Whispering_Jack

Petracca now dominating.

The Weed marks and goals from 50.

Nice goal to Brayshaw. He and Heritier in particular look in fine fettle. They would be playing tomorrow if I was a selector. Truck getting lots of it now.

Back to doing drills. The Reds just played the green vests and now the Blues v Reds. The Foxtel replay is going to be fascinating.

Yes - see above. Doing well -the players are back in the middle so it's probably half time. Just to add to the excitement, some of the players are now putting on green vests. Please don't ask the score. The scoreboard here isn't operating.

JT takes a nice mark to kick things off in the second stanza. Players are changing jumpers so it's a bit confusing. Heritier's been in both red and blue and has been sublime in defence. Stretch and ANB doing some nice things and Petracca just marked and set up a goal with a long pass.

JT has had a few touches and looks very composed (actually Wagner does too). I didn't hear a siren but they've all stopped and are in a huddle.

They're stopping the game every few minutes to interchange. The plays going up and down the ground and Petracca's doing a lot of running. Just got the ball and hand passed well to advantage.

Petracca just had a casual shot at goal from 60 and slotted it. They're doing simulated match play and the Truck started on the bench but is now on the ground. JT marks to the applause of the 73,000 crowd (more or less).

West

Hello, hello, a whistle's blown and there are boards out. Could this be a sign that the game's about to start?

They're still doing training drills so scores are level and everyone's burning the house down.

Now, they're putting on green vests and doing a kicking drill. I'm afraid to blink in case I miss the "short" practice match.

With a minute to go to the scheduled start they're all doing sprints. The Truck is quick; you don't want to be on the receiving end of a bump at full tilt. I can see the Kings, Hunty, Mitch White and the Weed. Heritier and Billy S out there too! Immediately behind us the Melbourne Victory squad are training and behind them, the Storm.

Dawsey just jogged by. Ben Newton's out there in the blue team (#17) but I don't expect him to play.

They're all in readiness for the game. Angus is here in blue (#10). Trenners in red (#61) and the Truck is out there in red (#6) for the warm up at least. He looks very, very big.

If anyone beats Jacob Weitering in this year's NAB Rising Star then he will be an amazing footballer.

MFC just tweeted:- "Our VFL training and match simulation will commence at 10.30am at Gosch's Paddock tomorrow. Please note this will be a short session."

It will be interesting to see who plays in this practice match. One assumes that you run a line through the 3 emergencies named to play against the Giants. Will Angus and Heritier get a run or are they not 100%. How will Jack Trengove play after virtually two years since his last appearance? These are just some of the questions that might be answered tomorrow soon after 10.30am at Gosch's Paddock.

At what time tonight is Hardwick going to start taking his players off the ground?

Anyone go?

No surprise there. The only leadership he ever showed was leading the queue to collect the weekly pay cheque.

I like the fact that Roos is reinforcing the message about the necessity for players, irrespective of age or talent, to strive to prepare themselves in a professional manner. This is exactly what wasn't happening at the club over the years when team leaders were discovered to be urinating in night clubs at 3am (and weren't penalised a single game) and others missed training sessions because they were under the weather or smashed their cars at 5am. I will be very disappointed about not seeing Petracca playing in Round 1 and upset that he's not even starting in the Casey intraclub on Friday but if the delayed start is even partly due to him being taught a lesson or disciplined by his coach for lack of care in his preparation then I would regard that as a big step forward for the club. An even bigger step forward if he and the others in the young playing group take heed of the message.

Curiouser and curiouser. On the one hand, Hal Hunter has to go to court in a vain attempt to find out what Essendon injected into his system and on the other, Dyson Heppell says, "I’m comfortable that I know what I was given." Suspended Bomber Dyson Heppell says he feels let down by Essendon for drugs saga that saw suspension Could they both be telling the truth?

It would not surprise if we have 9 or 10 changes to our line up and possibly the same for GWS.