Its Time for Another

On what I saw I don’t think you’re right about Gus. Saying Bennell has had no setbacks is the ultimate I want to hear at the moment and completing the plan. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

From what I saw I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about Tomlinson and Jones. Both trained really well. Spargo trained well but is still dealing with some stuff on his foot/ankle. Bennell from what I was told is going well without any setbacks. I’ve just seen him and it’s near the end of the sessions so he seems to be engaged smiling and chatting to the rehab guys. No KK no May. Haven’t been able to find anything out about them. Gus appears to be a bit of a worry. He came off and spoke to someone and was shaking his head. I didn’t see him leave but he’s not out there since then. Toby Bedford tweaked something earlier and is coming off now limping near the end of the session. I suppose this is a bit of self evident comment but compared to this time last year Lever is well and truly up and about. Doing full training, strong body language, no hint of knee awareness. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Doing i50 delivery drills. In some they’re starting to kick laterally around the 50 arc if there’s not a clear target and only kicking in when there is. Worked really well the couple of times they did this. Must say this work is what I was most hoping to see. It was a mixed bag but great to see. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Didn’t do anything with the rehab group. Just walking around. I suspect he’d done his work indoors and had come out to watch the rest of the training. No May. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Match sim. Welcome to AFL footy Luke Jackson v Maxy. Maxy wins hit out Luke follows up lays tackle gets ball hand balls the clearance. He’s running everywhere Max just following at a light jog till the next contest which he wins easily pushing Luke out. Borderline in the back. Maxy really is a freak of nature how he looks so coordinated for such a tall player. I remember seeing him play his first game and thinking they’d got his height wrong. Jacko just came over the top of Maxy in a contest but didn’t hold the ball. Another contest Jackson great pick up and clean clearing hand pass to player running past. T Mac looks really up and about. Moving very well. Don’t know if this sim is more about defence than attack but i50 connection is struggling. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

A hand balling game was going in for a while where they are in teams. I got taught a drill like this by the Swans when I was coaching junior footy in Sydney. It can actually run more about setting up defence than the attackers. They train to coral players into a position where they only have one place to handball to so your opponent at the next contest can anticipate where to go to block their opponent down the field. It’s a good one. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 07 (Match SIM) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Bennell just arrived.

Kossie is much more built than I expected. I’ve seen players with less of a physique playing ing senior footy. He looks bigger than Spargo. Rivers a good size too. Funny seeing the players up close. A lot are a lo taller than you think. Harmesy for instance. You think of him as a short midfielder but he’s 186cm which I’m the general community is tall. They are all so lean they don’t look huge like the good old days. Rucks are practicing fine hand tapping with left hands then right. Brayshaw appears to be managed still. He did some rum through a on his own then as a target for the ruck taps while everyone else is doing a half field sim. Draftees: Jacko doing tap training with rucks. Kossie and Rivers doing some hand balling ground ball contests with 3 unknown train with players who they are explaining the drills to aim must only be here for a short visit. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 06 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 07 (Match SIM) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Interesting the rehab era are doing 100mtr run through a and there’s a movement guy giving some of them some comments about their running technique. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 05 (Rookies & Rucks) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 06 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 07 (Match SIM) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

It’s really interesting seeing one aspect of Burgo’s influence. He talks a lot about burst speed and agility being points of difference with soccer. You can see a lot of exercises geared to this. For instance a warm up in front of me. A line of 20 plus players running just a very short 10 metre. Jest off the mark and holding yo their hands in front of them chest night then holding them above their heads and yelling something out when they hit the line and everyone looking at each other to see if they were first. Lots of laughing and talking. Great vibe. Dave said oday is the first day back into full training. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 04 (Rehab Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 05 (Rookies & Rucks) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 06 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 07 (Match SIM) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Getting a sympathy vote. It also freaking them out a bit. Hopefully because of the crutches and not my personality. Dave Head of Sports Science is taking rehab with Crossy. All very positive (of course). Said there’s been no major setbacks. Bennell is doing well, everything is going to plan. No setbacks. Chatted to Jonesy he was upbeat. Didn’t get anything out of him about progress. Just said All good. Spargo is 3-4 weeks away but said he’s in good shape and loving it. Everyone is very positive about a rebound. Hmmmm no May out there. Harry Petty is twice the size he was this time last year. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 03 (Burgo) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 04 (Rehab Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 05 (Rookies & Rucks) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 06 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 07 (Match SIM) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

I’m here for my annual pre season visit. I can report that reports of everyone turning up an hour early are greatly exaggerated. There’s me hoping around on crutches 2 assistants putting out cones and some birdies flying around. Tony Grieg gound report. My key disappeared into the ground easily. There’s also a lot of water on the outside of the ground suggesting a good watering. Grass is maintained beautifully cut like grass. Players now appearing in the distance. As I write. I’m starting over with rehabbers. Will see if I can get some info. IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 02 (Rehab Chat) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 03 (Burgo) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 04 (Rehab Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 05 (Rookies & Rucks) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 06 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 07 (Match SIM) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 08 (Bennell & May) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 09 (Drills) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 10 (Rehab) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 11 (Burgo Drill) | IT'S TIME TRAINING REPORT POST 12 (Bradtke)

Not quite what came to my mind but know what you mean. Imagine being a first year hoping you are good enough to make it in the big league and getting hit with that.

I heard from the family member of a player that they didn't just do 100 x 100's on the last day of training before Christmas. That wasn't enough for Burgo he added a little kicker that brought tears to my eyes just hearing it. Every 20 x 100's they did a 2.2km time trial. Looks like if they survive Burgo they'll survive anything.

I wouldn't normally respond to a post like this but hey it's holidays in early Jan. You've now amended your opinion to say those players weren't ready but if they were in a team where everyone else was fit then all four of them could have been carried. Maybe you could carry two unfit players in the forward line like Dusty and Lynch and give them time to get fit but 4 players who make up the core of your engine room. I don't think so. Especially as you say surrounded by a team full of players with interrupted pre season. So not really sure of the point of your post.

DS living in Sydney I am very grateful for you and any others who go to the trouble to write up what they see at pre season training. It's really appreciated. However, I have to say I read them mainly to read who's training and not for most poster's opinions unless they are repeating info they've been directly given by the coaches or to a lesser extent the players. To state those players were ready to go just isn't logically correct. To be correct it would mean that you can miss up to 50% of the pre season sessions and it doesn't matter. Of course you can't be the same player without them. I went to pre season sessions in mid Dec and late Jan and from memory Trac and Gus were in rehab throughout that significant part of pre season. Roosy once discussed how little time the coaches have to actually train the players in the preseason. He said that if a player misses the conditioning work pre Christmas they never catch up and it heavily impacts their season. Post Christmas they have to concentrate on developing how they play and not conditioning. Clearly if you line up the 2018 Clarry who's done all the sessions and the 2019 one the first one is going to stomp on the second one and that's born out by his stats and he was a lot less effected than Trac and Gus. It's a nonsense to dismiss that impact and think they are ready to go.

Can you stay on topic please. Oh.....yeh. Should be in Melbourne the first week and hope to get to a training or two.

We'll have to agree to disagree. You're forgetting Jones and Viney didn't train in the main group at all and only played in one Casey practice game before playing round 1. Clarry from memory didn't join main group training until March. It was pretty clear he was missing Goody's keyword for 2020, "connection" which was to be expected. Coming in the top 5 B & F when you're in the engine room of a decimated team isn't that relevant. To suggest all you have to do is run laps and you are ready to go is to suggest that missing all the pre season training doesn't make any difference. Clearly that's nonsense. Brayshaw missed main group training from pre Christmas to well into Feb. Tracc also carried injuries and missed a lot of the main group training and could only run slow laps. That's basically the engine room. Hats off to Harmes but he was back into main group training much earlier than the others and maybe his injuries didn't restrict his running like it did the others. That's nearly the whole engine room. Don't know which preseason you were watching where they were all ready to go round 1.

Saty always thankful for your training reports but this is not your finest work. Given the overwhelming amount of detail the Club (President, Head of football, Coach, conditioning staff etc etc etc) provided about how unready physically the players were this is a bizarre post. It's worse than that, it's actually insulting the players to ignore everything the Club has said about the impact of physical injuries and suggest it was a mental problem. Disrespects the effort players who missed a pre season put in to nevertheless do their gut busting best.

Only 9 sleeps to go until the best DL pre season training threads recommence. Can’t wait. Life’s been so meaningless since the last ones. Happy New Year everyone. 2020’s going to be a ripper. Strap in my fellow long sufferers. It’s about bl$&dy Time from It’s Time.

His methodology is to rank Mids, Backs, Forwards & rucks. Top ranked gets 18 points worst gets 1. Add the all up to get overall ranking. His rankings for us Mids 8th Backs 13th Forwards 14th. Ruck 2nd. Add them up and get 39pts equal with Dogs at 7th, Fun exercise to do our own rankings. Our midfield ranked 8th for clearances and 5th for i50's this season. We know how many were effected by bad preseasons. Add a newly fit Petracca, AVB Langdon & Tomlinson to that midfield. I rank it 4th. Am I overrating a May & Lever led backline. I don't think so. I expect our backline to be right up there next year. My rank 4th. Forwards remain a worry. Don’t know what ranking was in 2018 when they were fit but we scored the most points for the comp. With the rest of the team firing and a fully fit forward line and remembering it was the highest scoring forward line in 2018 maybe 6-8 with good delivery. Ruck 2nd. Says Gawny better tap ruckmand but Grundy gets first because does more around the ground. My rankings add up to 60 which ranks us 4th.

Absolutely loving the journey this thread is going on. I've never ever resorted to Dr Google so many times in a 2 page thread.

They truly will be golden calves if they fully recover.

May the God of Calves smile on him and us.

Can’t believe it. I was coming down to see Friday’s session. Probably the only one I’ll be able to see this summer.