Earl Hood

DC no he wasn't there. Not that I saw anyway. He would have had to keep a low profile, he does stand out a bit from the norm.

Forget Lucas. I am making inquiries as to if James Cook is still playing! He did his ankle the game after kicking 6 goals for us, he may have recovered and be ready for another shot at glory. I will keep you in the loop.

I think it was 2007 when we last played the Saints first round? I went with two saints supporters and I remember the game for two reasons, 20 minutes in to the season, Del Santo has picked the ball up on the southern wing just where we were sitting and turned inboard and Matty Whelan has hit him with the best shirt front I have ever witnessed. The sound of the hit just stunned all of us. It was perfectly executed except the Matty had whiplash and missed a number of games as well as Del Santo who had to be stretchered off. My Saints mates just said, Shyte 20 minutes into the season and its fooked! The other event was Brock doing his ankle early in the game and he never got back to his best with us.

Interesting I noticed Frawley at yesterday's training having numerous shots at goal everytime the group came backin for a water stop. He was slotting a few too from well outside 50. He was then going one on one with MacDonald at the end with the coach kicking the ball up high to them. I wondered at the time whether MacDonald was an option to play forward. Has Frawley played forward in his pre AFL career?

Hardtrack isn't the GWS v MFC game at Skoda Stadium? I am trying to organise to get there for the game as I will be in Sydney on other matters around that time. If I can sneak off unnoticed I dont want to find myself in an empty statdium

The hyphen was running laps only today. He would be a long shot I think for this week. Byrnes was included in all the forward group work today. From today's hit out I would say it is Watts in the mid field, Howe playing forward plus Fitzy, Pedo with Bail and Blease and maybe big Max. Alexis G down back for Garland with Frawley, Mac, Dunn, Gimes, M Jones and Terlich. Thursday's training may through others into the mix perhaps.

I wonder if Clarko would be worried if he was facing a decent team round 1 without Roughy, Hale and Gunston and Gibson down back? It is a similar situation. I think he would reckon he could compensate for a few weeks given their other talent but it would take a toll over 5 or 6 weeks surely.

I am a fellow CBC old boy (St Leo's Box Hill) I can empathise although we didn't have local high school kids stalking us with bricks, thankfully. We just had to deal with the likes of Brother Robert Best and a few other similar predators. I never saw what they were up to thankfully, others in my class weren't so lucky.

How old is David Cordner these days? He may be still playing minor leagues.

Gee you would be pushing it to get into a fight in Clifton Hill these days, at least over footy. Too many hipsters around. You might get some angry looking stares in The Royal bar if you mentioned how you are looking forward to the new tunnel! Elementary my dear BBO really.

Viney did very little at training today. A few laps and some run throughs with Hogan. Left early. He is a long shot and he hasn't got much practice game time under his belt.

Well I thought he trained well. He is moving freely, showed that he is quite agile below his knees, handled the ball well and looked like he would be a handful playing deep forward if we kept pumping it in. Spencer is the main man at the moment, he was involved in all the midfield work. Whether Max plays or not may depend on the Saints ruck division. I don't know how they are placed after they lost McEvoy. Spencer, Fitzy and Max together may be seen as a bit top heavy.

No I didn't sight him

Some more observations I didn't see Dawes or Mitch as we know. The hyphen, Kent and Strauss were running laps. So was Tapscotts early, gee he looks fit and powerful. He took part in most of the routines before jogging off a bit early, knee is still strapped up but he was moving well and was clean by hand and foot. But keep in mind today's routines were run under minimal pressure, it seemed to be about honing the skills of kicking on the run to a leading target, running into space, presenting, looking for the best option. Generally our kicking was good, fast and low to a lead. The was some sloppy stuff from the three B's, Byrne, Blease and Barry occasionally. Blease moves so well but struggles at times with his decision making and some poor disposal. He stuffed up one routine and copped a spray from N Jones but took it well and got it right the next time. When they broke up into their groups the forward group was Fitzy, Pedo, Howe, Toumpas, Bail, Blease and Byrne. Did some innocuous leading and kicking to each other, not sure what it was achieving really. I watched Howe closely for much of the session, never saw him fumble a ball on the ground or in the air, he is looking really sharp. By the way there was some new bloke leading out from the goal square, if I didn't know better I would swear it was Lucas Cook!!! Oh no come to think of it It was Max King doing lead ups with Fitzy. Watts trained with the midfield group everytime. In the last exercise the ball was rolled at a mid who then had to try and crash his way through 4 or 5 guys holding big pads, you get the feel of body contact without the bruising. Jack got through this pretty well I thought so did Bernie V who at one stage got completely bowled over. Jones, Evans, Tyson, Cross, Riley all got involved. N Jones seemed to in everything, much higher profile than Grimes on the field I thought. First time I have seen Mitchie he moved well and looks fit and a good size I think M Jones was working with the backline group. At the end Frawley and MacDonald were going one on one as a coach kicked the ball up high to them. They did a lot of body on body and spoiling work. Grimes, Terlich, Jetta, Frawley, MacDonald, Dunn, Alex G with a big smile all doing a lot of punching away to high balls and running onto the loose ball to set up a clearance. I get the impression that Riley is a bit of a joker, always seemed to be smiling and having some running gag with a couple of the assistant coaches. He seems un impeded to me, moved well in the routines, ran some serious laps at the end. Doesn't have the most athletic build on the field, he is pretty solid.

I managed to get down to training this morning, not many spectators there. The boys all came together in the middle about 15 minutes in. Roosey announced something and there was a big cheer. I am guessing he announced Alex G's elevation off the rookie list. There were many high fives and a few Mr Bean references. Hogan, Viney doing a few run throughs over to the side early, then disappeared. Jamar doing laps but did get involved in at least one routine where both he and big Max played as lead up forwards. Gee Max should be a handful playing deep forward if we had control of the midfield. He took a couple cleanly at full extension, what nine feet up and took one cleanly off his boot straps, swung round and put it through. Fitzy was doing the same up the other end, leading up well and taking clean marks. My only concern was that he often took the mark at full extension above his head on the run. He should be timing his run to take those out in front away from a backman's fists. I took a day off with a bad cold but work keeps calling. I will provide some more observations a little later.

Oh Lord let it be so!

Is there anything more we can give them in terms of draft concessions? Surely Andrew can give them more. I think GCS still had some first round concession picks banked for next year. This Shyte plus free agency is really,making it hard for the battler clubs like ourselves.

Gee I am happy for them both!

I am in therapy as we speak!

Of course you are right Nutbean but Honest John(who wasn't) always had a big advantage, it didn't matter how much Shyte he uttered he had the News Corp cheer squads to back him up and the Sydney brain dead shock jocks applauding his every action. That lot will nearly always get you 55% approval from the the voters.

Is there any club now or in the last twenty years that has/had 3 power forwards on its list and none of them can get on the field? The last time it happened is probably us again in the 90s when we struggled at times to get The Ox, Gary Lyon and maybe Neitz or Jacko on the park on a given day circa 94, 95? Gee it is not hard to get an MFC complex at times.

Hardtrack if it was a final in the 70's it must have been dark and at the South Melbourne Oval under lights. We didn't play any daytime VFL finals in the 70's that I remember.

Yes glad we are trying to keep a low profile with these young kids. Hogan and Salem haven't played a game yet. I would rather we kept them under wraps.

Anyone hear what he had to say? Great player, remember him holding Royce Hart to zip goals for 95% of a game in the 70's as usual we were run over and Royce kicked three late ones to get the 3 votes but yet Gary had given him a bath and football lesson for 90 odd minutes. Those were the days!

Just got back home from the city tonight. I am sure I saw Mitch run past me on the tan! Gee he was travelling though.