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Demonland Trackwatchers were out in force on a scorching morning out at Gosch's Paddock for the final session before the whole squad reunites for the Preseason Training Camp. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS It’s going to be a scorcher today but I’m in the shade at Gosch’s Paddock ready to bring you some observations from the final session before the Preseason Training Camp next week. Salem, Fritsch & Campbell are already on the track. Still no number on Campbell’s guernsey. The 2 new boys Harvey Langford and Xavier Lindsay are here. As is Harry Sharp. Trac is BACK!! TRAINING: PETRACCA, Harvey Langford, Xavier Lindsay, Clarry, Kolt, Brown, Jefferson, Sestan, Howes, Rivers, JVR, Turner, Kentfield, Hore, TMac, Laurie, Petty, Verral, Adams, Sharp, Fullarton, Windsor, AMW, Woey, Bowey, Chandler Spargo in rehab. Doing knee raisers on the spot. Viney was leaving the track as I arrived after running/sprinting on the boundary. REHAB: Spargo, Campbell, Howes, Sestan Fritsch and Salem were training separately but have now joined the main group. Langford is warming up with the main group. Lindsay is doing some drills/exercises with Spargo. Not sure if that is because he is in rehab or not. Clarry has come off the track and taken his boot off and is applying something to what appears to be a blister. Lindsay and Spargo jogging slowly around the boundary now. Their pace picks up a little as they do more repetitions. Clarry back out on the track. Windsor has a laser pass. * see updated comment a little later. New mature aged recruit Aidan Johnson is here too. Full length end to end drill with the outnumbered team defending in white bibs. Salem not participating in this drill and now doing sprints along the boundary. Trac is looking superb. Fit and strong. Just did a little shimmy and sold some candy and delivered a pinpoint pass. Petty and TMac are defenders in this drill. Disco and Fullarton also forwards Trac absolutely tearing it up on the track. Gave Windsor a big wrap the other day and earlier for his laser passing but he has missed a number of targets as the session wears on. Hopefully an aberration. Boys still running to the water station at the end of drills. Good to see Langford not gasping for air or on his haunches at the break. Split into two groups. And a third smaller group of Fritsch, Fullarton & Aidan Johnson. One group is one on one marking and if the ball drops another player mops up and dishes a handball off to a player running past to have a shot at goal on the run. If the ball is marked the player dishes off to player running past. The other drill is a one on one hand balling keeping’s off drill with tackling. Langford just laid a ferocious tackle on Kolt to the cheers of all the players. We’ve got another good one here. The group of 3 of Fritsch, Fullarton and Johnson are working with Choco Williams on a tackling technique drill. Kynan Brown now jogging laps. Might be as a precaution but does not look too hampered. Langford and Sharp now doing a one on one tackling drill with Choco. Salem, Sestan, Howes and Campbell are doing some ball drills on the adjacent soccer ground. Some observations on individual players. Trac - looks super fit and does not appear to be suffering any ill effects from his injury last season. Was in very good spirits and was an absolute beast on the field. Very bullish on him for the 2025 season. Langford - is a massive unit for an 18 year old kid. Has beautiful skills and is not afraid of contact. Will not be surprised if he debuts in Round 1. I think we have found a good one here. Lindsay - rehabbing from a PCL injury at the end of the season. Saw him doing some kick to kick and liked what I saw but there is not much to go on. Excited by his highlights. Didn't see enough of Sharp to make an assessment. Nor did I see enough of Aidan Johnson but he is a solid unit too. My first time this preseason seeing Salem and Fritsch. Both look in good nick. WAYNE WUSSELL'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Aidan Johnson is fitting in nicely. Plenty of pace, long arms, looks at home! Trac just nailed a 50 metre pass to Roo… wild cheers from the group! Choco chatting to Langford and Johnson on the boundary before unleashing them Trac to Clarrie for a goal… a sight to see! Campbell doing ruck exercises out in Victory’s turf 22 players on main oval, full-field transition Trac is in everything… often the last kick inside 50 to a lead, often Roo McDonald just out-marked Roo and is in peak pre-Christmas condition Langford is already asserting himself in the close-in handball/tackle group. Just got tackled by Trac, also showed a nice side-step. Then he and Tholstrup got hold of a rampaging Trac and refused to give an inch. AMW just ran through 3 tough tackles, rugby style, bounced off each and delivered the handpass Jefferson wrestles Johnson to the ground in a tackle, no mean feat. Sharp, Tholstrup and Fullerton just completed what looked like a 1500 or 2k run. Sharp lead but Tholstrup was with him all the way. Sharp by 5 mts in the end. Fullarton 30 Mtrs back. On that note, I’m off to parking meter… more when I get home! Everything Johnson did at his first hit-out read, "I'm not here to make up the numbers at Casey" I would have to say that this was the most exciting training session I have attended at Gosch’s. Following so soon after the 2024 Draft, with Clayton and Tracca joining the new boys. With Jonesy back out there where he belongs… Johnson, the new Dark Horse! Fritta and Salem joining in on many of the main activities, and a number of other blokes back from holiday. A hot day in Demon hell! BINMAN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I went. Some random thoughts: Is there a more beautiful sporting precinct in the world? Not sure why the players looked so hor and bothered, it wasn't that hot, in the shade. Tracc was doing fast laps, stopped right in front of me, on his haunches gasping. Looks in incredible shape. He's a beast. On Tracc, if I was goody I'd tell him not to EVER kick under 40 metres. He is so much better kicking long, weights the ball beautifully with his long kicks. Langford is bloody huge. As waynewussell noted he and kolt both tackled tracc at one point, was very willing. Clarry looks in much better shape than he was this time last, and even at season's end. But is still a ways off his very best condition - which is OK, preseason has just started. Clarry's effort was first class, pushed himself very hard right to the end. Clarry's class stands out like a flashing light. At one point he scooped the ball of the deck one handed and in the same motion hanballed into space so his targeted receiver did not have to break stride. Thing of beauty. TMac was in unbelievablely good shape. Best I've ever seen him. Trainer of the session IMHO. His effort and intensity was off the charts. In one drill he missed a target and screamed an obscenity in anger. Great to have chunk back at the club. Vocal. Encouraging. Good energy. And as an added bonus his tree trunk legs make clarry's look positively svelte. At the end group of about 12 players, almost all forwards, did a goal kicking drill. Four things worth noting. One, no petts. It would appear he us defence bound. Two, group included bowey. He came over near me to take somd snaps from the boundary and I asked him if we might seem him up forward. He said, no but we might see him on the wing and he hopes to snag some goals. Three, roo barely missed a goal. Beautiful, neat kicking action that looks exactly the same every time, from whatever distance. Four, Turner kicks the ball unbelievably hard. Also dead straight. He looks very focused and driven. I have a feeling he will really impose himself next season. DEESPENCER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Got there late at about 11 and could only handle the heat for about 40 minutes. Rehabbers have mostly been covered I think but XL (no strapping, walking fine) and Spargs were just chilling with Choco by the time I was there. Salem looking more comfortable than last year to my eye. Sestan and Howes ran together and there body shapes are coming together too! Not seen: Gawn, May, Viney (by me), Lever, McAdam, Billings, Langdon, Chandler, Sparrow, Pickett, McVee Langford is a big boy, but no extra weight on him, he has huge feet (not sure what that means - big shoes!). Johnson clearly isn’t built like a full time pro just yet but he seems to have fit legs and athletic look to him, I reckon a good preseason and he’ll look the part. No strapping on the knee and completing gentle run throughs with Harvey with ease. Probably only about 16 in full training so doubt drills were all that insightful but first one I saw was the mids simulating a contest on the half forward flank then going inside 50 to a 3 on 3. Initially with a spare defender then without. Focus on getting to the corridor and kicking out to the fat side. Mids: Verrall, Tracc, Oliver, Rivers, Laurie, Bowie, Woey, Windsor. 5 on 3 so not a lot of pressure Tracc bursting from congestion. Clarry had a couple of trademark zips through. Windsor getting handballs inside 60 = a shot inside 40 in no time. Forwards: JVR, Disco, Jeffo, Kentfield A big focus on spade and separation. Kentfield took a nice mark on the lead and hit up Jeffo. He’s a large unit. Jeffo’s stronger, still need to iron out that spine. He came up on leads and forced contests a couple of times, he has a closing speed on leads and swooped on a crumb and dished handballs in a flash of an eye. Not fully willing to say it’s magician time just yet but it could be close. Backs: Petty, T Mc, fake Petty, Hore, AMW as the key backs out there Tommy had a good spoil and forced the ball over the line and was met with Clarry saying ‘gets better every year’ Next drill was 8 on 8 condensed in to a 60 x 30 rectangle on the wing just trying to get short kicks through the zone. If this is our game plan with these current players we might be in trouble! Turnover central! But it was 30+ degrees and over 90 minutes in. Bassett preaching the need to be up on opponents, clear with handovers and to take away the 45 on the mark. Not sure he knows about the stand rule tho so that will be interesting. Windsor about the only one to find space but a couple of sneaky Jeffo leads. Overall takeaway was I hope the rehab group trims down before Christmas but seemingly a good core out there. Interested to see what Chappy can do with these young key forwards. SCOOP JUNIOR'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Went down a bit later and most of it has been covered. -Two main drills that I saw were 1) stoppage at various parts of the ground where someone would collect the ground ball and then the focus seemed to be on spreading and moving the ball out of the area and eventually to the forwards. 2) kick from half back on the Punt Rd side of the ground where the kicker would try find a teammate to hit up. It was very difficult as the defensive side was playing a hard one-on-one style meaning it was difficult to find a free player. Also, the play seemed confined to the Punt Rd side, so the option of switching the play to the fat side was not there. It was essentially trying to pick a way through on the skinny side of the ground. Lots of turnovers but I don't think any team finds this an easy thing to do. -Rivers was with the mids in the stoppage drills, as was Bowey. While Bowey does tend to go to the back of stoppages as a half back maybe this was an indication of spending some time further up the ground? -Great to see Trac and Clarry in the stoppage drills. Trac just looks in sensational physical condition and his burst and lateral movement looked like it hadn't missed a beat. Clarry to me seems in better shape than last year but he does look a bit thicker through the upper legs than the others. Not sure if that's just his shape but he does look bigger through there than what he did 3-4 seasons ago. The key for him is whether he can get that burst out of congestion back that he was missing this year. That's what elevates his game to the next level. -Lindsay is not built like Langford but he is definitely not a bag of bones as some draftees are. He has some upper body size and at about 6"0 has decent height for a mid. Certainly a stronger build than say Windsor had at the start of his first pre-season last year. As for Windsor, he is such a beautiful mover. In the stoppage drill, when he got the ball he just burst away and they struggled to keep up with him. -Langford has that prototype big-body midfielder frame. He still has some filling out to do but the frame is there to really develop into a powerful unit. -The amount of running they do under the sun in 30 degrees is really quite incredible. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS The heat is on and the players didn't take a back step. Goody ran them hard, especially after a sim completion from the back to forward area. They had to sprint back up the field. Tholstrup felt it. JVR was pushing high, though became the last man forward in the non action area. Looked a bit bored, am worried about his training and application. Previous preseasons, he was the aggressive one, only seen him attack it once. Hope it just a bit of being lackadaisical during the early parts of preseason, and he starts getting into it. Some ball movements during the sims were very quick. There was room for a few of them to have multiple bounces down the wing, Windsor and Rivers took my attention. A couple of pressure moments caused them to rush and miss the target. Forgot who the defenders were. Chaplin continues to make his mark on the forwards. We definitely have a “front and centre” more prominent. They are also doing more short passes within the 50 to a dynamic group of leads. Harry Sharp looks a player to me. Well-rounded in his skills. Finding separation and has confidence in his disposals, he was linking out of the halfback area. Johnson looks and moves like Petty. Unsure how Jed Adams is going. Trying to keep it simple, but just not executing well at times? Clarry was being extremely playful out there. Last year he kept his head down, low profile. Now he is back to being stress-free and engaged. Tracc was nervous as he entered the field. Had a longish chat to Goody, then got down to work. Disposals have improved. Fritsch was in boots for the first time. Joined in a couple of sims, outpointed a tall defender with ease and skill. I reckon he is building for a big year. Salem also in boots and in a few sims. He has trimmed down since his first pre-run, and is pushing himself hard in the boundary runs. Lindsay has a mentor in Spargo. Appears to know the routines, and appears well coached through his developing years. Langford, first impression is that of an enforcer. N.Jones had a bib on in the sims. Hasn't lost much, closing speed and surprised a couple of them, then doing beautiful clearing kicks to hit the mark. Leading by example and being humble about it. Put him on the rookie list. WHISPERING JACK'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS A few bonuses from attending my first Melbourne training session of the preseason:- • I had heard in the media that most of the players drafted over the previous two nights would not be attending their club training sessions this week but would be joining in next week to give them a break before the start of the hard work of the preseason but it was gratifying to see all three MFC draftees in attendance. We’re not pussies! The two young guns look impressive. Harvey Langford looks a big unit, strong and very much at home with the group having worked with them a year ago as an Academy train on player. I sense that like Clarrie back when he started, Langford is a chance to make his debut in Round 1. Xavier Lindsay is closing in on his recovery from a PCL incurred on the eve of the Coates Talent League finals and ran sprints on the boundary with Charlie Spargo - both ran well and look to be well advanced in their respective recoveries. Aidan Johnson was a surprise attendee given that he was only drafted 12 hours earlier. It seems that not long ago, he was your typical country big man, carrying a bit of weight (and throwing it around) who trimmed down a bit at Werribee on the way to a VFL flag. He wasn’t drafted to continue the journey at Casey but is seriously on a trajectory to continue his physical build up to do what the two young draftees are planning - to be playing AFL football regularly at the elite level. • Christian Petracca was present on the training track with his club for the first time since the Kings Birthday debacle. It took no time at all to show the small group of Demon faithful and his teammates that he has lost none of his class and ability. He’s almost back in town. • And if he’s closing in on town, then Clarry’s in the CBD for the first time in almost two years, give or take a bit of work needed on his blisters. He’s certainly looking determined to make up for lost time and backing that up with a fitter and trimmer body shape than he had at this time 12 months ago • The first weeks of preseason are reserved for the players in years 1 to 4 with Caleb Windsor, Jacob van Rooyen, Daniel Turner and Tracc’s understudy Koltyn Tholstrup with the rockstar looks, standing out. • Despite all the bonuses of the day, I made the big mistake of forgetting the Aerogard and the combination of flies and heat made it difficult to concentrate on each individual training drill. I therefore defer to our regular track watchers who are more onto the ins and outs of today’s preseason training session than I. However, what I can say is that after a tough twelve months for the Demons, I can see plenty of blue sky coming up in the season ahead. DITCHA'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I attended some of the training. I spoke to the Ghost Writer who was in fine form. It was good to see Trac training, and looked in good spirits. Aiden Johnson is a big solid unit. Langford will be big in a few years. I was pleased to see the forwards coach giving instructions during drills. It was good to see Brad Green at training.

It’s a beautiful cool morning down at Gosch’s Paddock and I’ve arrived early to bring you my observations from today’s session. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Reigning Keith Bluey Truscott champion Jack Viney is the first one out on the track. Jack’s wearing the red version of the new training guernsey which is the only version available for sale at the Demon Shop. TRAINING: Viney, Clarry, Lever, TMac, Rivers, Petty, McVee, Bowey, JVR, Hore, Tom Campbell (in training guernsey with no number), Woey, Tholstrup (wearing #12), Windsor, Jefferson, Laurie, Turner, Verral, Howes, Sestan, AMW (wearing #45), Adams, Brown, Kentfield Since these are new guernseys I would say it’s pretty much confirmed that Kolt will wear #12 this year. Tom Campbell is a massive unit. Will keep an eye on how he moves. Spargo is present but is just in regular training gear and not the red training guernsey. Doing some stationary handball drills with the guys but doubt he will join in on the main session. The main group are being taken through some agility annd stretching exercises by one of the trainers. Sestan, Howes and Campbell in the rehab group working with a trainer separately from the main group. Walking through high knee lifts and then turning around and bending down simulating picking up the footy. Someone previously mentioned Sestan and Howes having some hamstring awareness. Campbell might be in the same boat. So far not much footy besides the warmup handball and kicking drills. Boys now doing sprints from one end of the centre square to the other. Now the footys are out. Players running in 3s the length of the square. One with the footy sprinting down the square before kicking whilst the other two sprint beside him. Lever, Howes & Sestan doing sprints. They are listed in the order of how fast each can run given whatever ailments they have. Sounds like Lever isn’t far off from returning to full training. Tom Campbell jogging around the boundary. Obviously not progressed to a sprint. Split into two groups. One is doing the keeping’s off handball drill in a small circle with the goal of getting a goal. It is fast paced and players have to handball off quickly and as soon as a goal is scored the ball comes immediately back into play and they go again. The other is a handball drill with an uneven number and the uneven number is under fierce tackling pressure. Lever, Sestan & Howes doing fast quarter laps Campbell is doing grappling with a trainer. Windsor is back this session fully participating in all the drills so far. They’ve split into 3 groups 1. One on one marking drill 2. two on two ground ball drill 3. ground ball drill with two players. One gets the ball and is immediately hit by a trainer with a bag and so is his buddy who then receives the handball from the first player. Back to the keeping’s off handball drill with a different set of players. No one can catch Windsor. Verrall tackling ferociously. AMW just crunch Viney in a tackle. Almost took him down. They just stopped the drill and players were gassed and bending over. Chaplin calls out for them to get up and then says “What do you thinks happening now that fatigue has set in?” “NO TALK”. “You need to communicate”. “Let’s Go Again” A lot of this session is fast running incorporating sprints or short bursts into the drills. Less focus on skills. All about running and still doing the one percenters even when fatigued. TMac running laps at a quick clip now. Sestan, despite being in rehab, looks super fit and trimmed down and toned up. Looks like the boots are off and the runners are on. Sprinting/run throughs time. Petty, Rivers & Tholstrup heading back to AAMI. Rest of the Squad besides rehabbers are doing sprints through the Centre square. Goal kicking practice looks like it is being setup but I need to leave. Demonland out. Some individual observations. Due to some of the drills being on the other side of the ground I didn't get to eyeball everyone for the whole session. JVR - Great set of hands. Gets into good position for one on one marking drills and uses his body well. Uses the ball well in general play. A bit more vocal every preseason. Judd McVee - just oozes class with ball in hand. Trains like he plays. Very professional. Kid is a gem. Windsor - Classy, evasive, fast Viney - First one on the track, last one to leave. Hard nut. Tackles hard. Hard to tackle. Leads by example. Doesn't need to be there yet. Wouldn't be anywhere else. Lever - obviously getting over a niggle. Not far off returning to full training once the full squad is back. Otherwise looks in good nick. Spargo - heard that they are being cautious with his return but doesn't look like it will be before Christmas but that is just a guess. Didn't do anything other than stationary warmup stuff with the footy. Not running at the moment. Oliver - Physically in much better condition than in the preseason last season. Has trimmed down. Looks to be in good spirits and doesn't appear to be in discomfort with ball in hand or with tackling which seemed to be a problem during the season this year. Looks to be back to some of his best work in gathering and dishing off the footy. Good signs. Laurie - like every preseason I barely notice him so there is nothing much I can report on at this stage. Bowey - the best user of the ball in the team at the moment. After a disappoint season with injury and form I am very bullish about Jake for season 2025. Jefferson - does appear to have filled out a little bit. Has a good pair of hands and uses the ball well. Can find the big sticks. Will be interesting to see what he can do this year. Could be anything. Howes - also seems to have filled out a little bit. Is currently in the rehab group with a little niggle but doesn't seem far off from returning to the main group. In previous sessions this preseason before rehab he was one of the standouts. Should return to the seniors this year. Rivers - Great to see him out on the track from day one with the 1st to 4th years. Future leader of the club. TMac - Also good to see TMac out with the rookies. First preseason I can remember that he is out on the park in boots. Still has more to give the club in what could be his last season. Looks fit and is moving well. Adams - Like others I often confuse him with Petty. The resemblance is uncanny. Not sure how close he is to a debut but spots in a defence are scarce but he is good depth to have. Hore - will not die wondering whether he gave it his all. Looks in good nick. Petty - has been training with the defenders but as I mused the other day I am not sure whether it is due to lack of senior defenders at this early stage of the preseason. We will get a better picture in the new year. Looks in good nick and is not rehabing. Was in a moon boot at this stage last season I think so it will be great for him to get a full preseason under his belt. Tholstrup - Very vocal, hard as nails. Looks like he is loving being out there. Good user of the footy. Looks like he will be wearing #12 this season. Woey & Brown - Like Laurie I didn't really notice either of them. Like what I see from both of them but I'm not overly bullish on either of them as more than depth. Happy to be very wrong. Turner - one of the standouts of this preseason for mine. Excellent pair of hands. Has definitely filled out. Attacks the ball with ferocity and uses it well. Looking forward to him taking his game to the next level. Kentfield - A big unit. Needs to work on his fitness but this is his first full preseason at the level. Will be a fixture at Casey so hopefully he hones his craft there. Is a long way off at the moment. AMW - Another stand out. Attacks the ball and the man fiercely. Tackles hand and rarely looses a one on one when the ball hits the deck. Should be a more permanent fixture in the ones this season. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Great day for it. The drills were done at a high skill level. The boisterous vocals continued, as was the running to the sheds side when the drills/sims finished. The drills seemed to emphasise handball, tackling and fighting through the tackle, working in crowded areas, and releasing the receiver into space. The sims had a very compressed field, forcing them into short kicking and defending those short kicks. Looks like we are going to use a high press at times. Goody was giving regular instructions about how he wants them to defend those short hit ups. A bit of zoning the centre and quick close down, if the ball is delivered to the boundary side. AMW is training well ground balls tackling positioning. Bowey is starring. Rivers is building. Verrall is making a few mistakes when rushed, though never two in a row as he continues to learn. Hore must be a chance for the big dance. Chaplin, was instructing JVR with his leading patterns and body work to create separation. Troy was happy with what he was creating. Jefferson was getting some explosive leads happening. McVee is hitting his straps, lovely mover and delivery. Turner is impressive, he has a bit of X-factor happening. Laurie is having a mass of involvement. Getting to many contests. Windsor was a touch low key. Kentfield has the occasional fumble, though showing some agility at the ground ball. Woey is a bit inconsistent with the disposals, he is looking strong and big. Tholstrup working on getting separation and moving off the defenders blind side. Brown looking a bit bigger, moving well and getting plenty of involvement. Oliver is going about second gear, having to work with plenty of pressure and minimal space, that what Viney puts onto him when they match up (got away from him a few times). Had a chat to Richardson about tonight's draft. He reckons they usually know what the other clubs are probably going do. Tonight they are relying on hope, as they are unsure who will go where, but are very happy to be getting the two high picks. WAYNE WUSSELL'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Jack Viney first out. Ollie is here. Tom McD ready. Tom Campbell has a club strip! 22 players out warming up at the moment Spargo ready to resume rehab running Rehab group Sestan, Spargs, Campbell, Lever, Howes involved in handball keeping’s off Interesting that Windsor is with the backs in the current exercise, along with 4, 25, 35, 45, 27, 26 & 17 Kolt is flying, with the occasional ball handling fumble. His running and link work at top speed is terrific. I don’t see him as a nibbler clone. Nibs could wear an opponent like a glove, and run each way all day. Kolt is a more penetrating kick, a regular goal scorer, better contested mark, and probably a touch quicker. Which makes it all the more impressive that ANB reached such a highly respected level across the competition. Just watched the handball, burst through tackle group. It was full on, very physical. Several excellent, tough tackles. Jonesy was in control with Choco looking on. Riv, Marty, Ollie, Roo & Jud were in this group. Riv applied several crunching tackles. Ollie was right into it as one who broke through the tackle. He ribbed Roo a few times and I don’t think Roo enjoyed it. Marty was another who stepped out of tackles to move the ball on. Clarry is miles ahead of post-Christmas, opening of 2024 season. Fitter, Lighter looking (more muscle) and happier by comparison. He has the opportunity to reach his own peak fitness (2021) before round 1. Is on track! I didn't notice Kynan as much today, mainly because I seemed to be on the opposite side of the ground on most occasions. He is certainly putting in full effort in every session. I place him in the group of young improvers... Brown, Verrall, Kentfield, Jefferson, Adams & Sestan. We will learn more about this group when the full list returns and they are doing full match sim. Who has not appeared at training yet? Gawn, May, Petracca, Billings, Langdon, Melksham, McAdam, Fullarton, Kossie FRITTA AND TURNER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS A pleasant day at training, for me that is, not the players who were working hard and with some aggro i might add. Some of the tackles lasted somewhat long. Viney first out having shots on goal. I reckon heaven for Viney would be footy all year round. Campbell has his team strip and was running the boundary. Also did that strengthening exercise where the trainers lies on top of you and you have to get up. Then they swap over. Looks happy to be here and has the look of someone who wouldnt be out of place in Game of Thrones wielding an axe. Lever doing that weird stretching exercise again. The last time I tried anything like that I was actually tripping over. Spent most of his time running. Howes and Sestan, who both had niggles last time, moved freely running the boundary. TMc was in the drills and running very well for November, with some pace. Turner looking really strong in the contest. Spargo still doing rehab. Loved AMW in the contest. Petty and Hore very good at reading the flight of the ball. Marty always looks taller than I expect. Clarrie moving very well and no sign of a sore hand. Breaks the tackles with those magnicient hips. Roo doesn't like to get beaten.

Demonland Trackwatchers ventured down to Gosch's Paddock for the final week of training for the 1st to 4th Years until they are joined by the rest of the senior squad for Preseason Training Camp in Mansfield next week. WAYNE RUSSELL'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS No Ollie, Chin, Riv today, but Rick & Spargs turned up and McDonald was there in casual attire. Seston, and Howes did a lot of boundary running, and Tom Campbell continued his work with individual trainer in non-MFC attire! No, just mild jogging and stretching I arrived early enough to witness Fritta and Salem competing in a spirited goal-kicking competition. There was much bragging and rule modification going on. At one stage a trainer was called on to adjudicate if the kicker wasn't overstepping the boundary line. It was a close thing, but Fritta claimed to be ahead before I moved on. Tom McDonald turned up in his casual gear and chatted to Tom Campbell on the boundary. Raised a question mark for me over a possible injury. No evidence to confirm this though. The main activity, when I was there, was the competitive, 9 v 8 ball-movement from goal to goal. I concentrated on the younger brigade. Speaking about goals, the set shot routines were a big improvement on previous sessions, with Roo, Kentfield, Disco and Jefferson all slotting goals. The 9 v 8 exercise lacks the pressure of a full team scenario, but ball movement is rapid. Today, Kynan B got his hands on it a lot and was more successful hitting targets. Windsor, Tholstrup, Bowey and AMW all provided excellent link up during transition. Jed Addams was good today, looking more confident and reading the ball well to out-position his forward opponent. He also took a couple of strong grabs. Petty also keeps the young forwards under pressure with his size and speed. WINTER DAN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Multiple successive ball movement sessions. Half ground, full, then super small dense. Bowser the standout with some piercing kicks. Turner making things happen up fwd too. Think it was him with a great double spin out of two tackles. Howes (on laps) not the skinny stick anymore. Pup has filled out too. Liked his evasiveness, playmaking, good low kicks ( bit of Jagga about him). No he wasn't unfortunately. DITCHA'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I attended some of the training. I was made to feel old seeing Viney, Brown, and Woey standing next to each other because I can remember their father's playing in the same team. It was good to see Lever at training doing some kicking on the side. Jefferson looks very good. FRITTA AND TURNER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Last time I sought the shade but this time the sun, and now a fickle wind. It is fly season in melboure but luckily one of the other track watchers shared the repellent. Thankyou. Only about 20 or so players running around. Windsor did most of the drills but pulled out to do some work on the boundary a couple of times, then back into it. Howes and Sestan had some hamstring? awareness so did some stretching and running on the boundary. Lever was there doing some weirdo stretching exercises then running the boundary to build up fitness. Spargo was also doing similar, but still running in straight lines. Told to concentrate on rhythm and mechanics rather than speed. Hopes to be back in full training after Xmas. Tom Campbell running laps to build fitness. Still hasnt got his proper kit yet, and when you look at the size of him I dont think there will be any spares lying around. Viney leading from the front and addressed the players at one of the breaks. Sparrow and the Roo look like they enjoy training. There was much run and carry through the center and Boweys delivery stood out. TMac in civvies watching on. ROOST IT FAR'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Dropped past today and on my observation Adam’s looks the real deal and Jake Lever looks to be in great nick. Good to see Charlie Spargo up and running and Tholstrup looks fitter and was in plenty. The highlight was Bowey’s kicking. He could be a weapon off half back with his precise, low and hard passes. As usual Jack Viney looks magnificent. WHERE DEMONS DARE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I made my way down from Wodonga to watch training for the first time since 21' and brought my wife along with me which she enjoyed. Fritta and Salo were there well before the rest of the boys had turned up and had worked up a real sweat. They finished their training with some goal kicking games trying to out do one another. The boys were aiming to hit each of the 4 posts and whoever hit it, won the game. They followed that with some drop punt kicks from the boundary where Chocco came over and offered some guidance he said "kick the ball high up in the air" which they both did and totally shanked the kick. They were quite animated about and I could hear them laughing away at each other so it was good to see them in high spirits. The rest of the boys started making their way to the track around 10am about 25 all up in attendance and I saw Tom Campbell doing his rehab in front of me. He didn't look to be in any discomfort, I think he just has some catching up to do. Tom is waiting to get a new training kit, which won't come out for a while yet so that's why he's unfortunately stuck in his casual gym clothes. Sestan, Spargo, Howes, Lever and Windsor on occasion also in the rehab group doing individual routines. Spargo had mentioned how bored he was with his rehab as he was limited in what training he could do, so I felt for him. TMac on the boundary watching on. Some observations I did notice were that the players are still sprinting to the boundary line for a drink and taking a minute rest break. Viney had called everyone in to chat about one of their drills and he was talking about how well the players in the white bibs were performing and that everyone else had to work harder to cover ground and defend better. Bowey spoke up also showing his leadership qualities followed by McVee. I was impressed with Turner during some of the sims, you can see him improving each time and even did a fancy double spin to evade two tackles but then got pinned on the ground by McVee. Some of the hits were pretty physical this early in the pre-season which was good to see. Jeffo is filling out nicely, he's a confidence player so I hope he can learn from JVR how to be an aggressive forward but he'll come good this year I believe. Sestan and Laurie looking leaner now so I expect them to get a few games this year. Kentfield has a really nice size about him but just needs to working on his fitness/conditioning. Verrall a good size also. Important to note that Petty was in everything today and in really good shape. He was even in the second best running group when they were doing half ground 80% pace running on the boundary towards the end of the session. He's in for a big year if he stays injury free! I also heard Oliver is in a really good space and his hand is the best it's been in years so he is fit and firing to go. Anyway I'm on my way back to sunny Wodonga now. I'm backing us in to have a big year in 2025 and playing finals. Let's Go Demons! KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I like being down at the track watching them go through the rigours. They are still into skills and drills. The running component of previous preseasons is minimal. They did a few sets of boundary 250 meters hard runs, just enough to get them on their hunches, after the sims finished. A few got extra runs. My guess is they are getting the kilometres via the drills. At one stage Goody hollered for them to sprint back up the field after a sims action. They did it willingly. The run to boundary area after completions, and as a group, is encouraged. They were a bit off in the sims. That gusty wind caused miss-hits and fumbles. The coaches really want them to do the basics well. Viney is ready to go. His efforts and running are exemplary. Petty is vocal, wants the ball and is setting up many of the plays that come out of the backline. JVR is warming into the training. Looking better every time I see him. Bowey not missing anything, some beautiful hits up through the centre, no room for errors kind of passes. Adams was trying to do the same thing but got picked off or missed the target a few times. AMW is nearly always first to the ground ball. Brown is moving very well when he gets the ball. Finds that space that allows him time to make good decisions. Jefferson and JVR were looking for leads off the back of the defenders blind spots. Lever was running with a funny gait. Maybe protecting his achilles tendons. Campbell is large, he has maturity about him, and moves with some agility for a big man. I can see him being a bit of a protector. The vocal levels were boisterous, at one stage in the sims just about every one of them found voice. They are enjoying it.

Demonland Trackwatchers took advantage of the beautiful sunshine to head down to Gosch's Paddock and witness the return of Clayton Oliver to club for his first session in the lead up to the 2025 season. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Clarry in the house!! Training: JVR, McVee, Windsor, Tholstrup, Woey, Brown, Petty, Adams, Chandler, Turner, Bowey, Seston, Kentfield, Laurie, Sparrow, Viney, Rivers, Jefferson, Hore, Howes, Verrall, AMW, Clarry Tom Campbell is here training separately with trainers not in Dees training gear. Windsor running laps after the warm up. Boys starting some basic kicking drills post warm up. Tholstrup wearing number 12. Clarry looking sharp and a lot fitter and trimmer than last preseason. There’s a guy here who looks like Harry Sharp but I’m not close enough to tell and he isn’t training. Choco just yelled out to the players that the kicking in the last drill (no pressure mini circle work) was great and that he wants to see it continue that way in the next drill which has more pressure. Not Harry Sharp. The guy we thought was Harry Sharp is Tom Couch who is coming on board as a conditioning coach. Woey back in number 40 guernsey. Kick out simulation drill taking the ball from defense to forward line. Clarry and Rivers lining up on each other. Verrall is a big unit. Petty playing as a defender. Whether that is because there are no other senior defenders training (TMac, May, Lever) is anyone’s guess. Turner, JVR & Jefferson are the targets up forward. Kentfield playing forward of centre too. With the simulated kick out to forward line transition drill their are 2 teams, blue and white, with white outnumbered. Players swapping blue and white to simulate them having to attack or defend in the their particular position. Judd playing mainly in defence. Andy Moniz-Wakefield wearing #34. Petty on JVR in this drill. Again could be for lack of senior defenders at these early sessions. Ball was miskicked to JVR and Petty read the fall of the ball better, mopped it up only to be immediately sandwiched in a tackle between JVR and Tholstrup. Looks like Chandler might be doing some more midfield/high half forward this season perhaps replacing Nibbler’s role. Something new from a “discipline” perspective as opposed to previous preseasons. Whenever a drill is finished and they go to get water on the boundary. They have to sprint to the boundary. Nothing groundbreaking but reckon it sets a standard. Players doing sprints along the square line of the wing. When the whistle blew they were instructed to get water and as per my previous post they had to sprint to the boundary. Few players were gassed and on their haunches and a few players yelled to get up saying “body language”. Player quickly bounced up. Obviously a standard is being set. Team split into 3 rotating drill groups. 1. One on One marking and if dropped a tussle to get the loose ball 2. One on One loose ball on the ground with the player who doesn’t get the ball having to tackle. 3. Another one on one loose ball but with the goal for the player who wins the ball to get a handball off to a player running past. Tholstrup and then Sestan doing some tackling work with a trainer before rejoining the drills. Windsor back doing the contact drills after doing fast paced running along the boundary. Runners are now on. Some players running at a good clip along the boundary and some sprinting the length of the Centre square. Brown, Woey, Chandler and Laurie the best of the boundary runners. Tholstrup making sure all the boys get off their asses and “get up” in the rest periods. Clarry gassed after the sprinting. Not the only one. Sprinting and running finished. Now goal kicking practice. I have to leave so I guess we’ll have to wait until Round 1 to see if they’ve improved. FRITTA AND TURNER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Demonland pretty much has got it all covered but ... Arrived at 9.45 and cones and coaching staff were in position, awaiting the players. Big news obviously was Clarry in attendance; he was greeted enthusiastically by Goody. I thought one of the players might have been Sharpie, but the Ghost Writer sorted that out for me. It was Tom Couch who has taken up a conditioning coaching role. The boys looked very sharp, carrying the ball through the center for a long kick to JVR, Jeffo for a goal. Some of the boys have that AFL walk, or strut, that appears as arrogance but more likely simply ther affect of all that lower body conditioning. Sprinting back to the boundary line after a drill was noticeable. Choco was in strong and demanding voice. One of the coaches light heartedly called out 'F... Cheat' during one of the competitive drills. Viney was the most senior player training. WAYNE WUSSELL'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Can't add much to what Demonland has already posted. Clarrie cruise through some early drills, but when they moved to the full ground activity, he showed he still has that burst speed. On one occasion he ran with the ball from the centre through to the 50-metre zone, being hotly pursued all the way by Riv, who couldn't quite catch him. Another highlight for me was seeing Tholstrup leading to a high kick, being shadowed by AMW. Tholstrup leapt high and almost grabbed the mark on the second attempt, however, AMW got a hand in to spoil in the air then mopped up the loose ball. All of this at top pace. Viney was Viney! Hard as nails, bouncing up like a rubber ball when taken to the ground. Howes continues to excite with defensive run and fine spoils in the air, much like Jud when he burst into the team. Riv looks great and seems ready to build on last year's excursion into the centre square. Marty Hore is another who looks to be at peak fitness levels already. Sestan looks comfortable in his role linking with the forwards. Another who has returned looking in better physical shape than last season. Browny gets a lot of it and has genuine pace. One rapid run on the Punt Road wing, bouncing the pill, was scintillating until the ball refused to come back up and he stuffed it. Got caught! Disco is not quite as tall as Roo or Jefferson, but he makes up for it with timing and those great hands. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Got down for a quick look. Had a tennis game to go to so only got a glimpse. One particular drill involved a keepings off via kicks. They were looking for space and accuracy. One of Choco's gems was "see the space before you get the ball, so you know where to move to" Saw some sims. They players love it. Once into the bibs and no bibs, I could see the joy on their faces (let's get into it kinda joy). The backline passed it around until a lead up field was "on". Goody was hanging in this area. Then they were getting a flood going. Often finding another pass or an outside run. Bowey was doing some beautiful passes. Looks like he has really matured in his execution, good vision and decision making. The ball went quickly into the forwards. There were three of them and doing hard leads in all directions, though with the pattern that Chaplin wants. I get the impression that they may resort to getting as many mids around the contest as possible and having a very high forwrad set up. Petty is strong, healthy and having plenty of involvement. Rivers has filled out, looking big and fit. JVR is working on creating separation, seems to be getting off the blind area of defenders, as he makes leads towards the goal from a high up field position. I thought Tholstrup's kicking is improving. His greatest assets are the intensity, the leadership and support. When Kentfield had a error he was the first and only one to get over to him with reassurance. Laurie is moving and executing those disposal well, AMW is the same. Woey is playing very sturdy footy. K.Brown has lots of upside, speed and a natural footy brain. Unsure about Sestan. Good skill set but is he going to be able to get to the ball and perform when the speed increases from VFL to AFL. He was getting rushed. Would really like to him develop some explosive 5/10 meters runs. I've only seen the one gear. Going to be lots of pressure for spots, as I reckon the the second tier of players are looking great.

Veteran Demonland Trackwatchers Kev Martin, Slartibartfast & Demon Wheels were on hand at Gosch's Paddock to kick off the official first training session for the 1st to 4th year players with a few elder statesmen in attendance as well. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Beautiful morning. Joy all round, they look like they want to be there. 21 in the squad. Looks like the leadership group is TMac, Viney Chandler and Petty. They look like they have slimmed down, especially the top half. Perhaps less upper-body work in the gym. Viney's thigh are huge. Nathan Jones brought the exuberance to many in his interactions. Chaplin was stamping his method into the forward work. Three across the line, the flankers staying wide, though with some synchronising as they turn and run. The delivery, then getting a flanker to be front and centre, as the other stays wide. Appears he wants them to turn quickly and make angles or direct/sharp runs at the ball carrier. Bassett working quietly, working on getting the outside run happening at the stoppages. Gus (the training assistant), led the Remembrance (lest we forget) ceremony for the minutes silence. Teared up as the RAAF jets overflew us on there way to the shrine, good timing. The squad was doing the basics well. In a few of the drills barely a ball hit the ground. I was impressed with the camaraderie, vocal noise and connection, we have a good lot of youngsters. Jed Adams looks like a leader, learnt some lessons from the Lever in the shape of being vocal. TMac was in boots, that's the first time in ages I have not seen him start the pre-season in runners. Foot problems are well behind him. The only one who looked little rusty was, Windsor. Jefferson is my tip as a big improver. Often led the running group he was in. Sestan has slimmed down and looking good. Turner and Howes are getting bigger, and as was pointed out by another tracky, so is Verrall. None of the new players, Campbell or Sharp were there. There were 6 technicians lining around the computer screens. Seemed like many of the Administrators and powers that be, turned up (No Green). When they did some contact drills, both Tholstrup and Bowey disengaged from the group. The main effort in tackling drills, was as Choco called out, 'drive them low and keep going at the arms'. Salem and Fritsch were running laps. Fritta was looking fantastic as he out did Salo, who was straining at times. Goody was watching them very carefully, I had the impression he liked what he saw, as did I. The kicking drills ran by Choco were quite extensively and the first after the warm-up. 15 meters apart and in pairs they kick right and left foot. Then variations occur. Spin (360°) to the left, kick, spin again to the right, kick, place the ball on the ground, pick up and kick, place the ball behind, spin and kick. Repeat at 30 meters. At one stage they included two balls, but only one kicking over the top as the other ball is handballed flat. The next kicking drill was more complicated. They had six starting positions. Three on two lines. The middle group in bibs, attempted to intercept the passes, by those in the outside lines. The outside lines would pass to the other line, down the line, or diagonal. I think they had a system going so it wasn't haphazard. It created a variety of kicks. Choco empathises that he wants the ball to spin well, and for sharp, direct actions. I think he will create even more drills with a variety of difficulty and skills. SLARTIBARTFAST'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS The session went for around 90 minutes and as far as I could see all 1 to 4 year players were there with Woey in 12 and Jed Adams in 19. It was pretty much a non contact session with the normal handball drills, lots of running and a little bit of field ball movement stuff. Good to see none of these boys in any sort of rehab group. Of the oldies Tmac, Viney, Chin, Marty Hore, Petts and Bowser did the full session with the young blokes and Salo and Fritta did a lot of lap running and a bit of kicking away from the group. It's really not possible to take much out of the session but Duke, Kolt and Disco sort of stood out but others would have picked others. Kentfield was there and he is one big unit. I was a bit disappointed Trac and Clarrie weren't there as it would have made a bit of a statement but it probably means nothing. DEMON WHEELS' PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Managed to make it down to training as well, beautiful day for it. Not a huge amount to report but here are a few of my observations: No players appeared to be in rehab, although Bowey did appear to spend a bit of time away from the main group during the bigger drills (if I recall correctly). Jefferson certainly looks a bit stronger, nothing too dramatic but just looks to have filled out a bit across the shoulders and arms. Reckon he'd measure about 2 inches taller if he wasn't so hunched. The running drills were in groups with the first and fastest featuring only Chandler, McVee and Windsor. The tall players were all in the last 2 groups and while they were only doing 200m sprints no one really looked too off the pace which was pleasing. Kentfield, Verrall, Adams, Jefferson etc all keeping up. Was great to see Jonesy back out there, this time in the sky blue coaches t-shirt. He was high-fiving and getting around all the players like he was still one of them. Great to see the older heads of TMac and Viney out there leading the way. Fox News was down with their cameras so might have been wanting to catch a glimpse of Trac or Clarry if they had turned up. Personally I hoped to see McAdam as I'm keen to see a fit version of him pre-Xmas but hopefully he'll appear in the next few sessions. McVee, Windsor and Turner probably the players that caught my eye the most. TED LASSO'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I managed to stop in for a little look, but i am not great at training reports so i will do my best. Everyone looked in really good shape from a fitness perspective, the players look lean, are running really well and i think it's really encouraging for the young guys to look this fit and ready to go before pre-season even starts. Jacob Van Rooyen looked noticeably stronger to me, i'd be shocked if he doesn't take a really big step this year, I agree with other posters thoughts on Jefferson and Windsor, both stood out, Jefferson looks like he's done an enormous amount of work. One thing that really stood out for me was the impact of Nathan Jones, the entire group looked like they got a real lift from him being there, and you could see right away he is going to settle in really well to coaching life. It looks as though a lot of players have been given homework around their running, which probably reflects the change in game plan Goody looks like the absolute weight of the world has been lifted off his shoulders, it seems the break and release of some pressure has done him an enormous amount of good. I know it's very early but the entire vibe of the club felt much more lighthearted, fun and energetic than i can remember it being since maybe 2021.

Veteran Demonland Trackwatcher Kev Martin returned to the training track to bring you the following observations from Gosch's Paddock this morning. Beautiful morning for training. The dew has dried, out from AAMI, quiet chatting. Maysie does his heart symbol. 7 in rehab, Turner, Hore, Sestan, BBB, Petty, Spargo and Schache. All in runners. Melky weighted and change of angles work. Salem has his individual program. White cap (no contact), Howes, Woewodin and Sparrow. Some players did laps, Gawn, Fullarton, McAdam, (a couple of others) as a competitive short pass at the mannequin ran. Petty after some hand skills with all rehabbers, spent time on the exercise bike. Low-key, running the cobwebs out. I didn't stay long, also I am off overseas for a few months. New trackers needed.

Demonland Trackwatcher Kev Martin was on hand at Gosch's Paddock for Monday's training session and made the following observations. About 38 to 40 players down at training. BBB walking laps. Charlie Spargo still in rehab, doing short run throughs. Christian Salem has full kit on and doing individual work with a trainer. He is is starting to get into some sprints. I cannot see Andy Moniz-Wakefield out there. Jack Viney and Kade Chandler have broken away from the drills that have some contact and are doing run throughs. Melky, Bowser, Shane McAdam and Lachie Hunter, doing main training without any indication that they are aren't fully participating. Three stations, all in a competitive handball game. Now four stations with a competitive kicking game. Some 3 on 3 , others 4 on 4. Goody has joined one of the stations with a bib. Calls for move the ball quick ring out. Bibs play defensive. The whistle goes and they all head off for some goal kicking. A short look at it, as they gather centrally and set for a full oval drill. Jack Viney has rejoined the main group, but Kade Chandler has returned to the sheds, The energy is great, many having a good time, calls are loud and plenty of support for their teamates. Two stations and doing stoppage simulations. Shane McAdam playing out of the stoppage area, like a high half-forward would. Occasionally looking disinterested, though that may be his demeanour. I think he is a shy kinda fella. Troy Chaplin was doing most of the talking when they gathered. They finished the session with some sprints along the boundary, and some runs down the middle, then off to individual stuff, goal kicking and low ball gets. Choco working with Harry Petty on his goal kicking. Before the runs, Shane McAdam was getting some work on his left hip. Completely the sprints, but not the runs down the middle. A trainer has continued to work on that hip now for the past 5 minutes.

Demonland Trackwatcher Kev Martin ventured down to Gosch's Paddock to bring you his observations from this morning's Captain's Run including some hints at the changes for our ANZAC Eve clash against the Tigers. Sunny, though a touch windy, this morning, 23 of them no emergencies. Forwards out first. Harrison Petty, JvR, Jack Billings, Kade Chandler, Kozzy, Bayley Fritsch, and coach Stafford. The backs join them, Steven May, Jake Lever, Woey, Judd McVee, Blake Howes, Tom McDonald, Trent Rivers, Daniel Turner, and coach Chaplin. A trainer and Choco are on the fence talking. The mids are now making their way over. Clayton Oliver, Tracc, Bailey Laurie, Ed Langdon, Tom Sparrow, Max, Jack Viney, ANB and Caleb Windsor. Choco talking to the crew after the first drill. "They were excellent because of the way we set it up". Kicks between the mannequins, then one over the mannequins. He also said to Whelan, "Kozzy has shown me at least 10 pics of it, he is so happy". Goody is standing in the centre, watching the goings on, as they drill. The noise volume is great. Chaplin has been taking most of the talking and directional instructing. Goody pulls them into a centre circle and chats away. Ends with one structured sim and a week to backline set up after a point. The call, OK Boys, then a whistle, and back to the sheds. You are right. You are right. I think Turner is forward. When the backline gathered he wasn't with them. Choco is putting plenty of time into him as he kicks for goal at the end of the session. Those playing with Casey are now on the Paddock, 16 of them. Jake Bowey in the white cap. Ben Brown is with them, so is Shane McAdam, Tom Fullarton and Koltyn Tholstrup. Ben Brown and McAdam off to the side doing their own kick to kick with a trainer. Clarry looks fine, going about it with plenty of concentration and professionalism. Some strapping, I didn't notice any hinderances. With Casey. Looks like the mids for Laurie. Yes Bowey doing some high marking off the bag. Seems to be trusting his shoulders. He doesn't have any strapping on. Doing some tackling drills as well. Giving the shoulder a good test. Casey session just finished and they are off the paddock, except for Bowser and Farris-White (marking practice).

They are out for a run just as it starts raining. It didn't last long, ended up a reasonable session weather wise. Light duties, BBB, rehab Farris-White, Melky, Salem and Spargo, all with private trainers. They are all playing soccer, huge amount of noise. 36-40 (difficult to get a count) in the main squad, biggest I've seen it in ages. Choco is barking out the orders. Goody has intense body language as he observes. Bowey in a lime green cap (no contact), and in the sims. Oliver is ball handling, required some re-taping after the first drill. McVee, McAdam, and AMW step away from the main squad, and are now with the trainers (light duries, goal kicking and easy laps). Melky joins the main squad. They are now into full field drills. Precise kicking, hard calls, drive the ball through the centre, and run. They rotate through the whole area, goal to goal, and both wings. Structured sims now. 9 against 18. Woey in the backline. Sims finish, and McVee, McAdam, AMW, join the group again. Salem, Spargo do easy, repetitive 200 metres runs. McQualter has them in the middle, chatting away, Chaplin then does some demonstrations. May and Goody chip in. They appear to be getting into the nitty gritty. They break, some continue talking, some off to kick goals (16 of them), others leave the field, the low ball getters as well (Laurie, Vines, Rivers, Howes, Sestan, Woey, Hore). Goody one on one talk with Langdon. Choco with the goal kickers, mainly Fullarton. Then Tracc goes over for some tips but Choco stays with Tom. Oliver on the boundary by himself, sprinting. Now hard running laps. Choco now with Sparrow for some 45 metre goal kicking. Last out there is Petty and over walks Choco to help with his goal style kicking. Takes them from all the angles. Hits most of them. Just noticed Viney, still working with a trainer, as well as Melky and Salem. Oliver still lapping. Oliver after laps, he did some sprints, and more laps. Ended up on his haunches, gathering wind, a trainer comes over and they do a slap handshake. He finishes by picking up the equipment with the crew. It is nearly all packed up, except Salem still running laps. Had a chat to to one of the crew, reckons McVee is fine, just light duties, and they have a main session Sunday out at Casey. Salem and Oliver walk off together.

Demonland Trackwatchers Kev Martin and Demon Dynasty were once again on hand at this morning's Captain's Run at Gosch's Paddock to bring you their observations from training. KEV MARTIN'S CAPTAIN'S RUN OBSERVATIONS No-one in rehab this morning, a Captain's run, 26 players. Laurie, Tomlinson, Tholstrup, Chandler, Woey, and Kossie are out there. Rehabbers are out now. Marty, McAdam, Melky, Bowey, Sestan. As a guess for in and outs, I would say, out Laurie, Tomlinson, and Woey as they were mainly in the yellow vest in the structural sims. <--- Admin Edit: This was the first inkling we had that Kolt would be debuting Tholstrup was doing plenty off the half-forward. Chandler was running hard, giving the knee a test, no problems. There are group, maybe 20, from the area around Alice Springs (Ntaria). One of them will toss the coin at the game. The indigenous players all made some time for them. All in the MFC colours of their own club. The MFC also handed them some scarves. MFC Casey players are out now. All rehabbers have joined them, Marty, McAdam, Melky, Bowey, Sestan. Sestan has some left shoulder strapping. McAdam doing well. Accelerating with power and some beautiful shimmies and cutting lines in a handball comp/drill. No, not Marty. Trainers call him out, he wanted to be in the drills, but no. Also, not Bowey. Though they both play in the structural sims. White caps are Sestan and Turner, (no tackling). Hunter doing some instructions when the sims breaks. The squad is looking classy, rarely any errors. McAdam is looking the goods, (in the sim), running hard defensively and when attacking. Schache is playing well. Jefferson gets lost at times, needs more work on his decisions and intention. When he has space, he kills it with skills. Andy Moniz-Wakefield is in the backline. DEMON DYNASTY'S CAPTAIN'S RUN OBSERVATIONS No McAdam or Hunter Marty Hore set to go for Anzac eve Rehab just joined.... McAdam, Bowsa, Marty & Melk Sestan's also joined rehab now Hunter & Moniz-Wakefield coming on with the Casey crew Kolt ✅️ <--- Admin Edit: This was the second inkling we had that Kolt would be debuting <--- Admin Edit: And this confirmed it. Moniz-Wakefield a minor calf setback but apparently now good to go with Casey this week McAdam right to go post the bye. Possibly via Casey? The boys were in great spirits today. Big voices and energy all round. Some concerned faces and banter between Clarry and a few trainers towards the end but wouldn't read too much into that for now.

Demonland Trackwatcher Kev Martin ventured down in the rain to Gosch's Paddock for the Demon Family Series April School Holiday Open Training session. Not such a good morning, weather wise. As I arrived, it starting raining, settled into watching some Victory players have a kick around. The MFC squad come out as the rain abated, they had wide smiles as the walked down the roped corridor. Plenty of joy from the supporters towards them, kids everywhere, maybe about 500 to a 1000 of us. Rehab/light duties, Hunter, BBB, TMac, McAdam, Bowey, Chandler, Melky, Sestan, AMW, Spargo, Turner. Chandler was doing enough running to suggest he will be right. I expected Hunter to be in the main group, must have had a setback. Looks like they are working on the fitness of Sestan. BBB and TMac are managed, no obvious hindrances, and the easy recovery run is usual for them. A surprise with AMW, just as we were suggesting he is nearly ready, he goes into rehab. I couldn't tell what the problem was. No Hore. They split into three stations, short kicking, a kind of soccer competition of kicking the ball down the field with finesse from outside the line, and a structured handball game. Down came the rain again for 5 minutes and then cleared. They did some structured sims. Coaches would move the ball from the forward line and set a high mark for a backman who would slingshot it off via spread and/or corridor it with links, to either a marking forward or to a forward that brings the ball front and centre. may was moving well. They had a couple of meetings in the middle. Finally, they head to the boundary for extensive signings. Great atmosphere. Some Observations from Fat Tony Hunter looked very proppy. Might have re-injured himself. Chandler looked in doubt this week with his right knee. Spargo and Turner were in rehab group but didn’t do much. AMW told me he hopes to play this week. Also said he thought we would challenge Kossie’s ban. Some Observations from Kick-It-To-Pickett Seemed to be quite a light session. Wouldn’t rule out those not completing a full session. Spoke to Maysie, he admitted his body was fairly sore. Incredible that he is playing through that much pain. A kid asked Oliver if he was playing this week. He was taken aback by it. As if he had no idea why he’d be asked the question. So, I assume we can lock him in.

Our man on the spot Bendigo Demon traveled to Adelaide for our back to back games in the City of Churches and brings you his observations from the Demon's training session at Hisense Stadium. Slow start so far!! About 30 spectators, 2 dogs, and an old bloke asking security if the bar is open. Few kids enjoying a kick on the ground. Kids etc cleared off the ground, looks like things are happening. Crowd has swelled to over 100, unfortunately no coffee van, (or for the old bloke, no bar open either.) Slow start, Jake Melksham working really hard with trainers, looks super fit, players wandering out now. Tom McDonald is in runners with left knee strapped. Steven May and Clarry with main group. Clarry wearing hand guard. Ben Brown in sneakers, no sign of Kade Chandler, Shane McAdam, Josh Schache and Kolt here too. I get the feeling McAdam * might play. Lot of love for him from staff and players. * ADMIN EDIT: Shane McAdam was listed as 3-5 Weeks away in the last Injury Report. Kade Chandler in sneakers with heavy strapping on right knee. He’s limping noticeably, can’t see him getting up. Kolt, Shaw, Shane McAdam, Tommo, Bill Laurie and May all training with team from Saturday. BBB and Chin only 2 not with main group. Lots of laughter. Tom McDonald and Trac are in rehab group. I know Steven May is as tough as nails, but he still looks in some discomfort even doing just basic stuff. Tom Mac and Trac have joined main group So, apart from BBB and Chin, all players named are doing run through. BBB walking laps. Chin doing rehab stuff, very low key. BBB doing kick to kick, Chin has started that too. Trac is in cotton wool, doing 50% 60 metre run throughs. He exudes the impression everything isn’t ok. Sorry to be negative. Main group doing lots of ball handling, Tom McDonald fetching balls behind goals and kicking out etc. Clarry handling ball ok, May moving much more freely. Trac back with main group. Trac looks fine, no strapping, just not his normal self. The only people with noticeable strapping are Chin and Tom McDonald As training progresses (very casually) and the boys start handing out little footys, BBB and Chin are alternating on the bike. Clarry is in seemingly no discomfort, Steven May still seems sore, Tom McDonald did stuff all, Trac was VERY limited and had a long chat with Goody, Chin was very down, shaking his head, BBB walking ok, but not trying to do anything intense. Everybody else seemed ok, BUT, I am 58 and I could have completed that training no problem!! And that’s it for today. I will be back Wednesday for more updates.

Demonland Trackwatchers Demon Dynasty & Kev Martin were trackside at Gosch's Paddock today to bring you their observations from training. DEMON DYNASTY'S TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Kade Chandler's left knee heavily strapped. BBB, Spargs & Jake Lever also in rehab group. Jake Bowey solo running separate kicking/sprint/agility drills. Super fine morning / early arvo at Gosch's for the boys to blow out some cobwebs. Choco initially had the light duties / rehab group consisting of Chandler, BBB, Lever & Charlie Spargo. The boys started on their own. Then Choco joined the fray, initially as an observer. He wasn't happy with their frivolity & banter and told them so ..."stop talking you blokes & watch what you're doing!" They were initially doing HB drills then 15 - 20 meter stab passes where Choco asked them to place their kicking foot down after the kick and toward the target. Everyone followed instructions except Chandler (knee issue? Or just didn't listen lol). The main group (as listed by Kev earlier) went off too the boundary to do their bungy stretchy thingies before blowing some webs out with some half oval runs They then split into approx 3 diff forward focussed drills. Much of it connection boased with kicks coming inside and / or shooting for goal on the run after transversing obstacles etc. Choco was overseeing much of it including the short 30 meter (ish) passing drills into 50. His main emphasis was on accuracy with one instruction "Perfect kicks! Every one of them is a potential goal assist. Perfect kicks!" Choco always driving and asking for high standards never grows old 👏🏼 All in all, outside the light duties group and Bowey (on his own program), all involved in the main group looked to be in tip top shape albeit some were no doubt carrying the usual bumps / bruises from previous encounters. Shane McAdam looks super fit to me and suggested such mentioning he is roughly two weeks away. First time i've seen him live and looks a lot rangier than I figured. His reels suggest he can play tall on the lead which makes sense. How is he at ground level i wonder? Lachie Hunter is one more week away and then a likely starter for Casey the following week apparently (all going well). Melk is in fine shape and very happy with his progress so far and according to WCW on track for a second half appearance (touch wood) As already noted, BBB while obviously on a light program, appeared to be moving / kicking (short passes) without hindrance. Jake Lever same and no way he is continuing through the high knee lift stepping drills if he was uncomfortable in any way imho. Spargo & Chandler restricted to light stuff and probably safe to assume Chin may not make the cut although there's another four full days before Saturday so who knows. Ollie Sestan doing alot of work both with the main group, then the lap work after plus additional stuff after everyone except Bowey had left. The FD must have high hopes for the young fella and see something special here. Tom Sparrow very happy with Saturday and playing back in the middle. Lovely fella to speak to is Tom. Caleb Windsor said he pulled up fine after Saturday also and is right to go. Had the pleasure of meeting WCW (bonus hugs!). Great gal who i'm sure has red & blue running through her veins. Fingers crossed for Saturday. Carn the Mighty Demons! KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Numbers are down, 24 in the main group. None who played yesterday at Casey are with them. Light duties include, BBB, Jake Lever, Kade Chandler, Charlie Spargo. Shane McAdam is in the main squad, as are Melky, Daniel Turner, and Lachie Hunter. Tom McDonald in runners, though full training. No Steven May. Fairly light run today, as it is the recovery session. Mainly grid work, large and small, with goal kicking to finish. Some of those who didn't play Saturday and have now integrated back into training did extra laps at the end. Tracc and Tom Sparrow also joined them. Lachie Hunter hitting up beautiful kicks. Daniel Turner looks fit. Melky into everything. Jack Viney looked like he has a small niggle. In the run throughs was behind the pack, which is unusual. Harry Petty without restrictions, was kicking goals 50 meters out with accuracy and ease. Shane McAdam and Tom Sparrow joined in as well. Kade Chandler in the rehab has some light strapping on left knee. Tom McDonald didn't do much with the group, mainly running laps. Jake Bowey working hard, running sprints, then laps. Jake Lever was lightly strapped, and did a 30 minute workout with a trainer. Looks good to go. Lever discarding his strapping post training.

Demonland Trackwatcher Kev Martin and I attended the Captain's Run at Gosch's Paddock on this lovely sunny morning to bring you the following observations from the training session. Squad: McVee May Howes Rivers Lever Salem Langdon Petracca ANB Sparrow Brown Pickett Fritsch JVR Chandler Gawn Viney Billings Windsor Oliver McDonald Hore Petty Laurie Fullarton Woewodin Rehab: Bowey McAdam The team starts the session with some warm ups with Jake Lever being the most vocal of the group with the mantra being "Precision". Ben Brown in runners doing his own program. I suspect it’s all part of the plan to get him through as many games as possible this season particularly through the next block of games. Transition Drill from intercept mark off half back with no opposition (well the coaches) ending with kick to the lead of either JvR or Harry Petty. Fast and crisp ball movement always looking for a runner to handball on the outside and moving the ball through the middle of the ground. Very interesting. Seems like they were practicing tactics for stoppages and in particular using a spotter off the contest communicating the oppo numbers around the stoppage. That’s what it looked like to my untrained eye. Old school push ups for any mistake made. Goal kicking practice time for the forwards. 35 degree angle and from the pocket. Fritta nailing them all. The duality of Trac. Nailing one and spraying the next. Harry Petty was running and moving very well at training. You wouldn’t know he has had any issues with his toe/feet. Was leading and marking well albeit with no opponent/pressure. Kicking for goal from 40-50 directly in front was bang in the middle. That’s stumps on a light Captains run session. All Captain’s Run sessions I’ve been to have been very light sessions with little run and contact and usually only an hour and change. KEV MARTIN'S CAPTAIN'S RUN TRAINING SESSION OBSERVATIONS Lovely morning for the captain's run. The bonding appears to be high, they are supportive and encouraging towards each other. A good family club is not just words. At one time a mini number 25 ran to the boundary from the tent and gave Max a note, he read it (smiled) and tucked it into his shorts. Such nice interactions. Joy reigns supreme at the moment for the club. Shane McAdam was down before the squad. He was wearing his normal training top (blue one with his number) and gear. Being put through a more intense training regime than previous. He appears to be moving freely, as smooth a gait as I have seen. I can imagine, he gets a test at the next session, and will join the main squad if he passes. The main squad came out in drips and drabs. All the emergencies were with the team, 25 altogether. Partnered up for and kick to kick, until all were on, and then the whistle. BBB in runners, probably will be managed the entire season with his personal program. They went straight into drills with two stations. One, short kicks and runs, the other, handballs, quick step evasive moves, and low ball gets. Then all the squad drilled together, kick and run in a large square area to the four corners. They ran structural sims that had fast down the corridor plays. Finished the session with some goal kicking. Choco spent time with Bayley Fritsch, Kade Chandler, and Tracc as they snapped. Plenty were getting it right. Petty was also trying to hit some from outside the 50 arc, not too successful, though when he brought it in closer he was nailing them. Kossie was the standout, with Caleb Windsor not far behind in the 'beauty of kicking'. Goody is standing back a bit today, seems it is Choco's time to take it. Yells out "precision", or was that Jake Lever (loud all session). Goody runs off to AAMI immediately the session finishes. The atmosphere feels special. A trainer mentioned that a Captain's run from the Casey Squad, will be there tomorrow Saturday about 9.45am on Gosch's. We had a lovely group of 6 D/Landers, shooting the breeze, chita chatting. Thanks for that, I'm feeling part of something big. Go Dees. Addit: The Victory had a practice match on the other side of the paddock. A great morning for me, fully entertained, Woo-Hoo.

Demonland Trackwatchers Kev Martin & Walking Civil War attended Tuesday morning's training session at Gosch's Paddock to bring you the following observations. KEV MARTIN'S TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Windy, even the Yarra has waves, warm and humid. They are doing plenty of warm ups, then a game of soccer, now run throughs. I think keeping it simple. May, ANB, Hore, Max. TMac, Billings, Sestan, on modified programs. BBB, Spargs, Turner, McAdam (own program, talking to Whelan) in rehab process. No Hunter, Melky, or Verrall. Max, TMac, BBB, Spargo, Billing, left the field early. May, Sestan, ANB, Hore, all running. Sestan last man running, and Alex practising goal kicking, the rest of modified group have left for the sheds. 26 full training (Petty as well), the drills are close kicking and handball, one with low ball gets and an element of competition. 30 minute run and they are back to the sheds. Those who did not play Sunday are running laps, all 7 of them. Looked like McAdam was doing a little work with Spargo. Both in the blue uniform of the rehab and were wearing runners. They just handballed the ball to each other for ten minutes. Spent about ten minutes talking to Whelan. It really wasn't much of a run for many of them. I reckon they were doing more work in the gym today, or working intellectually on their strategic roles. Last weeks session I saw McAdam, he was doing ball work for the first time in ages, and drilling using sharp change of directions. I believe they will be ramping up his work load now. If his body holds up, I can see him ready in 2 to 4 weeks. His aim will be to tick the boxes. Addit : To get my handle highlighted and for me to get notification, I believe after you type the @, the names in a box appears after you type a few letters of name. If you click the name you want in that box it highlights it in blue (profile name) and will notify me. Second Addit: He may have done the run throughs with the main group, as WCW alluded too, though I didn't notice. WALKING CIVIL WAR'S TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Methinks I’m the only DL-er here(?) Anyways, the boys just came out on the ground. The mood is absolutely awesome! Everyone is smiling and everyone has a distinct spring in their step. L They’re all doing the stretchy band thing right now. Tmac and BBB and Jibba are separately doing different stretchy band exercises with a trainer. I told BBB and Tmac how immensely proud we all are with their performances on Sunday. Big smiles all round. Then I hear a familiar voice calling out “Oi” Turned around and it was Clarrie. I said “Oh my god Clarrie! You killed it on Sunday, that was sooo good!” He said, “it was, wasn’t it? It was sweeeeet!” Then he says, “how’ve you been anyway?” 😳 I didn’t even answer him. I just gave a thumbs up coz WHO THE HELL CARES HOW I AM?! 😅 Bowser was doing lotsa leg exercises and now he’s kinda playing kick to kick with two trainers. The only player I can’t see is Knuckles. Doesn’t mean he’s not here, could just mean I need to go to Specsavers. i just heard Jack, one of the trainers, telling Bowser who was on his way back to the rooms: when you get back, you can join the boys, the main group. I pounced on the opportunity to ask Jack how Bowser is tracking. He said, “really good. A week post-surgery and he’s coming along great.” it’s a big ol’ happy fest here! Maysie, Marty, Nibs and Ollie Sestan are running laps. Everyone else over the other side of the ground doing intense handball drills. It’s a joy to behold. Up And At ‘Em McAdam has got ‘treatment’ at 12:30pm. I didn’t ask what sort of treatment coz personal. I do have a bar set in terms of questions, it may be so low I trip over it, but it’s a bar nonetheless. 😄 Ok so they all just came back to the tent from the opposite side of the ground. For the entire walk, Goody had his arm around Chin. He was talking to him all the while and Chin was grinning like a Cheshire cat. They’ve gone into the rooms. Thought they’d be coming back out but they’re done for today. When I was leaving, Kolt, AMW, Matty J, Jed Adams (I thanked him for re-signing), and Ollie were still out on the ground doing sprints. I asked one of the trainers why this was so. He said “the VFL boys need to get some run in their legs.” Imho Kolt didn’t look like a VFL boy.

Demonland Trackwatchers Kev Martin and Dee Zephyr wandered down to Gosch's Paddock on Saturday morning to bring you their observations from the Captain's Run in the lead up to Sunday's Round One match against the Bulldogs. KEV MARTIN'S CAPTAIN'S RUN OBSERVATIONS Rehab is out early. A beautiful Saturday morning, though plenty of dew on the paddock Verrall doing hard sprints along the boundary. McAdam individual program and has started, ball work, change of direction drills, and easy kicking and handball. Melky, carrying weights as he changes direction. Hunter continues his running program. Melky has joined him for some runs through the middle. Hunter is struggling to keep up with him (will need a block of conditioning). Captain's run cannot be far off. Verrall last session at Gosch's, looked like he may do a full training, though started with a test in rehab which he didn't pass. Was working on his hip, and stayed with rehab. Gus is greeting the squad with applause and cheers from them. He is wearing the coaches colours. Looks like they have appointed him in an off field role. Laurie is not with the squad. Strange isn't it. Not sure what is going on! When Choco called for forwards to have some goal kicking, BBB went behind the goals to kick the ball out to them. TMac definitely with the backs. Max also doing plenty of work with the backs. Salem with the mids. Howes and Rivers did some stoppage work high on the wings. Chandler was kicking well at goals. McQualter taking most of the structural sims. Goody taking the stoppages. Looks like they are looking for quick plays down the corridors, by hitting the inside players, short, middle or wide. Hore looked nervous at the start of the drills. Woey seems to have slimmed down since the start of the preseason, moving well. Kossie was forward and on song, looking very good, and extremely focused. There was a mob of the players wives and kids on the sidelines. They were really happy about TMac (dad of three), he ended his session rolling around with his kids. Max had some strapping on his lower left calf. Moving well and involved in everything. Tholstrup and Viney cannot stop tackling each other. Melky finished his session, tackling the bag, then attacks a ball put in by a trainer (plenty of intensity). Going about it well, head down, keeping a low profile, doing the team stuff. Certainly not as animated as previous years. DEE ZEPHYR'S CAPTAIN'S RUN OBSERVATIONS Brayshaw is here. Tholstrup the only emergency training. Bowey and Spargo walking laps. Kicking and handball drills along with linking have been met with some real sharpness in their short duration. Brown hasn’t joined in a couple of the drills and is doing solo work (snapping at goals, short handballs) with a couple of trainers. He looked ok to me, moved well during drills. He was very chummy with some of his teammates, especially Kozzie.

Demonland Trackwatcher Kev Martin braved the scorching heat on a public holiday to bring you the following observations from Training. The set up, is being put up, for an 11.45am post review training session. 32 in the full session. Rehab: Spargo (runners and singlet), Turner, BBB, and Verrall (looks to be a test). Hunter doing his own program. Bowser in the arm sling. May looks fine. No McAdam. As they gathered, they gave Melky a round of applause, he is doing drills with them as well. Petty is also drilling. Verrall has not joined the main squad. Looks to be working on his hip, and running laps. So happy for Melky to be back in full training, the same for Petty. They are training hard, and the voice levels are high. Plenty of support for each other, hand slapping cheers, and 'that's what we want' calls. Drills started with running and kicking, then gather and leads, some competitive handball drills, now talls marking and smalls in two groups, low ball gathers, and breaking tackles and lines, in competitive handball. Sims are on, and Melky is off, running hard sprints. Plenty of spread and switch, and making overlaps in the midfield, but still delivering to a crowded forward area. They are now sprinting up and down the paddock, team running. Langdon putting time into K.Brown with instructions about wing roles. That looks like the end of the session. A few stay out. Tracc, Farris-White, Colt, Billings, Salem, Fullaton, JVR, AMW, kicking goals under supervision of Choco. Woey, ANB, Laurie, ball handling. Hore and Viney, kick to kick. Oliver from the centre kicking to a leading Petty. Oliver now goal kicking. Last on the track is Melky working with two trainers, direction changes with ball handling. McAdam is not at training. They haven't broken into their 'lines' yet. Woey was looking good, nothing extra from coaches. We didn't take it on through the middle. They want them to be quicker and not make errors. They want the smalls to stand and/or break through tackles. They are working on Petty's fitness. Going very slow with Hunter. Not bringing K.Brown in till he is sure of his role. Viney and Colt have a thing. Goody loves Clarry. McQualter works the recovery session. They are loading. Stafford was micro managing. They didn't move Into their lines. As a guess, it will be Salem to replace Bowser. The wingers run into the forwards space pushing the halves into the congestion. The strategy was during sims, so unsure if Stafford is the designer. He is more about the leading patterns. General fitness, push them after the 4 day break. I assume the trainers know how to get the best out of them. Used the trigger word, sorry for the confusion. I wouldn't know if they are in a 'loading' program. The trainers worked them hard, sprints after the sim. A little gusty, but not effecting them. Most difficult is the hot wind draining them. The water volunteers were working very hard, constantly sprinting to groups as the whistle for the change-up rings out. Great, moving well, I think still underdone fitness wise. Completed the training with extra runs and sprints. Must be a temptation to bring Petty in and lock him around the forward goal square. Appeared happy. BBB in rehab, no running, mainly stretching and simple ball handling. Yes, he has looked ready as soon as he started with us. They must be working on him understanding the roles. Great that he had a few centre bounces with Clarry in the Casey games. Can only help his development. Today he was hitting his targets and no fumbling, all the new young ones have improved the standards at training. The only ones showing some rust, were Melk and Farris-White. Sestan was getting plenty and finishing well in the less defenders sims. Jefferson couldn't get into the sims game, looks lost and needs support on where to position himself. Adams blanketed Fritta during sims. Deep forward looked like Sestans role today. Yet to see him work off the backline, but have seen him as a high half-forward at trainings. I think they will keep Laurie in as they continually used him as a linking player in the sims, though would love to see Tholstrup in, but could be Woey. Chandler was quiet but Goody seems to favour him. Billings in for him wouldn't be far fetched. Spargo out, Salem back, kossie mid/forward. Fullaton has to be a chance to replace Schache. Cannot think of anyone else who knows the backline system, and bringing in another green player alongside Howes could throw it out of kilter. Agree totally about his kicking as a mid, and I really would want him to play on the ball. Who else at this stage can take on the small opposition forwards? I believe McAdam had a hammy problem a few weeks ago, just after the calf came good, he had always been running short distances in his individual program at the trainings. For him to be absent, was unusual. AFL indicated McAdam has nerve issues effecting hamstring and will train away from main group as Mon Bon and titan_uranus mentioned. https://www.afl.com.au/news/1085531/hamstring-issue-to-further-delay-melbourne-demons-shane-mcadam-season-start Jed Adams is ready to go if he gets a call up.

On the eve of the 2024 Season I ventured down to Gosch's Paddock for one of the final preseason training session before we head up to Sydney to take on the Swans. Here are my observations from the training session. The session was light and despite it being a Saturday was akin to a Monday/Tuesday session following a regular season weekend match as we played on Wednesday night and the boys had a couple of days off after the Practice Match prior to the season proper. Main Squad: May, JVR, Salem, McVee, Trac, Windsor, Viney, Lever, Gawn, Clarry, Billings, Langdon, Laurie, Bowey, Schache, Tomlinson, Jefferson, Howes, McAdam, Rivers, McDonald, Adams, Hore, Verrell, ANB, Fritsch, Sparrow, Fullarton, Petty, Kozzy, Chandler, Sestan, Tholstrup, Woey, K Brown, KFW, AMW Rehab: Brown, Spargo, Turner handballing in triangle. Hunter just arrived in training T-shirt and runners. Will keep an eye on what he does. Not present: Melksham & Smith Woey who I reported as having strapping on quad after Casey game is warming up with main group as is McAdam & Petty High Performance Manager & Head of Strength & Conditioning Selwyn Griffiths taking the boys through some warm up jog troughs McAdam has split from the main group and is doing 200m run through on the boundary as he’s been doing the last few sessions I’ve been to. Petty moving very well 😀 Selwyn Griffith is kicking the ball to McAdam far and high in the air and making him run to it. Moving much better than I have seen in a number of weeks. Can’t be too far off returning to the main group. Now McAdam doing some lateral movement ground ball drills. Reckon if he gets through today he’ll be training with the main group next week. Brown and Spargo doing rehab together. Transition/Interception drill. Simulating opposition kicking from our half forward to half back and we intercept and transition through the middle to hit up one of our forwards. Lots of long handballs. Out numbered amount of opposition in white bibs to simulate pressure from oppo. 2 separate groups simulating this drill on either side of the ground. Selwyn kicking the ball to McAdam on the lead out of the pocket. McAdam marks and kicks back to Selwyn and then has to sprints back to position by zig zagging out of the way from another trainer applying blocking pressure. Petty now left the main group and doing 200m sprints. I don’t think there is anything nefarious to it. Probably easing back into the main group. Hunter has not done much except throw the ball back and forth with one of the trainers. Worrying signs for him to not be running. Gawn and Langdon heading back to AAMI. No idea why. Neither looks hampered. Most of the boys having shots for goal now. May and Lever having a chat with Chaplin. I think that’s stumps. Light session of just over an hour. Selwyn kicking the ball high up to Petty who is being manned by Stafford and another trainer and Petty needs to lead and get separation from the two. Moving & jumping very well. Petty and McAdam last ones on the track working with the Selwyn. Both have been getting high 5s from assistants and trainers. Both seemed to have ticked off some boxes today. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS A nice late morning run, good temperature with a bit of wind about. They are out of the sheds and walking down to Gosch's with smiles on their faces. The review about Wednesday must have gone well. The three of Kossie, McAdam and Moniz-Wakefield walk with Wheelan from a different area. Great to see Petty with the squad, Fullaton, Woey, Clarry and Moniz-Wakefield as well. McAdam did the warm-up with them. Petty building his fitness with extra running after the drills. Rehab was all split up into different programs for different levels. BBB, Spargo, Turner, Hunter (in runners but doing very little), no Melky. The squad is looking good, there was a great atmosphere about them today. It appears they are happy with the preseason being over and ready for the season to get going. They had a low-key recovery session run today. The main drills were two groups, one with the mids starting on the goal side of centre, (via a tap down) then moving the ball by handball and finding a forward who were running set patterns. Three opponents against about nine attackers. Then they changed to using the other direction. The other one started from the back of centre (via a kick towards that direction), with the backline spreading, finding a runner with a kick and hitting up a forward. Then again repeating towards the opposite goal, it also had about the same numbers of defender as the previous squad. I heard Goody say if you have any doubt of where to run, head towards the straight line corridor, and don't hang out for the angled inside kick. Plenty of kicking for goal. Many doing what Tracc does and having shots after the session has ended, mostly the young ones, but also Kossie, and Fritsch. Chandler was not hitting them well, still with the yips. Ended his shots with three bad misses, then walked off. Really needs to work on his art and get it right, I reckon.

I headed down to Gosch’s Paddock this morning for the Captain’s Run in the lead up to tomorrow night’s practice match against the Blues. The squad that took the field was indicative of the lineup for that match at Ikon Park. Likely Selections based on the groupings of players at the Captain's Run today at Gosch's Paddock. Main Group: Gawn, Viney, May, JVR, Lever, Petracca, McVee, Windsor, Billings, Langdon, Bowey, Schache, Rivers, ANB, Fritsch, Sparrow, Chandler, Kozzy, Laurie, K Brown, Tomlinson, Howes, Salem Casey Group: TMac, KFW, Sestan, Tholstrup, Hore, AMW, Adams, Fullarton, Verrell, Jefferson, Weowodin, Clarry Injured Players: Melksham (Knee), McAdam (Calf), Hunter (Calf), Spargo (Achilles), Petty (Toe), Smith (Suspended), B Brown (Knee), Turner (Stress Fracture) --- of these players Melksham, McAdam and Petty were on the track early. Others may have been but not when I was there and I was there 25 mins before the start of training. Early on the track: Melksham & McAdam Melksham having shots at goal from 50 McAdam running laps as is Melksham now. Just on McAdam and his injury. I went to training over a month ago when McAdam was jogging along the boundary presumably after he first sustained this current injury and was just beginning his rehab. From my untrained eye he does not look that much further along in his recovery. Granted at that time he looked uncomfortable and today he didn't look uncomfortable but I have no idea how far away he is from returning to full training. That first training session I reported him running laps could have been a few days ago. Melksham looked fitter and more ready to return to training than McAdam in my uneducated opinion. To quote the Castle "It's just the Vibe". I have no medical training and I don't know if there has been a relapse or recurrence of the injury or perhaps that's just how he runs so make of that observation what you will. Can see Petty in Red walking back to AAMI Main group hits the field. No Clarry in the group but Salem is there. The final practice match is indicative of the Opening Round lineup so I’ll go out on a limb and say Clarry won’t play in Opening Round. Having said that, Kozzy is training in the main group and will likely play in the Practice Match but is not available through suspension for the first match so there is a position up for grabs. No Verrell in the main group so assume that Schache will be the backup ruck. Salem looking fit and sharp. Square drill player kicks to a player at another point on the square who marks and handballs to a running player who kicks to another point of the square etc. repeat Skills for the most part look sharp however there is very limited contact/pressure in Captain's Run sessions. Players on witches hats shaped in a diamond running and handballing to another player at another point in the diamond culminating in a player receiving and having a ping for goal on the run from 40 out. Split into lines: Centre Bounce: Max, Viney, Trac, Langdon, Sparrow, Salem, Windsor Backs: May Lever, McVee, Bowey, Howes, Rivers, Tomlinson Forwards: JVR, Schache, Kozzy, ANB, Chandler, Laurie, Fritsch, Billings, K Brown Tactical drill without tackling. Very quick ball movement end to end. Skills look sharp but no pressure. Drills starting from different points of the ground. Most starting off with Bowey. Other drills starting from a ball up or throw in. Very uneven number of players in white singlets as the opposition. Most of them the coach and assistants. Seconds doing some basic drills on the rugby oval next door. Clarry in long sleeves despite the warm morning heat. Looks like the main group is winding down with forwards having shots for goal. Couple of mids are doing one on ones from a tap down from the ruck. Couple of the defenders lining up to either have the ball drilled into the from Chaplin from close in or kicked high in the air. That’s a wrap. Easy Captain’s Run session on the eve of our last Practice Match. Most players have gone back to the rooms. Trac, Viney, Chandler, Windsor, Howes, Fritsch, K Brown, Kozzy & Bowser having shots for goal. Baring any hitches the 23 that trained today will be the starting 23 tomorrow night and with the exception of Kozzy (and fingers crossed no injuries) will likely be the 22 for Opening Round. With Kozzy out of OR there is a spot up for grabs so perhaps it could be Clarry. Also someone could impress in the 2s tomorrow and claim a spot. KEV MARTIN'S CAPTAIN'S RUN OBSERVATIONS Beautiful morning for a run, minimal wind, and the day has a little crispness to it (started warming up as the session progressed). They weren't showing much joy as they went about it (to be expected, Gus and other issues). I was told that earlier on, Petty was having a run and a kick. McAdam's was running harder with his program, and Melky was working well in his rehab (no strapping). Good to see that Fullaton is ready to go, as was TMac who were in the VFL squad (no Casey players). Starting 23 out there for a simulated captain's run. Looks like K.Brown is a forward. Originally was trialled as a mid and Tholstrup as a forward. I reckon K.Brown is seen as progressing stronger than Tholstrup and so gets the chance. Hope they rest, K.Brown in the 4th quarter tomorrow and give Tholstrup a late run. Given that the others didn't join the 23, however I assume the game will be only the 23 that ran out today. Goody ran most of the session. Great to him him using his whistle, and getting heavily involved by structuring/voicing what he wants. Usually he delegates more often to the others. Nothing like an up and about Head Coach. They were switched on in the drills, plenty of noise, and excellent skills. Really enjoyed seeing the small fwds working on and executing lovely passes into the tall fwds by Billings, Laurie and Kossie. Thought Fritsch fumbled the ball and missed some easy goals today. JVR is ready to hit the big time. Schache was one paced, though no errors. Had a discussion with a fellow supporter who reckons (I agreed), Tomlinson could play well up fwd, though unlikely. May clumsy and losing his feet (could have been the sun in his eyes), hoping he can get his 'mojo' on, which he had in previous sessions. Salem looking strong, training with the mids, plenty of composure, energy, and run. Windsor moves so well over the ground. Viney, on target to be the best I have seen of him. Tracc still with some anxieties when kicking set shots for goal (appeared to have). Two out of three hit the right spot. No contact at all. Last time I saw any tackling drills was ages ago, and the tackling during sims has been diminished/less impact. They hit each other hard prior to the Christmas break, now more about the defensive structure, run and transition. I am a bit worried as we have not done this type of drill in order to prepare to be 'hard'. Hoping, they have been working on it in the closed areas. We cannot drop our early games otherwise the media will get on the 'going backwards bus'. Tomorrow is not as important as the away trip to Sydney, but gee I hope we bring some tackling pressure. Go Dees

On the eve of the Dees first practice match for the 2024 season a couple of Demonland Trackwatchers bring you their observations from today’s Captain’s Run at Gosch’s Paddock. KEV MARTIN’S CAPTAIN’S RUN OBSERVATIONS Looks a a dress rehearsal Captain's run. 23 out doing drills. Included is Will Verall, Kynan Brown, Bailey Laurie, Caleb Windsor, Blake Howes, Adam Tomlinson, Kade Chandler, Jack Billings and Josh Schache. Rehab include BBB, Tom Fullarton, TMac, AMW, Woey. Not included in this group are Clayton Oliver, Christian Salem, Charlie Spargo, Angus Brayshaw, Shane McAdam, Matt Jefferson, Jed Adams, Marty Hore, Harry Petty, Koltyn Tholstrup, Daniel Turner and Kyah Farris-White. … The second team players have now turned up. No shows. Daniel Turner, Charlie Spargo and Harry Petty. Shane McAdam is doing his own program. Clayton Oliver is also with the second group, as are a few Casey players. The seconds are in red or blue guernseys. The captain's runners are wearing red. In red in the seconds are, Oliver, Farris-White, Jefferson, Salem, Sestan, Hore, Tholstrup and Adams. Seems Casey are in the blue. Lovely morning for a run, overcast, no wind, cool temperature. It's a captain's run of 23 players strutting their stuff. It looks like Kossie will be able to play. Interestingly they are giving some first yearers, new and young ones a go at it - Verall, K. Brown, Laurie, Windsor, Howes, Chandler, Billings and Schache. They appear switched on in the drills. Goody has implemented a few different scenarios in the no contact sims. Once he called a “power play”. Pushes a backmen forward of the stoppage, gets the wingers to be wide ('will only work if you are very wide') and they take the ball straight down the middle from a backline stoppage. Another drill had them receiving the ball on the inside corridor and hitting into the forward area. I can see us playing with a more open forward area this season, or at least at times and using a bit more strategy during the game, as we change the styles up. Keep them guessing Dee's. Forgot to mention that Angus Brayshaw was also a no show. Great to see all the rehab do some sprinting drills and were included in the team drills with the seconds (except McAdam and Jefferson). Woey wearing the yellow concussion protocol hat. Oliver made his way to most of the Casey players. Those Casey appeared a bit star stuck and Clarry introduced himself, shook hands and encouraged them. Nothing highfalutin about him. The Casey players did the drills well, looks like most of the younger ones. I'm impressed with Tyler Williams, Ryan Valentine, Charlie Muley My prediction is, year of the Tom Sparrow. Hit some great passes, looks fit, appears slim downed, and I reckon, will run through brick walls. Hoping Jared Rivers will also continue his trajectory. Caleb Windsor has learnt so much in his short time with us. Interesting to see how he goes, I reckon he will be a class above. I really want to see K. Brown. Reminds me of Robbie Flower body shape, very elusive (cannot be tackled), has great vision, uses/changes the angles and has skills. Hope Verrall has got what it takes. Big game for him. Another no show today was Melky. WERRIDEE’S CAPTAIN’S RUN OBSERVATIONS Bowser, Trent Rivers, Judd McVee and Blake Howes arriving now. Adam Tomlinson, Steven May and Jake Lever join them. Just kick to kick atm. Tom McDonald has arrived. Frittata and Roo have arrived. Tom Sparrow and Bailey Laurie join in Ed Langdon, Trac K. Brown, Josh Schache, Kossie, Kade Chandler, Jack Viney, Max Gawn, Nibbler, Jack Billings, Caleb Windsor, Taj Woewodin and Will Verrall arrive. Tom McDonald just told me that he’s right for the Carlton game. The group are doing agility drills. McDonald and Woewodin kicking away from the drills. Ben Brown, Tom Fullerton and Andy Moniz-Wakefield arrive Woewodin is out with concussion will be back against Carlton Now kicking and handball drills McDonald Woewodin Fullarton jogging laps It’s only just a guess but the players training in the main group will play tomorrow meaning meaning we will see K Brown and Verrall Ball movement has been impressive very fast Some Casey players arrive with Kyah Farris-White, Jed Adams, Christian Salem, Ollie Sestan, Matt Jefferson, Marty Hore, Clarry and Koltyn Tholstrup. B. Brown Fullerton and AMW are playing keeping’s off. Forwards and mids kicking for goal while the backs do marking and kicking drills The seconds are training now. McAdam jogging laps. The seniors are done. Woewodin doing drills. Todays been non contact so it’s understandable why he’s doing the drills AMW in the drills as well B. Brown also the drills as is Fullarton - mustn’t be too far away. Even Tom McDonald is now in the drills The only ones that are not participating are McAdam and Jefferson who is having shots at goal. Jefferson just told me they are adjusting his loads that’s why he’s not training but will play in the reserves AMW, B. Brown and Fullarton should be available for opening round the only concern is McAdam who seems a fair way away from returning to the team McAdam told me he should be right round 2 the calf niggle is not as bad as he first thought The reserves are done and dusted TOUGH KENT'S CAPTAIN'S RUN OBSERVATIONS CLAYTON IS BACK!!! Clarrie will play in the seconds tomorrow. From the Captain's Run: Senior squad for tomorrow: May, Roo, McVee, Trac, Windsor, Viney, Lever, Gawn, Billings, Langdon, Laurie, Bowey, Schache, Thommo, Howes, Rivers, Verrall, Nibbler, Fritta, Spaz, Kozzie, Chin. Gus and Spargo nowhere to be seen. Didn't sight Hunter, Petty, Melks, Disco Turner. Shane McAdam did very slow runthroughs on the boundary line. The rest, including Clayton, Salo, Marty Hore trained with the Casey boys when the seniors finished up. TMac, Browny, Andy Moniz-Wakefield, Fullarton, Taj Woewodin all did stuff away and with the main group. I spoke to these boys and they all hope to play in the next week or two. CHECKOUT THE PRESEASON LIVE TRAINING THREAD FOR ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS AND CONVERSATION

Clayton Oliver was integrated back into the main training group today for the first time in 2024 after completing a 2km time trial. FriendlyFellow, a new Demonland Trackwatcher hit Gosch's Paddock on a hot and windy morning to bring you his observations of the session. Disclaimer: Saw on the socials they were down at Gosch’s Paddock so headed down for a quick look. Little to no presence of other track watchers and no current live thread, so as a first time contributor, giving what the people need! It won’t be as expansive and comprehensive as what we’re used to… but it’s something. Conditions: Hot and windy (no explanation needed). Training Format: Tailored match sim; line grouping skills; running.. and lots of it. Observations: Tailored Match Sim: Offense orientated simulation. Focus on transitioning the from defensive wing to forward 50. A team forwards appeared to play on the A backs, with Midfielders having cross representation of personnel. General observations – We still bias to target kicking into the pockets. Attempted to lower the eyes on several occasions to get into the corridor, but the defensive group were strong at intercepting and pushing the rebound. Goal kicking was accurate in windy conditions. Clayton Oliver – completed his 2km Time Trial pre-session and was fully integrated with the main group for match-sims (so yes, first session back with the group). Previously was on a modified running session program separate to the others. Had plenty of the ball in match sims. Was great to see close to the start of the season. Josh Schache - appeared to be the A forwards, along with Bayley Fritsch and Jacob van Rooyen. Assume he’s in the starting line up whilst Harry Petty is out. Was a key target on the long kicks into the F50. Kozzy Pickett – so active and such a livewire in the FWD line. Was the most dominant and damaging player. Jack Billings – genuinely looks to add class synergy in D50 and F50 connection. Jacob van Rooyen – not quite as big as May (direct opponent), but is the closest thing we have to a big bustling forward. His development this year will be so important. Adam Tomlinson – looked very settled in the A defense team. Played a lock down defensive role on Josh Schache. Jack Viney and Trac looked very silky in the midfield, as did Tom Sparrow. Other observations on the mids were challenging… I’m bamboozled by the detail you guys can provide on the mids at training. They all look the same to the untrained eye. Line grouping skills: Only observation was that Caleb Windsor and Ed Langdon were with the defenders. Perhaps Caleb Windsor is the emerging winger for Prac Games if Lachie Hunter remains out? Running: Various running drills, split into running groups that have been well documented on previous threads. To my surprise, Kolt was in the second group, albeit on a modified program - clearly has some speed and tank to build on in coming pre-seasons. Started to feel nauseated watching the efforts in the conditions so decided to call it a day there. Anticipated and frequently asked questions: Harry Petty was not partaking in training – stuck to the side with a ball in hand. Christian Salem was on the track and fully training in at least the match sims and line grouping skills. Lachie Hunter & Tom Fullarton were on a modified running programs sticking to the boundary line. Fullarton was doing some larger kms so looks to be recovering well. Don’t have a comprehensive list of non-trainers, so would only be guessing - which I want to avoid! That is all I have. Enjoy! CHECK OUT THE LIVE PRESEASON TRAINING THREAD FROM TODAY WITH FURTHER COMMENTARY

A bunch of Demonland Trackwatchers enjoyed the sunshine at Gosch's Paddock to watch a rapidly depleted Dees go through their paces with exactly a month to go until a ball is bounced in anger. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS REHAB: Brown, Hunter, AMW, Fullarton, Turner, Clarry, TMac, Melksham, McAdam ABSENT: Smith All players in Blue guernseys today. Clarry is in the building (Gosch’s Paddock). Petty is present with footy boots on. Clarry doing drills with McQualter. He was leading toward McQualter and zig zagging before running straight at him to mark the ball on the lead. Verrell who has been in the rehab group recently is doing warmup drills with the talls. Will keep an eye to see if he’s in the main group for the rest of training. AMW and Fullarton working on agility drills with a trainer. Hunter doing stretching with Ben Brown on the fence. Now doing basic agility work with another trainer. Worrysome that Hunter is at Browns rehab level of training. Clarry and Max doing ruck tap/roving drills. A good sight to see. Turner has joined Hunter and Brown in rehab. Salem, who has been on a limited training program in terms of not doing the contact drills, is doing warmups with the main group. Will also keep an eye on him to see if he participates with the group for the whole session including the contact stuff. Clarry back doing drills with McQaulter separate from the main group. Mixture of short passes, handballs or ruck taps from McQualter ending with snaps at goal from Clarry. McAdam and Melk have joined the rehabbers. They are just doing kick to kick to each other at the moment. Not sure what McAdam's ailment is but now doing the same agility exercises with Melk with a trainer. Brown and Hunter doing kick to kick about 35/40m apart. TMac just in a training singlet joining the rehabbers. He was doing warmup drills with the main group. Is wearing runners not boots. Hoping it’s a similar situation to Petty not training last week as part of a scheduled de-loading week. Spoiler Alert - it's not. He is leaning against the fence so doesn’t appear to be doing rehab. Steven May is training with the main group so hopefully he is over the soreness from last week. Both Petty and Salem are in the main group for now. Will keep an eye on them when they do the “match sim” stuff later on because that will be a good indicator of where they are. Sparrow back training with the main group after a number of weeks in the rehab group. He does not look like his has skipped a beat. Ben Brown doing 150-200m jogging along the boundary. Looks comfortable. McAdam doing same and does not look comfortable. Hunter doing the same now. Turner and TMac just chucking the ball to each other hard. Petty has come from the field and taken off one boot and is sitting in the golf cart next to the weights shed. 😱 Melksham’s on bike in the weights shed. Petty has both boots off. Insoles out of boots into runners. Runners on. Still sitting in the golf cart. Not good. Petty is out of the golf cart (in runners) and talking to a trainer on Gosch’s. Main group split into 4 groups and doing a keepings off no contact handball drill. Petty now in the weights shed slowly riding on a bike next to Melksham who is powering away on the bike. TMac heading back to AAMI. Tight calf apparently for TMac 😱 Has been sent for scans. JVR such a natural forward. His team got a turnover and he just instinctively positioned himself on Hore to take a mark. Woey and K Brown laying some ferocious tackles on a don’t arguing Viney. Jefferson lays a ferocious tackle on Billings who tried to sell him some candy. Most of his team went over to pat him on the back. On Billings, he has excellent skills and uses the ball so well and can hit up a target especially going inside 50. Unfortunately he tends to go missing a lot and I sometimes don't notice him for long periods of time. Having said that I think he will play Round 0 and I'd love for him to find the pill a bit more. He does look good with ball in hand. Fullarton running laps at a good clip. McAdam running laps at more than a jog. Still doesn’t look overly comfortable. Petty working the medicine ball in the sheds. Gus has come from the field and gone into the sheds but only for a short stint and goes back out onto the field. Crisis averted. Salem also off the fields and into the sheds but then begins to run laps with Clarry at a very good clip. Salem, who looks super fit, has not done any of the contract drills for a number of weeks. The past few weeks he has ramped up doing the early training drills but once the tackling/ball movement drills/match sims start he hits the boundary to run laps and a good pace without breaking a sweat. Watch this space. Melksham, Petty, B Brown and Hunter doing a circuit of ropes, medicine ball, weights and rower in the sheds. Verrell now running laps whilst the main group does the proper "Match Sim" rather than the full ground drill they’ve been doing. Both drills had contact but Verrell doing laps now. Max has total aerial supremacy in the middle of the ground. Rarely drops a mark. Playing on KFW. Match Sim starting with a boundary throw in on the wing. Max/KFW Trac/Sparrow Langdon/K Brown Laurie/ANB & Viney alone. Goody very happy with Kolt who was hard up on the boundary in the forward pocket with not a lot of space hitting up Spargo on the chest with a beautiful pass. Some other matchups. Schache on Tomlinson. Lever on Jefferson. Adams on JVR. The start of each portion of the “Match Sim” involves an uneven number at the stoppages either a ball up or throw in. Matchups vary as does the “team” with the uneven number at the stoppage. Sometimes the portion of the drill will start with a free kick on the full on the half back or a kick out from a behind. Woey’s foot passing is just sublime. Kozzy not doing any midfield work today. Neither are Riv, Bowey or McVee. Schache getting a lot of the ball as a key forward. Nibbler, Billings, Woey have hit him up on a lead with some beautiful passing. Chin with a beautiful kick for goal from a set shot hard up on the boundary. Goal kicking drills now. Variety of snaps, set shots and on the run. Some ruck tap drills in the middle with 3 ruckman taking turns Max, KFW & Schache tapping to Viney, Trac, Nibbler, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Billings, Laurie, Woey one at a time. This gives a good indication of who is in the midfield mix for Round 0. Other potential midfielders currently in rehab are Oliver and Salem but perhaps not Round 0. Forwards doing some goal kicking Chin, Kolt, Kozzy, JVR, Fritsch, Sestan At this point Spargo had headed into the sheds and was working on the ropes. I'm not sure if he had a niggle but he didn't participate with the main group for the rest of the session. Shows just how decimated our tall forward line is with Brown, TMac, Petty, Fullarton sidelined and Jefferson's limited preseason and rawness as a 2nd yearer. Schache of course is an option but for this drill he is practicing his ruck craft. As mentioned earlier it is interesting that Kozzy was not with the "mids" group practicing the receiving from ruck taps. Understand that he will mostly play forward but I was hoping he was earmarked for more midfield minutes based on the past few weeks at training on a Wednesday. Assume he will still attend some centre bounces most likely at the beginnings of quarters. Defenders and wings doing a separate drill - May, McVee, Rivers, Lever, K Brown, Howes, Windsor, Langdon, Adams, Bowey, Tomlinson, Hore. Jefferson off to the sheds and on the bike. Rucks and Rovers mentioned before now doing a tap drill (Rucks one at a time jumping into a bag held by Stafford) and tap to one of 3 rovers without an opponent. And that’s stumps folks. Spoke too soon. Boots are off and runners are on so I guess they are ramping up the running loads now heading into the season. Petty heading back to AAMI 🤞 Clarry back to AAMI after another marathon running session. Now it’s stumps. Viney remains in the middle of Gosch’s with McQualter and Sparrow, Laurie, Woey and K Brown doing one on one drills from a loose ball in the ruck. JVR, Kolt and Trac remain on the field doing goal kicking practice. SLARTIBARTFAST'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS It was a beautiful day at Gosch's until the players arrived and it seemed most of our tall forwards sat out training and did little or nothing in the rehab group. Someone's got the voodoo doll out for our talls as Turner, TMac and Verrell were all additions to this group since I last saw them and Petty did about 10 minutes and then absolutely nothing. Salem started with light drills and then just did running (mainly with Clarrie) and AMW, who had just worked his way out of rehab was back there. McAdam was also a new addition. At least Steven May did the whole session unhindered. But the number in rehab is not good at this time of year. The session itself was as low key as I've seen this year. There were few high intensity drills before ball movement drills (match sim is a very glorified description) and these drills were at about 75% intensity I reckon. Of course it's all part of the plan I guess and with matches against Richmond and Carlton not too far away perhaps it's to freshen up, who knows. Some players to catch the eye: Adams: there was some high marking practice and Adams was the stand out with several strong marks against the likes of Verrell, Schache and Tomlinson. He's got very good hands and he's come on in leaps and bounds from last year. You'd think the third tall at the moment would be between Tommo and Hore but Adams is putting his name forward. KBrown: I couldn't be more impressed with what I've seen from this kid over the preseason. He's involved, he's clean and his skills are sound but the most impressive thing is he looks comfortable at the pace and finds the ball really easily. He's a string bean above the waist but his lateral movement is really good and he's learning what he can do and what he can't. Viney: tried to do too much on occasions and got caught a couple of times but looks set for a really good season. Chandler: involved a lot and kicked really well for goal slotting a few from very tight angles. I think he's stepped up from last year and hope he can maintain his form for longer this year. Sparrow: did the whole session in a rare bit of good news. Kossie: did some really magical Kossie things when the ball was on the ground, what a shame about the suspension. Seston: is improving. He's getting more involved and looks like his running has improved and he's got great kicking skills. He was last on the track with JvR practicing his goal kicking and was doing it very well from a variety of angles and distances. He's also getting more involved in general play but today even I could have got a kick (perhaps!) KfW: in match sims he's against Max and just gets a lesson and he seems to have trouble judging the ball in the air to compete but perhaps Max is just too good. But he's improved a lot since last year and he won't die wondering if he could have done more to make it. All players had their moments. The regular senior boys just went about their business and blokes like Howes, Laurie, Woey, Windsor and The Kolt all showed their skills but really this session just seemed to be a loosener and I'm not reading too much into it. A prime indicator is it's the first session where Trac didn't seem head and shoulders above the rest. I'll be interested to read others opinion as perhaps I'm being too harsh, but that's the way I saw it. GEORGE ON THE OUTERS' PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Have to agree with all said by @Slartibartfast. The session was just "meh", which perhaps is not unexpected given we don't want to be injuring any more players beyond the 9 sitting in rehab or doing their own thing. And also we are getting to the serious stage, so all the hard work has been done, so to use @binman's analogy, we are probably tapering. If we think we had forward line problems at the end of last year, when we have Petty, Fullarton and now McAdam rehabbing with Kossy not available for the first game, there should be a good argument for TMac to fill a forward line gap...but wait! He stood out the session today as well.... The backs in sharp contrast....and it is a sharp contrast....have their cup running over! Marty Hore, Tomlinson, Howes and Adams are all looking like they could fill any holes and probably more. But the rest of the regulars in the backline look as good as they have ever been, so where will the gaps happen? And I also have to agree with @Slartibartfastabout Kynan Brown. Sharp, slippery and skilled, he will be a great option at some point...but not this year. Like all the first year kids, he just doesn't have the strength to exist at the top level. When you see him and Windsor stand next to Woewodin for example, you truly see what the effect of one year in the system produces from a physical perspective. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Very nice morning for a run around, not too much wind and temperature is perfect. Looks to be about 32 to 34 in full training. The drills were done with skill and precision. Mainly controlled by Taylor Whitford (VFL coach) The occasional reference to the super-bowl appeared. Our new young players lead the way with their skill sets. Windsor, K. Brown, rarely miss, Tholstrup if he slips up, the next action is perfect and the effort he makes is great. Setting great standards. Jefferson has worked well on his tackling, he brought a few down in the sims, taking some marks and getting separation. Sestan doesn't have a defensive game, will need to improve himself through Casey, I reckon. They continue to rotate quite a few through the mids during sims. They split into the lines at one stage, mids (McQualter) had Gus, Viney, Tracc, Windsor, Spargo, K.Brown, Langdon, Laurie, Max, KFW, Sparrow, Taj, Verral. Backs (Chaplin), May, Lever, Adams, McVee, Rivers, Hore, Howes, Bowey, Tomlinson. Forwards (Stafford), JVR, Fritta, Kossie, Billings, Jefferson, ANB, Chandler, Sestan, Tholstrup, Schache. Loved K.Brown's (untouchable), Sparrow's, (field kicking) Viney's (making links), Adam's (holding JVR), May's, (intercepts) and Max's (marking), during the sims today. Sims were run by Goody. DEE ZEPHYR'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Popped in for the session also. Others have covered a fair bit. Thought Jefferson was really intense with his tackling in the short match-sim, brought a few down. Kozzie is electrifying no matter the setting. Billings was getting quite a few touches and delivered well into the 50. K Brown will be a ripper I feel. Ran into one of the volunteers after the session on the tram and asked about Petty. He said it was a slight niggle and should be ok. Petty just gets down on himself when he feels something. Hoping for a return soon. Clarrie was great with the few kids waiting for photos and signatures afterwards. JONTEE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS A great day to be in Melbourne, the sun is warm, the breeze is cool, the grass is green and the footballers are out and about. TBH those who have already reported have covered it well but... Number of observers down from last week, probably because the schools are totally back, and no obvious media. The difference between Clarrie this week and last week was that he was moving quicker, start off with a fast jog then sprint. Did some kicking with Fullarton and another. Ended up with Salo running the boundary. BBB - running the boundary, look great, then not so as he tired. Moving well clearly building a fitness base. Fullarton - moving well for someone who had a serious hammy; running freely around the boundary and had a kick with Clarry McAdam - doing my type of training, walking the boundary then finished up running the boundary with Reece Conca TMac and Disco - had an interesting drill whereby you threw the ball at the other as hard as possible from a couple of metres. They seemed to enjoy it especially when they scored a hit. Melky - on the bike, which I assumed was loaded, as he did like 10 sec bursts. And one for the ladies - shirt off. Petty - not so happy. With a foot injury, everyone comes up and stares at your foot, even if you are wearing a boot. What do they expect to see? But then even I was doing it. AMW - relentless running on the boundary. Match sim - 30 + in it . Schache up forward. Windsor to play round 1 with that talent. Kynan plays with intensity. Sparrow looked slim next to Trac. One of the coaches awarded Lever a free kick - thats blown his quota for the year. Go Dees FOX FOOTY'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Clayton Oliver continued to train away from Melbourne’s main group on Wednesday as the Demons superstar ramps back up to full fitness. Oliver initially took part in centre bounces drills with Max Gawn prior to main training kicking off before the triple All-Australian did some light individual ball drills with assistant coach Andrew McQualter. With chief executive Gary Pert, footy boss Alan Richardson and list manager Tim Lamb all watching on at Gosch’s Paddock, Oliver then joined some other Demons in the rehab group including recruit Tom Fullarton and Christian Salem for other light ball work and run-throughs. Fellow recruit Shane McAdam, Lachie Hunter and Ben Brown were also restricted to light duties away from the main group, while Tom McDonald didn’t appear to be training at all. Oliver and Salem later ran around the boundary together in runners before Oliver did laps by himself, with the 26-year old active for the entire session. There was a clear focus on running, building his fitness and general ball touch as Oliver, who appeared to be in good physical condition and generally moved well, gets back up to speed. But some four weeks out from the AFL’s Opening Round, there’s still no update on when Oliver will be reintegrated with the rest of his teammates in full training. Elsewhere, new Demon Jack Billings took part in centre bounce drills with the rest of Melbourne’s midfield, led by Christian Petracca and Jack Viney. Alex Neal-Bullen and Tom Sparrow were also training with the on-ballers. Josh Schache and rookie-listed Kyah Farris-White were the only other Melbourne players doing ruck drills alongside Max Gawn with the midfield. READ THE LIVE TRAINING THREAD FOR EXTRA COMMENTARY ON TRAINING TODAY

Veteran Demonland Trackwatcher Picket Fence made his way down to Casey Fields on Friday to bring you his observations from Preseason Training and the Match SIM. PICKET FENCE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS NO SHOWS & REHAB Petty, Melks, Hunter, Fullarton, Jefferson. Not sure I saw Salem Clarry and Verrell both doing a POWER OF RUNNING and [censored] does CLARRY look mean, fit and PUMPED MATCH SIMULATION NOTES Full match simulation of 4 quarters of which I saw 3 quarters Windsor ... an abslute LOCK for round one, really surprised me with his turn of speed, precision set ps and pin piont disposal, might become our best ball user and Wow has he got some X FACTOR Disco Turner ... probably the best I have seen him in match sims, deft movements, a turn of speed and makes very sound decisions Jack Billings ... another LOCK for ROUND 1 just uses it so well, makes excellent position and his decision making was fantastic Shane McAdam … took not 1 not 2 but 3 MARKS OF THE DAY, will complement Fritta magnificently, just knows where to position himself, very very dangerous around goal and will be an absolute SURPRISE packet Ed Langdon ... HAD IT ON A STRING , Elusive, quick, precise and typical Langdon run all day Andy Moniz-Wakefield ... Again I mention him and although quieter later was heavily involved of the back flank, wing and anywhere else, CAN PLAY Spargo … The Salt and Pepper man was in everything, played very well and bobbed up all day Taj Woewodin … A lot to like, gets involved is fearless and sets up the play very very well. One to definitely keep an eye on Kynan Brown ... Just NEVER GIVES IN, just gives and Gives with second and third efforts, good skill set and elusiveness Schache Did some very good things took some marks, was very competetive with Max and although overshadowed, I can ALMOST see him playing round 1 based on today ONE WORD SUMMATIONS Max Outstanding Kozzy Freakish Tomlinson Belongs Viney Beast May Fearless Lever Methodical Tracc Superstar A lot going right, very high standard game and one which should give the selectors plenty to think about in the coming weeks. BRENNO'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I headed down to Casey for a few hours this morning whilst I was “out seeing a client” 😉. It was hard to tell who was who on occasion as a lot of them didn't have numbers on the jumpers and were wearing caps. So go easy if I botch a few things here. I’ll do my best to share my observations. I arrived around 9.40 and the drills were underway. Clarry was running at a solid pace for most of the session and according to the man himself he thinks he is a “couple of weeks away” from joining the main group. Will Verrall did quite a solid amount of running along the boundary with Clarry and didn’t look far off. Viney wasn’t participating in the drills when I first arrived but joined shortly after and played through the entire match sim later in the session. Whatever he limped off with the other day clearly is no issue. Fullarton also jogged for about an hour and didn’t seem to be uncomfortable but was at minimal pace. Salem was hanging around near the interchange bench for a while during match sim, but he did not train at all to my knowledge. I didn’t see Petty, Bowey, BB, Hunter, Melky, or Smith at all. They may have been on the far side of the ground from me or inside on the bikes, but as far as I can tell none of them participated today. Jefferson participated in a few drills, but I didn’t notice him after the first 20 minutes. There were about 30 mins or so of ball movement drills before the good stuff started! Match Sim was made up of 3, 20 minutes “quarters” and there was AFL Umpires there to officiate. The teams started off with what seemed to be a mix of the best 22 and depth players on both sides, with the starting backs lined up on the starting fwds. Having said that the blue team was clearly stronger through the middle, even with Gawny and a few others on team white. After the first 2 “quarters” there was a changeup in teams and the blue team was stacked with our likely best 22. Interestingly ANB, Billings and Thommo all lined up in for the white team. Some interesting inclusions on team blue included Windsor on the wing and Howes and Macca playing down back. Macca looks fit and held his own today. Thommo and Disco might be stuck in Casey for a while longer it seems, although both did some nice things. Our key defensive depth looks great … The key forwards on the other hand look very thin. Roo was quiet today but is a great focal point when moving the ball forward. However as good as he is as a target, we really need another Key Fwd to step up or it might be much of the same in 2024. There seemed to be a focus on scoring quickly and coming from behind in this period, The white team were given a 30 odd point lead for the blues to hunt down, which they did comfortably. At one point during match sim Laurie received the ball during a center square stoppage and blasted it forward in a hurry. Chappy then yelled out, “Connect Bill, Connect!” I liked this as it shows they are working on a major issue we have had for the past 2 seasons. A work in progress but at least a sign they are addressing it. I was pleasantly surprised with our game style today, I thought the ball movement looked much faster then previous years and they used the corridor quite often too, this had mixed results but that's to be expected. Although Blue dominated the session, I must say there were some good signs from our younger brigade and depth players. All the draftees took part in the match Sim and showed signs of what they could become. Really liked Kolts energy and attitude, a future leader in the making IMO. Kynan had some very nice moments and looks like an absolute work horse, just goes, and goes. And Windsor…. Ill get back to this lad. Taj lined up in quite a few CBAs and did some nice things when faced up against our starting Mids, He really stood out to me today, as did Laurie. Positive signs aside, Gawn, Track, Viney & Gus were our starring 4 for blue at this point, and they looked levels above the opposition. Overall, the standard was to good watch and I left with optimism for the season and our future with our youngins all showing a bit. Just some notes on individuals: ANB - Undoubtably starting 22, he was BOG for white by a country mile IMO. Great player for our young players to watch and learn from. Kosi – Everything he touches turns to gold. He really stands out with everything he does. He does stuff that no one else on the list can. Track - looks to be in extremely good nick and was just a powerful beast all day. Viney - Seemed completely unhindered to me and at times untouchable. Kicked a very nice goal during match Sim. Gus – Looks to be fine after his big knock. Played a mix of halfback and midfield. I really like the look of him in the guts and should stay there until Clarry is back IMO. Track, Oliver, Viney, Gus should be our priority mids in 2024. Elite! Windsor – I will be shocked if he doesn’t play round 1. It’s the first time I have seen him play live in any form and he looks like a ripper. Used the ball well, ran hard to give and receive, competed better than expected in the contest and just looked like he belongs. I may have just caught him on a good day and his consistency might not be there yet, but I am a fan already. A shoe in to take Hunters role, just a matter of when. Sparrow – I know some on here are big Tommy fans, but from what I saw today he is in danger of losing his spot to one of the young and hungry up and comers if he doesn’t improve. He just seems to have stagnated. Taj, Kynan, Kolt, Lauire could all push him out if he is not careful. Schache – Never been a fan of this bloke, however I must admit he impressed me today. Got bullied a tad in the ruck Vs Gawn but that’s to be expected. He shouldn’t have to go up against many starting rucks at AFL level and from what I saw today he may well be our backup ruck/fwd this year. He had a great moment when he competed in the ruck with Gawn, smothered an attempted clearance kick then followed up with a big tackle locking it in. The boys and coaches loved it! Laurie – Thought he was a mile off the pace in his AFL games last year but looks to have stepped it up bigtime. He found a lot of the ball and looked clean, calm, and effective. Howes – Not sure if he will play down back in the AFL but during the drills and match sim he had moments that made you take notice. The kid can play, just not sure how he gets a look in. McAdam – Took a few BIG marks, one on poor old Gawnys back. He must be getting sick of that! McAdam will add to our forward line potency for sure. He didn’t get a huge amount of it but he was impactful. Looks the goods. Spargo – Looks super fit and was his creative self. Big fan! Lever – Loved his voice and leadership, I still think he will be our captain one day. Gawn – Dominated the ruck and was never out marked as expected. Today did highlight how badly we need to ruck depth ASAP though. Anywho, it was a great morning, and I am excited for the season to start! I’ll do my best to answer Any questions you lot may have! GO DEES! WALKING CIVIL WAR'S UPDATES FROM THE DEMON ARMY Maysie and Vines are training with the main group.👍🏽 Schache attack going really well up against Maxy. Caleb Windsor will play in opening round (that’s a lock-in 😂) Clarrie has been running all morning. Looking good but still has a ways to go. The match sim is underway right now, after which the boys have a “HUGE running session” lined up, according to one of the training staff. (They’re gonna just luuuurve that! 😅 especially Maysie who recently told me he [censored] HATES running) It seems it’s the ‘A’ team vs the ‘B’ team. B team actually holding their own. Caleb is in the A team. Kolt is in the B team. TMac in the A team. Apparently it’s a case of “Windsor… Wow. Just wow.” He and Tracc together = amazing A QUICK OBSERVATION FROM MATT DEMON Steven May (who left the main group on Wednesday due to general soreness and ran the rest of the session) came off late and didn't look comfortable. Tried a couple of run throughs and shook his head. He spoke to the trainer and went inside. What this space I reckon.

A number of Demonland Trackwatchers descended upon Gosch's Paddock on Wednesday morning to witness the return of 4 time Bluey winner Clayton Oliver and also bring you their observations from Preseason Training. DEMONLAND'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Rehab: Clarry, Hunter, Melksham, Fullarton, Brown, Verrell Absent: Smith, Sparrow White: Max, Rivers, Kozzy, Trac, Lever, JVR, TMac, Langdon, AMW, Jefferson, Spargo, N Brown, Sestan, McAdam, Laurie, Tomlinson, Billings Blue: Viney, May, Fritsch, Brayshaw, Bowey, Hore, KFW, Salem, Verrell, Schache, Adam’s, Tholstrup, McVee, Chandler, ANB, Turner, Woey, Howes Hunter working with a training testing out his calf. Was back in full training last week after a calf complaint. Looks like he has had a reoccurrence. Petty out on the field in White talking to an assistant coach with a footy in hand but not training with the main group. Clarry spent the first 20 to 30 minutes working 1 on 1 with new Assistant Coach Andrew McQualter and then began doing run throughs and other exercises separate from the main group with instruction from High Performance Manager Selwyn Griffiths. He ended his session doing a marathon session of running laps and interval running with Salem at a good clip. Whilst not in the main group it was great seeing him interact with players and the general feeling amongst those in the crowd watching was one of joy and optimism. Bang! Bang, Bang, Bang. Salem back training with the main group. Looks to be in exceptional nick. Clarry doing some drills with Selwyn end with a kick to a stationary Petty. Verrell has left the main group and is running laps. Salem, Hore & McAdam have left the main group as well and are running laps. AMW & Jefferson have left the main group and are doing a 2 on 2 handball drill with Clarry and Selwyn. My uneducated guess is that the players I have just mentioned as leaving the main group are being eased back in to full training and are “avoiding” the physicality of the current drill. Main group has finished with the keeping’s off hand ball and tackling drill and Hore & McAdam are back with the main group. Salem went with them but then came back to the boundary. Will keep an eye on what he does. Rivers is a beast with his run and follow-up off half back. Windsor picks the ball off the deck, sells some candy and pinpoints a pass across the ground to McVee. He has some silky skills. Trac don’t argues Kolt and then somehow creates space in a sea of people accelerating out of the pack. Vintage powerful Trac. Clarry and Salem running half laps at a very quick pace. Windsor with great closing speed to tackle AMW and stop a certain goal. With a cloud on Hunter could we see Windsor as an early round starter? Viney (who is hobbling maybe a corkie) and May (looking sore) have joined Hore and McAdam in separating from the main group to do some run throughs along the boundary whilst the main group splits into two groups to do a keepings off handball drill with tackling. May did not join the main group but continued running laps at a decent pace for the remainder of the session. Viney hobbling off the field now. Does not look comfortable running. Jefferson doing some leading and one on one marking work with 2 trainers separate from the main group. JVR’s marking on a lead is lethal. Now we just need to hit him up more often. Howes drills a beautiful pass down JVR’s throat on a lead. JVR gets some air time and takes a lovely chest mark. Gawn doesn’t have much competition around the ground and has complete aerial supremacy. Spargo getting a lot of the footy in more of a midfield role. Bowser is elite by foot. Billings too is very accurate by foot on the run hitting up targets. Kozzy is very classy will ball in hand. Praying for more midfield time in 2024. Both Howes and Laurie are also elite by foot. I expect both of these two to get a look in sooner rather than later. TMac's disposal out of defence has been great which also surprised me. My surprise packet this preseason is the work of Fritsch up the field and his physicality when laying tackles. Did not expect that and am loving it. In case anyone isn’t aware Trac is an absolute beast swatting off opponents as he does whatever he pleases. Bit concerned with Petty. He rocked up to training in the white Jumper indicating he was in one of the teams (Blue vs White jumpers). He had boots in hand but then didn’t train. Another uneducated guess but I get the feeling he was intending to train but then had a niggle or awareness and didn’t train. He didn’t do any running like the other rehabbers and just watched on the sidelines. He just walked back to the rooms with a trainer and whilst wasn’t exactly limping his walking did look hampered. Watch this space. KEV MARTIN'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Oliver is down training. He is out early with Gawn doing some simple centre work drills. Now he is drilling with McQualter, as Goody looks on. During a break Goody comes over to him and they embrace. What I would love to see, is him joining the main group when the whistle for collecting together goes off. They have collected and Oliver is doing his own program. Plenty out early, Rucks all drilling together, a few of the smalls drilling fast steps and shimmies around mannequins. Many are goal kicking. Tomlinson and TMac drilling together. No Sparrow. Rehab include, Petty doing mainly bike work, Melksham strolling around, Fullarton exercising with a trainer, BBB and Hunter very light duties. Jefferson training with an assistant. Starting numbers of full training was about 31 players, no run-ons (Yze, Mentha). We ended with about 27, 28 fully fit players. A bit of a worry given we are 5 weeks out. Viney was tackled between a player and the ground, shorts were ripped on one side, and he was limping. Kept playing, then left for some run throughs but couldn't complete them. Cork to the hip, I reckon. May ran some laps, as did Salem, who partnered Clarry in numerous laps. McAdam had some laps, though returned to the sim. Hore ran laps before the end of sims. Verral seems to have a running program going, fitness I reckon. Warms ups were the same as usual, 3 stations, one funny walk, the other handballs and third was short kicks. They then do some run throughs, Tholstrup putting in more than the others. They then go to more dynamic kicking drills, one precision, one lead to long kick to behind the player. A third was also used, (didn't observe well). They were boisterous, and playfully in the approach to each other. Off to the handball games, which became interspersed with the sims. They were still running many players through the on-ballers, Spargo, Billings, Bowey, Laurie, Viney, Gus, Tracc. The wings had some young players, K.Brown, Windsor, Woey, as well as Langdon there. At one stage they put Tholstrup down back up against Rivers who was forward. Jed Adams was looking good. Spargo ran the legs off the others, Kossie was playing a little selfish, Howes kicking was elite a few times. McAdams loves getting out the back for a goal. JVR holding some marks and getting on the lead. Fritta is back. DEESPENCER'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Caught about 40 minutes today, some of the handball drills and then a few periods of main stuff. I think Bowey was the standout, he’s really charging off the back in the handball receive drills and kept that going in the match sim. Using it well too. The other player who really impressed me was Fritsch just much more involved as a complete player coming up the ground in match sim. Match sim was fairly messy and unremarkable. Certainly more focus on run and carry and switching. Bowey, Pickett, Viney & Spargo all had moments in the corridor. Blue team had Chandler and ANB at half forward and seemed to have an easier time pressuring and moving the ball than white team which had Gawn, Pickett, Tracc and a talent edge in the middle. Not too much on the new guys. Kolt had a few link ups and found space in the match sim. Windsor still iffy with some of his disposals but there’s times were his pace is a huge advantage. They’ve finally got him a jumper that fits and he looks stronger. One that stood out a bit in the small handball drills was Jed Adams. Kossie burnt straight passed Schache and was planning the do the same to Adams but Jed quickly chased him down. I know he was impressive in the grand final sprint but he has really good speed off the mark too. Plenty to work on but that’s such an advantage for a tall defender. WAYNE WUSSELL'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Got down there for 90mins. Clarrie was looking good and giving off good vibes. He said hello, I told him it was good to see him. He did some photos with a young bloke near me, who was stoked. He had affectionate interactions with BBB and Billings, then soft tackled AMW to the ground and held him down (in good humour). I'm reporting a future injury... whoever tackled Viney, tore his shorts half off and gave him a corky! Many impressions from the session have already been posted, so I only have a few observations to share. Fritta looks very fit and is in everything, more physical in the contest than I remember. Tom McDonald is very strong in the clinches and I now have him on a par with Tomlinson, with Disco very close behind them. Adams looks good on the burst, but doesn't yet have the strength of the other three. Adam's kicking is also a bit iffy target-wise. I watched Stafford's ruck group closely. Max is dominant, as you would expect, but he provides elite competition for the up-and-comers. On todays form, Schache is the closest to providing Max with any competition, followed by Verall, who seems quite a bit shorter (even though listed as 199) and Farris-White, who is clearly improving. I need to report a few well known negatives from today's end-to-end stuff. Lever still stuffs up the occasional short pass and Trac still murders a few passes and gets very grumpy with himself. Petty was on the sidelines for this activity, but he and Tomlinson were yelling a lot of advice to the youngsters about positioning. They were particularly vocal toward Kynan Brown, who seemed only moderately interested in what they were calling out. It's true, Caleb Windsor is a talent. Quick, evasive and sure by foot. Glides around like a famous wingman who owned the members' wing! JONTEE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS For me it is a short train ride to training. It feels like you have enough time to eat a Burger with the Lot whilst waiting for the Punt Rd lights to change. Clarrie!!!! - lifted my spirits; still has that same boyish grin and his preferred method of greeting seems to be a wrestle. Light duties, lots of running, some dodging and don't quote me but has magnificent hips. Couldnt lay a tackle on him in a phone box. Had more sunscreen on than the combined U9s cricket team. Looked in excellent spirits. Lots of media in attendance Chin and Spargs train like they are competing for the same spot. Salo, Hore and McAdam runing some laps. I dont think Salo would raise a puff blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. McAdam fitness work in progress. BBB made an appearance on the boundary line, handballing. What a head of hair - to think mine started to clog the vacuum cleaner from 15.... TMacs hair coming back to normal. Petty - light duties, feeding handballs into a drill May doesnt tackle lightly No matter where I stand on the fence it always seem to be happening on the other side....grass is always greener..... Go Dees FOLLOW ALL THE OTHER DISCUSSION IN THE LIVE PRESEASON TRAINING THREAD FROM WEDNESDAY'S SESSION.

Demonland Trackwatchers Picket Fence and Joeboy made the trek down to Casey Fields on Monday morning to bring you the following observations from preseason training. PICKET FENCE'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS Conditions very hot but plenty of shade. NO SHOWS OLIVER, BBB, SMITH, FULLARTON, MELKSHAM MODIFIED DUTIES HUNTER, PETTY both on the bikes, and later JEFFERSON and VERRALL running NOTE SALEM, MONIZ-WAKEFIELD all back in FULL TRAINING! TRAINING DRILLS MANY AND VARIED 1 One on one full stoppage simulations and hemming opponenent in at boundary. 2 Random player ground ball gets and then precision passing to leading forward option. 3 Rotating forward entries from centre transitions to forwards leading with one on one defenders as checkers spoilers. 4 Whole ground manoeuvers from back to forward. PLAYER WATCH SCHACHE Standout player today for mine took several strong contested grabs against quality defence May and Thommo and perhaps the penny has dropped about being more hungry and aggressive at the ball. Mc ADAMS Um sorry I don't buy this fitness lacking thing , he is an excitment machine who figured in goals and knows where to run and go. WOEWODIN Continues to improve and looks confident and strong. JED ADAMS Looked pretty composed by hand and foot and could surprise. BILL LAURIE Trained very well and generally disposes well, but I'm not sure he has the X factor needed. KOOYONG KOLT We have a goodun in this guy, punches well above his weight and at one stage provided 3 pressure acts in a row and resulted in a turnover. A lot to like. MARTY HORE For some reason he just looks like he's ready to go, works well into a contest and disposal is very sound. ANDY MONIZ -WAKEFIELD Some serious X Factor, involved and very skilled in linking up. As you would expect MAX, LEVER, MAY, THOMMO, RIVERS, KOZZY NIBBLER, et al all trained as seasoned pros. HIGHLIGHT... A drone was hovering over Bowsers head and he thought swatting it was a good idea, got close but no cigar. Funny to see though. Drills are a lot more corridor based and feature the ability to a) Select the best option in traffic b) Execute skills to best advantage. Its coming together and the intensity is definItely obvious. N.B Not sure I saw Trac!?? JOEBOY'S PRESEASON TRAINING OBSERVATIONS I attended my first preseason training this morning in hot and breezeless conditions. I’m not a big fan of training techniques so I’ll concentrate on some observations on individual players, and let others comment on set plays. My initial observations were very pleasing: TMac has certainly changed his body shape (and hairdo) looking much lighter and running comfortably; Adam Tomlinson is generally not noted for his agility but a dedicated summer of training sees him looking lighter and quite fast too. Koltyn Tholstrup looks and trains like a man on a mission and his repeated efforts certainly don’t go unnoticed. Jake Bowie has muscled up and his kicking was a weapon Trent Rivers looks supremely fit and continues to give the impression he’ll play more midfield time this year . Not overly impressed by the fitness of Shane McAdam who seems to be coming from a fair distance behind the others in fitness Harry Petty likewise to Shane McAdam seems a fair way off match fitness, understandably.