george_on_the_outer

Might have something to do with paying his own bills? Until he is contracted, he is doing this for free. The club really has nothing to lose. It is only a rookie spot for 1 year....and it appears there is no-one else that we have seriously looked at, or they would have been at training. He will only cost us minimal $$'s and if it doesn't work out or we find someone else to fill the Neitschke gap, then there is always the mid-season draft....

You just know that the elevated walkway will be known as "The Magpie way"

“Imagine getting off at Richmond Station, not having to go up and down escalators or anything. Escalators at Richmond station???...shows how often Eddie uses the facility

Best day of the year to go skiing is Superbowl day. Everyone, and I mean everyone is inside in front of the TV, and the slopes are all to yourself...and the few disgruntled towies sitting in the cold!

There are no 2nds any more: https://vfl.com.au/developmentleague/ " With no Development League in 2018, the club structure for those eight clubs affected will move to one similar to that currently used by clubs such as Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Footscray, North Ballarat and Richmond, where players not selected at VFL level will play local football. "

That's the truth. We are not going to see the defensive structures and how individuals fit into those structures and the expectations of how they will act in certain scenario's at an open training session. Even more so on Gosch's paddock which is undersized compared to the grounds on which we play in the main season. ( ground size is one of the contributing factors as to why Geelong fail in finals ). Same for the forwards. It is not just Tommy at FF, Weid at HF etc. How they will run their patterns is unknown to us until the first game. One of the reasons for Maroochydore is to get away from prying eyes, or Casey or indoors at MSAC. Wish we were in Essendons situation, who run their sessions inside an aircraft sized hanger, with 2 ovals outside in size equivalent to the MCG and Docklands.

Brown is one of those players that you don't notice, he just does his job and at the end of the game he will have kicked a couple and you would ask when?.....He is training with the forwards and just fits into the scheme of things. He may play as a 3rd tall, but should any of the main forwards get injured he will be into the side post haste. He kicked 21 goals at Essendon last year which was only one less than Petracca, our leading goalkicker. He is tall, and can probably fill a role down back as well, if needed. Very nice pickup for us, and still baffled as to why the Dons got rid of him considering the situation with Daniher and other injuries in their forward line.

Baghdad Bob may report soon, but the internet was down at his home base...and photos to follow from Hardtack and son... In rehab: Tomlinson, Baker, Spargo, May, Oscar with Smith and Petty joining them when the contact stuff in the main group began. No sign of KK, Hannan, VDB, Neitzke, and Chandler. Melksham came out and was doing only kick to kick for a short while, but only on his left, then worked with the physio for an extended period....abdominal? back? impossible to say. May was only walking post surgery, but should be back with the main group and running, very shortly. Bennell had a couple of light runs and was kicking both feet without ever missing, either at goal or to another player in the rehab group. So I counted 32 in full training, but given the ease of movement from Tomlinson, Spargo and Baker in their exercises, they should be back in the very near future. Oscar and Smith and Petty looked to be only a minor step away from the main group today, and joined in the final bit of match simulation with the main group. I'll leave it to others to report on the goings on, but really this was similar to other Wednesdays, with plenty of practice of ball movement and positioning, with lots of "keepings off" in various forms. Not much match type stuff. over to the others......

A proper training base and home for the next 100 years.....not some stopgap measure in a public park!

No

2019: Watts 2 games 0 goals. Kent 13 games 12 goals.....not much in the way of goal kicking sources.

Today was a "quiet" return from the Christmas/New Year break, compared to the exhausting, relentless sessions that we saw before the break. Having said that, the players had already run a 3 km trial before starting the main exercises which lasted until nearly midday after a 9.30 or thereabouts start. The rehab group consisted of Tomlinson, Jones, Spargo, Baker & Hannan, who all seemed to be running freely with Jones and Tomlinson certainly at full stretch. They must be very close to return to the main group and with multiple pre-seasons behind them it would seem not so critical to their overall fitness. Viney, Jetta and VDB were running their own 3km around the oval ( perhaps they arrived late to go with the main group) but they still had to do it. It really gladdened the heart to see VDB absolutely "street" the other two, and was a good 300m ahead of them at the end. Not sighted today were Joel Smith, May ( who apparently was in the gym inside) and of course KK ( mmm..) and Neitschke. I can't say that I noticed Marty Hore either, but others may be able to confirm that. Bennell turned up for 5 minutes, but didn't participate (mmm...) Brayshaw was wearing the number 43 which confused the watchers for a while, especially with a hat on to disguise himself even further. We even saw "the invisible man" Kyle Dunkley, called such because he will get 25 touches in a game and nobody notices..... he does the same at training! And that is the main observation from today. Of the 44 on the list 35 were on the track in full training. What a comparison with last year!! It means that the coaches can run nearly 2 teams in match simulation, something that was never done in 2019. Now I haven't much to report about the actual session, because it was just a series of drills with a small half ground match sim for only 15 minutes or so. Scoop Junior has covered off most of this in an earlier post. Just another observation in that Chandler has stacked on the muscle, and was heavily involved in all the midfield exercises. In sharp contrast Preuss has lost a heap of weight and for those that can't get to training, when you see him during season proper you will simply not recognise him from before! It was good to see Lewis and Stafford running goal kicking practice at the end with a final competition to see who didn't miss. I won't steal BB's thunder, so he can let you know later......

8.13 and 22.30 for some rippers in terms of distance.....

This:

Unless KK comes out in full training, post the Christmas break, this won't be the question....

It wasn't surprising that the opposition during that period were accurate......we had little in the way of defenders! With little pressure, easy shots ensue. During that period we were missing Lever and Jetta for the whole time. May - all the period except for 1 game. But we also lost Hibberd, Salem, Lewis and Hore at some point for a couple of weeks. So it wasn't bad luck, we just didn't have the cattle to hold out the opposition. One would think that putting Lever, May and Jetta into those games in 2019 would have seen the opposition kick a couple of goals less. It was remarkable how close we were in those games..... The positive is (as you have alluded.)...it shouldn't happen again with the players now on the pre-season track.

I'd love Jason Taylor to be picking my Tattslotto numbers because he knows who is going where before it is called......

Article in today's little paper ( in fact the only decent one in this rag) from Mick Malthouse: MICK MALTHOUSE’S CHRISTMAS WISH LIST FOR 2020 "Fewer rule changes, less time wasting, no gambling sponsors and more competitive Victorian clubs. Here are 12 gifts Mick Malthouse wants Santa to deliver for the 2020 season." (I can't get up a link without the HS trying to sign me up, but if there are any smarter people on this site that can provide a link.....) In essence, he has articulated probably the most sensible 12 things that fans ( not Gillon) want to see for a fairer competition and game: e.g ..rules that are rules, not interpretations. ....a fairer fixture....a fairer and consistent match review system...a sponsor not involved with gambling or alchohol.... If only Santa were real......

Since people can't leave the religious discussion alone.....locked!

Which other club has a social club? They don't make money and fans don't live in 1 suburb any more like the 1960's. WE need a training base. Gosch's was unusable for 6 weeks last year. But you are right about a financial plan of being successful outcomes on the field. Half the sides in the competition fail every year! You need off-field income for those times.....

No mention of KK unfortunately

Apparently the new licence fees are exhorbitant. Are they still profitable? I don't know, but we had buyers, so someone must think so. The government sold the previous ones too cheaply, so they upped the ante. . However, you are right.....what have we replaced that revenue stream with?

Under a lot of pressure to get this report in from the top...... Well, you would have already seen the reports of who wasn't there today, but make what you may of that. Perhaps an early Christmas, perhaps players on individual programmes, but the stalwarts of the track-watching crew were out there again....rain, hail, shine or in the case of today extreme heat. Even BB is now out of rehab! and we recruited dworship to the team before he disappears back to Ballarat. Naturally, those players who braved the conditions were out on the track a good 45 minutes before the advertised time, but who would blame them? Compared to previous sessions, this was a "light one". Still not unexpected given the temperature, and not every session needs to be as physically gruelling, so that the bodies can recover, and also to avoid injury. BB has given a good run-down on the goings on on the field, so I will only add a couple of observations: Once again Pickett really caught my eye. That's because you have to keep an eye on him before he disappears from view. Dworship made the comment that he has a "turbo button" to go with his normal quick coverage of the ground, which is very reminiscent of a previous owner of the number 36 jumper. Just when opposition players think they can or have avoided him, suddenly he is back for more. The other beautiful sight is his ability to get into space, with his opponent trailing by 10m having been burnt off. In one passage of play he contested for a mark, but it hit the ground and his opponent gathered the ball....until KP tackled him straight away, then sprung up to receive the handball from his team-mate who had gathered the ball. Not just one effort but 3 in succession! Keep and eye out for him, because surely he will be playing very soon. Everyone is watching Jackson, not unexpectedly, but again there was one passage that just makes the watchers ooh and aah!. Flying for a pack mark in the forward line, he decided not to grab it, because he was slightly off line. Instead he leapt up, leaned in and tapped the ball back over his head, but before it had hit the ground, he had recovered it and waltzed into the open goal. The others in the pack were still sprawled on the ground. ......oooh .......aaah! One for DazzleDavey, or one of the juniors observers to have some input.......there was a 17 year old kid, built like the proverbial who participated in a lot of the drills. Apparently one of the Next Generation academy, name of Deakin? Any info on him, because he certainly has the body already for the game, and in his brief outing also has all the basics. So while there is a closed session tomorrow, sometime, somewhere, that is it until the New Year. The overriding message is the numbers which we have on the track at this time of the year, and the obviously higher levels of fitness that come about from having those bodies on the ground. Very few in the rehab group and even then , they cannot be far away. Jones and Tomlinson already have the core strength and miles in their legs from their careers already, so it is just a case of getting them out there to participate with the group.

I don't like the line being spun about the loss being covered by existing cash reserves. Those reserves are from the sale of the Leighoak. So we lost $900k profit from Leighoak, and are covering a $1.6M loss, from that sale money. Yet we still have a $2M debt ( although that is not as much a problem with current interest rates). Yes we had a rubbish year for revenue as a result of the draw and our on-field performance, but those sort of things can happen again ( we hope not). But we have sold down a major revenue source, and the Darwin game as well in the hope that things will get better. Bentleigh club provided $4.5M of revenue this year, yet gate receipts were only $6.2M. This revenue disappears in 2022 if I remember. How is that going to be covered? It appears we have negotiated a better deal from the MCC, but as SWYL says we have to start winning games, to make that work. Selling assets like Leighoak and Bentleigh club should result in the purchase of new assets,( like a home base) not for recurrent expenditure. Where is the AFL support for exiting gaming? Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn and St.Kilda aren't.: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/five-afl-clubs-awarded-new-20-year-licenses-to-operate-pokies-20181029-p50cl8.html Hawthorn are building a $100M facility in Dingley. Richmond are planning a $60M upgrade to Punt Road.

Went along with all the other "retirees" BB, Deepositive, Saty, although some would claim they still work! If there is one thing that we can count on for season 2020 is that this side will be fit. I wonder how many players would be cheering the arrival of Burgess today, because the exercises that he sets test them to the limits of physical endurance. There was little match practice, but all the exercises today were about running with footballs and simulation of match scenarios in terms of fitness e.g touch football for 15 minutes across 1/2 the ground. Then do it again. Then do it again and again. 4 quarters of back and forward. By then end the bodies are wilting. But ( and this is a credit to Burgess), it isn't 50 100's back and forth rather something which retains interest and concentration combined with the agility and game level endurance. The side-line observers just oo'ed and aah'ed at Kickett in these exercises. No-one seemed capable of getting a hand on him as he danced left, right and then around player after player. I hope the crowd gets to see him this year, because he is one exciting fellow to watch in action. After all this, there is no stop. It's straight into the next bit, be that the small match simulation, but then even after that, it's into the next Burgess designed gut buster......5 minutes of wrestling, usually with someone of equal weight/strength/height...but poor Kosi got matched up against Gawn!!! Hardly fair, but you had to admire Kosi, because he just kept at it trying everything to get the big man down. Whistle blows and then the group is put into 3's. Players start on all fours. One rolls sideways to one end. That end player then has to spring over the rolling player to the other end...that player then has to spring over and roll to the other etc. Sounds easy? Try doing it for 10 minutes!! By the finish some players could barely get up enough spring to fall over the rolling player. Again pity those in Kosi's group because he kept springing up and over and up and over. As others have reported the session finished with more running for the various groups. Good to see Jordan leading one of the groups, but Tom Sparrow wasn't far behind. Both have now put on that extra muscle and weight which will only put them in good stead at AFL level, but their fitness will also be a factor for the team in the future. BB and DeeSpencer have reported on other aspects, but to me the most important thing is the number of players on the park, especially in light of the situation at this time last year. It is just great to see the likes of Jetta, May, Lever, TMac and Viney going full tilt instead of in rehab.