tasmanlvr

Yes I made a mistake. If anything it was a pretty sloppy report written very much on the go. I don't think the wind factored too much in the scoreline and I don't think it factored too much in the sloppy disposal. You know, cobwebs out as many said, the heat was a factor as was the fact that a few were ill. I think the game plan that looks to be in effect is pretty good, but it'll take a few weeks t get around it. Still have to be realistic, we're not just going to jump out of the bottom four straight away but at least we look like we're taking the whole football thing a lot more seriously than we did last year under Neeld.

Few boys had gastro too apparently.

Part 2: Teams (initial): White: Bail, Byrnes, Cross, Fitzpatrick, Frawley, Gawn, Georgiou, Grimes, Harmes, N Jones, JKH, King, Nicholson, Pedersen, Salem, Terlich, Toumpas, Tyson, Vince. Blue: Barry, Blease, Clisby, Dunn, Evans, Hogan, Howe, Jamar, Jetta, M Jones, Kent, McDonald, McKenzie, Michie, Spencer, Strauss, Trengove, Westrupp. Missing: Clark, Dawes, Garland, Hunt, Riley, Tapscott, Trengove, Viney, Watts (Viney + Dawes + Riley on sideline) A fair match. Teams look fairly even but I'd back white. First Quarter: Dawes is off for now. 19 v 18 now. Matt Jones with the clearance for blue. Georgiou holds his own against Hogan one on one. Beautiful kick from Salem to Fitzpatrick. Fitz does not make the distance from your classic James Brayshaw BU-NA-NA. Short 25m kicks the order so far for Blue. It's the same deal for White but with switch play. Georgiou beats Hogan again! He's looking alright so far. Salem has hit two targets inside 50 from two kicks. Toumpas lining up. Goal. White 1.0 (6) Blue 0.0 (0) Back in the middle. Viv doing the work winning the hard ball and gets a couple of touches. Again, a chain of 25m kicks hitting the target. Hogan on the lead, now on Frawley. Two White blokes on their own through the middle. Why? Forward pressure from White excellent. Pedersen mark + shot for goal. Goal. White 2.0 (12) Blue 0.0 (0) White off to a flyer. Salem with three touches and two score involvements so far, good form. Playing on a flank. Kent crunches Tyson in a tackle. Free kick and hits Toumpas. Toump has two goals. White 3.0 (18) Blue 0.0 (0) Toumpas continuing his pre season form up forward. Blue clearance thanks to a McKenzie free. White repelling every Blue attack thus far. Salem gets a fifth touch. He's mauling it and has hit four targets inside 50. Toumpas with a free kick close to goal. Three goals. White 4.0 (24) Blue 0.0 (0) Cross, Salem and Toumpas are killing it so far. Matt Jones with a second clearance. Free to Hogan! Blue set to hit the scoreboard. One behind. White 4.0 (24) Blue 0.1 (1) Very quick kick in transition but Roh Bail kicks a point. White 4.1 (25) Blue 0.1 (1) Blue's kick in is slower and more methodical. White are just working harder. Not giving them room. Jay Kennedy-Harris applying extreme pressure but it doesn't pay off. Hogan with Blue's first goal at quarter time. White 4.1 (25) Blue 1.1 (7) Goals: White - Toumpas 3, Pedersen Blue - Hogan Story so far is that Cross, Salem and Toump have been excellent. Salem and Cross with about 10 touches between them. Toump with three goals as mentioned above. Two fighter jets fly over very randomly. Second Quarter: Blue in a bit of a pickle here. Three goals down to start the second. Not working anywhere near as hard as White are and can't get it through the midfield. Sounds somewhat familiar. White clearance. JKH with his first touch. Max King with a couple of touches and hits N Jones inside 50. One behind. White 4.2 (26) Blue 1.1 (7) Dunn with a torp down the middle! Didn't work though as Grimes intercepts. Salem with another touch and another inside 50. More fighter jets flying over. Blue with a forward 50 entry. Viv not keen on hitting a forward 50 target due to White's pressure man on man. In the end it's a White free for on the full. Bernie Vince getting a few touches. JKH breaks M Jones' ankles, turning him inside out! Wow. One behind to Blue. Blease clobbers behind post but is okay. White 4.2 (26) Blue 1.2 (8) JKH intercepts inside 50 but does not score. Spencer up the other end goes for a run (!) then hits Howe. Howe goals. Game on. White 4.2 (26) Blue 2.2 (14) Clearance to Harmes who is now with Blue. Howe grabs a clearance from throw in but misses the lot. Viv has a shot, on the full. Salem and Toumpas playing more on ball now. Blue certainly fighting back however. Now White with a slower build up. None of the quick movement in the opening stanza. Harmes with another clearance. Looking alright so far. Spencer clunking a mark. He's looking good. I want to see a big season from him - we need to, the ruck looks rather weak at the moment for us. Forward pressure from Blue is far better this quarter. Role reversal from the first quarter. Salem and Toumpas combine again and N Jones gets another shot at goal. Misses. White 4.3 (27) Blue 2.2 (14) Kick in slow from Blue. Viv turns the wick on a bit but doesn't hit Kent down the line. Salem to JKH but JKH misses on the run. End of the quarter. White 4.4 (28) Blue 2.2 (14) Goals: White - Toumpas 3, Pedersen Blue - Hogan, Howe It's good to see Salem playing extremely well. He's had about nine touches. For a draftee I'm super impressed. Wondered why he averaged 145 in SuperCoach last year in the TAC Cup? Kid is a ball magnet. But I don't see him straight into the side yet. Let him ease in to it at Casey, Roosy. Viv had a lot of the ball too that quarter. Recruits standing up! Third Quarter: Although goalless that quarter White still looking the goods. Held out Blue's intense pressure that quarter and conceded only one goal. Back under way. Toumpas playing in the guts now, as is JKH. Salem still forward. Strauss hits Hogan lace out on the lead. Georgiou looks comfortable in the one on ones. Viv has been Blue's best player I reckon. Has had about 10-11 touches. Hogan laying a big tackle now inside 50. JKH taking everyone and the game on again. Liking it a lot. He's got into it as the game has gone on. Pedo out of the pack, snaps, goal. His second. White 5.4 (34) Blue 2.2 (14) Crossy with his bread and butter from the bounce, at the bottom of the pack, gets it to Trengove who gets the clearance. Toump lining up for number four! He gets it! He has been excellent!!! White 6.4 (40) Blue 2.2 (14) N Jones with the clearance. Blue gets it but Kent misses a gettable one. White 6.4 (40) Blue 2.3 (15) White's kick in very quick as I'm typing and Howe gets in on the act kicking a goal for both sides now. Classic coast to coast footy. White 7.4 (46) Blue 2.3 (15) N Jones again with the clearance. Quick transition to Howe, Howe kicks two in two minutes. White 8.4 (52) Blue 2.3 (15) White are just working far harder than Blue. Though it helps to have Jones, Cross and Tyson. Trenners with another clearance but Dunn intercepts. Spencer just far too big for King in the ruck. Again White clear and Salem gets another couple of touches, as does Jones. Some switch play and White are away. Pedo takes a mark inside 50 and lines up. Or so I thought. Goes to Howe in the goalsquare, he kicks another. That's four in total, three this quarter. White 9.4 (58) Blue 2.3 (15) M Jones with the clearance. Kent moving well and has had a few touches. Blue can't penetrate inside 50, White very good defensively. Blue do get an inside 50 entry and Hogan lines up after the whistle to end the quarter. Consolation goal. White 9.4 (58) Blue 3.3 (21) So there it is, White dominating. It's easy to look at the side and say they were too good, reality is White were far better than Blue who had lost a couple beforehand and simply didn't work hard enough apart from Michie, Spencer, Kent, McKenzie and probably M Jones too, while for White it was a good effort. Salem, Cross, Howe (in the last quarter) and Toumpas were impressive. N Jones put in a typical game. What I do want to see is Melbourne (whoever is in the 22) put in as much effort as the White team did today.

Alright, I've seperated my report into two. Part two is quite the long one, live scoring and everything. Part 1: TGIF! Once again I'm spending this glorious time of the week at Gosch's to cover training again. Some general randomness as I always seem to include: Spent the time on the way playing Flappy Bird. Frustration levels on my Facebook feed has ranged from 186 to Mark Neeld's gameplan. It is far off the mark, I find it an enjoyable game. Okay so I get there and there's this huge cage that Fox FM are involved in. I don't know what it is, nor do I care. So I park myself on the outer wing nearest to Punt Road, for reasons of a) I want shade on this warm day, and b) prime viewing for match simulation. Byrnes, Nicholson and McDonald are first on the track, walking around. Others are gradually joining in. A bit of a crowd are gathering here at Gosch's. It looks like Clark, Riley, Garland (who's on the track, great to see) and Tapscott are the only ones not training/playing today. Jack Watts is NOT here, reasoning, crook. The crowd here is VERY decent. Boys have started off doing stretches, runthroughs and the like. Overheard from Gawn: 'Col (Garland) can you tell Dunny how good I am at intraclubs?' Expecting best on from Gawny now. Kent + JKH + Salem not doing stretches, runthroughs. Not entirely sure why. Judging by the fact that they are wearing training jumpers they should play in the intraclub. Let's hope so - three quality young players. It was a nice touch to see Salem talking to some of his family who are very supportive of him. Rehab: Tappy running laps, Clark jogging, Garland on the other track. Riley joins in with runthroughs. Great to see him progressing very well. Short kicks around the ground now. Drills to start with. Small group doing leads/contests inside 50, majority dojng contact work. Handball work on the wing. Moving on to kicks now. The boys aren't too vocal yet but wait till they play. This crowd at Gosch's is probably the biggest I have seen, probably even beating the time all the Demon Army came out to support the boys after Essendon whacked us last year. Next drill: short kick/handball/kick through the middle/goal. Clisby starts the drill then heads off to the group with JKH/Salem/Kent. Group moving through with ease through the middle. Couple of kicks missing the target however. One from Pedersen is an absolute shank which goed no higher than two metres in the air, then nutmegs Frawley with an awkward bounce. Better now than March, I guess. Dom Tyson is using the ball very well. He's been in some good form on the track and I'd love to see it in the intraclub today. Boys urged to lift their voice which is pretty disappointing at this level. Variation of this drill now. Good to see Dawes continuing to move with a lot of freedom. And he looks confident too. Taking marks overhead which has been a bit of a knock on him in years past. Gotta feel sorry for Max King doing ruck drills in front of me. In a Spencer/Jamar sandwich. Bloke is being treated like a battering ram. Voice is still more meek than previous sessions. It should be much louder. Boys called in. New drill I've seen, can't explain it too well... looks like stoppage then a kick inside 50. Imposing sight seeing Dawes and Hogan together in the goalsquare... even at training. At the other end there's a bit of stoppage work going on. Guy drives past shouting out 'YOU'RE [censored] MELBOURNE!' What a hero you are mate. Hogan moving with more freedom too. Looking alright to play next week I reckon. Boys called in again. Intraclub time...

All over it Rog.Edit: apparently the last one I posted was the fourth most liked post on this site and biggest in terms of likes on a training report. I think I may have a fair bit to live up to.

Judging by the mini-game on Friday we're certainly prepared to keep the ball a little bit, there were times when there were chains of short, 20-25m kicks which didn't progress the team up the ground too much. I expect there will be some switch play still, but I also expect some attacking flair this season. At least the game plan is a bit easier to understand, not like Neeld's (let alone if he had one). Oh yes, and I will be going again this Friday...

Trenners was fine. Just a bit of a rub and away he went. Vince got a centre clearance but then undid all his good work with a poor kick IIRC. Michie didn't see too much of. Watts did crack in to the centre bounces but in general play he skirted the packs. Dawes was pretty much CHF in the drills today. Don't remember if he played the mini-game or not. I was at a few training sessions last year and we weren't that good. Only bloke who thought we were really super amazing fantastic good was Neeld and that infamous 'training the house down' quote. Not going to lie but through these reports my rep will be on the line come the opening month of the season.

Haha I can live with both + the Facey page with these reports. More diverse number of likes I s'pose.

I'll get to quoting you guys and answering your questions once I come back from the cricket tonight. Loving the feedback. Cheers.

Jordie's been solid. Just keeps on keeping on. Hasn't stood out for me as much as others (I'm loving Dom Tyson's work at the moment, Nathan Jones had a great session today etc.) but he is a very hard worker.

All four did most of the session but not the full on intraclub. Intraclub I hear is the week after the Richmond game. Like, a full on intraclub, not the mini-intraclub we had today which was enjoyable to watch.

With thanks to tasmanlvr over at BigFooty... TGIF! A morning at Gosch's to start somewhat of a lukewarm morning which should get better. Are we already at the end of January? Two weeks until NAB Challenge, guys! Imagining that James Frawley's contract talk will dominate discussion at Gosch's this morning. Inb4 nine year, $10 million deal which is also heavily backended. Overheard: so I learned that it's Alex Georgiou's birthday tomorrow, and it was mentioned, to which he responds 'Is it tomorrow?' Classic Georgiou. Jesse Hogan and Jack Fitzpatrick rejoin the main group! Brilliant news! Rehab: Viney, Riley, Clark and Terlich, who had a huuuuuuuge knee strap on Wednesday. Dean Kent also doing little despite wearing training jumper. Stretches and runthroughs to start with. Solid crowd building up at Gosch's. Short kicks following the stretches. Bit of grappling and upper body drills. Jack Trengove getting a bit of attention to his hip. A bit precautionary I expect. More wrestling exercises. One of the most impressive things you notice is you hear the contact that the players make 50m away. King, Spencer, Jamar and Gawn isolated to work with new ruck coach Greg Stafford. He's a big boy! Stoppage drills, boys split into two. One team wearing bibs, defending, while the other has the footy. In one group Chippa breaks the lines and make everyone look like they are moving in slow motion! #pleasestaychip There's also a forward group. Dawes/Hogan/Fitz. Brett Allison barking out instructions nearest to where I am. Chippa looks motivated ... Mitch Clark leaves training early. Not ideal. Hopefully he comes back. Variation of the drill now, one forward at each end, Fitz and Hogan. Cam Pedo looking alright, takes a nice mark. Hopefully we see more of that and less of him squibbing it this year (coughcoughroundone) Pickles Evans is also working hard, laying tackles at will. Will be interesting to see where he fits as he was best 22 before copping that toe injury last year. Extension of the drill but situated inside 50. Ball movement is QUICK. Boys look like they are following the three-second rule. Get the ball, find an option, use it. I like it. Switch/down the lone/handball/kick inside 50 drill now. Nathan Jones basically hitting every target, Dom Tyson to Fitzy is something I want to see in round one if Clark isn't playing. There's something about Salem that looks different ... he looks a bit more built than when he was drafted. Looking good. New drill now. Starts on the wing and involves handballs before delivery inside 50. Dawes/Hogan at one end and Gawn/Fitz at the other end. Gee Toump looks good. Delivering some really sharp kicks. Dom Tyson needs to work on his goalkicking, missing a few bread and butter 25m shots on the run. Interesting hearing Paul Roos yell out 'HALF TIME!' it's now obvious. Training is being treated like a game. On resumption its basically a similar drill but involves a player in the middle marking, swinging sround and delivering to a forward. Refreshing to see Jonesy get louder and louder on the track. No doubt the captaincy has got him going. Full grounder drill now. You beauty. Match sim!!! It's great to see two ruckmen at contests with Gawn fighting with Spencer. Dawesy getting in front of Tom McDonald and marking everything. I could watch that all year. Ball use out of defense has been excellent!!! Alright, an alternate drill now ... out of defense, through the middle, kick up forward. Nice. I love seeing blokes sprint THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE GROUND in this drill just to get the footy. I love it! And I haven't seen it for ages, if ever. Especially not under the "talent manager". I see the white training jumper for the first time in person. And I'm 110% done. It's just so beautiful. :') PROPER MATCH SIM. ALMOST AN INTRACLUB!!! Jack Watts first centre clearance of this mini-intraclub. Mini-intraclub is pretty much equal teams. I like it. Clisby with kickout duties. Interesting. Ball use is good. Toumpas is getting the ball a bit which is what I like to see. Jack Watts with two clearances (albeit from a free kick). It's good to see that hardly an inch is being given defensively, but that decision making is also good from the team with the footy. Just saw Hunt blow away Roh Bail getting the footy. He is QUICK. Dom Barry getting a bit of the footy. Good signs. JKH tackles a bloke and sets up a goal with his defensive pressure. It's déja vu from Wednesday. Same occurrence at the same end no less. Dom Tyson turning blokes inside out. BREAKING ANKLES OUT THERE DOM. I LIKE IT A LOT. Jones bumps Grimes after he gets rid of the footy. I swear Jones just wants the captaincy on his own, still not satisfied with co-captaincy. Thing that frustrates me with Watts, gets the ball a fair bit but not really following up. Staying behind the ball. Haha Roosy: 'NEXT SCORE WINS! NEXT SCORE WINS!!!' Cross is getting plenty of it, as is Kent. Tyson's getting it too. Exciting! I think the game plan is more defined now - there's still a lot of switch play but the build up is more patient, concise and decision making is far better. It looks like they are finishing up. Few are staying out to improve their skills a bit.

Hopefully with a little less sarcasm than I used in the initial report...

Don't mind a bit of a stalk myself...

I don't see any merit in this idea at all. What I'd prefer is to not change the system but for one thing. Change the final eight to a final six, as 7th and 8th never go far anyway.

It's my first post here, looking forward to a very good blast here. Anyway... I'd kill to have Robertson playing up forward at the moment. He isn't really the size for a full forward but he did kick 70 goals in 2005 and he led our goalkicking last year as well. Thought we made the wrong call getting rid of him considering the situation now. I should add we should've taken Sautner all those years ago when he was still young. Bit late to take him now though...