Yokozuna

I went along to training today, again. I have been to 3 sessions over the past week or so, so I think I have gained a fair bit over the sessions. Firstly, the way they are training is very impressive. That is, the structure and style being set out by the coaching group is impressive. I particularly like the way the sessions are completed in 3 main groups. The mids/forwards and defenders basically do all drills and acticities together at all times. it is a great way to get accustomed to each other and form more knowledge on how to work together. Secondly, the effort being put in by all players is super. The drills they are doing require heaps of running while using the balls. It is always moer enjoyable chasing a ball rather than just running. To start with my only real negative, the skills still need work. There are some players with fine skill, however, in general, we still miss targets too often. On the positives, individually: Hogan - A big young man and I look forward to his development at Casey. The work he is putting in this year will be great for the future. Dawes - Moves very well and I am very happy he is with us. He and Clark in tandem will be a tough matchup for oher teams. Davey - He is moving freely, it is the first time in years he is walking without a limp. With his skills I am looking for a big year. Rodan and Byrnes - Both have good voices and instruct people well. I think they have plenty to offer, particularly since they havve good skills and pace. Tynan - Extremely impressed by his size and athleticism. Looking for a big year from him. Viney - In the match simulation drills he is always on the bottom of packs and has great recovery. Gillies- Looks to be a solid defender and moves well. Is being earmarked for a spot in round 1. Watts - His legs look stong and his judgement in the drills is sublime. If he can be the 3rd or 4th tall I think his future is looking very good. His skills are just that good, he needs to run off the back line. Jetta - Really impressed by his effort and he seems to be quicker than I thought. HIs toughness will help the backline out. Spencer - I actually think he will be the number 1 ruckman very soon. He is huge and he has a dip (as does Jamar) but his athleticism is better. His kicking has improved, but he should be a handball first player. Jones/Grimes - both have great voices and they train well every time. Grimes is training with the mids so I would think more time in there for him this year. Blease - as others have said, his speed is the thing. In some of the drills today he ran and carried the ball for 3 or 4 bounces. He is getting better at giving the ball off, but he still needs to be sure he gives off the first option more often. Terlich - I really like the look of him, his skills are pretty good and he is really fast. Have the feeling he may be a regular this year. Kent - As seen in the highlights reel of his, he has a great kick on him. He is also really solid (as are all the players now) Needs to improve his decision making though. Fitzpatrick - Still looks unco, but he is so quick and athletic for his size. I am just not sure what position he would play. There are others to talk about, but if you have any specific questions I can answer them, as I have seen heaps of training so far (the life of a teacher!) Overall though, I am happy with what I have seen so far, the fitness and effort has improved from previous years and as a whole we seem to be able to train at a higher intensity for longer times. I am not expecting miracles this year, but I think a vast improvement is on the cards.

I too went to training. I cant really add to much more to what the players actually did it training, but I can say that I was impressed with the skill level, the effort put in and the proffessionalism of the training session. Having watched many sessions over the years as well as coaching my own football team, i make a point of watching not only how they train, but what they do. The difference between our sessions now and in previous years are (in my opinion): * there are obviously more coaches, so they can spend more time teaching specifics, such as the big blokes doing body work while the mids do crumbing under pressure. Nothing better than being able to spend more time with individuals and being able to give direct instructions. * it does not matter how long the players have been playing AFL, they can always learn more. There is always room for improvement, especially how we have been going. * the drills look to have a real purpose and you can see how they uild from the simple stuff to full ground movement. * the skills have improved, especially under pressure and lethargy. * you can see the enjoyment and hear the voice from the players when they train, it was the loudest I have ever heard them at training yesterday. * you can see the improvement in individuals, both fitness and skills wise. Personally I can see what the coaching staff is trying to do, they are going through a system of develpoment and teaching, it may take a couple more years to show on the ground consistently, but I have faith they are doing the right thing.

Not sure if I mentioned this on another thread, but I heard from a reliable source (someone who may be an ex player on the radio) that he had heard that MN believes we only have 16 players who are currently up to AFL standard. That does not mean some players on the list cannot develop, but it is blatantly obvious that he knows our list is not good enough and that we need help. That is the reason why we have brought in the players we have. They are filling the holes we need filled and they will help with the culture and development of the young players around them. I am extremely happy with what we have done so far and I cant wait to see how it works on the field next year.

I am pretty sure that he is cousins with the Cloke family, if he is the person I am thinking of. I did teach an Aaron Cloke who was related. On a side note, 2 boys I coach came equal second in the under 19 south division. Just wanted to give the boys down at Parkdale Vultures a plug for their good footy, as we are into the GF in 2 weeks!

If we are a weird club for trying to raise money, well I am happy we are a weird club! Every club in the country tries to raise money for one reason or another so I am not sure why there should be any negative to us raising more money. If it helps pay for players, pay for equipment, rooms, medicos etc. it can only be for the benefit of the players and in the long run we hope for the benefit of more wins!

I sat in the redlegs area yesterday, for which I have been paying for many years, and rarely sit there. Thought we would sit there for a while. I dont want people to tell the door people about sneaking people in, as we often do it! With other melbourne supporters though. The irony of sitting in a pro melbourne seating area was that I had to yell a bit of abuse to my fellow "so called" Melbourne supporters who spent more time bagging our players. At least I spend my time bagging the opponents, and my how much I love picking on Maxwell and O'Brien, 2 of the most overrated defenders in the AFL, it is amazing how often they are beaten in 1 on 1 contests! but i digress. More time supporing our players than bagging them and dont let the secret out of sneaking people into our seat

I spent most of my game being frustrated too, but sadly it was by more players than just Morton. I had a bit of a yelling match with other supporters who booed him off the ground and bagged him but would never cheer his good plays. If you are all going to hate on Morton, I hope there is a similar thread for the other 21 players who made errors all day! Morton at least ran hard all day, got a touch in the first quarter (unlike everyone else) and did go in when required. Yes he made a huge error, yes he stood out at times, but so did everyone. I think he has shown vast improvement this year, and he still has a way to go, but I do think Neeld is showing what he could possibly be. We should be criticising other players who did nothing at all or made as many mistakes, just that his looked worse.

You have to take into account that the players at the GC and GWS (more particularly the GC this year) are playing amongst a team of young players. It is much harder for Caddy to play as well as he would if he were in a team with more than 1 good experienced player (they only have Ablett who has done a thing this year). You may need to look at their form and think how much better they could be in a better team. That being said, we are not doing much better than them, so coming to us might not be a [censored] change for him! I too have not been overly impressed with him, but he has shown some glimpses and has the body of an experienced player and a body type we dont have many of. Also we need to think, why would they come to us? We need to show continued improvement for anyone to consider moving to us next year.

What annoys me is our final quarter where guys who have been held well for most of the day get let off the hook and get cheap goals, and then go on to celebrate with the crowd. We may have lost, but Carlton are not going to go as well as their supporters think! Also very frustrated by a few bounces that just did not go our way today, like the time Tapscott would have run into an open goal, only for the ball to ounce sideways or the final quarter where Rivers attacked the ball for it to go sideways for a handpass to Mr. Frontrunner himself Betts. Also annoyed by our lack of team play in the last quarter where we should have scored 2 goals if we had hanballed to players in a better position for an easy goal instead of flying shots that hit the post, only for Carlton to take the ball sytraight down the ground for a goal. Would have meant a 5 goals to 2 last quarter and a more respectable margin.

Still waiting on my DVD's. Was hoping to get them by today so I could watch a few over the weekend! Hopefully Monday.

That is true, we dont have the rights, but neither do they, and we should not be afraid that they will take the game off us. If they are upset though, I am more than happy, but they should just give him a longer contract if they think he is so valuable. From his point of view, if he can come to Melbourne and be the top guy, instead of #2 at Pieland, I think I know where I would go.

I know some people who played with him at Sandy and were extremely surprised he ever got drafted! That being said, he did have some good games and showed some attributes for a good defender. I will however have complete confidence in Clark smashing him if they play on each other. Warnock can defend OK, but will get outmuscled sooner or later and if he wins the ball, well, I think he might hit his melbourne teammates more in this game than he ever has!!! I am looking forward to seeing a forward line with players staying in it. The development of JB to someone who gets the ball 20 times a game and see how well J. Howe has come on.

Ordered some games but have been stuck on the checkout page and it wont go through!!! Very frustrating. Do you know if they are definitely extending the offer?

Cheers, Looking forward to getting some games with either the Wiz or Jakovich dominating!

Do you need to do anything special to get the discount price? As it says they are still $25 when I look at all the games. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Co-captains - Green and Trengove VC - Moloney, Frawley, Jones, Rivers, Grimes

Just got back from my own training, and low and behold, there has to be a negative spin on the training session. Firstly, unless you have either watched several training sessions (as I have) or more importantly, you are part of the coaching staff, I would not be commenting about JW's lack of intensity. I have seen him and he has been one of the most enthusiastic trainers there, in particular his voice. He may look like he is taking it easy at times, but I would say he is working as hard as anyone out there. In regards to injured players, Blease and Tapscott were doing some drills on another oval, and from what I saw, they were both running. Michael Evans has been training, but he is recovering from some sort of injury so I have only seen him walk laps. Gysberts was looking good out there today, and he seems to be stronger and fitter. I also forgot to say how impressive Bate looked when doing the competitive 1 on 1 drills. I can see he has the potential to be a stong mid this year, as long as he takes his opportunity when he gets it (again though, this is training that he looks good in)!

From what I saw in the drills both his skills and decision making were fine, nothing stood out, either in a good or bad way. I am prepared to allow him 1 or 2 errors in a game in order to have his running ability, line breaking speed and long, penetrating kick.

I think our training in previous years had been a little too simple, just your every day drills that you would see at local clubs. There would be more drills using cones and following them. The drills done today were done under pressure, usually with a player right on the other players back, so if the kick or mark was no good the drill was stopped. The drills were also more real, where the balls were pumped into the forward half with mongrel kicks to make it more difficult to read, not simply popped into the air gently. To put it simply, it also seems the players are working harder and trying harder than I have seen previously. But as I said before, it does not mean it will translate into the game, we can just hope it does!

I was there too. I will not give a drill by drill run down, as it has already been done. That being said, I cannot remember any of our sessions in the past few seasons being as organised, structured and purposeful as today. All the drills were done at full pace and under match conditions. There was barely any rest in the drills. You can see Neeld is very big on contested football, 1 on 1 football and decision making. All the drills incorporated body contact, pressure and running. As a teacher and coach myself, I know there is a large focus on "game sense" which is basically learning and practising under actual match conditions or in match simulation, and that is what Neeld is brining in. I know personally I would rather incorporate all my running into drills rather than a 400m sprint. You will find most players will work harder to chase the ball than following a white line. There was also a large focus on running both ways, where the ball would be pumped into the forward line for the defenders to take the ball out to the other end, and the forward needed to put pressure on or get the ball off the defenders. Once the ball got to the other end all the players had to run back and the drill would begin straight away again. Viney was with Blease and Jurrah etc doing some other running. Taggert and Tynan were not there. Some interesting things I noted: * Morton was playing as a defender in most drills. * Nicho was playing in the midfield and I think there is no doubt he will be on the list before the season begins. * Tom Mac and Watts were getting plenty of practise deep in the forward line. * Howe will be a GUN. Will play as a leading CHF and dominate. He is almost the best mark in the league! I know that is a big statement but his hands when on the lead at full pace are fantastic. * Martin, Tom Mac, Watts and Fitzy all need to learn from Howe on how hard to attack the ball and hopefully get cleaner hands. * Bennell was training with the backs, maybe one of our running defenders, he just needs to get more of the ball in the game. * Jack Viney is a large unit, however they are carefully monitoring his training. * there was no actual running, it was all done in the drills, which I think is better as it is more realistic. * Garland showed poise and speed. He shows he has the ability to become a more attacking defender. * For me the most impressive trainers were Howe, Garland, Moloney and Nicho. * We may not be the greatest team this year, however I believe everything we are doing at the moment is the best training I have seen in years, but of course this is training and not an actual game! Also happy to answer any questions, as I have been to several sessions while I am on holidays!

I dont want to get into a petty argument over the wearing of jumpers!, but dont put words in my mouth and say that it seems we sneer at people who wear jumpers.Just stated that we dont wear them for a particular rule we made up. If you and others want to wear them, go for your life.

Maybe he meant Chip?

I am not being conservative, just something I believe in. And to say "that is the problem with our supporters", what a load of rubbish. My mates I am talking about dont even support melbourne, so i guess you can call all teams supporters conservative. I am all for people wearing jumpers, just thought I would add my opinion. The fact I am a member, go to the football and wear our colours should be good enough!

My mates and I have a rule: Once you are older than the eldest player on the field, no football jumpers to be worn and especially one with a number. I wear the Melbourne Jacket that the coaches wear.

I have been to a few sessions this pre season, and am happy to see the work being put in. I also think that the work rate is higher than most people think, as the drills they are doing have barely any time to recover or rest in them. In regards to Dunn, personally I have never been the biggest fan of his, I know he can be clever and has kicked some good goals, but I dont rate him that highly. His aggression (or so called aggression) reminds me of Campbell Brown. I think he will struggle for a game, and I will be a little disappointed if he is getting a game, as it means our better players are not playing well. All being said, I wont be upset if he proves me wrong, and dominates!