Roger Mellie

Tasmanlvr's report lifted from Bigfooty Not gonna complain, but cold + wet weather is insanely awesome. It is far better than yesterday's 'Blurghhh' conditions. It's back to school and you know what that means. Traffic, people lining up to top up their myki and general chaos. Yuck. Couple of young blokes here in training tops. Tyler Roos takes a hanger over Miller! Mitch Clark and Fitzy running laps with the boys. A good sign. Could be a light session by the looks of things. No reason why these names shouldn't be running with the boys alongside the Rehab Regulars: Byrnes, McKenzie, Nicholson, Riley, Jamar, Dunn, Frawley, King, Harmes, Barry, Viney, Terlich, Jetta. Clark runs with the boys but is now on the sideline. Standard issue running, stretches to start off with. Hogan and Fitz go to the sideline - Hogan's so ripped, I'm jealous. He's a year YOUNGER than I am and he's a goliath while I'm probably the equivalent of Cale Morton. The 2011-12 Cale Morton, that is.  Robert 'Tulip' Flower is here!!! Great to see more club legends reconnecting with the club. Quite interesting to notice that Terlich's right knee is very heavily strapped. Four blokes doing some short activities on the other track - Fitzy, Hogan, Gawn and Viney. Upper body strength drills after the runthroughs/stretching stuff. Wrestling drills and the like. Split into three. Forwards doing lead up drills, midfield split into two and playing keepings off, defenders doing a switch drill trying to work it out of defense. Voice is a bit down today! It seems the most vocal is Roosy. Which is a bit concerning. Forwards not saying a word which is baffling. Crowd looks solid. Nowhere near as large as Monday but there's about 80 people here. Captaincy discussion sweeping Gosch's! Everyone thinking Chunk will get it. Handballs and kicks in the meantime, got swept away by discussion of the captaincy. Damn. Another bloke who's moving well off injury is Dean Kent. He's moving very solidly. Boys are doing a switch drill up the opposite side of Gosch's. Defenders added after a little while wearing bibs. We have journos here guys (Channel 7 at least) but we all know who the best 'journo' is here. The unassuming kid with the iPad.  #futuremelbournemediamanager #moveovermattburgan Mitch Clark progressively running faster around Gosch's. Great sign! Full grounder drill now. Let's keep an eye on how people are moving. Jayden Hunt's moving very quickly as he should with his natural pace. Taking an understanding that James Strauss is battling some sore shoulders and has plenty of strapping but he's moving well nonetheless. Howie moving well but drops his bread and butter overhead mark. Trenners also moving well but not fast. Not a quick midfielder but a hard working industrial midfielder. Boys come in for another chat. Robbo's here too as the boys start another drill. Simple mark, run then 25m kick to player on the opposite side of centre square. Two defenders wearing bibs for good matter. Full grounder after a chat. Drill is brief because the boys are called in. Assuming that they were doing something wrong. Anyway the boys are back out and there is an emphasis on FAST ball movement. Lots of noise! Viv Michie looking good. Clean user of the footy and getting it a few times. Noticing that Chunk is a lot louder than he used to be. Hint hint? Emphasis on gut running in this one! Cross and Toumpas are looking good in this department plus getting the footy and using it well too. Boys are called in, on resumption JKH busts his gut 30-40m to get the footy. Brilliant! He's one of my favourites already. This just got interesting. Two balls now. A bloke who's looking solid in this drill is Lynden Dunn. He's getting it often, using it pretty well and frequently using his voice too. Dom Tyson, methodical with the ball as always. The boys come in and the drill is altered. Half of them are defenders now. Grimes nails a 45m kick to Michie which is perfectly weighted. JKH feasts on an errant Tom McDonald kick which is fumbled by Strauss, tackles Strauss, wins the footy, spins around and handballs to Bail for a goal. Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng. Christian Salem gets the ball, has a stroll, takes the game on with a couple of bounces and nails a pass inside 50. I like the cut of this kid's jib. Boys come in and split into two. One group doing groundwork, whilst another doing goalkicking. Let's give Crossy three years boys. He has his son here and he is cute. #getcrossyto50games Training finished afterwards and I noticed that Nathan Jones was having a very lengthy chat to Josh Mahoney walking back... think it's confirmed guys.

Excellent pics - thanks

Ya cant belt Simon Godfrey and get away with it - it's un-Australian!

Tasmanlvr's contribution from Bigfooty: (not as many hair-do/fashion appraisals to day) Dawes, Kent and Jamar returned to the main group today, guys. Dawesy in particular looked very good, even though he left to continue his rehab halfway through he lit up the track in the first half. Okie-dokes, we're back again at Gosch's for the first wet training session in like seven weeks. (I know we've had holidays but it's barely rained anyway). I'll accurately describe this weather as the equivalent of Justin Bieber's mugshot. Try convincing someone it was 40+ degrees four times last week. Dawes is still unbelievably motivated running laps. The new rainjackets the boys are wearing harks back to the 90s. Not the most attractive look TBH. Good to see Jack Viney is here. Not training with the main group but still, he's recovered from the head knock. The boys start off by running a lap. Dawes leads the way! Say what you like about his footy but his motivation and passion for this club are second to none. Some stretches now. Let me get this straight. Chris Dawes. In the main group. YES! Best news all day! Rehab: Fitz, Viney, Riley, King, Clark, Hogan. Jamar, Kent and Dawes have joined the main group by the looks of it. Great news. Matt Jones is in rehab too now. Maxy Gawn doing main group activities too. The boys are doing upper strength drills BTW. Some short kicks now. Jamar and Spencer kick to kick along with Georgiou. This ought to be a bit of fun. Group called in - Dawesy leads them in. He's on fire today! Making a mockery of this ugly weather. Group split into three - traditional forwards/mids/defenders in the same positions as the normally train. The forwards are doing some leading activities, mids doing some repetitive stoppage work, defenders doing some one on one work. Alright. Groups come in, and there's another drill with half wearing bibs. A few are sitting this out, including Strauss, McDonald, Kent, Bail, Tappy, Salem, Spencer, Barry and Dawes who's gone back into rehab. Was great to see Dawes in the main group for a while. I'm liking N Jones' form in the stoppage drills. Another big, productive year ahead I hope. Georgiou showing his defensive capabilities, laying a good tackle on Tyson. Group called in again. Apologies for lack of updates, its raining on my iPad and I don't want it to get TOO wet. Familiar switch drills. Skill level looking great in the conditions! Jack Grimes looking very solid. Jonesy going the slip n slide method to clunk one. He is committed as always. Howe picks up from a half volley and keeps the ball moving. Ground skills outstanding. Dom Tyson also looking very clean with the footy. Tell you another bloke who's looking solid? James Strauss. Having a very good week and pre season. Jimmy Toumpas continues to build on his form, as has Jack Trengove who's using it beautifully. Bernie Vince is as methodical and efficient with the footy as usual. Changing it up again, some ground skills/bump/handball drills, and then a 10m kick. Alright, another drill, half the list wearing a bib, half not, and both expected to do a kind of slingshot as well as defend. JKH and Dom Barry breaking lines! So exciting! Jack Watts is once again running on the burst. This is extremely exciting given I've seen it a few times now. Some pushups? Did my old club captain take over training? Full grounder now. Yes! Proper match simulation now. Dom Tyson stands out early grabbing three clearances in this drill under heavy traffic. Nathan Jones is another who stands out, using the ball very well and on the burst too. JKH makes time stand still when he has it, an excellent reader of the play. Training finished afterwards - not as many notes as usual due to the rain (apologies!) but a very exciting session nonetheless, probably because Chris Dawes lit it up very early on.

Friends? They're family! I'm particularly close to Biffa Bacon, Finbar Saunders, Sid (the Sexist) and Millie Tant (along with the above)

Good grief! (Charlie Brown!) Looks a good prospect to me although I haven't slotted him for a top 10 finish in the Brownlow Oh what's the point

Right oh sad sac

It's very hard not to get excited by this: http://www.sportsfan.com.au/afl-fantasy-builder-viv-michie/tabid/91/newsid/120883/default.aspx The most in depth look at him that I've seen so far Enjoy

Report from you know who from you know where: W elcome back to training at Gosch's yet again guys. Glad to have you back on board again for another training report. I'm still suffering from last night after watching that epic Djokovic/Wawrinka game. Go Stan! Probably my favourite top 10 male player BTW. Bit of stretching, running laps etc. when we got there. Mitch running laps. Better than nothing I guess. Clisby is on the sidelines too. Alrighty, this warmup scheme is different. Boys being taken to all parts of the ground. Rehab is basically the same as Monday. Hogan, Dawes, Kent, Riley, Fitz, Gawn, Jamar, Byrnes(?) by the looks of things. Clark is still running laps at Gosch's but eventually joins rehab. Notice a new scheme - players in rehab wear singlets, players training wear training jumper. Solid 25 minute stretch, as I said to all parts of the ground. Alrighty, to the short kicks now! Boys called in for the first time. Let's see what they do today. Alright. The boys are split into five groups. One in the goalsquare doing sidesteps and a short kick? ...interesting. There is one group on the wing with Watts, Evans, JKH and an assistant (Miller I think) doing some bumping drills. On the other wing there are some upper body strength drills. I'm not sure what the last group is doing... setshots? There's only two or three blokes in that group. I don't mind it though, Roosy mixing it up a bit. This group in front of us is doing some weird things. Handballing above their head (or to each other) then a kick on demand? Huh? Even I'm confused. I'm guessing it's testing their kicking skills under pressure. There's five footy's and five targets to kick to but yeah it's hard to explain this drill properly. Stretches again. Same pick ball up/ride bump/handball drill as generally seen throughout pre season. Nicho and Viv are heading off now. Spencer and Grimes too by the looks of it. Small group doing some simple handballs - Strauss, Watts, Bail, Blease, Barry and Toumpas in this group. Addition of a man to drill I mentioned above instead of tackle bag thingymajig. Group called in and then some short, quick handballs. The boys are up by the sounds of it. Drill is changed to include groundwork as well. There's a couple of errors but the boys look far more accomplished then they did when they started doing this drill some time back. Drill changed again, four groups handballing with a bit of movement included for the players too. A shepherd is then required as well. Players handball off then shepherd a player shadowing the receiver. I'm not brilliant at explaining things. Short kicks on the run now. Groups move back a bit. Kick, run hard, receive handball then give off to another player. FAST MOVEMENT. This is only a brief drill. Boys called in again. Now they are split into two different sized groups. Big group in the middle and a small group on the wing. Bit of a split now. The group on the opposite 50 to where we are doing a drill which is mostly handball at speed but with a few switch kicks here and there. Group nearest to use attempting to kick goals, including *shudders* James Frawley, who unsurprisingly shanks his set shot. Meanwhile Trenners, Toump, Salem, Tyson and Barry ran a lap of the oval by the looks of things. Dawes also practising his set shot. More promising signs in his recovery. Notable Monday absentee Matt Jones is here watching on. Dawesy looking solid with his set shots, mostly from 40-45m out. Tappy has come here too and runs a slow lap with Tyson. Seeing Dawes, Clark and Hogan watching on from the sidelines makes me sad. Main group is called in again. Half grounder with a drill similar to one that's been consistent with us this pre season, switch kick, handball, down the line kick, etc. Few too many players on the sidelines. A fair sized circle doing handball drills. Main drill becomes a full grounder. Pedo's working hard and running hard which is pleasant to see. Needs to to stop the derision that he's copped since getting THAT three year deal. Harmes uses the ball efficiently, it's something I've noticed since he's come in. Blease is looking better, no, not at the level we'd want him to be yet, but he's running hard which is a good sign. Boys called in yet again. Notice as they head out (and I'll capitalise this for emphasis) NATHAN JONES LEADING THE BOYS OUT. USING VOICE. His demeanour has changed in recent weeks. And that hints at something. Alright, few boys wearing bibs, looks like a delivery drill inside 50. More specifically they're hitting up shorter targets and are patient with their delivery looking for the right kick. 23 blokes sitting out this drill. That's way too much. Boys called in, I presume to explain to the crowd of players what it is they want to do when they actually do this drill at an undisclosed time in the near foreseeable future. Alrighty, boys called in again? Wattsy doing a bit of talking, I like that. Roosy with a very lengthy chat. Alrighty so this lengthy chat is done. Looks like they're finishing up. That was a weird training session. By Tasmanlvr from Bigfooty with thanks Edited for font size

He was there!

Happy to contribute to the debate: I reckon Jack Watts could surprise or disappoint.

Tasmanlvr from Bigfooty - with thanks: Great to be back after a week's hiatus. Melbourne training > tennis (for the time being, by the time you read this I'll be going to the Aussie Open) Walked past Jeremy Howe on the way, wisely gave way as he could have taken a specky over me had I not given way (and trust me he has done it over me before - at last year's B&F) These training jumpers are CLASS PERSONIFIED. Viv's hair is steadily growing to the point where he could have an afro come round one. Has Jack Viney dyed his hair blonde or is it just me? Kent, Gawn, Fitz, Dawes, Riley, Clark, Tappy in rehab by the looks of it. Miller with them. Forget Derrick Rose's return. Roosy is back. This is THE Return. Alrighty. Now we're underway with a lap of Gosch's + stretches. Jamar walking laps by the looks of it. Jesus Dawes looks incredibly motivated. You can see the motivation in his eyes so much I had to put on sunnies. Todd Viney is here with his OTHER son. YES. There is another one on the way in about seven years time. Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng. My questionable fashion sense is on show again - pink sunnies? Runthroughs now. Just some quick ones by the looks of it initially. More stretches? This is interested. I'm in good form, have not touched a footy and have most certainly not kicked it into a tree... yet. I'm slightly regretting not bringing a jumper for now but it'll get warmer... eventually. Alright it looks like they are doing handball/groundwork drills. The rehab group sounds as if they are drunk - random shouts of HEY! Short kicks now around the ground. Group comes in for a third time. Meanwhile at rehab Dawes continues to look incredibly motivated and is in effect, training the house down. Possibly the suburb. Looks to have gained a couple of yards of pace. He is building. Some upper body drills now. Bail, Grimes and Spencer not participating. New strength drill, basically it's a one-on-one and you have to almost take the tackle. This is very brief. Group splits into forwards, mids and defenders. The midfield are doing an extension of the drill I outlined briefly above but with an added teammate to shepherd. Forward line doing a lead + kick to target 15m out from goal. Defenders look like they are doing a stoppage drill where they are working the ball out under pressure. There are two groups - one defends and one tries to get the ball out. If we're as consistent as Melbourne's weather this season I'll be concerned. Midfield are doing a similar drill to the defenders. Salem looks at home in this drill but he's still a fair way off playing with his skinny frame. N Jones' pressure excellent in this drill - lays a tackle and then intercepts a handpass. Another drill - three handballs then a kick to leading forward. #1 forward Jake Spencer at one side. Kingy on the other side. Extension of same drill. Byrnes' pressure here is something we should have seen last year. JACK WATTS ON THE BURST. YES YES YES. WOW. Jack Viney on the sidelines along with Pickles. A few light jogs to say the least. Once again Dawes looking the best of the rehab group. I reckon he'll be back in full training before you know it. Looks good for round one at this rate. Pick up/ride bump/hands off drill again. Spencer clearly bumping the hardest which just doesn't surprise me whatsoever. Extension of drill which now involves a kick. Spencer kicks. *covers eyes* Jack Viney leaving the track early. All righty, what's... ah. It's switch/down the line/hands off/run/kick to forward/goal. In order I think, anyway. Trenners is in SUPERB form. Leading, talking, the lot. Words I'd never thought I'd utter. Howe drops a simple chest mark. Not wow. Bernie Vince is still tracking at around 70 odd %. Clearly not at full pace. Drilling passes though. SUNLIGHT!!! Just about time to whip the 30+ out. Good drill, skills looking alright. Few misses here and there but otherwise good. Two seperate groups doing stoppage work. JKH spinning, weaving, all very quick. So much so there's a cop standing around watching. Somehow I think this will end differently to the PSO ads if he keeps burning up the track and will lose demerit points. Clisby running laps. Group split in two again. One is doing similar to what was one before. The other... I'm not sure yet. Still not sure as it finishes. Okay I think they are doing stoppage work. I think. Maybe. Saw Spencer try to pick up a low ball. Had a LOL. Group comes back in again. Match simulation. OH MY LORD. N Jones and JKH dominating! Jones is getting the footy frequently, JKH getting into the right spots. Setting the example again - whistle stops play but he stretches to make a spoil. Terlich getting a lot of praise from Roosy for his pressure. Group comes in again. A looooooooooong chat (presumably Roosy talking about his holiday) and now some running. Tom McDonald typically dominating. Deadset Roosy offers a Chuck Norris-like aura around the club. Most players off now... except for the midfield group who have stayed on.

has been totally unable to train together over pre-season ever!

Kent - patella tendonitis (heard that bandied about but not 100%) Riley - On the Adelaide website in the week Riley was picked up, it stated that they expect him to join in bits and pieces of training after Christmas (broken leg). It appears to be playing out that way

Who does Barry train with (mids, forwards, backs)? Thanks IIRC, this is Jamar's third year in a row of zero preseason - still seems to bob up for the start of the season though.

I see (M Jones) as your classic role player. He'll do exactly what he's told in an unspectacular way, just as he did under Neeld. When all our mids are crashing into each other through lack of familiarity with each other and the game plan, Jones will be doing as asked effectively allowing the newbies to grow into their role.

According to the Age, the Tagging Best and Fairest: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/blues-ed-curnow-emerges-as-afls-no-2-tagger-20140111-30nri.html 4 teams don't use taggers enough to qualify and Carlton have 3 of them.

Dislike!

tasmanlvr from Bigfooty had this to say: Noticed that I made a factual error on Monday arvo re: training report, Roos isn't there and is still in Africa on his family holiday. There's a bloke at training that looks too familiar to Roosy. Anyway, to my update then... Arriving at training, and first on the agenda is the padding on the goalposts. They've been changed to recognise AHG's sponsorship. Tappy walks past us - claims 'I'll kick this with my eyes shut' on the boundary line and proceeds to nail it with a drop punt. Doubt he shut them, do it in a game ay, Tappy. Short kicks the order of the day so far but they've been called in, then proceed to begin by running a lap. Rehab: Kent, Riley, Fitzy, Viney, Dawes, Jamar, Clisby, Gawn. Hogan and Clark not running by the looks of things. Stretches followed. Had a bit of everything - two groups split to run half the ground. Agility tested as well as the basic muscle stretches. Interesting. Also has body work. Dave Misson very vocal. Runthroughs follow. Rehab boys headed off early to the other grass area. There's a fair crowd building up for this one. Would say 100+ people watching on. You know when warm up goes for half an hour (almost) that it's going to be very much fitness based. Time to get the footy out! Short kicks across the ground for starters. Boys come in and split into three. One group on (our) near side wing is playing keepings off with defenders wearing a vest. George Stone taking that drill. The group in the near side forward line working on delivery inside 50 with Miller and McPherson by the looks of things. On our far side, it looks like there's a focus on clearance work from defense? Hard to tell from the opposite side. Miller's drill is altered to allow delivering mids to handball until a whistle where they then kick on demand to a given target. Decision making in the middle looks far less rash than it used to. Easier to deliver when you're up against teammates but if this carries through to gameday I'll be rapt. Goalkicking work in the forward line. Clearance work now in the middle. It's a very tight drill with very little space. Two blokes run to different sides - one collects a handball while the other shadows him and tries to tackle/apply pressure. Group comes in for a chat. Two groups doing ball control. Alternate drills on both sides - one picking up from the ground, one handballs normally. This continues on for a solid five minutes. The boys move on and do the same drill as they did on Monday. The centre square drill with the kick, mark + receive. Howe picks up a somewhat errant kick from Vince on the half volley and without breaking stride hands off to JKH. IM. PRESS. IVE. Max King shanks one. Horrifically. Jack Watts is just carressing the ball through to teammates beautifully. Using the ball very well. Dom Tyson looking good with ball in hand as well. Boys head off again for a break/stretch. Another drill done similar to Monday, pick up/ride bump/handball. Bump is then removed. Miller stops the group beforehand, it's good to know Roosy's methods have passed on to the rest of the group. Dawesy running laps. He is absolutely ripped. New drill that I haven't seen. Four players handball to each other then kick to a main target. Howe and Bail are the main targets nearest to us, Hogan and Tappy on the other side. Now Pedo is on our side. Max King on the other side. Ball skills have dropped a little bit. Few kicks scratchy for forwards, Watts fumbles a handball and drops it. Handball to running player utilised - e.g Hogan takes mark then handballs to running N.Jones. Drill finishes. Started well but skills dropped off afterwards. Full grounder by the looks of things. Ball skills have dropped off. A fair few shanks now. Salem running laps now. Group comes in. Looks like they've shifted to running. Few weird looking runs, don't know what to make of it. Been told Matty Lloyd was here too early on, wearing AIS gear. Hmm. Few left the track early, noticed JKH + Terlich heading off. One thing I like - Jesse Hogan consistently practising his goalkicking. It's one area that looking at juniors/VFL form can be worked on and it's great to see him striving to improve there. I left having very little idea exactly what running drill the Dees were doing (I bet they end up going for another 45 minutes as I write this). Most satisfying thing was that we absolutely SCHOOLED the Victory's training numbers nearby, not sure about other clubs. We have some brilliant supporters.

And once again Tasmanlvr has come through with the goods from Bigfooty: Training Update: Welcome back to Melbourne training in 2014! It's great to be back. We may have lost 20 games last season but that doesn't stop me from having the excitement level of a pre-pubescent One Direction fan at their concerts. So I get there and there's some stretching going on. Good to see pretty much the whole group out here. Kent, Clisby, Riley, Jamar, Clark, Dawes, Fitzy and Gawn make up 2014's first rehab group. Great to see Dawesy running. Simple lap to start off for the main group. Does it surprise me that Nicho is up the front? No it doesn't. Looking for tennis players but I don't see any. They're mostly in Brisbane/Sydney. Do know Novak is around in Melbourne. NOVAK!!! NOVAK!!! WHERE ART THOU??? Come do an impression of Mark Neeld... or something... and give us a ping for publicity... Meantime at training, some runthroughs were followed by short kicking. Handball drills follow. Runthroughs going on at rehab. Dawesy running through too. Solid crowd building up. Ground drills, pick ball up, ride a bump, hands off. Ground skills have picked up straight off the bat and they're looking really solid at the moment. Tackling drill. YES. It's similar to the last drill but it's pick the ball up then brace for a tackle. Only brief but the boys are hitting hard. Noice. NEW DRILL, but it's similar to one I went through at Mernda (my local footy club). It's a kick around the centre square, with one group marking at each point followed by a hands off to a teammate nearby followed by a short kick. Trenners looks good. Jack Viney wearing boots CLEARLY inspired by Victoria Azarenka's wheels at Brisbane. COME ONNNNNNNNN JACK. SRSLY. Swapped direction afterwards. Salem oozes class. It's a tad cold... The Toump wearing new wheels too. Fluoro orange + what appears to be matte black. What's getting into these young blokes? They've now split. One group has Daniel McPherson watching over and has JKH, Howe, Spencer, Dunn, Terlich, Bail and Westrupp (that's in front of us). On the other side it looks like Roos and Stone working together. Miller working in nearby 50 on other side. Looks like they are working on delivery... I think. Ed Lower at the rugby part at Gosch's? WTF? An AFL comeback? Wut. Boys have gone off for a moment. Running drills? Again more ridiculous choices of wheels. Cross has fluoro pink laces. Vince with fluoro orange wheels. To be fair I bought a new pair of black shoes yesterday lel. Many criticise. Boys are running 300s by the sounds of it. Davey Misson imploring a 'hard effort' straight back from pre season. More runthroughs. First year players + few others on the sidelines. Viney + Byrnes jogging laps. Midfield group comes in + a few ringins who'd play in the midfield from time to time. Dave Misson urging the boys to keep going hard, with no drop in performance. Tom McDonald schooling everyone again. Even Jonesy. Toumpas (with McDonald and Jones) showing a bit of fatigue compared to these two which is kinda expected. Garland gapping Blease big time! Blease is still recovering a tad. Shows the difference between full training and not training. Taking an understanding that Nicho was throwing up a fair bit too. Boys look finished now.

At MFC we have Barry and Bail to name two (but Bail falls down on the footy side of the equation)

It was booked well before he became coach and the MFC honoured it FFS. Enough of the speculation

OK then - you sling me $1000 and I'll watch Dunstall and Spud piff things at each other Deal!

Yep that's what I did - swapped to Movies and will swap back when the season starts again. You couldn't pay me to watch After the Game

The Freo one is worth a read. Col Sylvia is on an individual program to get him up to the required fitness levels - the bum!