Its Time for Another

Good news. Just read someone on the Melbourne Football Club, The Mighty Demons Facebook page saying he attended training from the beginning and Lever was there running laps. But someone else posted an article saying he's not expecting to be back until mid season. Not sure if that's true or not but I thought ACL's were generally 12mths so that would be right. Might also be going super conservative after Docherty at Carlton ruptured his again yesterday after just coming back from 12mths recovery.

Yeh I agree. I thought cameras on phones was going to be a gimmick. But they turned out not to be. I wouldn't have had a camera with me as I wasn't planning to be there. I tried to play with them a bit but the quality deteriorated too much. But I was surprised how good they are considering they're just from a phone.

These photos are off my iPhone so apologies for quality. These are a sequence of the players doing the 150m sprints in pairs. You can see from the faces how hard they are working. This is KK and J Smith who were always the lead pair. You can see the next pair just starting. That's Miso first in on the right. He had a stop watch and was counting them off. A lot of them had their own heart rate monitors and timers on their wrists. ANB and T Mac. You can see how they've matched pairs in their running ability Good to see Fritschy already in his second season matched with the Skipper Sparg's not throwing up yet but in a feet not touching the ground mood with JKH Good to see Melk back in the main group at least for running and with his best mate. This is why we got both of them These guys were always the last pair. Maynard is just getting back into full training after 6 months or so out. Not sure why Frosty is there.They weren't lagging too far behind although Maynard was tiring by the end. These two were separated from the rest. I reckon it's another sign of how professional the training is nowadays. Ruckmen clearly can't run like elite running midfielders so why make them try to compete against people they can't and don't need to because they have a different role. But put them against someone else they are closely matched two and they'll be able to push each other much further. Same goes for all the other pairs. It's smart organisation and attention to detail. What I also really like about this photo is the look on Gawny's face. This is not the joker Gawny face, this is the professional sportsman driving himself to continue to be the best player in the competition in his role. That is the very serious Gawny face fighting the pain barrier. You can also see what a monster Preussy is. This photo doesn't do him justice. He looks about 20% wider than Gawny. He's a huge package. I'm sure having Gawn to compete against constantly will be raising the bar for both of them. I'd love to know what it's like compared to what he was doing at North. Saty good question for you to find out. Best mates paired together. Attention to detail again. Happy players. Successful team. You can see the pain Hibbo's putting himself through. This is the preparation stuff we don't usually know about during the season. Funnily enough Melksh looks like he's suffering less even though he's just coming out of rehab. Shows you how they stay in rehab a long time because when they are released they are back up to the standard of the main group and can slot straight in to the main training. Wagner brothers paired together. I guess they did a lot of this at Casey but they must be loving it with the big boys. Petty is keeping up with them pretty comfortably. He looks like he's a very good package of skill and athleticism. This is the group jogging back between 150m sprints running past the trainers in red who were picking balls up for them to pass to each other and back as they jogged back to start the next 150m.

Rose Bay. We actually met on a tour of the AAMI facilities some years ago. From memory your son played junior footy at Newtown and mine played for Easts Bulldogs and I coached there up to U17's. Hopefully your son's fully recovered from his ACL.

Photographic proof.

Two injury issues which I really hope aren't significant. I turned up half an hour in from when they were due to start but Lever wasn't there. He was due to resume today after his "minor" procedure last week. Hope he's ok. Jack Viney was already finished by the time I arrived. Really hope there's not an issue here. The Club said he had "ankle" surgery. That seemed strange. Hope it wasn't more surgery on the foot. He's not able to do anything like the running yet of other rehabers. Does anyone have any info about either of these two.

I spent a night researching what makes you throw up in extreme exertion. It's a critical overload of acidic carbon dioxide in your stomach which you don't expel under exertion because you breath too fast and shallow to expel it all. The acid builds up in your stomach until it reaches a critical point and you have to throw up to get rid of it. I started breathing very deeply on major hill climbs. In order to do it I had to gulp air like a goldfish. Didn't look pretty but I've never thrown up again. I eventually adjusted to breath deeply without looking and feeling like a goldfish.

Dropped in to the Demons Shop for a birthday present for our "3" legged friend. That photo is not a thank you smile. I have a feeling its a WTF have you done to me now. Anyway I love it. So does my son. My wife and daughter who are the dogs alpha and beta weren't impressed. Especially when they found out how much it cost.

Had a good chat to Charlie Spargo at the end. He said he didn't expect to play so many games and to walk straight in and play finals after the teams been out of them for so long. I told him I read about him throwing up in the last session. He said some do some don't and he seems to be one that does. I gave him my secret tip on how to stop throwing up in intense exertion as I used to do it all the time bike riding at the top of hills. He liked it and said he's going to try it. So when he starts blitzing next year, you'll all secretly know why.

Thanks for the compliments everyone. It was great to make a training session and see what the recruits etc look like up close and personal. Not too close and personal though. Age is nasty. I really need those optical sunglasses. Couldn't see what the rehab group were doing on the other side of the ground and like when you know you are old when the Police start looking very young, the new draftees look like babies. They're now younger than my son. Oi! But all jokes aside the draftees other than Tom Sparrow do look very light and look like they are going to need quite a lot of building up. Toby Bedford was a standout in that bunch and Sparrow looks pretty good. I didn't really see it but apparently Jordan's kick is a real weapon. Bradtke is a stick. Agree. The kicking out drill just shows you they are working on new strategies all the time. I still hold great hopes that Frosty will come good by fixing the brain fades. He's a special package of height, strength, agility and speed. Garlett looks much happier. Looked like he was enjoying himself which is the main sign I reckon we want to see from him. He just oozes class. If you marked a virtual cross in front of a player and said drop a ball right there with just the right amount of force, he'd hit the spot every time. Can't help but think that silky delivery is best used entering 50m. He's such a born footballer, knows how to read a game so well and such natural talent. He looks like he's never going to build into a big bodied player but you can see a lot more muscle definition already. There's been many great players over the years who are no bigger than him. Baker has bulked up a lot. Still just running laps while he gets the conditioning after doing those hammies at the end of the season. Petty is another that oozes class. Silky skills. Good pace for his build. Was holding his own in the 150m running drills. Apparently regarded very highly internally. Not quite sure how things will end up for him with May, Lever, O Mac, Frost, J Smith, Keilty, etc etc. Smith will play a different role. Maybe he'll end up being better than O Mac and Frost. Otherwise not sure. same for Keilty. Jeez May is a good package. On top of everything we now about him as an elite full back his skills are elite and he has really good agility and pace for his size. He's one of the most significant pickups we've had. I guess because he's a backman and not a midfielder or key forward his move to us didn't get the same amount of coverage as others but he's a significant pickup.

Couldn't agree more. Fingers crossed the footy gods smile on him and he gets an injury free crack at it. He is a very impressive looking package with height, strength, speed, solid skills, a bit of his father's aerobatic flare but my feeling is whether he gets it all firing at the right time will make or break him in 2019.

Training just finished. Dashing to the airport now. Can answer questions later. Will try to post some picks but will be of players running and kicking. Nothing special there.

Heard Brendan McCartney tell someone the players are training really well. Gone up another level. Still some fine tuning to go but gone up a level.

Bloody Hell. It’s near the end of a 2hr session. Frosty has gone down to a goal square on his own with a bag of balls. Wondered what he’s doing. He’s kicking torps that are almost hitting the bloody cross in the centre circle. One went off the side of his boot. We’ll call that the 2018 Prelim Finals kick. I’ll call the centre circle ones the 2019 GF kick.

Gus doing laps on his own at a fair pace. Track and Vanders did a few laps on their own. Then Vanders and Harmsie. They were over the other side I assume in the rehab group.

I’m unexpectedly here. Down from Sydney and the timing worked out nicely. You can read about training but it’s something else being here. The main group are doing repeat 150metre sprints over and over. As they finish they jog back through a group of trainers who throw balls at them or ground balls which they pick up and pass back. Or at other times they go straight into shots on goal but very rapid and then jog back for the next 150. When you are right next to them you see just how brutal the running is. A lot of the running is in pairs with equally matched runners. I love what I’m seeing. They are clearly training them to execute skills straight off maximum exertion. It’s real game simulation rather than just running around recovering then do some gentle kicking. As you’d expect nowadays it’s super organised. No particular standouts in the running. However I did see ANB kick a goal straight through the middle. Halle bloody lujah. Preuss and Gawn were doing their own run throughs. I hope they get on they’re spending a lot of one on one time together. Preussy is a monster. Now running shoes off and footy boots on. The whole group have gone into a tight huddle in the middle. Someone has started up a chant and the whole group repeats the chant as one. Different phrases over and over. Finished by chanting I have no fear and jumping up and down on the spot. Incredible sense of commeraderie.

Good un you Axis. I wish more on here would stand up. Most of us, especially those of us interstate who can't go to training, just want to get a sense of the training and most importantly for me who's training and who's injured. I take most poster's comments on players with a grain of salt. I just don't understand why all you posters who dislike Saty so intensely don't just put him on ignore instead of derailing these training threads all summer with your boorish personal attacks on him which he then responds to in kind. It ruins it for the rest of us and brings down the quality of Demonland. It happens every year. Last year the Admins stepped in quickly and the rest of the summer was ok. It shouldn't be necessary.

Would love to know if it's all been spent just on the Yarra Park idea. I've heard opinions from various people who work in the planning area that it is very unlikely to get up. That's a hell of a lot of money to spend on a very speculative proposal. All political parties have come out opposing it. What worries me about this site is that we might be throwing everything in for the location not necessarily the long term suitability. I mean, I'm sure they are thinking about it but if we ended up with a facility like Richmond's at Punt Rd that would be an incredible result. Obviously without the Grandstands. But Richmond spent a fortune doing that up just 5 or 6 years ago and they have grown out of it already and are looking for something else, possibly in addition to rather than replacing it all together. So if that's too small for them why is ours going to be big enough for us. Look at what Essendon have built and Hawthorn are about to build. They are massive facilities with 2 to 4 grounds to train on including indoor facilities. We will have a piece of parkland fully open to the public that we will have restricted access to part of the time as the public will have access to it as well.

Making a Profit is a headline that doesn't tell much of the real story of how the Club's going. One of the big figures in there is a significant increase in the money being spent on the footy department. Interestingly one of the biggest increases has been taking over the operations of Casey. I didn't realise that was going on. Also the AFLW and VFLW teams have had a significant increase in expenditure. Interesting to see at what level this investment comes back. I guess the main income generator would be memberships. Wonder if AFLW memberships are included in the Club's overall membership. I assume they are. Great to see chunks being taken out of the debt. Still a way to go. $227,000 was spent on the new facilities project. Love to know what that was spent on but obviously it's getting very serious. If this wasn't spent then the profit would have been that much greater. In the coming years a lot will be spent on that project so the amount of the profit will be a bit irrelevant. I didn't look but up to last year the valuation of the Bentleigh Club has never been adjusted from the purchase price. It has to be worth a lot more now. There was a link to the financial report but it's been taken down.

If he's directly opposite it will take away his view into the Park. I'd be dead against it if I was him as well. His building would be the only group of people who will be effected by it. On a much more interesting note. The Club's accounts show that they spent $227,000 on this project in the past year. That's serious money. Love to know what it was spent on.

Thanks for the great pics. Trac is clearly looking more cut. No baby fat there anymore. Hope for his sake he's been able to lose a bit off his legs. But there looks like there's been real progress there. Fritsch looks like he has more muscle definition in his arms. Might end up being one of those rangy physiques that has plenty of strengh. Like a Michael Tuck.

Saty as always many thanks from an interstater. Couple of questions. Does Fritsch look any bigger. Does Petracca look any thinner. What injury is Hunt rehabing from. Thanks.

Does anyone know what happens if we have to match a bid that falls in this range. Obviously if its a pick before 54, 54 alone won't be enough to match the bid so we'd have to give up at least 61 as well which means we'd be down to 3 picks for the draft. We've got 91 but picks have no value after I think it's 74. So we might have to go into deficit and use a later pick from next year. I guess we'd have to use 91 on a player at that point. Probably upgrade T Smith. Maybe that's why they didn't upgrade him before they might wait and see what the bid is and whether we have to use 91 to fill the list.

Scrapping your fingernails across a blackboard trumps watching Bachelorette.

My MIssus and daughter turned that Bachelorette thing on last night. So I exited stage left and went upstairs to read and realised this had just started which I'd never heard live. Then when you asked people to ring in, I thought I could do that. No one will know. So I phoned in. Unbeknown to me a friend was listening and mentioned it to his wife, who rang mine and said do you know what your husband's doing at the moment. So I get sprung for doing something secretly upstairs while she's downstairs by someone somewhere else. Can't win.