tasmanlvr

Great account of the match. Sounds like for "Trengove" we should read "Tyson".

Sounds like there was one end being favoured by the wind - white had the best of the first qtr, blue the 2nd, and white again the 3rd.

And was the wind a factor in the sloppy disposal?

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.

Lets be realistic.......It was the first scratch match for the season.....played in 35 to 38 degrees and after a training session at the start of Feb.....Lets see how we are going after the practise matches before we start bemoaning the presumption that we are no good..

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...

I cant get there tomorrow so will be relegated to cutting and pasting (hopefully Tas will post himself).

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...

Did Trenners get back into it for the intraclub? Plus any reports on Vince or Michie getting the ball.

Tyson didn't impress me too much in the circle work drill on Wednesday. He almost seemed bored with it. So glad he got involved in the match simulation.

Sounds like the plan is to be pretty fresh for the Richmond game but that's fine with me. It'll be early Feb, way too early to get carried away.

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.

Tas, with Watts at centre bounces did he crack in or skirt the pack?

Also was Dawes at CHF or FF?

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.

Wasn't last seasons training threads also positive and we look good doing this and that?

Then round 1 come around and the rest is well history.

Hopefully it's a diff result this season and I will feel more relaxed once I c us being competitive for 4 quarters.

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.

YOU ARE A HERO TASMAN! Don't bother going back to BigFooty as you have much more fans here!

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.

Hey Tas the reports are fantastic, thanks so much for sharing them - love your work.

I assume Jordie just cut them up again, IMO the best trainer we've had over the last few week looking at it holistically.

Thanks.

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.

Love to know whether Fitzy/Hogan/Jamar/Dawes finished the whole session including the full match simulation stuff. Looks like our list is pretty close to full fitness with the exception of Garland and Riley. Clark is meant to resume full training next week and Viney is OK.

Does anyone know if we are having an Intraclub match next week?

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.

Tasman can do the job if he's Abel.

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

I thought it was just appreciating the amount of effort that Roger puts into lurking on big footy!!!

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...