Back pocket

We may be getting a better look at who's in our best 23 from today's training photo gallery. It appears that our first team players were selected in the blue team's forwards and the white team's backline, while the midfielders were evenly mixed. Most of these are probably as expected. Interesting to see Melksham straight back into the ones. WHITE DEFENDERS (first team) Tmac Disco Lindsay Taylor (featured on both teams) Howes (may have been playing on the wing) Lever MID (evenly spread across both teams) Windsor Steele Sparrow Heath FWD (reserves) AJ Mentha Kolt (may have been a mid) Matthews Kentfield BLUE DEFENDERS (reserves) Taylor (featured on both teams) Berry Adams MIDS (evenly spread across both teams) Rivers Langdon Koz Gawn Langford FORWARDS (first team) Roo Chandler Fritsch Latrelle Melksham Jeffo Petty was pictured in a blue top, however it appeared that he was running laps of the oval. Not pictured: May, Salem, Viney, Culley, CJ, Laurie, Bowey, McAdam, Mihocek, Campbell, Sharp, White, Onley, Henderson, AMW

Went down to Gosch's at about 10:30 and stayed until the end. Very blustery conditions. I'll try not to repeat too much of what has been said above. Will attempt to call things as I saw them rather than with rose coloured glasses on. General comments: Matty Scarlett - impressed with the spoiling drill he was running. Defenders were learning to spoil the ball in a targeted direction (all 360 degrees around them) to a spot of our team's advantage. All our new recruits from other clubs seemed to have their workloads managed at times today (CJ, Mihocek, Steele, Heath). Not sure if this a workload thing due to their clubs playing later into the year then us. Half field match play drill focusing on entering into the 50. Looking to hit short kicks inside 50. Start by kicking around the back of the 50 to try create new angles to enter. I thought our kicking was very sloppy today. The wind would have played a big factor though. Happy to let them off. No full ground match sim unfortunately. Hard to get too much of a read on things. Big fan of the full team Zooper Dooper break at the halfway mark. Player specific notes: Latrelle, Kolt, Langdon - some of the names involved in the midfield stoppage drill when I arrived. Interesting to see. Max Heath - terrific in the air. Took a few very strong marks pushing back deep into defense. Gee he's a big lad as well. Riv - seemed to be working with the backs when I arrived. Jeffo - reads the ball very well in the air. Doesn’t necessarily like the contact, but he might not have to if he can get himself into the right spots. Gawny - back in the action! Matthews - good to see him out there after being held back for most of the offseason. I am excited to see him in proper match sim. Have a feeling he could turn into something (based off nothing so far except a vibe). JVR - Slimmed down and looks very athletic. In for a big year. Berry - doesn't seem out of place as a Cat B rookie. Culley - didn't stand out as much as previous sessions. Has set a very high bar for himself though. Windsor - impressive shutdown spoil on Koz. His run and carry slightly less prominent today. Sparrow - sets standards. Tough. Strong tackles and laying smothers. X.Lindsay and Disco - wasn't their day by foot. A few errors each. Latrelle - dancing feet. Magical. X.Taylor - makes things happen out of the back half. Viney - looks a while away. His brother Max was also helping out with training. Steele - will be an important player for us in the middle (especially with Viney out). People shouldn't write him off. Looks good. Sharp - heavily involved with his run. Looked good. He'll need to tidy up his disposal though, especially if he only gets the ball so many times in a game. Lever - have been critical of him in the past always for only having one mode (bombing the ball down the line). Good to see him looking to hit shorter targets and keep possession of the ball. Mentha - not a standout session, but definitely looks much improved and more involved than last year. Koz - Koz Bloody keen for the year!

I think you have a bit of news to catch up on... @Pennant St Dee

Dealing with a concussion apparently - according to Twitter

Would be very keen for you to go through each of the 5 new boys and provide your first impressions. Also, how far does Matthews look from joining the main group?

It may also be a workload based reason due to the hawks playing a month later in the season compared to our boys. He is entitled to another month off (plus 2 weeks as he is not a 1-4 year player). Shows great commitment that he is out there!

Areas of improvement: kicking and speed Welcome to the MFC! In all seriousness, is this a worry? Has anyone watched him play live?

From watching some vision, I don't think people are talking about his defensive actions enough. He's not just a one trick pony using his speed to break lines. He actually looks quite well rounded as a defender (besides his kicking). Loves an intercept mark, reads the ball well, lays big tackles, spoils hard.

It's hard to judge how good a player's kicking skills are purely based off disposal efficiency stats. Defenders usually take the easy option kicking it sideways and backwards, thus bumping up their numbers. Our top 8 players (3 or more matches played) this year ranked by disposal efficiency were all defenders. Lever 92% May 86% Tmac 85% Howes 84% McVee 82% Bowey 82% Salem 81% Turner 80% Langdon 77% Petty 76% Jiath has 76%, which is low for a defender. In saying that, his run will be very important for us. With Windsor likely to move up the ground, we currently have 0 speed in the back half. (P.S who would've guessed that Lever would be our most reliable with ball in hand - Ha Ha)

Many people in attendance BLWNBA?

Are we expecting a full match sim today?

As a trackwatcher, I can definitely confirm Judd got assisted/carried from the field by two trainers. Initially he could not put any weight through the leg (it initially looked like it could be an ankle because of this). He looked in a lot of pain. Once he got the the sidelines he was slowly able to put some wait through the leg, and the pain seemed to ease slowly. It didn't look good live, but let's hope GW's inside word from the trainers is correct. Fingers crossed he is okay!! Taj also got assessed by the trainer for some shoulder/neck discomfort after a big collision. He did not return to the match sim (there was not long left to go), although he was happily taking snaps at goal from the boundary line at the conclusion of training. Hopefully a non-issue.

How are the teams sorted out for this match sim? Is there a clear A v B team (probables v possibles)?

Agree! 5 minutes is being very generous as well!

Definitely agree with what you have to say Titan. In no way am I trying to write him off as a player. I have full confidence in his ability and believe he will be a star for us in the future. I was just trying to report on the one individual training session from today compared to the rest of his preseason (without sugarcoating anything). Our recruiting team has done a marvellous job over the last 10 years, so we have no reason to doubt them at all (especially this early in a player’s development). He did have a few nice passages out there today, I was just wanting to temper expectations that he is going to be a star in the 23 from round 1, and instead we should let him develop down at Casey and trust the process. Although I’d love to be wrong and would thoroughly enjoy seeing him out there on a wing against the Swans in opening round. Go Dees!