Rod Grinter Riot Squad

Good luck with your first game on Saturday Rowan.

Understand what you are saying and while it is definitely preferable for him to mark with arms stretched forward, if he is taking marks stretching overhead, defenders are going to have to go the chop of the arms and it will be blatantly obvious.

I wouldn't be so quick as labelling Toumpas soft 'H'. He hasnt shown as much as we all want at AFL level yet and I can understand the doubts but I believe he just needs some time and confidence. I've a lot more patience with him after watchinghim get smashed a few times in a half at Casey last year, get up clearly hurt and go again. The one that stands out was right in front of me, Toumpasd was the victim os a second hospital pass in half an hour and he was obviously going to get belted, he stood his ground knowing that he was going to get smashed. He did, I flinched watching it. He got up, struggling and willed himself to the next contest. Yes, he isn't Wines, but I think he will show us more than many expect from his first year.

No Riley or Mitchie. Reckon Riley may very quickly become a favourite of many of us in no time.

Think you will find Pedo spent over half the game versus the Dawks in defence

Watts has a role, has prepared for it over the summer and should be left to carry it out. Pedo worked himself into the ground providing options against Richmond, he has trained recently with the forwards and deserves the crack. Fitzy has a chance to make FF/ replacement ruck his own. Love to see a defender stop a pass from Watts to Fitzy at pace. Add in Howe and our forward line has enough height to stretch the Saints.

From what I saw of Pedo at training, he was working his butt off (can't believe I am saying that after what I saw last preseason) and will prove many of us wrong. He was also doing a hell of a lot of work training as a forward.

Playing geourgiou is most likely, let's Pedersen go forward

He looked alright to me

But if they clear the space in the salary cap and lose either of these two (or a player like Mundy) then they will have $$ to throw about at the end of 2015

Miracles can happen, first the umpiring department make some moves that I think will benefit the game if the experiment is given a proper chance to succeed and now channel 7 have managed to give us news conferences where we hear the questions!

It's not too early to tell, Wines is a better footballer than Toumpas. There's a chance, how much of a chance depends on your opinion, but a definite chance Toumpas may become the better of the two, but the fact is that right now, Wines is better.

Funny isn't it, we watch the same session but see it differently. That said, any viewpoint depends on what you are watching as for a lot of training you need three sets of eyes, but I was very impressed, walked away from training a hell of a lot happier with the skills I witnessed compared with the many training sessions I saw last year

They have a week, Riley has a few more weeks on the LTI, so no need to make a call till selection. Fitzy's action was discussed, agree he drops it from too high, will hurt him on windy days.

Spencer will be first ruck, Fitzy as his back up, Spence did a lot of goal kicking late in the session, very accurately too

Got there at 9.30 passing Dawes on bridge as he was heading to tan with a trainer. A few Casey players and a few Dees out there warming up. Bulk arrived 20 mins later, warming up together, JKH hardly did anything but some goal kicking, saving himself for tomorrow. The session consisted of a hell of a lot of ball work and the skills were very good, though a perfect day for it. Bernie Vince was sublime, excited to see how he goes this year. Roos very involved, chalk and cheese to what I saw last year. On a similar vein, was not impressed with Pedersen during preseason last year, didn't think he worked hard enough, was very impressed with what I saw of him today, worked hard the whole session, expect him to start the season up forward with Howe and Fitzy. Georgio will probably play his role down back till our tall forwards return. At the end of the session, him and Howe practiced providing multiple leads over and over again. Those playing tomorrow left after roughly an hour, hopefully some posters get to tomorrow's game and give us report. Tyson and Mitchie will be great gains, was impressed with Salems size, beautiful kick as well. Overall, the team are looking much stronger than I remember for a long time, talking of strong, can't wait till we see Riley, he looks a tough unit. Another difference to last year was the constant movement, it made it seem much more realistic to the workout they would get during a game, last year I felt the players were stationary too much in drills. At the end of a very long session which included a lot of match type simulation drills they then put the boys through a number of short repeat sprints, something that must have hurt considering GPS reading were showing they had already covered similar ground at a similar pace to what they would have if they played a match. Looked like the club had a number of players families there, showing them training and then a tour of facilities, not certain they were the new players families, but got that impression. Will be on and off today, will try expand later, my 6 month old preventing me writing more now as he tries hijack the ipad.

No Jamar, light session for Gawn

Forgot, did notice him early, briefly

Dawes I saw at start heading to tan, no Clark or Hogan. Those playing tomorrow did have lighter session

Just leaving the paddock after longest and hardest session I have seen. Very excited about year ahead, will post summary later, feel free to get in with any questions in mean time, will try answer in summary.

Summed it up well Mono, even if u may not have meant to, but it is this continuity of personnel that will lead to consistency IMO

Came across this article and reckon this is a great idea http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-03-12/umps-to-trial-teamwork-policy I just wish they would give it 6 weeks instead of 3. I've umpired other sports in the past and at my old school spent time umpiring Hockey with another past player. Because we umpired together each week we worked together that much better. Umpiring is never black and white, if the can team up the umps that see the different a shades of grey the same colour, we could get umpiring teams where the players and supporters know what interpretations to expect, rather than having three different interpretations a game

Deserved better than how the MFC treated him. R.I.P. Dean

My favourite post was when We were discussing trading Ryan Ferguson for Brad Sewell. The natives here were livid with the potential trade and saying as much, Craig Cameron came you to let all know the trade wasn't happening. His words were to be precise were "Ferguson's not going anywhere", Old55 who didn't rate Ryan quickly responded by quoting it with a line along the lines of "Ain't that the truth" or "you got that right"

Ignore my BS about not having parking problems people, I am mixing up the practice match with the intra club