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They picked the right day to train at Casey. We had big storms yesterday in Melbourne but the squad was blessed with perfect conditions this morning - 20 degrees, blue skies and no breeze. The good news - all 8 of our new leadership team were in the main training group. Clark and Bartram were in the rehab group last week, but they stayed for the first half of today's session, together with Davey. This gang of 3 then finished early and walked a couple of precautionary laps. Once again the rehab group included Tapscott, Sylvia and McKenzie, plus Spencer Jurrah, Evans and Williams, with new boys Taggart and Tynan getting a break from the main group. The encouraging news is that the coaches who were overseeing the rehab session told Misson they were pleased with their progress, and that some of the rehab group are not far from getting back into the main group. My concern is that Jurrah, Tapscott, Sylvia and McKenzie should all be pushing for selection in the seniors, but they have all missed a lot of pre-season work. The earlier reports indicate they have spent very little time training with the main group. At least they have eight weeks till the first match. Green was absent, and Jetta trained with the main group but wore the green OH&S vest (do not tackle). The advantage of Casey is the main group can train on one oval while the rehab group can train on the oval next door. This allows the senior group use all of the main oval during the match practice. They started with the kicking drill where the ball is kicked to allow the target to run to space, then the target passes it to a direct lead from another target. At least I hope that was the plan - a few kicks went wide of the intended targets but i'll assume that was the aim of the session. . They then split into 2 groups of 2 teams and went through a handball drill for about 20 minutes. The team with the ball had to handball quickly under pressure and either kick a goal or hit one of the two portable targets. They could run and carry the ball, but they could also get tackled. No sign of tennis balls, unlike last year. Then we had at least three match practice sessions of about 10 minutes each, interrupted by a review of each session by the coaching staff. Clark was matched against Frawley in the first session and what a difference it makes to finally have a target on the forward line. In one play, Martin got the loose ball on the forward flank, then broke clear and passed to Clark who marked and goaled from the opposite pocket. They struggled to score goals in the final match practice sessions, and I didn't get a sense of a 'wow!' factor from the group. They definitely look fitter and will apply more contested pressure this year, but they still dropped marks and missed targets. To safeguard against these errors, the ball was moved around both flanks from defence, rather than up the corridor. If the contest started on the wing, the ball was passed to someone like Bate or Moloney who could kick it long to the forward line. They finished off the session with the players breaking into 5-6 smaller groups for specialised training such as goal shooting or kicking for goal. The highlight? - Jurrah. He walks back from rehab. He's still got the cast on his wrist. He picks up a ball on the boundary line of the main oval - 30 metres out from goal. He takes a couple of steps then bends the ball right-to-left and curls it through the goal. On his left foot!!! He's bent a reverse punt on his non-preferred foot. No wonder he was posing for photos and signing copies of his new book.