DeeSpencer

Footywire keep a list that isn't always accurate (see Kade Kolo listed for us) but is a rough guide. https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/out_of_contract_players?year=2019 Teams in transition will have the most - Carl, Gold Coast as young sides, the Hawks going through a rebuild. Richmond have a lot and are being aggressive with the Lynch move to bring in such a big money guy that they need flexibility. That's a new model that could be dangerous for a club with retention issues that goes all in and gets caught out. Good culture and a fair payment model is important. For the Hawks it's the older guys that blow out their numbers Veterans: McEvoy, Stratton, Frawley, Birchall, Burgoyne, Roughead, Puopolo, Henderson I think all of those guys are 30 or close to 30. That means some tough decisions. Most teams have half the number in that age bracket at most. Otherwise I think they are pretty standard. A number of important signatures they have to get. Some depth types they keep on one year deals, some will stay, some will go. Kids on initial contracts or rookies that are pretty easy to sign up. Best 22: Mitchell, O'Meara, Hardwick, Shiels Depth: Mirra, Ceglar, Schoenmakers, Mohr, Minchington, Miles, O'Brien Youth: CJ, Greaves, Glass, Moore, Ross, Cousins, Worpel, Pittonet, Golds Salary Cap: Langford

Key defenders: May, Oscar, (Frost, Petty) 3rd tall: Lever, Hibberd, (Hore) Key forward: T Mc, Weid, (Kielty, T Smith) 3rd tall: Melk, Petracca, Hannan, (J Smith) Ruck: Gawn, (Preuss, Bradtke) Wings: Vanders, KK, Fritsch On ball: Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes Plenty of height there. Our key position players are more around the 195cm mark than the 200cm size but I don't think that's an issue. 200cm talls with the endurance and mobility required are hard to find and it's not like our guys are small. Oscar, Petty, Tom and Weid are all big guys. May is a little shorter but has the strength and athleticism. Our 3rd tall and midfield options aren't stacked with 190cm+ size that some teams have but Lever, Hibberd and Jetta down back gives us plenty of overhead ability and Melksham, Petracca and possibly Hannan do the same up forward. Fritsch on the wing could be a weapon with his marking. KK has scope and Vanders is a physical beast for a midfielder. We could have 16 of the best 22 being 186cm or above plus Jetta. Our other half back options aren't short either - Lewis, Salem, Hunt, Hore. Which means our short guys are Viney, Spargo and ANB - all playing in positions where winning the ball on the deck, tackling and evasive skills matter more than overhead ability.

Some great photos as always Saty. Just wanted to say apart from mentioning the players in your captions you can tag them in the photo itself, that way it will show up in their tagged photos. They might appreciate that more than the captions.

Ben Guthrie covers the Demons for AFL.com.au and has his articles reposted on the club site and Stevo works for channel 7 who pay for the game. You throw a little bone here or there and you get better coverage when needed on the things that matter. Not to mention they'll come to training and cover what they see. The club doesn't need to be reporting every minor incident to fans, it's not in our best interest to know.

It's certainly more than the average that we've had. Playing deep in to September and a lot of surgeries will do that. Players consistently in the rehab group last preseason (from what I can recall): Hannan, Weed, T Smith, J Smith, Garlett, Kent, one or both of the young rucks at times, McKenna + Vanders (both rarely sighted outside running), Viney.

Oskar Baker - did 2 hammies in the back end of last year, probably just a slow build up Angus Brayshaw - was in the main group last week but called for the physios a couple of times Mitch Hannan - think he's had knee problems in both years, had an op James Harmes - had a shoulder op, seems to be fine Marty Hore - unsure, but is doing a fair bit in rehab, paired up with Melk Jayden Hunt - had shoulder surgery, doing a fair bit on the track Neville Jetta - had knee and shoulder procedures Jake Lever - knee taking it's time according to Stevo's tweet Oscar McDonald - unsure? Jake Melksham - probably just the ankle he carried in the back end of last year, doing plenty Clayton Oliver - legs look good, obviously hasn't done upper body weights for a while Christian Petracca - had a knee op Tim Smith - unsure Billy Stretch - coming back from stress fracture Aaron vandenBerg - had a shoulder op, out running Jack Viney - had an ankle procedure, doing laps, I expect they'll take him slowly It's a long list and it's way too talented! Lever due to it being a long term injury and Vanders and Viney with their injury histories are the guys I'm worried about. Just a rough guess but I think Baker, Brayshaw, Hore, Hunt, Melksham should be good to go soon based on them doing more ball work from what I saw. Clarry seems fine, will just be a matter of when he can resume contact drills. Jetta and Petracca seem paired up and looked ok. It's not panic stations now but I think we need to have the list back in single figures asap after Christmas and have as many of these guys right to go for the preseason games. If they haven't done enough training to play in the preseason then they're likely playing catch up during the regular season which is a risk of further injuries.

Round 12 this year. Dogs v Roos VFL Hitouts; Preuss - 36 Roughead - 25 Campbell - 15 Xerri (NM) - 9 Disposals Preuss - 15 Roughead - 24 Campbell - 14 Xerri - 10 Looks to me like Preuss was probably the best tap ruckman of the group, but Roughead the best around the ground. 1 goal for Campbell forward. In terms of instant back up Roughead was probably the best of that lot, the Pies moved to get him. Preuss is 23, Campbell is 27. That's really what a lot of it comes down to. Preuss is yet to enter his prime. Campbell might lose athleticism quickly, some big guys do and then they start to struggle. Yes, I see the point about having 3 rucks, but unless we are planning to play 2 at AFL level - and I don't think we are - then we've got a 3rd guy sitting in the VFL getting in the way of development and team structure. Austin Bradtke can do 5-10 minutes a quarter in the ruck and 5 minutes forward and develop at Casey, whilst the forward line stays open for Tim Smith and (at this stage) Keilty to get some space as tall forwards. With the new pre season and mid season rookie spots we can add a 3rd ruck if needed during the year. They might not be as good as Tom Campbell but we'll have all the state leagues to pick from if need be.

Last report for the day. Tom McDonald had some beautiful salmon coloured boots on.

Tossing or turning whether to go with this in a report because I don't want to be premature, nor do I want to get others overly excited. But I guess it's December so even I can be positive. I'll also say that Josh Wagner is one of the best 5 kicks at training and even the worst kicks hit their targets more times than not in simple drills. That said, here's my big call - James Jordon might be the best kick on the list. He's balanced, has a simple action and has lovely penetration and shape on his kicks. The guys did a drill that required a kick from the wing to land up in front of a forward who was positioned 10m or so inside the boundary. The gusty wind took apart the guys with suspect techniques - Maynard and Tommy Mc kicked floaters and Frost was sending them everywhere, even some of the better kicks were missing short or long. Jordon's kicks were cutting through the breeze and landing in front of the eyes of the forwards.

I think I saw all but Lever, Vanders, Oscar do ball work. Melk and Hore who seem teamed up, as well as Hunt did kick to kick in a triangle. Others with some kick to kick and handball stuff.

They did some longer running. Then boots on to split in to 3 groups for some in tight ground ball and handball drills, then some kicking. A full squad longer kicking drill sorted out the good and bad kicks in swirly conditions. Sparrow kicks it low and hard, more hits than misses. Nietschke is just solid, gets it to where it needs to be. now it’s some gentle match sim. 3 of Weid, Keilty, J Smith/C Wag and T Mc as the forward vs 2 of May, Frost, Petty and Josh Wag. Zoning and leading patterns the aim of the game

Oskar Baker has given the day weights a fair go during his time off. Hasn’t found a good hairdresser yet

Line drills have finished for now and it’s in to some repeat sprints the new players split from the main group, a couple of academy kids joining in, both solid sized lads Bedford and Chandler have gone hat free. Sparrow the backwards visor. Jordon the regular visor. The rest with the white caps, Bradkte the only one going backwards . From the main group Spargo, Fritsch, Wagner, Hibberd and JoelSmith are backwards cap guys

The rehab group: Viney, Lever, Vanders, Tracc, Hannan, Hore, Baker, Melk, Harmes, Bull, Stretch, Hunt, Jetta, Oscar, Brayshaw, Clarry

The highly regarded Melbourne midfield group of games started tomorrow: Gawn, Preuss, Jones, Maynard, Swallow, Fritsch, KK, Bradtke

Consult your updated MFC players list and you’ll be fine

New assistant coach B Vince?!

44 and 45 training with the forwards. As is 40 16, 32 with the mids. And 31 23 and 27 starting life down back. 3 is with the backs. As is Guy Walker

C wags is in the 40 one of the academy kids is running laps with Hannan. I’d be lucky to find the other 2 yet alone know who is who

Denver, LaRams, Chiefs

I don't disagree with a lot of that but much of what the AFL are implementing with list rules and so on is a complicated layer of terms and structure to bring back a simple concept. In this case they are saying instead of drafting all your players in November you can add a player sometime from December to March. They put in some rules, regulations and labels but adding a player over summer is really a return to the pre draft days where you could invite a player down to train and sign them up later on. Compiling your list and not being able to add to it after November isn't a tradition that particularly makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of danger that relaxing list rules makes the circus of of player movement more exciting than the games but there's a balance where giving teams more flexibility with their playing list lets them put a better team together. Better teams = better games and that's the most important thing for the sport. That's what we want to see.

He couldn't officially join the list until December 1. So I'm guessing they'll announce his signing tomorrow and get him a jumper number after that. 40 and 41 vacant, I'd guess he takes up 41 to be next to his brother. Yeah it's interesting that will didn't fill our list at the rookie draft but I think it's a smart move to wait until closer to March. If we don't want to pay for a player to train with us we might be able to use it as a way to help Casey with recruiting. The best of the under 18's we didn't draft can be told to sign for Casey so we can look at them until March. As well as waiting to see how the team is training and if there's a needed role player on the eve of games. It wouldn't shock me if we went in 1 short to save money for some reason. Walker and Bradkte might be relatively expensive and competent B rookies which might have something to do with it. That said, I'd rather fill the list.

Very little mobility or skill but had the strength and endurance. Every time he was starting to look a little better he got injured. Paul Roos always rated him and said earlier this year he should still be on an AFL list. I guess there's only 50 or so rucks in the country that have the right size, strength and endurance and whilst Spencil might be the worst of those 50 he's still one of them. There's been rumours of Roos consulting with the Suns as he has a relationship with Dew as well as George Stone and like we did the Suns are also trying to build from defensive work and around the contest. Having ruck depth so you can do that at AFL and NEAFL level is important.

We didn't need the list spot and I assume we didn't have much room to squeeze salary in to last seasons cap, so there was little to gain by forcing an early retirement as long as Jeff turns up in shape and willing to work. Given there's an opportunity to add a rookie up until March and again mid season we may as well keep him training until the games start. If he's showing an aversion to contact and little form at Casey I'd expect the club would negotiate a retirement, probably by June would be my guess.

Yeah not too interested in age rankings, the most important this is that the great majority of our best 25-30 players are between 21 and 30, played enough senior footy and after last year had at least a taste of finals. Spargo is the only really young player who's expected to be in the side and Lewis the only clear veteran type. Jones isn't a spring chicken but he'll only be 31 next year, his challenge is more adapting to a new role than fighting off age.