Its Time for Another

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.

It's looking that way. Will be fascinating to see how this is going to pan out. We have a minimum of 4 places to fill on the main list to make it 38 and we only have 4 useful picks. If we do that we will have to rookie 4 players to go with the 2 we currently have to make the total minimum list of 44. They have to be drafted which means the last 2 will be very late in the rookie draft. No matter how good JT is that's going to be a major stretch. Which makes you wonder if they think those gambles would be better than 1 or 2 of the remaining DFA's. Maybe there's some pick trading planned perhaps with some of next year's picks to grab one or two more decent picks. Although that could have happened by now if it was the plan.

ET you must get that a lot. Good to see you haven't taken it too personally.

Thought I'd revisit this thread a year on and as we prepare for the draft. Interesting to see how it stacked up. I won't go through everyone. Only those I think have moved categories. Garlett has obviously dropped off the planet. Lets hope the FD can get him firing again. He did this at Carlton which was why they gave him away and we were able to get 3 good years out of him. I believe he has some issues going on at home. Hopefully they get sorted or he'll be gone by the end of next season. Hunt also dropped off very badly. I'm hopeful but not confident he can fix his deficiencies and get back into form. Lewis has exceeded my expectations this year notwithstanding his shocker in the Prelim. Thought he would slow down too much and only play limited games. We'll get something decent out of him next season so has been a real success coming to the team. The value of his experience and leadership seems to have increased as the team gets better and has got closer to playing the type of football he's used to. Lever will be a question mark now as we don't know how his recovery will go. ACL's often lead to other soft tissue injuries as players return from the long layoff. The only players in the 22 yet to reach their potential that really stepped up to the next level this season were Brayshaw, Salem, & Harmes Petracca is still in the same category of not reaching their potential. Hopefully he comes back slimmed down and fitter from the break. He needs to if he wants to go to the next step. I hoped to see this last season and it didn't happen. Has to get away from Mum's delicious home made Italian cooking. O Mac improved but there better be a lot more to come or he will get passed over. Recruiting May is a clear indication the FD don't think he's either ready yet or ever will be. Players not in 22 who have improved into it are clearly Weid & vanders. Frost was only in because of injuries. There's a real argument he's a better option than O Mac. He has brute strength, speed and agility that O Mac doesn't. His decision making and disposals have improved considerably although unfortunately still prone to bad judgement lapses in decisions and particularly marking which was lethal in the Prelim. J Smith showed a bit but still hasn't had a consistent enough run at it to show his full capability. Hopefully that happens one way or another next season. Fritsch and Spargo have been revelations and are clearly best 22 at this point unless Jeffy comes good and puts pressure on Spargs. T Smith has become critical for Key forward depth if either Weid or T Mac go down. There's no one else now. I expect him to be upgraded on at least a one year contract given how many spots we have to fill on the main list and how few decent picks we have. Oscar Baker still looks very raw from what I've seen of him at Casey. Good pace but terrible disposal skills. Not sure he'll make it. Petty looks a few years away. His selection in the Saints game very nearly cost us a finals birth. Future Ins May is at a stage where we can be confident he will deliver at the level he has been at GC and hopefully in a better set up will be even better. Solves a major structural weakness. Arguably the last structural weakness. KK is a gamble based on actual performance over the past few seasons but has shown before that he has the goods and is apparently well over the concusion/neck issues. It's a bit of a worry that a team in the shape GC were in asked him to look elsewhere. There must be more of an issue there than we probably know about. I feel confident he'll come good and will be that skilled outside runner we desperately need to run and carry and more importantly accurately deliver inside 50 or go to half back and release Fritsch into that role which he's shown himself to be very good at. Preuss will be interesting to see how he's used. I suspect we'll see a lot more of him in tandem with Gawny than has been suggested otherwise his decision to come to us makes no sense at all. I don't buy just coming to MFC to learn under the best. Goldy was the best ruckman in the comp for quite a few years. What do we need most. A speedy X factor highly skilled forward pocket. What Jeffy used to be. Bedford sounds like this is what he brings. So a tick there and hopefully no earlier than pick 62. That would be a major win. Still looking for that skilled outside runner who can deliver into the forward line. Would be good to pick one up although we might already have them between KK, Fritsch, Hunt and maybe even Salem. I'd love to see his incredible kicking skills being used for that final kick into 50. Over to you all.