george_on_the_outer

As @Greg Schneider noted as a novice track watcher....nothing to see here! Match Sims are not what we have come to expect or have seen in the past, they seem to be an exercise to work on a particular aspect of ball movement. Starting in the middle, there is a no contest between rucks and the ball just moves freely out. Maybe it is getting forwards to present, but there is no real tackling and because of the lack of numbers on the field you finish with really open forward lines, which would never happen in a real game.....make of it what you will. But I suspect the main match sims are being conducted behind closed doors at Casey, given the short time to season opener and a new coach trying to implement changes. I'll go out on a limb now....we will not see McAdam play a game this year. Barely, and I mean barely running, unable to extend one leg fully, and it is the end of January. Today looked even worse as he had a knee bandage on, then off and did the running with much less speed than even last week. Sadly, we will also see little of Viney. @Demonland mentioned his training is limited to half a dozen bunny hops. No running, not even walking the boundary. When he is finally able to get some running in, with the lack of the ability to do it now for months, means he will take a long, long time to get to necessary fitness levels. The same will inevitably apply to Bowey. The one thing noted by @thirty-one was correct.....at the end of the session, the players were gassed. All over the field they were on haunches sucking in the big ones. They are obviously being pushed harder than before. After two hours of "sims" and drills they finish with a series of 200m sprints. If it were me, the ambulance would be called.

Nothing to report here. It seems that no club has any membership numbers displayed on their website. Pity, since we always had some numbers, however flimsy, by December each year.

No. Will probably be at Casey, which is a closed to public session. Next Gosch’s is Wed 21st

Indeed.....the old heads on this site will remember what happened...... Players dropping out before the game with all manner of "injuries", as clubs rightly didn't want to risk their major talent in meaningless games. There are more than enough which occur during normal pre-season training in this the professional era of AFL. It's not the 1960's any more. Then the injuries happened in those games, and the clubs became even more disinterested, leading to its abandonment. History will repeat.

I'm with @waynewussell , in that there was little to take away from this session. The match sim component barely lasted 15 minutes, which is where you get an idea of who is playing where, how the ball is being moved, and the chance to see new players in competitive situations. I suspect with the season not far away, that those components are being reserved for the Casey sessions, away from prying eyes and @picket fence Telling for me was that despite the 10.00 advertised start time, when I arrived 30 mins beforehand, the players were already there doing "beep test" runs. That is something I have never seen before, especially more so when it is being done BEFORE the session. Then at the end of the session all players in groups of 4 were running boundary at a fair clip. None of the simulation is now over, get some water and sign autographs. Injury list: Viney, Campbell ( neck), Henderson, McAdam ( again..still), Max ( broken finger), Mihocek, Sharp, with Bowey and Laurie not present. Then some cameo's from Melksham, AMW, CJ at times, although they ran in the match sim. Better than the 14 on the sidelines pre Christmas, but I doubt we will see anything of a couple of those this season. So with a couple of "train on" players out there today, and reportedly there last Monday as well, I'm expecting a couple to go on the LTI, to enable us to draft in replacements ala Culley last season.

We have won 1 Premiership in the past 61 years! 2 GF appearances. Essendon, North and Carlton have won multiples over that period of time. Brisbane are lining up for their 3 Premiership in a row and off the back of the past 3 GF's. They are able to attract Oscar Allen and Sam Draper. Geelong have played in 6 GF's since 2000 with 3 wins. All have 1st rate facilities and they consistently are at the top end of the ladder (except North, who also have second rate facilities) . Their players are better prepared. They spend their time actually training instead of sharing facilities with soccer and rugby clubs, or driving for 90 minutes each time they go to Casey. In elite sport it is the small advantages which make the difference. For us we are at a huge disadvantage each and every year.

Or the players could just jump the barrier and walk to the oval......

.....it doesn't turn quickly. It takes about 10 years from top to bottom to back near top. The examples quoted: Hawthorn last won the Premiership in 2015. 10 years until they were challenging again. Brisbane down the bottom in 2015-18, ..5-7 years until they got back to challenging. Richmond last won a Premiership in 2020. 5 years later they are wallowing at the bottom. It is the nature of things when you are successful and win Premierships. You don't get good players at the draft to replace those good players who got you to the top. It takes 4-5 years even when you get enough of them, to develop the those individuals to top level. Some teams get "kissed" with good father sons, or "academy" selections, which keeps them in the mix for longer, such as Brisbane with 2 Ashcrofts, Fletcher and Starcevich in their latest Premiership side. Or the Dogs with Liberatore, O'Donnell, Darcy, West, Ward, Hunter, Cordy. Sadly we have had only Jack Viney in the past 60 years to play regular senior football. We have just started to put together the talent to challenge again, but it takes time....it is not something which turns quickly.

And similar to Hawthorn....this is their second one/redevelopment while we have nothing to show. The glass is totally empty.

Pity is, this should have been started years ago.....it could have been a "future home base" Fund. Just like Hawthorn have done... How much would members have contributed to it, post the 2021 Premiership? Yet not a damn thing was done. How much would we have in the bank if there was a small membership levy toward that future project? We have to stop waiting for handouts or white Knights, and do something ourselves....

Spot on..... Even this thread has been going since 2020, and for the older people on this site, it goes back even longer... At the "merger" rallies Brian Dixon said something along the lines of "we don't want second rate facilities like Glenferrie...we want the best in the league" That was now 30 years ago, and we still don't have anything! In recent times we have been told the Board has been investigating: A facility outside the MCG toward Jolimont station. Never going to fly because of local resident opposition ...ever. Yet time and effort was wasted. Car Park F at AAMI....still left us with substandard oval on Public land at Gosch's with shared facilities with Storm, Victory etc Car Park E at AAMI ...overlooked by Collingwoods facility, and an even smaller footprint...yeah that'll work! We were promised by the CEO at a sponsors event in 2022 that something would be definitely be announced by year end, but could't say anything yet because it was "commercial in confidence" 4 years later we have the same with Caulfied....can't say anything, even after redevelopment was touted in 2023!

Keeping with the sheep theme: An Australian was walking along a country road in New Zealand when he saw a farmer going at it with a sheep. The Aussie yelled, "You know, mate, back home, we shear those!" The New Zealander looked around frantically and said, "I'm not shearing her with no one!" But since this is a football site: One day, a man walks into an antique shop in London. Looking around, he notices a life-sized bronze sculpture of a cat in a dark corner. The sculpture is so intriguing, he decides he must buy it and asks the shopkeeper the price. "$12 for the cat, sir," the shopkeeper tells him, "and $100 for the story that goes with it." "I'll take the cat," says the man, "but you can keep the story." The transaction completed, the man leaves the store with the bronze cat under his arm. As he crosses the street in front of the store, two cats emerge from an alley and fall into step behind him. Nervously looking over his shoulder, he begins to walk faster, but every time he passes another alley, more cats come out and follow him. By the time he's walked two streets, at least a hundred cats are at his heels, and people are beginning to point and shout. He walks even faster, and soon breaks into a trot as multitudes of cats swarm from alleys, basements, and abandoned cars. Thousands of cats are now at his heels, and as he sees the river at the bottom of the hill, he panics and starts to run full pelt. No matter how fast he runs, the cats keep up, hissing insanely, now not just thousands, but millions. He looks up and sees that he is running towards the edge of the Thames, and the trail of cats is now several hundred yards long behind him. Making a mighty leap, he jumps onto a lamp post, grasping it with one arm while he hurls the bronze cat into the river. Clinging to the lamp post, he watches in amazement as the seething tide of cats surges over the banks into the river, where they drown. Amazed and almost dumbstruck, he makes his way back to the antique shop. "Ah, so you've come back for the story," says the shopkeeper. "No," says the man, "I was wondering if you had a bronze Collingwood fan?

..hope not. That role is for the Board and CEO. No idea what this is about….still can’t work out what Richardson is doing if this role is needed???

Especially when most of those assets are in a "Future Fund" that is NOT to be spent on training & Admin facilities.

And the only thing the sheep at the meeting were worried about was whether we were called Dee’s or some logo change. Spare me.

Nothing again. Same as when Pert got up in 2022 as promised something to announce by year end.

Thanks also Meggs. Great summary, and your fabulous insight into the team and the up and coming players. Hope to see you back next year especially as the AFLW competition becomes more and more interesting and part of our football life.

CJ had a medical type bandage below his knee on Wednesday, same today. It is the usual thing you see after an arthroscopy. However, before everyone gets too excited, he participated in full training that day, and did about half a session today. There was an awful lot of running, sprints and up and down the field in todays session, so perhaps he was told not to overdo it?

...we have 12 players who are over 29 this season. 10 of those will probably play in the first round and for most of the season. May, Melksham, TMac, Gawn, Viney, Salem, Langdon, Lever, Steele, Mihochek........ with Campbell & McAdam not in first 23. Average age of list is a rubbish statistic. As others have pointed out, every teams average is within a small range. And it is the same every year. The relevant stat is your best 23 age. Our situation is not pretty, as from the list above, most are key position players, all who played most of the games last year and we finished 14th. .... This is a rebuild and it will take a couple of seasons.

Yes....and a good number of people still insist we have adequate training facilities....

Agree. The one thing I took from today was about kicking the ball into the space where the receiver has to run, not directly to the receiver. It forces, for example, the forward to go to where the ball is delivered, not where they think they should lead to. And it forces the person with the ball to kick to the most advantageous location, because they have better vision of the defence. It is early days, but teaching players not to kick to a leading forward, but rather to the best position for that forward, takes time. When they have got the hang of it, then more defenders can be employed progressively until we get to match day reality.

Every side will play 2 rucks this year, because of 5 on the bench, and the change to ball ups. No nominating from 100m away, rucks will have to run a lot more than in the past.

Damning……. https://www.theage.com.au/national/afl-clubs-implicated-with-security-firm-linked-to-finks-bikie-gang-20251127-p5niuz.html

Absolutely guaranteed. “Look at how we have turned things around” . Not having these player and coach payments, and soft salary tax to bring the Goodwin contract into this year, will guarantee a better result next year. ….without doing a single thing.

The loss was $4.5 M ! To use the cover-up of a $200k "operating loss" is deceptive. When it seems the abnormals claimed are paying out football contracts. That's not abnormal.