DeeSpencer

Running joke Redleg. After Rog posts one of tasmans reports (always credited) then its customary for someone to thank him for the report! Unless you've taken the joke to the next level Redleg!

If Jones was made captain before he was even an established AFL player yet alone a good one and before he stepped up his leadership he wouldn't have been a good captain and probably not the player he is now. But now I have faith in him as I do Grimes.

Rocked on down at about 10:20 and stayed until 11:30 when the guys were still going hard. Roos in control of absolutely everything. Matt Rendell watching on in his Collingwood gear. Absent (bearing in mind the time I got there): Riley, Barry, Nicholson, Jamar, Terlich and Garland. Edit: Plus, Byrnes, King, Harmes, Jetta. Rehab: Dawes, Gawn, Fitzy, Hogan and Viney. Rehab group doing some run throughs but also some ball work including taking some hangers with one of the staff holding the pads. Viney doing mainly running. Modified program: Spencer, McKenzie, Frawley pulled out of one drill only to back in later. Same for Salem and JKH whilst Hunt stayed in but finished early. At one stage Spencer and Clark ran laps before Clark finished (after the other rehab boys were done) and Spencer went back in the main stuff. Kent got some work on his left hip I believe from the physio before calling it a day. Drills. I didn't take notes so I'm going off the top of my head but the main message today was on spread and spacing. 3 group handball drill. A group in the goal square, 1 on either flank. Handball the ball around a defender and move the ball up to the next group. Very much working on getting players in to open space. Roos' message "don't go early". A ball movement lanework drill with a kick at half back to a leading player leading down the line of the centre square who then handballs off to a player who kicks it to a leading forward. All about sharp kicks and following up your kick at speed. Had this going both ways so players pretty much kept moving at all times. Watts, Strauss, Salem stood out for continuing to hit targets. Michie and Tyson are classy as well. Howe for his ability to mark the ball whether its kicked 5m short or 5m over his head. Not too many really bad kicks. Jayden Hunt every now and then will do a poor kick but he's got that easy athleticism and can mark above his head. He's a bit like Howe in the easy movement stakes. A simple drill 3 guys lead out, kick the ball to either of one of the 3 leading out 50m away. Just about sharp kicks and getting through the 40 or 50m sprint. Seemed a drill designed just to get voice up and run through. Into some ball use simulation drills with about 15 in blue v 12 in yellow vests with the aim of getting the ball to a coach or player at full forward then starting again from the backline trying to work it to the other end. Not really tackling or competing just working on kicking through a zone kind of thing. The ball movement started off pretty well and this drill showed the smarter players getting more of the footy. Trengove, Grimes, Watts, Jones getting lots of touches. One nice piece of play where Blease got the ball at half back, took off down the corridor, handballed to Jones who then kicked it straight to the full forward. Another where Watts wheeled on to his left from the right forward flank and put it lace out 40m to Bail I think who was the leading forward. But also some dumb stuff considering the numerical advantage and not always fluent movement. Dunn gave Blease a polite ear full about getting out of the space and leading in to it at one stage. Also a couple of times Blease had some work done during the drinks break on the muscles in the front of his lower leg but resumed training. JKH as we are now used to very busy in calling for the ball. Then they did a full ground circle work designed to move the ball as quickly as possible with defenders and forwards at either end and about 20 players moving in a scrum around the contest like midfielders do. Then they did the same drill but made it all about moving the ball slowly and methodically with short kicks and going back off the mark. Interestingly they then ran 2 footies at once with one moving fast the other slow. That was a bit strange to watch. Overall it was a decent hit out. A few missing. The big boys rehabbing but all moving well. Good numbers of supporters. Good numbers of 'official' people hanging around - Robbo, Josh Mahoney and several others in the official area. Nothing obvious to give away the captaincy news from the players, if anything Trenners was one I heard getting the boys in together and back on the track after a drinks break so good on him. As with Monday and last week I felt it was a productive session but also one that's about being patient and not going fully in to complex game scenarios or full on match practice.

Jones at the right hand of RDB who was then next to Roos. Tells me he's looking very likely for the captaincy. I've seen a few shots but they don't show the full photo and who was on the other side but I'd guess it would be Grimes.

I think whilst he's on AFL senior coach salary in terms of his payout for this year he can do a more relaxed job as a TAC talent manager and then try and get back to the AFL system in a year or two. At that time hopefully we improve and that could be spun to work in his favour as a legacy. He was a highly regarded and successful assistant at Collingwood. He was obviously hard working and had enough coaching ability as an assistant to hide what I think are some pretty gaping man management skills. There's no reason he can't work out as an assistant again under the right senior coaching leadership..

Out of interest is there offset language in his contract that means whatever he gets paid from another footy organisation takes away from the cash payout we are giving him?

I say for a clash jumper we change the dark blue to a light sky blue and in the process sell the club to Man City and be rebranded Melbourne City Demons and um yeah I'll stop now.

Ok I get it that you don't support the WA shark cull but can you not derail the thread.

The answer is you don't but 3 things that I've noticed: 1. New players 2. They are doing things differently - if somethings not working a change is often a decent idea. That's pretty much why we vote different politicians in here! But seriously there is a heap less running around the track and much more physical and skill based training 3. My judgement (and it is consistent with others) is that training is of a higher standard The first 2 are objective, the third is subjective.

Yes Clark Dawes Frawley Grimes Jones Maybe Hogan McDonald Vince/Cross Viney Tyson/Trengove/McKenzie My reasoning is as such. I think if 2 (or maybe 1) of the big key forwards are really up and about then the importance of Hogan drops off and he can just be a kid and settle in. Grimes as captain and defensive marshal at half back is important, although he and Garland preferably are a team as such. As is Frawley. Tommy McDonald as the guy who usually gets the 2nd defender not as important. Jones vital of course and then we need to have 3 other midfielders who can impact games more than Garland, but we are yet to see them.

Mainly agree, except I have some level of confidence with the backline due to Frawley and McDonald both looking good. Tommy Mc in particular is kicking pretty well and not showing any issues with shoulder surgery (except he could do with a bit more weight in time). Grimes as well looking good and Strauss, Clisby and Terlich in particular are all out there competing. They should all be better than last year and are fighting for one or 2 spots. Garland is a big miss but Dunn is the interesting one. If he can stand up and finally deliver on good training that he's shown for a couple of years then we could be ok. I've got no confidence in him really but he's fit, he trains hard and fast and he kicks the ball really well at training. If all goes completely pear shaped with our backline then Jayden Hunt is a prospect long term. For a guy who didn't play TAC at least he looks comfortable out there. Forward line is even more up in the air but I'm pretty confident on Dawes and Hogan right now. And Kent is back doing stuff. Plus JKH as everyone notes is impressive. Howe's doing well and Tapscott and Blease are out there. Same with Byrnes. So again it's not perfect but at least the numbers are there for some competition between the smalls. The 3 main problems we've hard in the Neeld years are: 1. Unable to get our hands on the footy 2. Unable to move the ball with skill which is often related to 3. Complete lack of run both in terms of movement at a contest, spread and follow up Judging on today's training there will probably still be days when we struggle to move the ball as the overall skill level of the group isn't outstanding. Which is true of most teams but it makes sense if it's against Freo or Sydney compare to against the Gold Coast like it was for us last year. But there will be run and there will be guys going after the ball at the stoppages and around the ground.

As mentioned the highlight is probably how much physical stuff they are doing. At least in the years I've been to trainings I have rarely seen much physical stuff at all and if it is done its usually tackling bags or pads. Almost every session they do a couple of drills that involve picking up a ball along the ground as another player lays a tackle then get the handball out. They then go in to grappling on the ground and today they added a bit of fun for the players. In pairs they'd link hands then have a strength test trying to whack each other in the head. It looked silly but it wasn't done in a silly way. It was just a bit of fun but competitive and interesting. Obviously the new recruits will help (Aidan Riley a big smokey as well if he gets fit and can show his stuff) but Roos seems intent on making sure our guys aren't bullied at the contest. The 3 main rucks were all back on track for some part doing some hit outs and were used as forward targets for a drill. With his long legs, added size and speedy bounds I'm telling you right now Jake Spencer is going to monster a marking contest at some point this year. He's got a heap of work to go in all areas of his game so I'm not predicting anything from him in terms of what improvement he's made overall but at some stage he'll either clunk a mark or break a pack in half and everyone will be surprised.

Big crowd, lots of families and dogs etc. Jamar, Gawn, Dawes and Kent all taking part in some drills. Leaves Fitzy, Hogan, Clark, Viney, Riley and the absent Garland as the true rehab group. Heaps of different and game specific drills done for short periods. Skills under pressure and fatigue the weakness but to be expected. Pressure application was good. I'll post more later

I think there's a certain degree of safety in awarding it to a respected celebrity or public figure as they are likely to protect the legacy and carry the pressure (if there is any).

I'm split on this. 22+ however million people and the best we can do is pick a footballer who does a bit of part time Indigenous work (he's hardly off the charts in charity work) and then is some kind of anti racism campaigner because he blew up on national tv over a comment he should've ignored. But then he is actually a decent guy and deserves it more than the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Mark Taylor.

Garland 2012 or before you might be right but not Garland of 2013. He was one of few who gave their all every week. And that's how you win games and eventually get to a step when you can think about premierships. You're showing very silly thinking talking about game breakers and premiership calibre players. Premiership teams are built around their outstanding role players as much as game breakers Frawley and McDonald may be more important as the key defenders but Garlands versatility puts him up near that level as well.

Because it's better pick 54 than losing him to the PSD. Then it's the same with Freo for Gumby. Essendon who actually needed 54 in a shallow draft were the real winners!

It's interesting, but the clubs have to tweak what they are putting in to get relevant results, therefore somewhat making it no different to just scouting a player. Baseball is much better suited because it's just pitcher v batter over and again. Obviously different pitches pitch differently and different fields have different dimensions but really it's a one on one battle time and time again. Football is such a 360 degree game with so many variables I don't know how useful it will be. I like the idea of comparing draftees to current players to get a guide on them, that is interesting. And I wonder if there is an overall stat that they can find that is of more value than any other.

I'd say that Garland's injury means that whilst we hope he'll be back for round 1 there's more opportunity for a medium defender in the preseason games. Considering Dunn is the only experienced player we have in that role I think Georgiou's importance is advanced. Jetta is behind a few other options for a small defender spot (Grimes, Terlich, Clisby, Strauss) and Harmes and King are raw. So whilst we don't need Georgiou in the side right now I do believe that Garland's injury is a small opening for him.

He was in the main group (for a lot of stuff) before Christmas. If it really is a hamstring prior to Christmas then you would think he'd be back in the main group in the new few weeks and then able to play some part in the preseason games. We will know soon enough I guess.

He was part of main training before xmas, that's where the optimism comes from.

350lb linemen wearing tight pants isn't enough for you Rob? Concussion would be the least of the NFL's issues is the fatties strip down to their jocks.

Some muppet benny_06 started the rumour on twitter. I just don't understand how if Clark was in trouble with the foot why he would be training in some capacity and not having a period off it. Of course the foot might not be out of the blue but surely there are too many people with jobs on the line to not take a conservative path. As far as I can tell the soft tissue injuries secondary to lack of conditioning +/- any gait changes is way more plausible than a repeat foot problem.

Yep and I think we should build from the inside to the outside and that means contested ball and midfield running first then we can try and fix the smaller stuff. Keen to see Vince play, he's our biggest impact recruit.

I think the initial focus will be sorting out the midfield and the ball movement from the backline to the midfield. If there's space in the forward line it makes that kick easier. If not then hopefully there's a tall forward to sit the ball to.The other hope is whatever combinations of small forwards are more skillful this year. The man of the hour Kennedy Harris suits that mould