Lucifers Hero

When I was at training a fortnight ago the rain started at about 10 and I left as it was very heavy like today. Not sure how long th rain lasted at Casey but from club reports they kept training which was a good sign. Like you i hope they stick at it today.

Very moving. Thank you.

Anyone have any insight into the latest figures for 2021?

And another Richmond breachriewoldt-reveals-tigers-were-worried-about-secret-covid19-breach “I don’t know how this never got out and the AFL have done an amazing job of covering this up (because) at this stage we were wearing masks coming out of the airport, to the airport, to the bus. “We weren’t allowed to come into contact with anyone, but next thing you know we were crammed like sardines into a lift". Naturally the AFL says nothing to see, move on. Of course they couldn't ban more Richmond players, could they? Pity for all those who were caught/outed for a breach and had the book thrown at them. Lots more covid skeletons in the AFL and Club closets, I suspect

In the last 4 years we have had co-caps, then C/VC with significant leadership group changes each year both in the size of the group and the members. A bit all over the shop. It was like the coaches couldn't make up their minds. Last year we didn't have a formal leadership group to back up Gawn and Viney altho at some stage Melksham and Lever were said to be the leaders of their area but no formal announcement from the club. This may be controversial and sacrilegious but imv May is a better choice for VC than Viney. Nonetheless, for the sake of consistency I would go with the 3 (maybe 4) person leadership model with Gawn (C), Viney (VC), and May. No one else stands out on both performance and leadership attributes. All other players need to focus on their own games to become the best they can be and don't need formal leadership duties to distract them. This is the year for consistency: Consistent leadership, consistent game plan, consistent selections. Time to bed down our team and our style.

I don't know yet. Will be very disappointed if we can't get into the ground. Having watched a training session from outside the cyclone fence it really isn't worth going to a real game if that is all that is on offer.

On the one hand I'm really pleased with what Yze is doing. On the other hand I'm disappointed that in the 4 years of the Goodwin regime, the coaches collectively, weren't able to get an A-grade midfield to gel as a cohesive unit and to do the 'attitude-adjustment' required. Hopefully, Yze sorts out the midfield roles of Oliver and Viney who seem to play or want to play the same role.

Thanks for the insight. Oliver strikes me as someone who, rightly or wrongly, if he respects his coach ala Macca he will do as told. Sounds like Yze is commanding that respect. He will need to undo some 'ingrained' training from Oliver's early days of: 'see ball, get ball' and teach other tricks. At first I was surprised to see Viney in the list but on second thoughts I'm not. I fear that because of his status as past co-cap and current VC and having a 'bull' reputation he played to his own tune, often competing with our mids. Good to see we have a coach to straighten him (and the others) out and that he is one of our midfielder team. As VC he needs to set the example of 'team first' and be a leader in that regard for the midfielders and the rest of the team to follow. Selfish play begets selfish play.

They train at Gosch's paddock and I think it is in the evening as many have day jobs. Will try and find out more details.

Its hard to see everything. I'm guessing some of the issues happened after you left. Thanks, a good article. It confirms much of your report. I've taken the liberty of summarising it for those that just want a snap shot: "MELBOURNE defender Marty Hore is headed for scans after injuring his knee in a crunching tackle at Demons training on Friday morning. Reigning best and fairest Christian Petracca also looked in discomfort early in the two-and-a-half-hour session after copping a heavy knock to his left shoulder. While he was taken from the field for assessment, the midfield gun returned moments later with the shoulder strapped and finished the hit-out unencumbered". Sounds like the tackling is quite fierce! Hoping we don't have to much 'friendly fire' injures in the pre-season! "Forward recruit Ben Brown impressed during one hour of match simulation, booting three goals with his typical long run-up and dead-eye approach on goal. The 28-year-old later jarred his finger but was able to join teammates for running efforts that closed out the morning. Brown combined in the forward 50 with Sam Weideman, while a lively Bayley Fritsch alternated between attack and the wing with a leaner Tom McDonald. Steven May sat out the match play due to a minor ankle injury but will return next week and was among a group of six who were put through lighter drills on the secondary oval. He was joined by Clayton Oliver, who was managed for loads, Joel Smith, Kysaiah Pickett, Angus Brayshaw and Aaron vandenBerg, who is easing back after being forced to quarantine following a stint in NSW over his break. Second-year tall Luke Jackson was reduced to running laps after reporting recent Achilles awareness and will be back in full training next week alongside draftee Jake Bowey, who nursed a corked calf. Veteran Michael Hibberd was restricted to watching on and assisting coaches, still recovering from an ankle injury, while Harrison Petty (groin) missed". Sounds like the minor injuries are building up. And on the really positive side: In defence, Jake Lever excelled alongside Adam Tomlinson and Jay Lockhart who played a lockdown role in the stronger 'A' side. Jayden Hunt played off half-back in the same line-up and will settle in defence this season after several years playing as a half-forward. Captain Max Gawn showed no signs of the knee injury that hampered parts of his 2020, covering the ground with ease for the entire session. Jack Viney impressed in the midfield and landed a heavy blow on Weideman that left the forward rattled, while first-round pick Bailey Laurie was clean in congestion. Kobe Farmer, the son of Demons great Jeff, booted one goal and showed promising signs as he vies for one of two vacant rookie spots ahead of the season. If Cleary gives us that write-up for each session we won't have to trek to Casey.

Not relevant to this thread except to help give fans a live footy fix (no where else to post it on the main forum): The women's comp starts next week and our games are: Saturday, January 30: Gold Coast v Melbourne at Metricon Stadium, 2.10pm AEST Saturday, February 6: Melbourne v Richmond at Casey Fields, 5.10pm AEDT Live footy at Casey!

Significant fixture changes due to border closures: https://womens.afl/news/56353/ The new fixture gives us a great opportunity to get off to a good start for us: GCS and Tigers in round 1 and 2, both teams who joined last new so very inexperienced. Saturday, January 30 Gold Coast v Melbourne at Metricon Stadium, 2.10pm AEST Saturday, February 6 Melbourne v Richmond at Casey Fields, 5.10pm AEDT

Great report. Thanks. Really good observation about players in rehab "this pre-season is too short for players to miss back to back sessions for no good reason". I'm hoping that Vand is in rehab because he missed the first few weeks of training rather than injury worries. And hopefully, Pickett and May are out of rehab soon. Brayshaw may be there for a while given his foot surgery. Out of interest were you able to get into the ground or did you have to watch from outside the cyclone fence?

Training is 'closed'. However, some were lucky enough to get into the ground on Monday. Others have had to watch from outside the cyclone fence which is about 20m from the oval boundary. You can walk around the perimeter and see what is happening in different parts of the ground. But it is difficult to see what is happening on the other side or what is happening with ball movement and positioning. Made more difficult when players are wearing bibs which they swap frequently. And difficult to hear coaches/players over the music. I went last week until the rain came - about 45 min. That was probably enough to see who was there, who was in rehab what some of the plays were, guess the tone/energy of the group etc. So for me an hour is about enough. Does that make a trip to Casey worth while. Not sure. Training is Monday, Wednesday and Friday and players seem to be out on the ground at about 9.00am.

His family is not in the Sydney area. iirc they are in the south or southeast and people in the regions were allowed to cross the border over the weekend. Don't recall exactly when. As an aside, from above reports he seems to have been on light duties yesterday which makes sense since he missed a few weeks of training.

Excellent report. Thanks TK. Sounds like Petty and Hibberd are out of rehab so I assume they were with the main group?

Thanks. It is good to know what happened after I left. That is a very hardy track watcher to stay when the torrential rain arrived.

Having been to training on Friday I can say that Burgess's report was correct. Only Petty, Brayshaw and Hibberd were in rehab. The only players missing were Vandenberg who we now know is stranded in NSW and I think Hore. Its early pre-season so it wouldn't surprise if injuries happen as training intensifies and match practice starts. And some injuries seem quite innocuous - remember Petracca did his ACL coming down from a (I think uncontested) mark at training); Salem got concussion at a training camp etc etc. Injuries happen.

Not being to training before I couldn't tell if it was a typical drill. Certainly our fwd play needed a lot of work in recent years. Hopefully, a few more intrepid DL's trek to Casey and we see how different folk see things and what evolves as patterns/game plan.

It was during the 10 minute drill when the ball went from the middle to the fwd line. He made good position, had poise, time and accurate disposal. Not a big sample but I liked what I saw.

I forgot to thank @george_on_the_outerfor prompting me to go yesterday. To figure out which days were training days he offered to go on Thursday and suggested I go Friday. He did go Thursday and there was no training. And as I learnt yesterday, Friday is a training day. I don't know where 'george' lives but I'm pretty sure it would have been quite a trek. To make the trek is quite an effort, especially knowing there may be nothing there. Ah, the lengths DL's go to bring reports... Thank you 'george' for making the trek on Thursday for all of us and for prompting me to go yesterday. As an aside, if anyone is thinking of going to Casey, avoid South Gippsland Hwy - the traffic is pretty bad.

Frtsch was by himself. I didn't see specific skills training. The ball movement 'drills' were with coaches (forgot to notice which ones) stopping play when the ball came to ground. The closest I saw to match sim was about 10 minutes with the ball starting in the centre and it going to a designated end of the ground. The players in the 'fwd line' were relatively stationery which looked deliberate with what seemed to be 'designated players' moving towards the ball carrier. I was a bit slow to notice who. Will know better next time. Thanks to you and others for the encouragement.

Trekked to Casey this morning. Arrived at 9.15 and players were already working on the field. When the rain came at 10.00 it was my cue to leave. So I was there for about 45 minutes. The view from outside the cyclone fence was very good but it was hard to make out what was happening on the other side of the oval – its quite a flat outer. It was my first ever training session so wasn’t sure what to look for or look at. It was hard to make out some players especially the newer ones or those that hadn’t played many games. So I had to work from their numbers (when they weren’t wearing coloured tops). So missed a lot of the detail of what was happening. Observations: · When I arrived there were some ball movement drills happening on the flanks of the ground with the ball starting fwd of the wing. · It took quite a while to work our who wasn’t there. The only ones I didn’t see were Aaron VandenBerg and Marty Hore (that is not to say they weren’t there). So a fairly fit list especially of our top 30 players. · Rehab group was Brayshaw, Hibberd and Petty. Its great to see it so small. I notice there is an injury report from Burgess on their status. · Oliver seems to have recovered from shoulder surgery. I didn’t notice shoulder strapping but that could be because there was no tackling/contact work. (Not sure if contact training is allowed by the AFL in these covid times). · Ball movement seemed slow and sloppy at times but it is early in the pre-season and there would be a few cobwebs to blow out. · They changed tops often: pink, while, and I think yellow. Couldn’t make out what each meant. · After a huddle there was ball movement training starting in the middle – it looked like transition work but not possible to draw any conclusion on what was happening or how it might look like in 2021. I saw Rosman and Rivers have a go in the middle then fwd and Bowey was fwd (but I wouldn’t take that as indication of when or where they might play). · TMac looked fantastic, moved well and was with the defenders. · I noticed B Brown at the end of my 45 minutes so not sure if he was out there the whole time. Was wearing knee strapping. · At one stage Fritsch did some goal-kicking practice from about 40 m out. · It was good to see Nietschke and Jordan training after missing two years with injuries. · No-one stood out for good or bad reasons as I wasn't there long enough. The person I noticed the most was Rivers. Really like him. · The music was fairly loud so couldn’t tell much from player voices but I didn’t notice a lot of animation which is not to suggest that is a bad thing. · I completely forgot to look specifically for Goodwin, Yze or Williams. But then I didn’t expect the rain to arrive so early. At least two of them were in the middle most of the time directing proceedings. · Overall it felt low key but that could be because I have no idea what to expect from a training session. Well, that’s it folks. Will try to get to training again soon. As an aside training is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday but it seems the club publishes pics only for Monday sessions. Not sure if that is due to cost savings.

I assume it is the HS that has been headline chasing? I don't read it nor watch TV news so I can't tell how much of a witch hunt has been happening. The football media websites I read (The Age, AFL, Fox) have been quite low key. Sadly, I saw a regional news report of Patton going to hospital with the Lifeline and Beyond Blue numbers at the bottom of the article. So I suspect all media will now pull their heads in - terrible that it takes admission to hospital for mental health concerns for them to do that. I agree any media that has been playing this story up needs to back down. No matter what someone has done there is no room for media persecution. His alleged actions are creepy and gross but there are processes to deal with them in the AFL and if necessary the law. Hope he gets well soon and has the courage to put these episodes behind him and get on with his life both football and in general.

I'm inclined to think the concerns for Patton's mental health are genuine. Sure the 'mental health card' is often played to escape scrutiny or buy time and players 'take a break from football'. This is different. Patton is in hospital. If the concerns were not genuine he wouldn't be there. It has been a humiliating week for him, played out in public and he has been stood down from his job. The mental health concerns don't exonerate him from his actions or the consequences but it is easy to understand that he would be in a very fragile place.