DeeSpencer

Anyway, been off this thread out of disgust in the Pats losing to freaking Miami and costing me the tipping comp. I know they weren't all that fussed about winning but they coughed up the 1 seed by running the ball non stop and didn't protect Brady either. Yuck. I've been driven back to this thread by the mindless Bungals. The fumble is bad but I can see why he was fighting for the 1st down and these things happen. But the Burfict reaction to the INT told you he was losing his focus and he lost complete control. He should get a 4 week suspension from the League and the Bengals should consider firing him and making a statement that they don't stand for stupidity any more. They might fire Marvin Lewis which could be a shame. 2 of his former coordinators are coaching tomorrow. Don't know what Pac Man did, they didn't show it, but he should know better as well. He's been well behaved for a few years now. Arggh. What a waste of a year to go out like that.

Could never ever hire a good offensive coach and his defense was outdated and wasn't ever good at Tampa, who had some good defensive pieces before he came. Their improvement this year was from Winston and the OC who they will likely promote to HC. Messy circumstances but a good move. Head coaches get guaranteed money so I think Lovie is looking at over 10 mil in pay outs. It's the lower assistants who have trouble finding new jobs.

They shouldn't. But they are also humans and they are also advised to take some form of a break over the holiday period for physical and mental wellbeing. The best players manage to unwind whilst still working on improving over the off season but it might not be for everyone. I don't think anyone came back in terrible shape from what I've seen at training. Harmes, Hogan and Garlett it's 3 out of 27 so far who might not have been exactly where the coaches wanted them to be. Harmes and Hogan are competitive young guys who will work very hard to get up to speed. Garlett is disappointing as an experienced player but then again we didn't exactly recruit him to lead the way at training.

Better. He's kicking with more penetration and consistency and looks stronger.

He had decent skills and decision making in his first few years and then: - the game got faster and more congested requiring quicker decision making and more accurate skills - he was forced to play inside midfield despite not being suited to that role - he missed a lot of time with injuries - he was lumped with the captaincy - he completed Neeld preseasons that involved a heap of lap running and not nearly enough skills drills under AFL intensity I don't have high hopes, but I'm willing to give him a little benefit of the doubt given he looks stronger on the track this year and is clearly one of our better runners. Last preseason he looked skinny, was kicking poorly and I said very early on that he was cooked as an AFL player. Thankfully the coaches saw it too and really started to address the problems even if it was about 4 years too late.

Heard of collective bargaining? The clubs can try but is it reasonable? Are you sure about that US sports stat. NBA players often play pick up games in the off season, how about Kyrie jumping around in the Uncle Drew ads. Tom Brady jumped off a cliff in his off season. No one complains about Nathan Jones surfing regularly. Every chance to pick up an injury doing that even as an experienced surfer. Yet most of us realise it's good for his mind and body. I'm not thrilled with Petracca but I think I'll leave it to Roosy to manage it.

Swimming? Cycling in a moon boot? Seated boxing? Upper body weights? If he heals up in 4 weeks he'll be fine. Maybe worry about the disaster if it happens and if you're still alive then.

He's a 2nd year kid coming of an ACL who was only doing limited main group training. He wasn't going to have a fully mature fit body regardless.

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.