drdrake

Fitzy isn't full training at the moment either. He may mean round 1 of the Pre-season and he would be right. At the moment him and King are the only two fit tall forwards.

Dom Barry from the sounds of it is doing everything right this pre-season, he has the tools to be an AFL regular. He has the speed, endurance and skill just the question is his competitive stuff.

10 months until trade week starts, the kid hasn't played a game in 2014 and we are already aren't willing to give up our first round pick which at the moment is between 1-18.

Where is Fitzy at? 4 weeks to go until Richmond, at this stage the only tall forward that will be fit is Pederson who had been training down back and maybe Hogan. The best and worst thing for the club is we have a week off before we head to Alice Springs to play Geelong. It would be good to know the Casey Pre-season schedule this will be vital to get our tall forwards fit for round 1.

Thanks God, I can stop standing at this cliff edge and get on with the day

Full on day, 3K time trial early followed by training.

Matt, was this at Princess Park?

You are basing this on an assumption that they haven't improved. For all we know every player ran PB's. You only can assess improvement against each players personal times, not where they finish. Someone mentioned Blease finished near last, not good for a bloke that wants to be in the midfield but if he is improving his own times the club would be happy.

How far where players behind Cross? Did the players in the age bracket run personal bests? Being 30yo you don't lose endurance, you start to lose a little speed but over 3KM that wouldn't effect your result.

Found footage from Nov 2012 Bulldogs time trial Princess Park Cross won easily with Boyd second then Gia.

Would love to get 28 points up and be in a position to choke. Most matches over the past 6 years we have been 28+ points down by half time and the match over.

Improvers Clark: he just needs to stay fit and on the park. Hopefully we can get 18 games this year with Clark, Dawes, Hogan and Howe are four of our starting forward line. If that happens we have the fire power to kick goals Toumpas: We need guys that can carry the football. This guy is all class and if he gets his confidence up early he will have a very good year. The key is his confidence, he will have the base and he has the ability he just needs to have a couple of very good games early. Frawley: We need Chip back at his all Australian Best. He has been well below this over the past 3 years but Chip needs to improve back to that level. Sliders This is based on if these 3 are getting regular games we are in trouble, Nicholson, Bail and McKenzie. Bit hard on McKenzie but you want to see N Jones, Vince, Tyson, Michie, Watts, Toumpas, Trengove, Viney and Evans playing through our midfield.

Every forward needs to have the ability to run both ways, pushing up the ground and working hard to be an option inside our forward 50m arc. No such thing as a stay at home forward anymore. If Dawes and Clark are fit Hogan will play the HFF role with the ability to run rather that the Key Role

I think Jack Watts is the one to play the Goodes type role.

It sounds great. Most forward lines are setting up with 3 talls, it is almost like the old school forward 6 with three talls, a mid size HFF and rotating midfielders.

Assuming everyone is fit to me there are 5 spots that are up for grabs Small & Midsize defender: Strauss, Terlich, Clisby, Nicholson, Jetta, Dunn Small Forward: Byrnes, Kent, Tapscott, Blease, JKH, Bail First Ruck: Jamar, Gawn, Spencer Bench Midfielder: M Jones, Michie, McKenzie My Line up Clisby Frawley Garland Dunn McDonald Grimes Trengove N Jones Vince Howe Dawes Watts Byrnes Hogan Clark Jamar Viney Tyson Cross Michie Toumpas Bleese Besides his weekly brain fades I thought Dunn was good down back last year and my preference is for Dunn over Terlich

Because a fit Jamar is still our best ruckman.

It is always good to put an estimated dollar figure, to have 3,000 extra members equates to about 600K

23,000 achieved, 23,122 with two days to go.

Watching the Ashes has proven to me that the most important thing for any team sport is getting the right people. The players haven't changed that much but the coaching staff have, all of the sudden players are happy, confident and winning. The same can be said about Port Adelaide last year they fixed off field followed by appointing a new set of coaches, same playing list but they all played like different players. This gives you hope, most on this site don't believe our players aren't as bad as what we have seen over the past 3 years. Training is different you can see the quality of training is a lot higher this year, the players looked focused and as Trengove mentioned recently balanced. Like both Port and the Australian Cricket Team confidence is the next key, getting that early kill that creates the belief that the new way is the right way. Unfortunately for us we were Port's early kill last year. Are we finally getting it right, one can only hope.

Nutbean, there is a huge difference between Toumpas and the two you mention, Toumpas wants to be elite and is prepared to what ever it takes to give him the best opportunity to get to that level, the other two expected it would just happen.

I hope we start to see reward for effort, the players are working hard and one player that is pushing really hard is Jimmy Toumpas. This guy will be gem, I have seen a couple of training sessions and he is running with our elite runners, he covers a heap of ground through the drills, I just hope he gets the match day confidence through the Pre-season matches.

No easy matches to start, Richmond, Geelong and Hawthorn for pre-season. Weather permitting it will be packed at Casey.

Very early but a fit Tyson plays, Michie will be extremely close and JKH to me there are two spots on the ground that are up for grab, small forward and small defender, he is up against Blease, Tappy, Byrnes, Bail and Kent so he has a chance.

Oh well if he has they are heading for there Christmas break so he has time to recover before they return in the new year.