DeeSpencer

If 46 is an academy kid he’s got to be a 25 year old in a 18 year olds body. Just took down Tracc with ease

Waiting for Zane Duursma to do the 🏹. Yet to see one so far

The Anchorman just played on at half forward, stepped around a few, took a bounce and handballed to no one. It was bad but highly promising Kid has Fitzmagic tunnelball potential

Oliver looking very displeased to be handed the flouro hat of shame, but his hand isn’t right

Looks like a couple of Phil Inns in 44 and 46. 46 looks like a mature body

Jeffo does the body work but spills the mark. K Turner recovers from losing the contest, handball to Harmes, long switch to Rivers, short hit to a rolling Fritsch at half forward who hits JVR on the lead. Ie. That’s what we want to see

Disco putting in some quick laps, not the biggest yet but looking quite the athlete. Spargo sitting out a drill for running now too. Verrell in some training drills. Adams with the yellow hat. So they’re both progressing

There’s a lot of variables that will impact the round 1 team based on moving players around. For instance: If Lever is fully fit the I can’t have Brayshaw in the same backline, it’s another drop off intercept player with poor kicking and lack of rebounding run. Rivers, Bowey and even McVee fight for 2 spots there. If Lever happened to be out then Gus makes more sense intercepting, with Tomlinson or Turner rather than one if the smalls. If Gus isn’t down back then he probably has the lead for the 3rd wing (Hunter really firming for the 2nd wing) and 4/5th on baller spot, with JJ and Harmes behind. Can Pickett really be the 4/5th on baller too? Or is he still primarily a forward with short stints as the 6th on baller. If Koz is predominantly an on baller then Melksham and Chandler come in to contention as forward line replacements for some goal scoring/forward craft. If Pickett isn’t really a mid then Sparrow and Harmes have the edge as mid/forward types. The only player I can see taking ANB’s role directly is Sparrow given he has the tank, the speed and the selfless running. But maybe we can patch that role with Viney, Harmes, Sparrow all doing stints as the defensive forward. Although my guess is if Pickett is going to the midfield they won’t mess with ANB early in the season. Last year it was pretty clear that the aim was to recreate the 2021 team. This year there’s a few more moving parts and we don’t know how much the coaches will tinker with personnel in order to change the game plan.

If you’re giving up hopes based on a practice match then either your team is stuffed or you’re way too reactive. I think they’re important for conditioning. Even if it just minimises those classic round 1 cramps. But I do wonder if they shouldn’t be televised. Or only streamed through the clubs websites. There is something nice about the year starting with that sense of the unknown.

AFL Training Sessions Date: Wednesday 25 January Time: 9:30am Location: Gosch's Paddock Casey Fields Training Sessions All Casey Field training sessions are currently closed to the public. Still expected to be Wednesday. I don’t think the tennis is a real encumbrance. But they have issues a little warning to our intrepid Casey watchers. I wonder if they’ll start locking the gate

I think we’ll see T Mc back as a pretty classic lead up CHF. With Schache purely for depth, he doesn’t have the speed or smarts to be Cameron. But with the resting ruck and likely one of JVR/BBB also up forward I’d be looking at Fritsch maturing and diversifying his game and moving from his stay at home role to mixing in a lot more high half forward. He’s the closest thing we’ve got to Cameron and someone who should have 15-20 touches a game far more often.

Any signs of Lever or Howes?

That was an awful 7 minutes between posts!

KC 1-6 Eagles 1-6 Bills 7-12 Cowboys 1-6

Any idea who Grundy fumbles in front of in red? Is it Howes? Looks like it could be a young player from the afl academy. They do a nice job getting pressure on.

Yes, they were training at the time. Ben Brown is the exception. Some of them were obviously away at that time of year, but how many of our players made the effort to go to the prelim? Because I can only remember seeing Viney who was sitting with his dad (no issue with that) in the opposition stand section. If our male and female players had a strong connection we’d see a lot more of it. On social media, at finals, across the club media. If they can’t even get the basics right - show up for a farewell of the captain and a legend - then there’s clearly not the level of unity the club should be trying to foster. It might be two very well run programs but they’ll miss out if it’s not one unified club.

No update on Lever, or J Smith, or anyone else missing training but an immediate press release for Gawn? For an injury (if conventional) that will be healed well before round 1. I’m worried that it’s a big hammy.

I’d say yes but it depends on your definition of significantly. He’s done an impressive amount of work but the photos probably over do it given how lean he is. McVee isn’t too far behind. And AMW has a new set of shoulders and arms too.

Daisy is our AFLW team. She’s the mum to several of the players, the big sister to others. The rock for the coach. The recruiting manager for potential trades. The team plays in front of just about no one often in awful conditions at Casey. They could easily be about as relevant or less as a team like the Dogs since they dropped away. Daisy is the driving force behind them being so successful, having a profile and ultimately a flag is Daisy. And that’s without mentioning the way she’s lifted the profile of womens footy as a whole. AFL players will turn up as a group to sit at the back of a farewell press conference for a donkey of a coach who’s booted in under 2 years. Because it’s the respectful and right thing to do. They should’ve done that for Daisy.

They are senior leadership figures at the club. I’d be shocked if there was such time pressure to have the press conference when they did mid morning and not an hour later so Max and Goody could wander over. It’s nothing to do with who’s handling it. I don’t expect them to speak. I expect them to show up because that’s what you do when it’s one unified club and a significant person is leaving. If Gawn was retiring and the women were training on the same day I’d expect schedules to be arranged for Daisy and Mick to be present at the press conference.

Didn't want to bring negativity here but no one else has so.... Whilst it could be lifestyle related I think Daisy joining the AFL program at Geelong rather than our own was a pretty solid red flag. Her farewell press conference being in the middle of the mens training session and the lack of public praise from our mens group have both been clear indicators that the mens program just isn't all that invested in the womens team. There might be some jealousy from them training at Goschs' almost permanently or just from them muscling in and taking some of the limited space at AAMI park but whatever the reason it's very disappointing. At a mimimum Goodwin and Gawn should've been present at her farewell. Maybe if they were invested in the womens program she wouldn't be leaving in the first place.

I understand the reasons for comparing them given they are the same draft class and similar stage in their career but I don't really think Sparrow v Jordon is a direct comparison at all. At least until we see JJ given more minutes as an on baller. For now JJ is primarily a wingman and he has to fight for that second wing role. It would surprise me if JJ is the 3rd winger because we got guys like Gus and Harmes who can fill that role whilst also providing more in forward or on ball rotations. Sparrow is a mid/forward who does a very good job defending the corridor and whilst his ball use inside 50 isn't a strong point he showed he can impact as a forward in the 2021 finals. There's room for both of them in the side but they are competing with Harmes, Brayshaw, Hunter and even to an extent ANB and Langdon for roles within the side far more than it being a head to head.

Grundy looked a long way off all session. Positioning and marking aren’t a strong suit, and whilst he got involved with some ground balls with good vigour he didn’t do anything with it. He was probably the biggest individual downside. The tempo is incredibly fast, I’d still like to see more switching and run and carry with forward handballs to open up space. There’s some lovely fast aggressive kicks that pay off but faster long down the line purely for the sake of being faster won’t make us better. I agree Chandler had a strong session with some good positioning, attack at the contest and tackling. Pickett, May, Hibberd, Salem, Petty, Langdon, Melksham were others that looked good. McVee was the big improver. Not sure about top end speed but he looks genuinely quick, and he was scything through traffic with ease with solid disposal. My immediate thought was he’s likely to debut this year. JVR was his typical energetic self, crashed in to some packs and his follow up is exceptional, he has a desire for tackling that we haven’t seen from a tall. Need to see a dry day to see if he can hold a few more. Hibbo and Petty mostly had him covered. Big Kyah contested for a mark with Gus and quickly came down and was back on to the loose ball. Whilst he’s a long way off it’s nice to see the athleticism is as advertised. Was good to see Deak Smith back in training too. K Turner had some moments, he covers ground very easily and looks a natural runner for a tall. D Turner had a great goal saving tackle at one point, he looks super fit and lean. Lockdown back has to be an option for him, and I even wonder if he finds himself stuck in the key back log jam if he can contribute to the midfield.

The right call. Just an awful shame she’s off to the evil taxpayer funded empire. 55 games drastically undersells her massive impact on the game

Petty’s copped about 6 injuries in the last 20 minutes. Think he just popped a finger out