a myriad of ways that doesn't focus on first round picks.

One the whole - yes, I am, although as with anything only time will tell. What I do like is that the club was able to fill a few gaps on our list - Spargo and Baker gives us some pace, Fritsch is the forward to replace Watts (not direct replacement, but you get my drift), while Petty will either develop nicely at Casey or replace someone in our backline as we send Tom McDonald forward. The only slight gripe, if I could call it that, is that we didn't take a ruckman. We must be happy with how King is tracking with Pedersen and McDonald able to fill in where needed. I'm happy to back them on that one. Edit - we also need to remember that we effectively got Lever as our first round pick, while we got Balic in the fourth round as well. We did everything we needed to do.

I would have thought, with the recent success of some smaller players, that we wouldn't be so negative towards a players height. Let's give the kid a chance and a few pre-seasons before we start judging him purely on how tall or short he is.

Who would you have taken then oh wondrous talent scout? Taylor must have no idea. You should apply for his job with all your knowledge.

I hear Ben Kennedy has been hanging around at the Adelaide Oval car park in the hope Port will hire him in any sort of role.

Far too nice, LH. Ruins our chance of luring Andrew back in two years time!

We got Baker at our last pick anyway. Worked out perfectly. Patience is a virtue.

I think we did well to get him in the 40s. As @Deeoldfart mentioned above, he is clearly a bloke who has worked extremely hard to get himself back into draft contention and he has pace to burn. I don't expect him to play much next year but he has time to develop a bigger tank so he can involve himself with more consistency.