Slartibartfast

Practice match! JKH with first goal!

Watts, Vince, Garlo's, ANB, Hunt, Howe, White, sitting out

Two umps here. On Friday 13th?

I'd suggest we do two things. 1. Have a Saty discussion thread where those that want to can [censored] all they like and the rest of us won't have to read it and every thread won't be derailed. 2. Saty can have his own training report thread. Those that don't like his reports can easily avoid them and each training thread wouldn't descend into the childish bickering that goes on now. Alternatively the mods could just decree that "Saty discussion is over, everyone has had a say" and if anyone [censored] about Saty's training reports and manner in the future they are banned. Simple. Problem solved overnight. I doubt either of these things will happen and the status quo will continue. But I agree xarronn, it's disappointing that a once great site has been let go to this extent and many of the wonderful posters who used to be regulars are now only rarely seen. Having said that, as a past moderator, it's a thankless and difficult task and with the volume of traffic this site gets it's almost impossible to keep a lid on things.

I went. C&B has advised players not doing drills. No sign of King, Trengove and AN-B. And I didn't see Brayshaw but he may have been there and White was in rehab. Long session. Started at about 9.45 and was still going when I left at 12.00. Hot but little if any wind so conditions were great. It was very much ball movement, match simulation at 75% pace, full ground drills. Some of the skills were very good and there were various players who made mistakes from time to time. It will be interesting to see if the intensity lifts in the coming weeks. Players to impress were Kent who I noticed more than anyone. I had him fringe 22 but on today's performance he'd seem to be well in for me. Clean overhead on the fast lead, very good kick and got it a lot. Hogan seemed to be everywhere. Lots of the ball and some good marks and good kicking. But remember the intensity is not AFL standard. JKH also came to notice, Petracca did some nice things and looks comfortable, I liked what I saw of Billy Stretch and Dom Tyson just had the ball on a string. Col Garland did the whole session and did well, Grimes was good and I noticed Pedersen a bit. Salem was clean and Vandenberg had a bit of a purple patch and looks a big strong boy. I was chatting to mates most of the day and not fully concentrating on training so these are general observations only. These match sims are really like dancing with your sister. There certainly didn't seem to be a "get the ball and go" mentality, still "mark, go back, pick an option". Unless a player was clearly in space it looked a bit stop/go to me. Just to clarify. When I mean 75% that relates to spoiling/tackling/body contact stuff. The pace of play was 100% flat out. I suppose if I had to describe training it was skills work will little if any body contact stuff.

So there are players in the rehab group who are fit but just not up to doing the load the guys who have done a full preseason have done? Makes sense, if I've got it right that is.

Yep, the same. I'm sick of waiting for the kids and sick of leaving home to go to the game wondering if I'm going to the footy or the dentist. Either way it's got to be done.

Getting excited about the season TGR?

Did the players have numbered singlets at training? I went last week and complained to Josh Mahoney that it was really difficult to recognize the players given the number of new blokes and the changes to their appearance. Then I noted that someone said they had numbers on Friday - well done Josh. Hope the trend continues. I don't know about others but I have terrible trouble recognizing some of the players during preseason.

Fair call but it's a very elite group! After all, neither of us want Garry Lyon or Brownlow medalist Shane Woewodin. And then of course there was Adem and Robbo........

No Farmer for me, he left. Junior would be a must. The rest are terrific.

Well done Dunny, congratulations. You've got every right to be on the Banner now if it's restricted to current players.

Over the last 2 seasons Ryan Crowley has played 49 games for 719 disposals at an average of 14.67. Jordie McKenzie has played 21 games for 314 disposals at an average 14.95. I agree with all you say Nut, I want Jordie to get involved and be let off the leash but in a team that was getting flogged on a regular basis where defense was the mantra it's interesting to note that Jordie's disposals per game is equal to the games best. The battle for places in the midfield will fascinating.

Thanks Binman. We could discuss Dunny's pro's and con's for sometime but in essence if you go to my first post I'm for putting people on the banner who have achieved something. We've had precious few recently which is why I'd go for players like Neita and Junior because they have played quite recently and will be known to people where Spencer, Barassi and Cordner will only be remembered by a lucky few. Dunny in the scheme of things hasn't really achieved anything and has never finished top 3 in the Bluey. I'm interested as to why you say Dunn is a leader. Yelling at training doesn't do it for me and he is known for his brain fades (his kick out against GWS last year). Also leaders don't poleaxe team mates at training when they are recovering from concussion. Do you have any inside knowledge? Comments from other players/coaches? Oh, and you need to be very careful about the three quarter time huddle response in the Richmond game. It presumes we tanked which of course everyone knows we didn't, well the DL community anyway. You might get a different response from other supporters. And we don't want to go there again!

Preseason training also allows you to compare the skills of players on our list, hence my question regarding where Saty saw the many mid range mids we have. ATM Saty rates McKenzie higher than some. If he can't retain that rating in games he won't play.

Why Dunny? My memory of Dunny is in the fetal postion with Chappy standing over him in the famous game against Geelong after he'd tried to rough Chappy up in the quarter game break. He also KO'd Ro Bail who was wearing the injury vest at training and nearly ended his career. He's a perennial tough man against small opponents. He's played 136 games in 10 years. He was good for the first half of last year but tailed off like the rest of the team in the second half of the season. Good on you for supporting him but I can't for the life of me work out how he deserves to be recognized ahead of so many others. It's sad to see Neita looks like missing out. He's in that very select group of favourite players for me along with Robbie and Junior. At least I love ya Neita.

Thanks Saty, great work. Having seen as much if not more of training than anyone, how do you rate Michie, Riley, McKenzie, Newton, M Jones in terms of likely first 22 status. And where do you think Petracca, Brayshaw and Stretch would fit in to the listing. I'm assuming N Jones, Vince, Tyson and Viney are "certainties" but the fight for spots amongst the rest is perhaps the most interesting thing to play out this preseason. I'm also getting the feeling that Salem and Toumpas are being thought of as playing predominantly in the back half because of their kicking. Agree?

I voted "other". If you are going to put a mix of current and past players on the banner then I suggest you keep it to those who have achieved something meaningful. Our captain has, three time winner of the best and fairest (admittedly not against the strongest group of players) qualifies him. Robbie has. Jimmy has. And David Neitz has. Unquestionably. Most number of games for our club. Most games as captain. Most goals for our club. A two time All Australian. Loyal in difficult times and just a ripping person. Many may not know but David received a career ending neck injury in round 5 2008 in the final year of his contract. As such he was entitled to something in the order of one years pay as compensation and of course his salary (contract) at that time was significant as he was captain. The cost of that compensation was the liability of the club and as we all know our financial position was poor at that time. David declined the payment. It cost him many hundreds of thousands of dollars. He had been playing footy for all his life; his career and earning capacity was over and in all likelihood he would never earn that sort of money again. But for the good of the club and at significant personal disadvantage he passed on the money. You'd go into battle with Neita knowing he'd always cover you. He's never received the recognition he's deserved IMO and now would be a terrific time to recognize his achievements and contribution - both on and off the field. Without disrespect Paul Roos is a Jonny come lately as far as our club is concerned. Dom Tyson has achieved nothing by comparison (and I love him). And Lynden Dunn? Drafted in 2004 and has put together 139 games. Having Dunny up there would just remind me how poor we have been. Let's recognize Neita, he deserves it.

Touché

I don't know. You have.

Pete Roberts. Really good guy.

I'm about to break my NY resolution of not posting here but there you go, it lasted two weeks. Frankly I'm not much interested in what drills the players are doing, how vocal Dunny is (leading to the conclusion he's leadership material despite poleaxing his teammates at training), who's flying (Strauss last year was very close to our best on the track - that worked well) and how well organized training is. I'm interested in who is in rehab, how long they are there for and what's wrong with them (although from a privacy point of view I shouldn't be). I'm interested in what the players say because frankly it's much more relevant and interesting than what most posters here say, particularly the ones who haven't seen training. I'm also interested in who's training in what group and who's struggling and flying in the running drills (purely as a comparison to last year). Saty's posts address the things I'm interested in more than most others. Thanks. As far as the players are concerned - if they didn't want to speak to him they will not. They do because they trust him and know him from his presence around the club and the things he does to help. It's why Mission and others will speak to Saty. Personally I'd much rather read Saty giving it to those who brainlessly criticise him for his contribution that the pompous righteousness of RPFC who continually wants to be the school headmaster of the posters here and set us all straight on things we don't really understand. But that's just me and I actually don't support either approach. As for those who so boldly say they'd have no problem telling a player to his face what they think of him - well bully for you. It says more about you than anything else. With free speech comes responsibility, something which is sadly lacking here a lot of the time and why I think this once great site has lost so many of its good posters and been reduced to an occasional read and contribution rather than something to be involved in regularly. I wonder how long it will be until I break my resolution again.

Just a little more respect for the players in difficult times..... and there will be those.

Many thanks everyone. It seems that the AFL Global Pass and an HDMI cord will do the trick. Much easier than mucking about my way. Cheers

Mods feel free to move this to the general board if you feel it's more appropriate there. Number one son, who is a passionate Demon, has just been relocated to London for a couple of years and I'm trying to work out the best way to get the footy replays to him. I had the idea that I'd buy a DVD recorder with a SDHC slot to record the footy onto the SD card. I'd then upload that file to Dropbox (or something similar) so he could download it and watch it on his TV. I've been told by a sales person from a store that sells DVD recorders that this won't work as the AFL footy is copyrighted and will only play on the machine it's recorded on. I'm a downright nuff nuff when it comes to this sort of thing and I'm hoping the tech savvy here may be able to give me some insight and ideas on the best way to do it. Thanks for any help anyone can offer.