Slartibartfast

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.

Grundy in 6, Hunter 12 and Schache 19. AMW and Smith running reps, Grundy, Fritta and TMac all doing drills with running interspersed. Tmac looked totally unhindered and was doing the warmup kicking drills. I didn't see Harmes, Lever, Brayshaw, Gawn, Oliver, Lingers, Melk, Tomlinson, Dunstan, ANB, Petty, Brown and Smith. I didn't see Taj either but he may have been there. Usual warmups, then ball movement drills on 3/4 ground. Had to leave earlier than expected unfortunately so that's about all I saw. Spoke to AMW very briefly and he said he'd added 8 kilos and was 182 but still growing. He's got an infectious smile and personality. Hoping for really big things from him.

What are the rules around draft tampering and what are the likely penalties? I think what you are suggesting is very dangerous ground and high risk for low reward given the uncertainty around drafting.

It’s a fair concern but if we can see the issue I’m thinking it’s odds on JT can!

Why. These are the regular best 22 players not in the QF team: JJ, Tmac, Bowey These players are best 22: Grundy, Hunter These are the players with likely "best 22" quality: Chandler, Turner, JVR These are good quality backup: Dunstan, Tomlinson, JSmith These are players with potential and 12 months MFC development: Howes, Laurie (24 months), AMW Now you may disagree with some of the classification but it's highly unlikely that someone at P13 is going to make an impact early. These are the 11 - 20 players picked last year. How many would have played and made an impact for us last year? (Sorry for the formatiing). In my view we've got 2 free hits this year and can go for high reward options. We really don't need a "nice player". 11 Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera St Kilda Glenelg 2021 12 Josh Sinn Port Adelaide Sandringham Dragons 2021 13 Ben Hobbs Essendon GWV Rebels 2021 14 Campbell Chesser West Coast Sandringham Dragons 2021 15 Leek Aleer Greater Western Sydney Central District 2021 16 Darcy Wilmot Brisbane Lions Northern Knights 2021 17 Tom Brown Richmond Murray Bushrangers 2021 18 Angus Sheldrick Sydney Claremont 2021 19 Jacob van Rooyen Melbourne Claremont 2021 20 Kai Lohmann

Then trade 13 for a future first rounder.

It's a footy myth that Charlie kicked 5 on Smith last year. Smith was on the bench for one of the goals and another was when Rivers had the ball and Smith ran of Charlie to receive a handball. Rivers handballed it to Charlie instead and he ran into an open goal. Technically Smith was on Charlie for that goal but it wasn't through his bad play that Charlie goaled. It was in our first final in Adelaide.

It's an opinion business Dazzle and that's my opinion. He did well under Bailey and was highly rated by the footy department at that time. I think he would have flourished in a more inclusive environment. By the time he got to NM he'd completely lost interest in footy. Two rising star awards speaks to his ability to play competitive AFL footy and he averaged just under 20 disposals a game. That's pretty impressive for a bloke at the beginning of his career and suggested a good career was in the offering.

Under Goodwin he would have flourished. Neeld sucked his love of footy from him. Boy, could he play.

I’ve just read The Age summary of the game. They didn’t have Libby Birch in the best. Can you believe it? She was outstanding.