Its Time for Another

DeeS, Saty or anyone else who was there. I spoke to someone who was there yesterday and they said that Balic was way out the back on all the running and didn't look like he had any chance of keeping up and on that basis was going to struggle to get a game. DeeS you mentioned Balic in the 2km time trial. How did he go? Does he look ok or do you agree he's a long way off the fitness of the other players? Anyone else have a comment about how his fitness is compared to the others. For all this guy knows he could be training with the flu or something. Drunken mentioned this about Keilts a few weeks ago.

One of the other great benefits of having Lever around is the rate of improvement for both he and Hogan of getting to train on each other in a lot of these one on one drills. Should raise the standard for both of them. That photo last week of the two of them grappling with each other was pure rolled gold.

Haven't seen a swimmer swim without using their feet and cyclist cycle without using their feet. Tough to maintain any semblance of fitness when you have to be off your feet. On an unrelated topic seeing as you mentioned cyclists. I'm sure this will be a short derailment. Go Richie Porte. Just heard an SBS Podcast interview with him. Back on the bike. Had his first hit out in a criterium. Said it wasn't racing as he was at the back and was suffering. Looking forward to Tour Down Under. One of his favourite races. Was asked who'd win an arm wrestle with Chris Froome. He said him. I suggest they stay away from one Jack Viney. Froomy has been down to Tassie in the past to stay with him and train. Roll on 2018.

Maybe we should have separate training OP's just from Saty and the Haters don't have to go on them at all and the rest of us don't have to put up with their crap and can enjoy Saty's reports. The general training OP could continue for anyone else who wants to post reports.

Have read that Weideman is in the rehab group and is missing today. Anyone know whether he's got a problem and if so what. Also anyone noticed how Balic is going. He was apparently right at the back of the running drills at the beginning. Sounds like he's still not up to speed with the main midfielders. I guess we don't know if he was getting over an injury in the off season but sounds like he's got some catching up to do.

Hope that drill is meant to be non competitive.

Just had a look at the draft replay. They mentioned that he just fell over a fence and broke his elbow which will take 6 weeks to recover. Also he's very light so will take a while to fill out. As others have mentioned looks like Lever 2.0. Bit surprised we went for yet another key defender, would have thought there were other positions with less depth but clearly there wasn't a suitable ruckman or we would have taken one and I'm guessing he was seen as best available at this pick and if he turns into a star we'll be very happy irrespective of the depth in that position at the moment.

Majority of debt was the poker machine licences and also the separate debt the Bentleigh Club had. I can't remember how much that was but I seem to remember it was around $3mill. The final pokey licence fees were paid out this year so I could be wrong but think they are now debt free and pure revenue makers. The Bentleigh Club valuation of$8.7mill has never been adjusted since the 2011 purchase. So the balance sheet is a lot stronger than it looks as it must be worth considerably more by now. The Club can't sell it until 15/8/2022 unless certain conditions are met (don't know what they are but I think it might be finding an alternative Bowling club they agree to) or the BC members approve the sale. Couple of interesting figures. The increase in Gate Receipts was $774,927. The increase in membership, reserved seating & general fundraising was worth $479,843. Given that includes fundraising the increased revenue from increased memberships would be less than I was expecting. Social and Gaming revenue was $11,641,049 . Don't know how much the social revenue was but I assume the vast majority of that is from the Pokeys and now it appears we will get all of that revenue with no associated debt to pay off. I don't know if there are annual fees for them.

You can relax JT said in his interview on the website we will be going best available. I think this is more likely this year than most of the past 10 years as we have depth in most positions and are now in a position to try and improve the talent in each position. So best available.

Yeh you must be right. Apparently an interview has just gone up on the club website with Jason Taylor and he says no rookie picks and will use all 4. I don't know how this new mechanism works for upgrading rookies but obviously that's what happens somehow.

From what I've read a very high go home factor and question whether he can hack afl environment. Still interested in this issue of our picks. I was very surprised that our last pick was 47. Do you have any other information that we have a later pick. That's not what afl.com.au are indicating. Pretty disappointing if we don't.

I'm not saying he has to go to the draft but we have to assign a draft pick to upgrade him. According to the afl.com.au website which has listed all draft picks for all clubs in this draft our last pick is 47. We have to use our last pick to upgrade. What am I missing.

I didn't realise we don't have a pick after 47. We have 36 on the primary list now including Joel Smith who we have to use pick 47 on to upgrade as it's our last pick. That means we can only draft 3 players which means we will only have a primary list of 39 so we can draft another Rookie. It indicates to me that a few things went wrong in draft week otherwise why would have we held out pick 47 from Freo for Balic when we could have given it to them and just used 66 to upgrade Smith which wouldn't have made any difference to us. We must have held out for that deal because we wanted to use 47 in another trade that never happened. I suspect it was going to be the deal West Coast did on the last morning with Gold Coast where they gave up their first rounder next week and this year's pick 50 in return for Gold Coast's picks 21, 26 & 37 and a future second round pick. We could probably have made that happen if we'd got a pick in the top 25 for Watts but without that, didn't have enough to offer. Mahoney was in the trade room that morning but ended up not doing anything.

Fun to theorise what that might be. We clearly learnt this year while we didnt' have a proper ruckman that you can win clearances while being thrashed in the tap outs but a mobile ruckman can be very effective losing the tap outs but winning around the ground. Perhaps they are transforming Maxy more as a result of that experience. Patrick Cripps is a 194cm midfielder. Maybe with T Mac, Pedders (rather than Pedo ) eventually Weids in the forward line they are contemplating more of a midfield role. Hawks have done it a bit with Roughy. He certainly has the athleticism to do that.

You make a good point. When you think about it of course the coaches are going to talk positively when you first come because you haven't done anything that has to be fixed at that point. I wonder how positive the feedback will be when Hinkley has to address the deficiencies particularly in JW's case that have been there all the way.

Hinkley has a reputation for concentrating on players strengths rather than their weaknesses. Interesting that both Watts and now Trengove have mentioned this after their initial meetings with Hinkley even though he was told he's not in the best 22. Trengove said in the HeraldSun :- “He (Hinkley) really does focus on what you can bring to the team as opposed to the inefficiencies and things you need to improve on,” Trengove said. “As a player that has been around for a few years now, it is great to hear what you can do again as opposed to the negative parts to your game. It just gives you that instant confidence. The way both Trengove and Watts have commented on this suggests they both think this is an issue at MFC. Maybe its time for a bit of reflection in the FD about coaching styles. McCartney while being regarded as probably the best development coach in the comp was also regarded as being so negative at the Bulldogs that he lost the players and was turfed. From what I've read the players love Goodwin but I wonder if a bit of an adjustment is needed. There was an article this week about how Buckley has moderated his behaviour. I assume off the back of the FD review that took place there. .

Agree with you. For some reason he seemed to go backwards this year compared to his very confident debut last year when he read the play particularly well and took some great contested marks. I suspect this year was more about learning the whole forward system with all 6 forwards and his role within that system and that may have set him backwards a bit this year. I agree he didn't seem to be reading the play as well and getting involved. I really hope I'm right and we see a transformed player in 2018. He's very important to the future structure of the team. He's still very young in key forward terms so still has time on his side.

Quote is from SEN not one of us. In any event the point of this OP IS Potential v Reality.

As always thanks for the training insights. Especially for us interstaters.

Saty am very interested to hear if you think Truck has post weight and how much and if there are any standouts from the off season like Clarry’s change of body shape this time last year.

For what it's worth SEN posted this today on our A Graders and who is borderline. You could say they fit into our Potential Categories. https://www.sen.com.au/news/2017/11/09/how-many-a-graders-does-your-club-have/ A-Graders: Jack Viney, Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver, Michael Hibberd Borderline: Jake Lever, Jesse Hogan, Christian Petracca After having just one star for so many years in Nathan Jones, who narrowly misses this list, the Demons are now overflowing with talent. Viney and Oliver are midfield bulls, Gawn is one of the league’s premier ruckman, while Hibberd is the quintessential modern day defender. The trio of Lever, Hogan and Petracca are on their way, if they can maintain their best for prolonged periods.

Must be following Clarry as his mentor. He started the same way last pre season and ended up going all right. They need a congo line of Billy followed by Clarry and now followed by Harley (Wonder what his nickname will be. Any suggestions.)

I like what you've done here. It's interesting to go a step further and discuss what people think the players need to do to reach their potential. Players who are best 22 and have not reached their potential (15) Low Scope for Improvement (5) Gawn Needs to stay uninjured. Has shown form in all areas of play. Could kick more goals. Viney First of all has to get his foot right. We don't want another Trengove. Still plenty of upside development on decision making and disposal efficiency. Even for his position. Tyson Has to fix disposal. If he does that he's an A grader. If he doesn't he could be out the door in a couple of seasons as others pass him. Frost Complete drop of form is a real worry. Before that I thought he was showing good development in reading the play and playing one on one. Obviously needs to improve decision making and disposals. T Mac Showed he has the complete package to play in the forward line. Great leading patterns, very strong contested pack marking, accurate kicking. Just needs more time there. Medium Scope for Improvement (6) Oliver Obvious one is kick to handball ratio. Otherwise more of the same but natural improvement for such a young player. Lever Probably one on one contests as he builds a stronger body. Plus perhaps decision making and disposals although I'm not as critical as others on this. Hogan Running at the ball instead of trying to out muscle defenders. More time in the forward line and less roaming too far up the ground. Getting a good of games in a row to build up consistency and form. Harmes Skills and consistency. Showed improvement in both but hopefully there is more to have him cement his place in the 22. Hunt Fix the final kick into the 50. Look up and find targets to deliver low accurate passes to instead of running in and blazing away with high kicks that aren't effective. There was definitely improvement with this at different stages. I'm confident he's already shown he can do this. Neal-Bullen Skills. Cut out the turnovers. Keep using his elite endurance to get into space. Large Scope for Improvement (4) Brayshaw No injuries. Also needs to improve his final kick inside the 50 so it is low sharp passes to leads not blazing away. He also showed improvement with this. Petracca I really hope he drops at least 4kg's so he can build his tank and improve the consistency of his involvement and give himself the chance to play more onball. Salem Improve attack on the ball. Build his tank. Play more upfield so we get more of the benefit of his razor sharp kicks as last kick into 50. O Mac Build mass so can compete better one on one. Less brain fades although I think his general game improved quite a lot this season. Needs to have a natural progression of improvement in everything. No reason for that not to happen. Players who are not best 22 and have not reached their potential (12) Low Scope for Improvement (2) Bugg Agree with others that he is probably underrated however we've probably seen his best and in time is likely to be a depth player. vandenBerg I don't think he's had a chance to show his best yet. Hasn't had a full preseason and is still starting in rehab this pre season. Fully fit I think he has a higher scope for improvement as a tough defensive forward. Medium Scope for Improvement (6) Hannan Needs to lift his involvement and consistency. Has the makings of a great package with speed, contested marking and good goal scoring (although I expect this to improve with more experience) I think he could be Large Scope for Improvement. I suspect he's a big reason why Watts is gone. Kent Needs to be injury free and move beyond his previous best level. Main improvement if he gets back to that is consistency for 4 quarters and goal kicking accuracy. His forward pressure at his best has been missed and made him an integral weapon. Stretch Needs to be able to compete more strongly, improve defensive pressure and decision making. Some say he's bulked up from those first photos but if you look at the photo where they are putting their heart rate monitor straps on he doesn't look like he's bulked up that much. He still needs to. JKH Has to improve his level of involvement in games and his decision making. Doesn't seem to know where to run in AFL games but can in VFL games. Personally I think at his height he has to have speed or an ability to read the play so he doesn't need it. I don't see it. King Hasn't even played a game yet so too early to tell his upside. Has apparently bulked up over the summer which was his major issue. He's only 200cm so not going to challenge Gawn as the no. 1 ruckman but hopefully will develop into a Forward/second ruck. Johnston Haven't seen enough of him to know. Worry for me is that like JKH he is short but lacks speed so therefore needs to be an elite reader of the play. Don't know if he is or not. Apparently great forward pressure but don't know about goalkicking. Large Scope for Improvement (4) Weideman Firstly needs to continue to bulk up. Secondly seemed to have less of an idea where to run this season than last season. Not sure if that's a drop in confidence or confusion trying to learn his role in the wider forward structure. Hopefully the later and hopefully he'll fix it. Hopefully gets his confidence back in front of goals. Dropped off this season. Is very important for the future forward line structure. Especially if you know who goes back to Perth. Balic Not sure why you've put him here. I'd say medium at best. Has had 2 seasons and although had injuries and homesickness hasn't shown a great deal to show he'll be elite. Maynard Haven't seen enough to know. I have a feeling given his age there will be a lot of pressure to come in and start performing early. Showed a bit in his baptism of fire v GWS but also looked a bit lost. J Smith Showed glimpses in his first game that he could be a freak combination of height, speed, skill. Looked loss in his second stint. Hopefully he can come back and develop his confidence.

You missed the headlines in the press last week about the VRC agreeing to allow men to attend the Cup with no socks. Was discussed in the papers and on tv. Personally I can't stand wearing shoes with no socks. Too uncomfortable. It's a magnificent looking trio of potential. If they all reach that potential next year watch out. Personally I'm not going to feel the bloke in the middle is truly a Dees player till he makes more of a long term commitment. Have had that feeling in my guts since the day he was drafted. I understand all the players including him and T Mac had reason not to commit long term in the past years but that era should be gone now.