DeeSpencer

Shame they didn't let Macca do the review of the 4th player in that set. Lewis impressing early. Oscar a coaches favourite.

Hulett injury has absolutely [censored] me off. He pulled himself out of a small group drill to have his left knee/ankle assessed. Hard to tell what exactly. Then he limped back to the sideline from the middle of the oval. Had a bit more assessment and ran some very slow run throughs at a long way below 100% intensity. All of a sudden he's back in the main group for match simulation training. He gets chased under pressure and tackled and his leg rolls under him and is down in noticeable pain and takes a while to get up and gets carried off. I just don't understand why in mid January you'd put a guy in to full match sim training when he's clearly not 100% and there hasn't been a great opportunity to test him? I get the desire to build more toughness in to players but this was silly. I'm angry.

The thing about Hogan is he's a beautiful field kick. His goal kicking only bothers me because the low margin for error in his style means it can become a mental game. First year - no mental pressure - had a great conversion rate Second year - misses a few in preseason, the media catch wind and blame it on his run up (which really wasn't the issue), the mental demons circle - poor accuracy rate I imagine smoothing out his run up and converting plenty of goals early in the year could take away the mental concerns and see him finish the year with a good accuracy rate, but my concern is if it starts to go south and becomes a media topic then you end up in that Joe Daniher/Travis Cloke stage of the pressure building with every kick. I hope they get his technique right and confidence set before the start of the season. Same goes for Petracca who is far worse, but is also unlikely to have as many set shots on goal.

Salem is the kind of unlucky injury you have on this type of camp. But it's also the kind of injury you do this camp to learn from. Better concentration or team work could've seen him put the bricks in the bottom of the bag! Tyson is a different discussion because it sounds partially like some kind of management issue with a pre existing injury and possibly some kind of recklessness (I'm just guessing) if it was a contact injury. If the thoughts Tom Browne expressed that Tyson has seen the benefit of the training has moved on then I think we can as well. I'm definitely a fan of mentally tough training in different scenarios. Team work. Bonding. Mateship. Cross training. Leadership. It's worth mixing it up rather than slogging it out at Gosch's all summer.

He'd have played ahead of Rhys Palmer, Jacob Hopper and probably even Ryan Griffen in the Prelim last year against the Dogs. The Giants get Deledio, Stevie J (suspension) and a preseason in to some quality kids including Hopper, Kennedy and 3 first rounders so the competition would be tight. But I'd back Dom to hold the 4th inside midfield spot behind Ward, Coniglio and Shiel and ahead of a pretty broken down Griffen and the kids. i generally try to stay pretty measured about players in my training reports because unless they are young guys getting their bodies and confidence to the level required (Hunt last year, hopefully Brayshaw currently) or have had a drastic shift in injury or approach the improvement over a preseason is usually small. This injury sucks for Dom because what I was seeing at training was a guy who had significantly improved.

Not a huge difference but a noticeable and important one. Hogan drops the ball too close to his body and then has to lean back and thrust his way in to his kicks or kick across the ball as he likes to do with his field kicking. That takes away momentum and distance and makes it harder to find a consistent rhythm. This photo of Watts is a better one to compare to the first image of Hogan and you can see the ball is out infront of his plant leg and that he'll swing through it with all his weight going forward. We've made a heap of progress with out coaching but I'm still surprised we don't have a specialist kicking coach with a biometric background.

With Dom repeatedly mentioning it's his quad and Mahoney's reference to the patella tendon I think he's clearly done something different to a straight forward dislocation. Are you familiar to these types of injuries? Hopefully it isn't too bad.

Doubt anyone is lying. You can disrupt a quad muscle / quad muscle tendon after a knee dislocation. Particularly if he's had soreness before. So whilst he injured his knee he is now recovering from a quad injury. I'm actually expecting a long rehab on this one unfortunately.

I think McCartney is pretty straight up and with Hulett the reality might be that he doesn't have the athleticism, size or special traits to be a great player, but if he develops well as McCartney says he can mark and kick and can make a pretty nice depth or 2nd/3rd option. Not sure why he wasn't training this morning, but I'm keen to see how he goes at Casey this year and if he can get consistency in his VFL performances.

Good session from what I saw today. Certainly an emphasis on spreading the field in the full ground stuff. The ball will often travel diagonally from one flank to the other. Certainly corridor play is encouraged but getting the ball to space seems to be the main aim. Everyone is encouraged to take the game on and take on the man on the mark after a switch or change of angle kick. The Weed had a nice play out of the back pocket kicking a long diagonal switch and then as the ball came back (the drill moves the ball from one end to the other then back) got deepest and got on the end of a lobbed up kick from the skipper to run in to open goal. He's not perfect by foot but is a good user for a tall and runs good patterns without the ball. Pat McKenna was training with the backs when they split in to positional groups. There seems to be a bit of man love between Rooke and Clarry, I expect those 2 will work closely. Joel Smith was up in the midfield group taking an outside position. Probably just to even up the numbers as well as when half backs take position off the back of stoppages.

No real benefit in the club updating us this time of year until things are confirmed or we are closer to games and if the media aren't prying then may as well just let things go. I'm sure Misso will do an injury update within the next few weeks. He usually does one once a month over summer.

I'm not sure he'll get to Jones level of improvement and certainly not over distance, but he kicks the ball with a lot more punch at trainings now than he did a few years ago. Hopefully he keeps improving because the burst of speed away from contests he showed in 2016 deserves to be finished off with a kick not waiting for team mates to handball to.

Houston 20-10 Seattle 17 - 16 GB 40 - 20 Miami 26 - 24

I reckon the way the Hawks do Kokoda is brilliant. They use it as a right of passage for the young and new players to feel part of the team. They soak up the history of the place. They learn about team work and form an instant bond with each other. Clarko goes with them doesn't he? So he gets to see them under pressure and they get to respect him going with them. It has a purpose. It's not fake. It's formed it's own niche in their program. I don't know what to make of these military camps but like most things in life you only get out what you put in. If it's well planned for a purpose and the players commit to it then they'll get a lot out of it. They've been training at Gosch's for weeks and still have plenty time left there and up in QLD for footy skills. Nothing wrong with mixing it up as well.

They were trying to find a short term solution to the 2nd key forward/ruck whilst Pedda built his fitness, Dawes recovered from injury etc etc. Also the idea of the combined kicking and decision making skills of Frost, Oscar and Tom McDonald wasn't all that appealing, it should be more so as they get more experience. It was a good way to get Frost some game time at AFL level and hardly a big disruption to his career, plus the team wasn't really any better or worse off from it last year. We still haven't solved the forward/ruck spot but at least we have some other options in Watts, Weed, maybe even Keilty now.

Kicking, kicking and more kicking. If he tidies it up and develops a bit more touch by foot then it's almost the skies the limit. His distance is good but needs to work on his consistency.

Leadership, consistency of game plan/coaching and solid core of reliable effort role players. Although they got belted on the road by Adel and WC and lost to Gold Coast easily as well. They aren't perfect.

That was his approach in the midfield, particularly this year, and it came in handy having him do it against Hawthorn in the wet. He'll be at half back again this year and rotating to a wing/on ball and if he plays like he did for the first 2/3rds of the year he'll be handy. Especially if the additions of Hibberd and Lewis, and a fit Salem means he doesn't have to take on so much kicking responsibility and can share the ball more. If he get on to a wing he can get it outside and then long bombing in to the forward line to advantage or kicking goals comes in handy.

The Saturday wildcard match ups don't look too interesting but the Sunday one's seem better. Giants v GB certainly looks the best of the games. I don't expect Eli magic but the Giants defense is legit and getting the ball to Beckham and hope he takes a couple to the house isn't the worst offense in the playoffs! I don't know what happened to make Rodgers lose all faith in his receivers mid year but he's back and these new largely unknown play makers in GB are making plays. You're going to need a great offense (Atlanta, Dallas) or a huge defensive effort (NYG, maybe Seattle) to stop them now.

The rankings aren't an easy task, I don't think we are too far ahead of 12th really but at the same time I think we are getting closer to having a very functional forward line. We didn't bring in a best 22 player like we did for the backline and midfield but we did use our 2 national draft picks and then grab a mature age rookie so that might be an indication the list managers see room for depth improvement and personnel changes. It's certainly a very young group, with only Watts and Garlett as experienced players with the possibility of Pedersen over Weeds. I'm not sure what roles Goodwin will have for the forwards this year and how much emphasis he puts on defensive pressure, how heavily he'll try and rotate players forward/midfield and if he'll favour skilled forwards with more upside or if he'll go for the extra mids in the team.

KC Seattle GB - hoping to mozz them! AFC Kubiak retiring due to health reasons. I expect Denver to win for him. KC get the 2 seed. Even if Oakland win I still think the AFC is the Pats, from the Chiefs, with the Steelers a possibility to get hot at the right time but looking less likely each week to actually do it. 3 out of 6 QB's in the AFC play offs will be back ups. That's crazy. NFC I'm pretty sure GB will win and take the division. No idea about Washington and Atlanta taking care of business though. Can't wait for all the NFC play off games though, there's going to be good ones with some really strange mixes of offensive and defensive strengths. Still have no idea who will win the conference.

Last year he was rested/omitted on a number of occasions to not over tax his body and to get more runners in to the team, he didn't have the prerequisite fitness. I posted a 22 without him in November when he was in the rehab group doing extra running. Since then he's taken it up a notch and will need to keep going until March to make the required fitness gains. I never said he doesn't make us better. I was arguing with the idea of just picking the 22 players with the most upside compared to picking a 22 based on the team balance needed to win.

After watching him training hard and showing some of his clearance magic in December I've changed my opinion and think Clarry will be right to go round 1. That said, I'm not convinced about your 'makes us better' statement. Picking any team in any sport is about finding the balance between the best individuals and the individuals most capable of performing team duties to get the right balance. Oliver is a beauty but if he can't play more than 60% game time with only about 50% in the middle then it's hard for him to consistently play well and other parts of the team have to sacrifice game time and generate more outside run to fit him in. Any time at Casey would be to build match fitness and to set a standard required to play AFL. I want him super fit before he plays this year and don't want to see him have the same issues as Brayshaw in year 2. On the other hand despite his limitations Bugg can play 80+% on a wing given he's our 2nd fittest player and he can get back to help the backline, spread wide and then get forward and kick goals.

Spencer is looking much improved but doubt he's got to anywhere above basic competence as a ruckman and would still be a long way from it forward. It worked once down at Geelong because they didn't have a recognised ruckman playing that day and Gawn kicked 2 goals (I think) and Spencer 1 playing forward. Even then I think it was about a 65-35 split Gawn/Spencer in the ruck and therefore maybe 25/50 split forward. So Spencer has to be able to hold his own up forward, even if that just meanss competing in the air and tackle pressure. Wouldn't shock me if we try it in preseason to give Spencer game time and maybe try it at least once during the season if we have injuries or form issues, but can't see it happening long term.

Certainly his account, but maybe not him posting. Although you'd think if it wasn't him there'd be a strong denial. Hard to read much in to the drug stuff. That's not really anything we don't know about AFL footballers. The Fyfe stuff was the most shocking to me. Certainly there's always been rumours he isn't well liked by a lot of his team mates but this is pretty vicious treatment, you'd have to really dislike someone to write this about them.