DeeSpencer

Cheers

Tracc crack. Hope it's not true.

Viney is training well, looks set to back up last year. Jones is healthy now, hopefully has no negatives from the surgery and can be ever better than last year. Unfortunately Vince, Tyson, Brayshaw and Vanders aren't in full training. But Vince had 2 hammies last year and is only dealing with a finger injury now, he should be ok. Brayshaw is still ahead of last year. Vanders is looking absolutely ripped and came off a shoulder last year and Tyson needed to build his tank anyway and is running strongly. Gawn is having a good preseason. That's the core of our ball winning mids. Depth is interesting. Lot of options. Salem and Melksham will probably start back. Harmes, Watts, Petracca, JKH, Kent, Kennedy all can compete for half forward/midfield spots. Michie and Newton are interesting for different reasons, it's a shame Newton isn't having a good preseason. The big weakness is outside run and speed. Stretch continues to impress me but that's about it. We really need guys listed in other rolls to cover. Oliver providing some midfield minutes would be a bonus. Trengove a double bonus. I like our ball winning options and progress, but it's a long year and we'll need contributors to keep improving. A big year in making sure development is on track both for young players and for more experienced types stepping up.

Wayne nailed most of what I saw live. Petracca and Trengove might have an extra week off due to doing more training before the break. Lumumba and Newton presumably training inside. Frost, Dawes, Jetta, Spencer in one rehab group. Half our midfield - Vanders, Tyson, Brayshaw, Vince in another. I reckon Tyson must be close to getting back in full training, he's powering along. The runs at the end of training are interesting. 4 different groups doing 200m's based on ability then after a few of them they go in to sprints. What I found interesting is that some of the better endurance runners aren't in the top couple of sprint groups and vice versa. For instance Jayden Hunt kills them in the sprints but is in the bottom endurace group, same with Garland who's low down in the endurance but in a higher group for the sprints. Positives from today: - Jesse looking fit and happier - Jack Watts' running and voice - Nath Jones heavily involved - Weideman's hands - Jack Viney effortlessly tackling people in clearance drills just by being near them - Overall skill level by foot Still think there's room for improvement with the voice and energy and I think getting out of trouble/working through traffic has a way to go as well.

3 head coaches fired so far - Eagles, Titans, Dolphins. Cleveland will be next. Then we wait and see on Detroit, Indiana, St Louis, San Diego. San Fran, Can't rule out New Orleans. Plus the Giants. Cowboys apparently won't change. I'll go with 8 teams looking for a new permanent coach by the end of the week. Could be more. Brutal.

Pats Steelers Washington 3rd tip was hard, but had to mix it up and go different from the other contenders.

And an understanding between clubs that they don't scout closed sessions. I've never been chased away from a closed session at Gosch's but I don't usually stay long during them or take notes etc. It's a public park though so I doubt they'd have any authority to do anything if you were observing.

Hulett has a good frame and good muscle definition but is still a skinny first year tall and probably going to be started in a new position down back for Casey. He's a while off. Petracca: Round 1 Oliver: First half of the year Max King, Wagner, Hunt: By round 15 Mitch King, Weideman, Hulett, J Smith: try for a late round debut

Wow. Any given Sunday stuff today. Fantastic. Michael Bennett said it best about the rams: "The Rams, they play good football against us. They just don’t play good football against everybody else." Surely the Pats wanted to take the wind, which is fair enough. It's unlikely either team score a TD on the first series of OT in a 20/20 game, take the wind knowing you'll have an advantage in the subsequent field goal battle. Belichick doing the team thing by not hanging out his player, although you have to wonder why Brady doesn't do the coin toss? AFC: Think Denver wins tomorrow to get in, win out for the 2 seed. Cincy the 3 seed, Baltimore might trouble them next week either way. Houston lock up the 4 seed. KC the 5. Then I think the Jets can do it and get the 6, although Jets - Bills should be a ripper. NFC: Carolina and Arizona probably win. Seattle stays in the 6 seed. Washington are the 4 obviously. When it comes down to it will either of the Vikings or Packers want to win next week?? I'd take Washington away over Seattle at home.

Pittsburgh New England Carolina Forgot about the Saturday night game, bummer. Carolina might rest a few but hopefully Cam gets the job done. I'm not tipping Houston with Brandon Weeden starting. I know it's blasphemy around these parts but happy for the Bears to tank it out the last 2 weeks. Not a lot to be gained from beating Tampa this week.

What was the reason your cohort were doing it though? An office job? A local sports team? If done right I think there should be benefits for an elite sporting team in terms of physical preparation in testing your limits. I think the main benefits of this camp might be once they go on their next camp to Queensland. The staff can point out to the players that they've survived in really difficult conditions and so then when they have full support staff, hydration, food, comfy rooms etc there are no excuses. The follow up is crucial otherwise it will be all a waste.

I would gladly have any of them back as assistants. Green as a forwards coach after working at North. Yze as a skills coach. Bruce or Rivers as backline coaches. Bruce is learning from the best in the business. If we want a coach who can teach us how to play more zone defence and Hawthorn's system he'd be a good get. But I'm also very hopeful that our 2018 coaching panel is mainly the coaches we have now. In particular that we have Goodwin and McCartney still running the show.

Sounds good. I thought our preseason could do with a bit of this kind of stuff to mix it up a bit.

Matt Jones. I dislike him but I can kind of live with him. He was crucial in our wins against Geelong and the Dogs. His biggest problem is he comes in and plays well one week doing a job and the next week seemingly can't back it up. Without looking at the games again I think you'll find that was a consistent pattern. His disposal is dreadful but I actually think it's his fumbling and poor tackling that hurts him just as much. He could be ok depth as a role player if he could come in and play defensive forward by tackling and moving the ball on semi reliably. Terlich. Hmm. He is a complete basketcase at this stage. He is out training much earlier than last year which is positive. No idea why he got a 2 year deal at the end of 2014 though. He's a good tackler and I actually don't mind that he's willing to run the ball out of the backline. We need players willing to do that. Unfortunately his skills just haven't measured up at AFL level. I think he was a reliable kick in his first year who took too many aggressive options in a bad team. Unfortunately I think we've hurt his confidence by foot and not improved his decision making. So now he still makes bad decisions and backs it up with bad kicks. He's a good tackler but a poor one on one defender so can't play close to goal. Any chance that he has to make it probably requires a consistent run of games where he finds his confidence again and even if the turnovers still come through bad options he at least finds his balance with his kicking again.

I try to stop caring so much about Watts but the reality is there are so many factors that mean he'll never be treated like any other player. Number 1 pick Incredibly likeable team mate and club man Does things that other players can't and doesn't do things that most players can and are expected to do Cops it in the media The strangest thing now is that he's one of the more senior players and still one of the most recognisable players at the club. I'll always try to judge him by current form and on that he had a slow start and end to the year surrounding a pretty decent patch of form in the middle where he looked like a genuine AFL footballer for probably the longest stretch of his career. My hope is the club treats him as just another player and if that means dropping him he's dropped instead of being afraid of the public fall out. For too long I think we tried to stop bad press about him by not dropping him and instead shuffling his position. By now we surely know he's a half forward flanker who can rotate on to a wing for stints and that's about it. He's not going to play down back, he's not playing on the ball, in the ruck, key forward or as a crumber. If he's best 22 to pick him, if he's not then give him the chance to go back to Casey and work on his game like any normal player. In some ways he's a bit like Shaun Marsh. Maybe the solution is playing against the Windies! But otherwise we've got to try and treat him like any other player and drop him and pick him and position him without fear of failure.

KC Carolina Arizona

Both aren't best 22 and Michie is ahead of the other 3 rookies. There's going to be opportunities for him to play if good enough. Personally I would've rookied them both and had the list spot to elevate earlier but I'm not all that fussed. Sending a message is a bit immature/old fashioned by Michie does need a big preseason and to play like he's on his last chance. Hunt probably needed some confidence to know the club still believes in him if he can have better luck with his body.

It's was bloody hot. I had a mare and paid $2.50 for a pepsi max from the coffee bloke instead of $2 from the club BBQ. Sorry guys. I got there maybe half way through and it was mainly relaxed skill work and a lot of goal kicking from then on for the main group. Spencer, Brayshaw, Tyson working with Crossy playing kick to kick. Spencer yuck. The other 2 looking good. Particularly Tyson must be close to rejoining the main group. They finished with sets of gruelling half ground runs around the boundary. 3 groups divided in to best, middle and lesser running ability and therefore the top group had the furthest distance to cover from cone to cone around half the boundary. The 3rd group (let's call them the C graders) featuring the new boys, Dunn, Garland, Kent, Pedo, Gawn actually stayed together as a group. Dunn took up his customary role up the back pushing along the new boys, mainly Hulett. Weideman wasn't exactly flying but didn't drop off. Tommy Mc led the A grade group. Petracca really tired from the B group and Goodwin showed good leadership getting those at the front to encourage those who were dropping off towards the end. So Petracca led the B group on the last run and then pushed him along. No surprise given his build and missing all of last year that his endurance need some work. Ben Kennedy actually ran well in the 2nd group. Lowlight of the session was on the way home seeing the Pies boys doing hill sprints up Anderson St. Hopefully they get stress injuries from the pavement. We did that last year. Pendles had ice on his outer shin/calf. Unfortunately they have some serious size as a team and maybe they just looked bigger because they were shirtless wearing their sports bras but looked to me like they had some big boys and were running good time up and down the hill.

Of our 11 away games: Round 2: Essendon - yes Round 3: North - no Round 4: Coll - no Round 7: Gold Coast - no Round 11: Hawthorn - no Round 13: Sydney - no Round 17: St Kilda - yes Round 18: West Coast - yes Round 21: Port - yes Round 22: Carlton - yes Round 23: Geelong - no

I prefer the white jumper with a red V and a dash of blue than the predominantly red jumper. I don't see white as adding a colour to our jumper, I see it as a logical and progressive away jumper left blank as to not clash. It might fail spectacularly but I would support trying a baby blue or sky blue jumper.

Photo 11 hehe

Ok. It does fill the screen nicely. it's not huge, just doesn't leave room for anything else so I was thinking in the scheme of being considerate and not having people scroll past big videos it could be smaller but it's fine how it is.

Thanks for the info Yoko. Makes sense that those in the rehab group started early because some of them finished so soon after 2. Don't know how I didn't see Harmes. That said I swapped ends with the same group a lot of the time. Presume he was in the other half. I'm not a huge wrap for Petracca's kicking myself, he has a high and mechanical ball drop and really thumps the ball instead of timing it off the boot, but that said he has so much power that he can spear the ball fast and hard with decent accuracy. In short, there will be some turnovers and wayward kicking with his style but there will also be moments where he bursts out of traffic and spears it lace out to someone. Sam Weideman has such a big frame with broad shoulders, height and solid legs but is pretty much stick thin elsewhere. I was impressed by his kicking particularly his confidence on his left foot. To have a tall who can lead up and mark and then back himself on his left opens up a lot of options going inside 50.

Sorry if this is mentioned but from the video I just posted I think the default youtube video size is too big and I'm not sure if I can self edit it. Thoughts?

AFL Academy kid training with us who despite his diminutive size would've been a first round pick more than likely if eligible for this years draft. He's been in a fair few drills and doesn't look out of place. The other kid is a bit taller and skinnier and has been mainly with the rehab group.