Slartibartfast

Sestan was 38. He's a big strong boy with a beautiful kick but in the match sims he's a rookie trying to get involved. He managed to do that a few times but it was much more difficult today to find targets so his kicking didn't stand out like it had in other sims. I'm a big fan, he's got good hands, is fairly composed and isn't slow but he's just a young kid learning the ropes at the moment.

Demonland and others have reported most of what happened so there isn't really much more to add. I concur that 44 and 46 looked very good, 46 the pick for me with this strength and poise but I've no idea who it is. The Wednesday format at training seems to be fairly consistent in terms of drills but the match sim today was quite different from last week. Today was a "real" match, contested stuff, full ground and at high intensity. There was much more kicking I thought with less overlap handball and the defenders stayed deep with the forwards making it a real contest. Last week was more focused on working the ball forward with overlap run and kicking to a forward out the back. Make of that what you will. I was standing close to where the players interchanged and when they came off they were spent. I thought Hibbo was going to have a chuck at one stage but thankfully kept it in. Verrell did some of the match sim for the first time and I liked what I saw. He's pretty coordinated and not scared to take the game on. He did limited minutes but is out of the rehab group and now getting involved in the drills. AMW was running laps until late in the session and Sparg's was doing running and not the match sims but he was doing the handball drills. I left before the end to beat the parking inspectors so look for later reports. Impressive today were Riv who I thought was everywhere until I realized Viney was also in 24! Confusing at a distance. But the real Riv was pretty impressive and looks very strong. Tmac really does look in good condition and played well despite his error with Kossie (again, I thought it was Riv but I was obscured in my view. JvR looked very good too and just continues to impress. Kade Chandler won't let the coaching staff forget him, he's been very lively and his tackling is a real standout. Kossie not as impressive today but still lively and as reported Langdon and Hunter look very good on the wings. I'm with those that think Hunter will be excellent for us if he keeps his mind on the job. If you had to summarize today's session beyond those I've mentioned our good players did well and the younger players struggled to get into the sims as much but almost everyone did some good stuff. And just to save Dazzle the trouble, J Smith was in the rehab group, I just don't understand why we gave him a 2 year extension. (actually I can but that's another story)! Just having a bit of fun Daz! DEESPENCER'S TRAINING REPORT KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING REPORT NUDGE'S TRAINING REPORT

That's why you go to training is it?🙃

Having watched training and seeing other reports I'm pretty sure Hunter is a lock. Is ANB a lock? I reckon Chandler is eyeballing his spot. I agree on Howes and from reports I think Melksham is contending, I'm just not sure for who's spot.

Yep, my bad. JJ ahead of Howes.

It's hard to judge Sparrow because he plays high half forward in rotation with Kossie, ANB and Spargo and a bit of time on the ball. It's not like he's a full time mid and so his figures are hard to judge. He's also in the midfield with some pretty handy players and is most likely sacrificing his game (ball getting) for them. Jordon played mainly wing last season and was able to be in a lot more play than Sparrow. He was running very high (top 5) in the B&F before he injured his knee towards the end of the season. He's a very good player and I tend to agree with Dazzle that he's ahead of Sparrow, but the match committee disagree. As for Howes being ahead of Howes he's not and by a fair margin in my book. Jordon is a very solid player and would be in almost every teams best 22.

What a terrible day to be a trackwatcher, but wow, was it worth it. It rained just about the whole time and the standard of play was very good given the conditions. Ball handling was generally clean, very few dropped marks but of course very few contested marks taken. Training is great fun compared to the old days. Today’s training mainly consisted of handball keepings off game and match sims which are good fun to watch. At the start of training Lever, Howes and J Smith did a couple of little handball drills but not much else and were not sighted by me after the proper stuff started. AMW did his usual boundary running but there is no lateral movement in his training yet so I'd imagine he's still a long way off. Verrall and Adams also doing bits and pieces and quite a lot of running and as far as I could tell everyone else was in full training. The match sims are interesting. They are now played at full pace with what I call "respectful tackling" but the intensity is there and the players are really determined. There is also an "interchange bench" where players are practicing going on and off the field when the situation allows, but it's a designed part of practice, not just some random interchanges. Players like Trac and Oliver do their thing and look to be pacing themselves a bit to me but that doesn't seem to apply to Viney who is just in ripping form at the moment. There were two standouts for me today. Langdon must be invisible because nobody was near him all day in the match sims and just kept on getting it. His ball handling is good and his kicking was precise. The other standout was Chandler. His tackling was ferocious and he's so clean with the ball in the wet. He'll put real pressure on the small forwards this year because he just looks ready and very keen. For Dazzle I can report that Jefferson was quiet but it wasn't a tall forwards day. JVR and TMac were also quiet and that just puts it in perspective. Burgoyne was interesting. I thought he did quite well without dominating. He was involved in quite a few passages of play but to me he doesn't have the x factor that a lot of the First Nations players do. Based on what I've seen he'd be behind Chandler and AMW and I doubt he'd be picked up but there's a bit of water to go under the bridge yet. Others to impress me today were Trent Rivers who seems to be more imposing than previous years. He looks big and strong and is now a man rather than a boy. Judd McVee was clean in what he did and Woey was also pretty good at times. Fritter was good around goal and very clean and Melk did a couple of eye catching things. Kossie was just out there having fun, nobody could catch him and he just did what he pleased. The other positive was Salo who was involved more than I've seen him. Hunter found the ball regularly and his kicking is just great and to confuse the selectors even more JJ was clean and involved with good kicking. Oh, and Seston produced some really good kicking during the sims. All in all most players showed good patches but the comment from Monday's reporter about the young kids looking good in the drills but a bit lost in the sims is so spot on. The major problem we will face at the beginning of the season is going to be the selectors trying to work out who to play. There are a lot of contenders for multiple spots and there will be some disappointed and hard done by players. KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING REPORT GEORGE ON THE OUTER'S TRAINING REPORT BITTER BUT OPTIMISTIC’S TRAINING REPORT

It's an opinion business but this is not one I share.

He was doing a lot of running on the city side of the ground.

A lot has already been covered so I'll add a few observations. The match sims were at full pace with respectful tackling but there was no lack of effort and intensity. At stages Tmac, Trac, Fritta and Kyah all came off for attention but all returned other than Kyah who may have got a head knock. He took a terrific contested mark but was wacked in the process and Gus escorted him off the ground and he didn't return. It's very early days but I like what I see from him. He gets involved and competes and when he gets a chance he usually does something. He's very long term but there seem to be some fundamental there. Kossie played back in the match sims and it was most likely a midfield role. He really is so special and looks set for a fantastic year. His bump on Viney and subsequent gather was really eye catching. I agree that Blake Howes had a purple patch. His hands are really good and his uses it well but towards the end there were a few clangers he'd rather forget. Kade Chandler is really for AFL footy. He's got great intensity, keeps his feet and uses it really well. Buy shares in JVR if you haven't already. He was terrific today and he's not a mark or forget player. He really hunts the ball on the ground and backs himself in traffic to do something useful with the ball. I've been really impressed with him the last couple of training sessions. You'd also want a speculative bet on Oli Sestan. His kicking is outstanding for both length and accuracy but what impressed me is he found the ball well for a rookie in the full match sims. I'm backing JT to have found something special here but beware, I've been wrong lots of times. Tmac seems to have his hands back. He usually takes time to get up to pace and take one grabbers but the last two sessions he's clunked them first time every time. He's not giving his spot up without a fight. Interestingly he played back a bit so I'd imagine he's the swingman. Jake Lever seems to be moving very well, much better than last year. A return to his AA form would be a huge bonus. Jack Viney was in everything and has done all of the sessions I've seen. Good news, a full PS is a good omen for Jack. Gus did the whole session but looked a touch off the pace. Found lots of it but got caught a couple of times. Adams and Verrell did a lot of running. Interesting times. I haven't seen them touch a footy at any training session and they look miles off the level of fitness required. Joel Smith and AMW did running and strength drills and I'd guess they have groin issues. DSmith did a bit of ball work but not a lot so he's progressing slowly. BBB on light duties today, hope it's just management as he's look really good so far this PS. DEMONWHEELS' TRAINING REPORT KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING REPORT GEORGE ON THE OUTER'S TRAINING REPORT DEESPICABLE'S TRAINING REPORT OLD DEE'S TRAINING REPORT

I spoke to someone who played footy at a much higher standard than me and I said something similar about Max playing behind the ball. He said that he did that role for one year and it nearly finished his career as he was continually hit from behind by large forwards. He said it shortened his career. I agree that Max plays the role very well, but I also want him playing in 3 or 4 years' time. I fear if we make him play this role he won't. The proposition that Goodwin won't play Max behind the ball "just to prove he's boss" is so silly it barely warrants comment, but I have because the continual sledging of Goodwin, who managed to get us to second on the ladder at the end of the H&A season, is just tiresome.

Players were out early doing some stretches, light kick to kick and a few of the boys were doing goal kicking where they ran between a line of poles on each side of them and kicked over a metal "man" for goal. The standout was Oliver Sestan who is a beautiful kick for goal. Tmac, Melk and KFW were others doing this drill. They then broke into groups for the 2 Km time trial. A number of different groups started from different parts of the ground and they didn't finish where they started so it was hard to tell who "won". After the time trial they then went into the drills described by DeeSpencer. Players to impress me today were Bowser who looked really good and kicked the ball beautifully, Kade Chandler who was in everything and also kicked very well for goal, Seston who did well in the drills and again kicked very well for goal and Tmac who was moving really well and was very clean with his marking.

You wouldn’t want this bloke within 5 miles of your footy club.

I think it was Steven Smith at PP and Peter Giles at the G, or am I mixed up? He also ended Neil McMullin's career.

I know this is now accepted wisdom on Demonland and there is no doubt that it would have been nice to have had the opportunity the Cats had to rest players towards the end of the season. But we didn't. People regularly quote the games against NM and WCE as opportunities to rest players but of course this would have been pretty meaningless because it was midseason. People quote Gawn, who came back for the WCE game, saying he shouldn't have played. Perhaps so but that game in all likelihood didn't impact his form or physical condition at finals time. The reality is we had a very hard draw in our last month or so and we were fighting tooth and nail to stay in the top four. The concept of "resting players" is really only meaningful when you talk about your keys, it doesn't matter if you rest JJ, Sparrow, ANB et al because they are not your key drivers and a rested soldier isn't likely to have an impact. If you're going to rest players it needs to be the Generals and to do that puts at real risk the chance of winning games. And we needed to win every game we did. Don't lose sight of the fact that a loss to Brisbane in the last game meant missing the top four and no double chance. I believe we were just unlucky. Oliver was injured late in the season as was Petracca. I think Viney was injured against Brisbane where he was just about BOG and then didn't fire a shot in the finals. For a player "made for finals" that's odd. Gawn was badly beaten up but LJ was in awful form (for whatever reason) and there wasn't another ruck on the list. Who knows what other injuries were. I think we just needed to beat Sydney and get a weeks break to give the injured players a chance, but we didn't. It just wasn't our year and I don't think the proposition that "we made a bad mistake" is any part of the reason.

Disco, yeh, I'll have to get that right in future!

Just a couple of observations. Training was sharp, very few fumbles. They did a loose ball gather and tackle drill right in front of me and there wasn't one fumble of the ground ball. You'd expect that from the experienced players but Seston was also very clean. Langdon and Viney were the standouts for me. I know we all want the young guns to be the standouts but some of the older players were terrific. Grundy is such an improvement on Jackson ATM and we'll be the better in the short term at least. Others to impress me were Bowey who was clean and precise, Howes who did well in all the drills, JVR with his competitive ruck work against Grundy and his determination when the ball hits the ground. May was very good, Salem looks to be moving well and Rivers was involved. Of the young boys Woey was probably the most impressive to my eye but so much of this is where you stand. I also liked Howes who I think has very significant upside.

Seston: really impressed me in a tackling and hand off drill where he was pitted against Langdon and did very well. He's strong, has a low centre of gravity and didn't fumble once. He's a good size too. Everybody loves a good smokie and this kid could be one. He didn't participate in the match sim drills as far as I could see. Jefferson: Just running at this stage along with Burgoyne and Adams. Turner: Very good. His positioning is great, he's very clean and he reads the play very well. Schache: He impressed. He's in the conversation but it will be a long one as Tmac was very impressive, Brown looked to be moving well and was very competitive and JVR also impressive.

The counter argument of course is that if you put the JT interview at the end of the podcast perhaps people would listen right through, but I understand why you may not want to test this, and I don't understand the economics of the situation. AFLW was a hard watch in season 1 but now it's a very good standard, especially between the top teams. The GF was a ripper, those who didn't watch it because "it's women" just shortchanged themselves. It was a very exciting and emotional win. The women seem to have such a wonderful bond, it's pretty touching. Anyway, thanks for the explanation, the podcast is a credit to those who participate.

Congratulation on the podcast Andy, George and Bin. My only comment is that I think you should have led with the Women's GF win. It was epic, just the most inspiring effort and the determination and courage they showed was of the highest quality. That flag has been 7 years in the making and IMO deserved top billing. JT gets a go every year. And on the comment made by Bin (I think) who said we had to change our gameplan when we realized the ground was so soft we couldn't bounce the ball. I reckon Brisbane's gameplan is even more dependent on outside run and speed. IMO it probably helped us. I thought JT was interesting about JVR. He's 19, don't expect too much. With Grundy coming in and Max playing more minutes forward I think BBB, Tmac and JVR will share duties. Half a season for JVR at most I'd think (subject to form and injury of course). And it was interesting that we got new software that allowed us to view Seston's highlights for the last two years. I wonder how long that software has been available and we didn't have it. Anyway, thanks for your effort's lads, most entertaining.

Numbers? What numbers??

Did he play footy for Xavier? Or am I missing something?

Or those that read my training report, brief though it was, knew yesterday morning!😁

47. Grundy looked very good.

DSmith running laps, JSmith not there.