Steamin Demon

It would be all guess work, so if I was guessing 3-4 weeks.

I drove past yesterday and noticed a fair contingent training. It looked like handballing drills.

Good Bloke? All reports were that he was absolute pr1ck.

I just drove past Gosch's paddock and there seemed a fair contingent of players and coaching staff doing some sort of training. I thought today was a rest day, maybe the rehab group?

Definately trimmed down. Not so top heavy.

Trained with mids. He used the ball exceptionally well, He is still very slight though. I'd never witnessed his pace until today but in my opinion he rivalled Blease for raw pace.

Matt Jones was in everything and trained with intensity and tackled as hard as anyone. He didn't really standout though. Kent I didn't see. Absent maybe.

Ok here goes - I will start with the absentees: Roos, Hogan, Dawes, Clark, Jamar, Gawn & Viney. I these guys were there but not training. Rawlings took most of training. I got there at 9.45am and the ground was strangely under the cover of fog with tempretures around 17-18 degrees. The sun broke through soon after and it heated up quite quickly. When I arrived they were finishing off a pretty tame warm up of kick to kick. They then split the group in half and the groups went to opposite ends of the ground. They started with what could only be explained as long bombs to a one on one, no real standouts here as it was a pretty so-so drill. The real stuff got underway at about 10.15am. They started with contested work on the wings. I kept hearing 'PATIENCE' & 'GIVE YOURSELF SPACE'. They were working on fast handballs out to a free RUNNING player which had to hit up a hard leading forward. The lead up forwards consisted oF Pedersen, Blease, Tappy, Bail & Howe. The usual culprits butched going forward but the real standouts for me were Tyson, Vince, Toumpas and Jones, all these boys delivered it with precision. The backs were working really hard by this time. The drill they were doing was very labour intensive and a very interesting drill at the same time. One defender was a designated spoiler, Nicho in this case. One coach would stand at the top of the 50 and put it high towards the forwards and Nicho had to work his arse off to spoil whichever player it went to, He did this on nearly every occasion. I was happy when they started to work on the kick outs. This was good to watch because the use of the ball was sublime. The defender (Frawley) would go sideways then it would be run up and feed to the mids leading onto the wings then the ball was automatically switched to inside the corridor (very un Neeld like). A few standouts here were Jones, Strauss, Tyson, Toumpas (didn't miss once), Trengove (still slow), Cross & Watts. Dom Barry's speed in this drill was there for all to see. After a short drinks break they broke into 'whites & blues'. To put it simply a white guy tagged a blue guy. They again broke into two groups (whites mixed with blues) and the lined up on opposing ends of the centre square, they had to work in fours and run it up whilst getting hassled by an opponent. The objective seemed to be get it to the loose man running at full tilt then deliver it to the forwards. They showed some really good signs here, Blease was continually told to 'TAKE IT ON & GO,GO,GO' which he did and burned off every time.The notables again in this drill were Garland (received huge applause for one tackle), Vince (kept slipping tackles), Trengove (tackling machine), Tappy. Tappy was included in every part of the session for those that want to know. Finally they moved into a full ground drill. This started very slow and sloppy, whoever was running the drill (not Rawlings) kept barking 'FASTER & MORE TALK' and I must say the boys stepped it up from there, This drill was a combination of all the previous drills but this incorporated the full ground. The emphasis was quick sharp ball movement. The thing that stood out was the constant running after disposal to support to player up field, This was continually reiterated by the coaches. This drill was done with game day intensity (as it should). The sun was getting quite hot by this stage so I took off. I will just list a few players below as I know most people want a bit of individual feedback. Howe - smooth mover, probably the best out there today. Jones - standard session. Tyson - as MJT stated we got a steal here. Rolls Royce. Toumpas - has lost the arse and gained some speed, get excited because from what I saw today I am. Vince - like Tyson he just smoooth and smart with the footy. Barry - bloody quick. Tappy - impressive today and participated in everything. Dunn - worked the hardest of anyone and was the most vocal. Jetta - very fumbly today and looked a bit off. One last thing, when I left Grimes had everyone in a big group barking orders about offensive run. Very CAPTAIN like, read into it what you will. Happy to answer any questions.

I will put my report up within the hour. I was one of those fellas MJT.

Mitch walking laps in runners.

Yeah very different to in town. Sun starting to break through now.

Very cool conditions out here folks. Thick blanket of fog. Visibility pretty poor.

I'm on my way. See you there Seraph..

I will head down, anyone know what time it kcks off?

I went and picked up my a large training singlet no problem. On the rack the had run out of size 8 kids jumpers so I asked Tom at the desk and he went out the back and had mountains of size 8 jumpers. If they don't have the stock on the rack doesn't mean they don't have it, just ask. Just a little polish for Tom at the desk too. He so helpful, He offered to put a number on the back, he showed me the new white training jumper (not for sale) & was telling me that they have sold so many jumpers that they have ran out numerous times of all sizes. He said the baby jumpers will be available early New Year.

You da man AD !! That's passion mate.

Poor bloke. All the best Bails.

This

I suggest you watch the Darwin game from a couple of years back, He dominated. I have a soft for players that have a crack like Nifty did.

FWIW Malthouse offered him a midfield job at Carltank and he knocked it back, so let's not break out the mini violins to early.

I know your being sarcastic but if you you knew the price of property in the inner west you probably wouldn't joke.

Thanks Hoges. Appreciate the pics.

On par with some of the tripe CW spews out.

If that was our clash jumper the demon shop would sell out in minutes !!! I love it.

Plenty of Dees in the west. Whole family of Dees from Altona.