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For two weeks JKH has started as the sub. I would have thought the sub should be a player who's a genuine on baller who can go into the middle and add some spark when other midfielders must be feeling tired. Using a small forward as the sub seems to me to be a waste of the sub role. As exciting as JKH was when he came on, why wouldn't you use as a sub in every game a player capable of playing on ball to make use of the extra energy he's going to have over every other player on the ground (except for the opposition's sub)? In my view, the sub should be of the ilk of Blease, Evans, Bail or M Jones (if they're in the 22, of course) not a small forward such as JKH or a slower player like Tapscott or Michie.

We all know we are several midfielders short of being seriously competitive but we have another major lack which all the talk around our forward line is missing. Yes we will look good if Clark makes it back to stand alongside Hogan, Howe, Dawes and Watts, but while our midfield recruiting and development has failed who remembers Bennell, Maric and Jetta? That great developing forward line of ours still lacks a decent small forward or two and BMJ collectively represent our other great recruiting failure. Since Davey lost a yard we have never had a decent crumber.

A short report on training from 9.30 at the paddock. I was only there for the first half hour and would appreciate advice on the balance of the session. There were two groups a main group doing inside work and a second group of small forwards doing lead up drills. The inside group comprised the main list and they focussed on 2 v 2 contested ball movement in a tight space, tackling bag drills, and a contested spread drill. I watched the group closesest to the northern boundary which was Sylvia, Tapscott, Byrnes, Pederson, Frawley, Howe, Strauss, NIcholson (?) and others. Howe and Tapscott struck me as the most switched on - both were quick and effective. Sylvia is hard to stop and was impressive and elusive. Byrnes looked to me rather ineffectual - and a bit uninterested (too harsh?) - he is an outside mid afterall and pretty small. Frawley was fairly relaxed / laid back though clean and effective enough. Pederson was surprisingly quick for a guy his size. Watts and Gillies (?) ran laps. The small forward group (my assumption here) was basically doing a light one on one contest drill which resulted in a free kick which lead to a lead from a small forward. The participants were Blease and I think Dom Barry and others I cant identify. The drill wasnt executed well and the ball receivers werent really up to gathering the half volley and rarely timed their runs to be a full stretch. They were being asked to time their runs but they werent. I didnt see Dawes. If someone could fill in the gaps and expand on what happened that would be appreciated.