DeeSpencer

It doesn't have to become a big thing but I am of the view that the Viney tackle was over the line. It was arms pinned and slammed on a shoulder. Better to save those ones for game day. But I'm also of the opinion that Tom McDonald needs to sharpen up or he'll become a liability. He's still too indecisive with the ball and not up to scratch with his kicking. Maybe a few Viney tackles will sharpen him up. I loved the little push and shove they had after, which was quickly defused by team mates.

Interesting session. I watched from about 10:15 to 12:15 No Vince, Stretch, O Mc. Watts, Petracca, Newton, Smith, Lumumba, Max King doing boxing only Salem doing sprints and agility stuff ie. approx 50m timed runs and zig zag leading then marking. Nothing appeared taped or restricted. Oliver doing more distance/interval running and kick to kick with Crossy. He needs to work on his short kicking, the ball didn't come off his boot at all well today, maybe a combination of fatigue, technique changes etc. Trengove in the main group for some simple drills, then back having a kick and finally over to the paddock for some intensive drills with Crossy and another couple of staff members. All about getting him used to footy drills but without tackling/taking a tackle or other uncontrolled movement at this stage. He looked good. Weideman was part of the first full ground match simulation, before going over to the paddock and doing the same sort of stuff Trengove had been doing. Whilst Mitch King and Hulett sat out the first larger match simulation but took part in the second drill. The first match simulation was about 14 a side full ground match practice. Spencer or Gawn would be given the hit out and from there the play would flow. Both sides set up with a man behind the ball. Gawn, Brayshaw, Tyson, Viney, Kent all found a lot of it. Frost was used at both ends. Different talls were swapped. It was scratchy but willing. They then moved in to 3 groups - blue, white, green. With 9 guys coming out with the ball from the backline opposed to 7 defenders, working it up inside 50, receiving the ball back from a coach and going again back to score a goal at the other end. Really the point of this drill was to move the ball very quickly and to get out and spread on the rebound/defend on transition. They went for 20-30 minutes rotating the teams and some of the boys were pretty tired at the end. ANB impressed me with his work rate. Ben Kennedy with his ability to take off quickly and keep the ball moving. Brayshaw with his attacking running. Matt Jones did a few nice things. Frost gets separation on the lead and in space so easily, just has to hold his marks and work on his kicking. Michie was kicking long and in to space accurately and with nicely weighted kicks. Hulett handballs and works well with the ball through congestion. And as I said earlier Wagner was very impressive.

No Stretch or Vince today. They'd have a field day in this drill. Goal post padding coming down and the cones are out for the sprints

Salem was in rehab but doing a heap of work. Hulett the latest to cop one between the eyes. Brayshaw and Vanders had a nasty collision but seem fine. Im going to leave before we run out of players. 9-7 drills for a solid half hour. Good transition but so it should be.

Left calf strapped for Dawes. Matt Jones and Grimes both copped head knocks but seem fine. Brayshaw, Viney, Tyson, Kent finding plenty of the pill in the match sim. And Gawn. Watch Wagner closely in the NAB Challenge, if Salem isn't right to go, based on what I saw today he'd have to be considered for a rd 1 spot

That might be it for the big number 6's career

Most of the clubs spend about 20mil on footy department spending, with 'the gap' not really that big in the scheme of things now there's the cap. https://au.sports.yahoo.com/afl/a/27913568/afl-football-department-spending-figures-revealed/ I'd suggest Melbourne run the non football department staff pretty miserly. Other clubs are investing a lot more in their websites and social media presence. The bigger clubs no doubt spend more on advertising as well. Our challenge is definitely to try and grow revenue behind footy success over the next few years, starting with getting 10k more members. If we do that we will be able to keep touch with the big boys.

Meh, who cares, why does this have to be a thing. Class is shaking your opponents hand and saying well done. The media haven't done him any favours for most of his career, why does he have to give an expansive press conference.

Could do without the 'world', they haven't played the best teams from Victoria yet, but love the horses. I'd wear that

It's a mess. They need to cut back on the ground credentials, get rid of Hutchy and the 6000 photographers. Certainly the AFL model is better.

I tipped Denver 27, Carolina 24. I expected Denver's defense to be amazing, but surprised Carolina have the 2 turnovers and are so reliant on Newton. Why aren't they running it more with Steward? Draw the Denver defense up? I also expected Manning to throw at least 2 picks and be bad, with Denver's D and Special teams to bail them out. Which is happening. Probably thought they'd do a little better on offense though. The strip sack TD and the punt return have been the difference so far. Whoever can make the big plays in the 2nd half probably wins.

I'd limit some important and senior players to 1 of the first 2 games, probably splitting them between the 2 game half/half: Jones, Hogan, Vince, Viney, Gawn, Dunn, Garlett I'd probably play the next best 10 players for both games to get the core of the side really ready. And I doubt we will see Mitch King, Smith, Lumumba, Newton or Trengove in the NAB challenge. So that probably means there's another 10-20 who could be split between the 2 games to push their case. And then it comes together for a near best 22 for the 3rd game.

I'll temper expectations a bit. It's hard for mature age players in 2nd seasons because sometimes there isn't a lot of natural improvement left. His kicking and decision making need some work, he's very straight lined, which is a relief compared to so many of our past players but could be a weakness. I expect he'll have to get used to juggling time on the ball, wing and half forward as well. I'm super excited for his tackling, ball winning, bumps, and bursting runs, but elite might be a step too far. I'm hoping he can take more marks this year as well, both out in space and inside 50.

Meh, it's late night talk radio, save the conspiracies for the forums, no point discussing criticism of the AFL at 2am. I'd be more worried that the AFL isn't criticised by investigative journos at the big papers. In fact the way the peptides scandal broke in to Caro (AFL) and Robbo (Ess) was very disappointing.

I don't mind it if it's in control and routine, it helps open up the hips and kick through the ball. In pretty much any other kicking sport players run in on an arc around their dominant leg, it's really on Aussie Rules that I can think of (thinking soccer, rugby, NFL) where players run in straight.

Darren Parkin with special guest Daniel Cross. Not a bad listen if you've got 20 minutes. Starts with a best 22. Pretty standard team similar to most of the media ones floating around. Goes through some strengths and weaknesses and then Crossy gets on to talk Tracc and others. Overall Crossy seems positive about a lot of players, including Petracca, but cautions that he'll need a good block of preseason running before he plays.

Thanks for the great reports. We can't keep having injuries every time we have a big Friday session. Hope the guys are ok and that the trend doesn't continue.

Those places might be where all the kids are going, but what matters it the kids eligible. Asian and African migrant kids are probably still going to be in the same spots. If limited to Indigenous, Asian and African then if you look across the AFL it's: Maybe 10 or so Indigenous Victorian kids: Goodes the best but has since retired. JKH, Christensen, Jarman Impey, Jake Neade Koby Stevens, Eddie Betts, Andrew Walker, Paul Ahern. NT Indigenous players: Cyril Rioli (Tiwi), Steve Motlop (Darwin?), Nakia Cockatoo (Darwin?), Jake Long (tiwi ?where he grew up), Jed Anderson (Katherine), Curtly Hampton (Alice Springs), Steve May (Darwin) Asian: Lin Jong? African: Majak Daw, Gach Nyuon Once the club resources go in these numbers could boom, but as of right now I don't think anyone has really been given a treasure trove. Alice Springs represents a huge opportunity to nurture Indigenous talent and our zone in the SE of Melbourne should include a heap of African and Asian kids. Exactly what resources and how we should implement them I have no idea.

Josh Mahoney or PJ or both are a little wacky with the job titles but who cares? Her job will be to watch Casey games with players, provide a different voice and angle for development and no doubt work with the women's team. I bet the AFL will either cover the costs or look upon us favourably for incurring the cost. That's not a knock of Michelle, that's a reality of the industry. She's a mum. That's a greater education in welfare than any uni degree. The club has doctors, psychologists and sports psychologists on board for welfare as well. All they need to provide is coaches who have an eye for when something isn't right and a range of personalities. Shannon Byrnes is the former battling player who knows rejection, success and apparently is a decent bloke. Brendan McCartney is a country gent who treats the players like his sons. Michelle Cowan is a mum. Andrew Nichol is a school teacher. Fruity Allison is like a crazy uncle. Paul Roos if for nothing else is known as a players coach. His wife teaches the players meditation. If players are having troubles and not one of these individuals notices or the player doesn't open up to one of them I don't think any wellbeing expert will help.

It's a stupid idea, but if we can get the Sudanese and other immigrant communities in Dandenong plus Indigenous talent from Alice Springs we could find some good footballers. What I'm worried about is when SA and WA divide the entire Indigenous population over there between them. Imagine the 2 WA teams sharing Franklin, Ryder, the Jetta's, the Hill's, the Bennell's, Jack Martin and so on. Indigenous status is relatively easy to establish, but the multicultural aspect is going to be difficult. Every second Australian has a distant relative born somewhere. What counts? Is is just the African and Middle Eastern new arrivals? What about Eastern European, Pacific Islander, Asian? It's going to be a dogs breakfast of eligibility. Then there's the issue of players moving zones.

Dawes is in the rehab group. No taping that I could see. Moved pretty well, kicked and marked with Lumumba. Pedo was part of the main sessions, covered the ground decently, looks in as good a nick as I've seen him at the club, did still go in to his lumbering gait when approaching a couple of contests which cost him time. But he also laid a couple of really strong tackles. He appears like he needs match fitness to get used to game specific efforts, but that's true of a lot of big guys. Frost has a brilliant turn of speed, but flies for his marks without a hope in hell of holding them, the ball bursts off his hands and if he doesn't settle before he kicks it can go anywhere. He's a stronger, possibly faster version of Fitzy but with similar skills. Mitch King jogged laps. I suggest we forget all the hypothetical [censored] and see what happens.

I pick my names after players who I am not concerned about jinxing, and I'm not really going to tell big Jake that. He did a couple of ok things today although I'm still hoping we don't see much of him, whilst also thinking if Gawny can take a few grabs up forward the extra bench spot might see 2 rucks back in fashion.

The photo is very generous. He's stronger than last year, but he's not massive.

I don't think we've got some special innovation like the Clarko Cluster or Weagles Web coming. Our game plan is similar just with a focus on being more aggressive. From deep in the backline it's hard to do anything but switch it around and eventually bomb it long to a tall. I mean you can try and run numbers back and handball it around but we won't do that. I think the coaches want to see faster movement and spread so that the open man presents, but McCartney is often emphasising to take the easy option. There isn't a desire to spear kicks in to tight windows from deep in the backline and I don't think there should be. If we play at a higher pace and with more aggressive pressing up the ground then we won't be hemmed in deep too often and the ball movement will be quicker. That's the secret of how Hawthorn move the ball so quickly out of the backline, they always have the options as soon as they turn it over.

Wouldn't have the foggiest. We've heard Dawes and Terlich were injured up on the GC and Max King before they went up. JKH had tape on a knee, Watts looked fine but I think he gets managed with his groins. Spencer has been in and out of rehab and then there's Petracca, Lumumba and Trenners. I get the feeling Oliver, Weideman and Mitch King were a case of first year players. Oliver did quite a few laps once in the rehab group, presumably they are building his tank whilst taking him out of the physical drills. Mitch King went over to the paddock with Trengove and did some sprint, mark, kick stuff with Crossy and Trengove.