To be honest, I'd probably be more concerned about others if he was plucking those ones left and right than I am about only taking them here and there.
Training Preseason Chat - It's happening again ...
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Cobwebs
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There was some talk of Lever being his opponent so I wouldn't think it would have been an easy task. Think he will get some games but they seem to think there is a bit of a logjam from 18-22 best team. Good to see.
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That's not the most pressing issue. This is: How did your appointment with the doctor go?
Cobwebs
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Got anemia, just doing tests, all good.
Cobwebs
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Cobwebs
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I did, I won't again.
Proper Gander
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I went along to training this morning. I was meant to go sort out Christmas shopping crap but sod that - I can't stand Christmas shopping. Standing in drizzle at Gosches Paddock seemed much the superior option.
It was coldish with a light mist-like rain throughout which would have made the ball a bit slippery. I arrived at about 9:20 as warmups were commencing. The rehab group had Jones and Hannan, who are starting to look as though they are close to being back as both were running strongly. Tomlinson and Baker also remain in the rehab group, and are only running short distances at no real pace at present. They also got stuck with the pulling against a band held by trainers, which I don't envy since that stuff always leaves you knackered. Er... are we really planning to use Tomlinson on the wing? I'll give the idea the benefit of the doubt, but that would make Tomlinson the tallest winger in the game or possibly in the universe. Other than being an unusual size for the role I have no other information in support or against his playing that position since he isn't doing enough what with being in rehab and all for the casual observer to even guess what he could bring. Somehow I've managed to see heaps of GWS games without ever noticing him which is a bit odd. I understand he had an ordinary Grand Final, but that pretty much applied to all of the Giants that day - and I only know this from other reports since I was only half watching the GF, and was definitely fully sloshed.
I am now best friends with Oskar B. He said G'day to me as he jogged past, and again 10 minutes later as he jogged past again. So that's two moments we shared within a very short space of time. For every other time he ran past we both did that thing where you pretend not to see each other because further hellos were going to start feeling decidedly silly. Ancient Demon is feeling extra pleased with himself as he fetched a ball and returned it to Simon Goodwin, and was later acknowledged with a passing nod from Richo, so he is currently convinced of a close connection with our coaching group.
Four groups split off to do various drills for a bit, but then life got slightly more interesting because there was full ground match-sim-type practice. Preuss wasn't at training, so Max was matched in the ruck by Jackson and Weideman alternately. Neither look likely to win too many hitouts against him, but as the primary ruck and an All Australian this is hardly startling. Max is still a dead set gun. His mobility is excellent and his height means pretty much nothing gets past him. Defensively during the first half he got a fist on everything that came his way. He is the bearded headache of matchups in general. Jackson, while outmatched, is impressive in terms of his athleticism and tank. He played most of the session, only taken out for a couple of breaks - once to get some one-on-one ruck coaching. He didn't get too much of the ball it must be said, probably has some work to do in his positioning and leads. I saw him take a pretty decent mark on the far boundary, and a bit later saw his move-through-traffic thing being briefly on display. However the important take away re Luke Jackson is that he is pretty tall, has silly hair in a silly headband and at this point needs to bulk up a fair bit. This tells me very clearly that he is the next Nat Fyfe, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Kosi looks good in terms of effort, balance, fitness and activity, though I didn't see him get a lot of the ball either. He can kick off both sides, and his movement is easy and natural. He's good at evasion, and can lose his man to create a lead with pretty good effect. The other guy that moves well I thought was Bedford - I'm impressed again by how hard he works at training. He is virtually always on the move. I have no idea whether he can crack it at AFL level, but I like the fact that he doesn't plan to die wondering.
BOG for the day is vanders without a doubt. He was particularly impressive in the first session. He is moving exceptionally well, kicking with reasonable precision but most importantly just functions with that air of menace. He looks strong as an ox, I must have seen him successfully fend off at least four times. If he gets a full pre-season he will be extremely important for us. His footy boots are a nice, powder-pink shade which made him easy to identify.
Other players who were pretty good were Harmes, Oliver and Petracca - though Trac was caught big time in a tackle by Stephen May at one point after dithering a split second too long on the boundary.
It was coldish with a light mist-like rain throughout which would have made the ball a bit slippery. I arrived at about 9:20 as warmups were commencing. The rehab group had Jones and Hannan, who are starting to look as though they are close to being back as both were running strongly. Tomlinson and Baker also remain in the rehab group, and are only running short distances at no real pace at present. They also got stuck with the pulling against a band held by trainers, which I don't envy since that stuff always leaves you knackered. Er... are we really planning to use Tomlinson on the wing? I'll give the idea the benefit of the doubt, but that would make Tomlinson the tallest winger in the game or possibly in the universe. Other than being an unusual size for the role I have no other information in support or against his playing that position since he isn't doing enough what with being in rehab and all for the casual observer to even guess what he could bring. Somehow I've managed to see heaps of GWS games without ever noticing him which is a bit odd. I understand he had an ordinary Grand Final, but that pretty much applied to all of the Giants that day - and I only know this from other reports since I was only half watching the GF, and was definitely fully sloshed.
I am now best friends with Oskar B. He said G'day to me as he jogged past, and again 10 minutes later as he jogged past again. So that's two moments we shared within a very short space of time. For every other time he ran past we both did that thing where you pretend not to see each other because further hellos were going to start feeling decidedly silly. Ancient Demon is feeling extra pleased with himself as he fetched a ball and returned it to Simon Goodwin, and was later acknowledged with a passing nod from Richo, so he is currently convinced of a close connection with our coaching group.
Four groups split off to do various drills for a bit, but then life got slightly more interesting because there was full ground match-sim-type practice. Preuss wasn't at training, so Max was matched in the ruck by Jackson and Weideman alternately. Neither look likely to win too many hitouts against him, but as the primary ruck and an All Australian this is hardly startling. Max is still a dead set gun. His mobility is excellent and his height means pretty much nothing gets past him. Defensively during the first half he got a fist on everything that came his way. He is the bearded headache of matchups in general. Jackson, while outmatched, is impressive in terms of his athleticism and tank. He played most of the session, only taken out for a couple of breaks - once to get some one-on-one ruck coaching. He didn't get too much of the ball it must be said, probably has some work to do in his positioning and leads. I saw him take a pretty decent mark on the far boundary, and a bit later saw his move-through-traffic thing being briefly on display. However the important take away re Luke Jackson is that he is pretty tall, has silly hair in a silly headband and at this point needs to bulk up a fair bit. This tells me very clearly that he is the next Nat Fyfe, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Kosi looks good in terms of effort, balance, fitness and activity, though I didn't see him get a lot of the ball either. He can kick off both sides, and his movement is easy and natural. He's good at evasion, and can lose his man to create a lead with pretty good effect. The other guy that moves well I thought was Bedford - I'm impressed again by how hard he works at training. He is virtually always on the move. I have no idea whether he can crack it at AFL level, but I like the fact that he doesn't plan to die wondering.
BOG for the day is vanders without a doubt. He was particularly impressive in the first session. He is moving exceptionally well, kicking with reasonable precision but most importantly just functions with that air of menace. He looks strong as an ox, I must have seen him successfully fend off at least four times. If he gets a full pre-season he will be extremely important for us. His footy boots are a nice, powder-pink shade which made him easy to identify.
Other players who were pretty good were Harmes, Oliver and Petracca - though Trac was caught big time in a tackle by Stephen May at one point after dithering a split second too long on the boundary.
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Cobwebs
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Thanks PG, enjoy your write ups the most. Might be a half decent season if this keeps up with the boys.
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Hhhmmmm, PG and OB has a certain symmetry about it.
Proper Gander
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Other stuff I observed (I took a break just now to eat a cheese sandwich):
Lever looks really solid. I feel I've forgotten whether he is any good with the amount of time he's been on the sidelines. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion he is a class player so long as actually playing. He is as good a mark as anyone on the team, and not a whole lot gets past him which doesn't seem to be speed, its just instinct and positioning. I'd go as far as guessing that he got the better of most of his opponents this morning. He also is quite loud out there - I get a very strong impression he fancies himself as a future leader. Or maybe he is being specifically told to be vocal and show leadership out there? Weirdly this made me think he is a bit of a knob. I am aware this is a dead stupid instinct - maybe I have a natural distrust for anyone that tries to tell others what to do. Or it could be his truly terrible comedy moustache that he is getting about in these days - he looks like a baddie from a B-grade foreign film. Anyway, leaving aside my random prejudice that I appear to have suddenly developed, his fitness looks very good. He ran strongly on top of the ground all day. In the later running drills he was doing runs around the boundary with a couple of the younger guys (I forget who now, and I wasn't taking notes) and he was still talking all the time. Lots of "good stuff - stay with me" etc, which somehow made me think again he might be a flog, but all the same speaks for his fitness. If you can run around for a few hours and still run and talk then you're in pretty good nick.
Mitch Brown looked decent in some early drills of forwards v defenders, but copped an elbow to the head about 5 minutes into the match sim. Might have been Hore or Hibbard? Not sure as it was down the other end. I don't think he fully lost consciousness. The trainers made him stay down for a few minutes, and after that he took himself back to AAMI and didn't return. I imagine that is the general cautious approach with head knocks in training these days. He walked right past me and looked cheerful and didn't appear too groggy, so good luck to him.
May is definitely a good player, with a very reliable kick. Also very loud out there, though for some reason less annoying than Lever to me. I suspect I have a general bias against cocky youth or something. Trac never shuts up though, even if he has to talk to himself, but for some reason I don't mind. Probably because he has that thing about him that makes you think of someone letting loose a massive 10-month-old half trained bull mastiff in a retirement home.
Tommy looks good again. Much like his old and better self. He did do a spectacularly stupid kick to turn it over at one point, but that was when he was briefly down the defensive end, which is consistent with the way he has always defended. He also turned one over in the forward half, but from the mighty serve he gave Melksham I'm assuming that was somehow not entirely his doing. Omac also looked okay. He has always been a reasonably neat field kick in a conservative way. Nev Jetta looks a bit fitter than he did during our forgettable 2019, and Hibbo seemed noticeably better (he would want to though). We have a shedload of pretty tall defenders now that I think about it. If Tomlinson doesn't work out as an oversized winger than * knows where we play him.
Fritsch also a standout today. Again. Other than VDB he was pretty much best on. He is such an intelligent footballer and his forward craft is probably the best out there. He marked pretty well in the slippery conditions too.
So that's pretty much it for training. It's interesting that we have progressed to full-ground practice so early this year. Other years I have been, December was pretty much devoted to small group drills and so forth. I'm hoping this is a sign that everyone is in good nick and our early start means a better year. It's good to see that there seems a focus on moving the ball by foot. If there was ever a team that could use some practice in this area, it's us. I don't think I can watch another season of strings of 15 two-meter handballs to standing players under increasing pressure before the inevitable turn-over.
Lever looks really solid. I feel I've forgotten whether he is any good with the amount of time he's been on the sidelines. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion he is a class player so long as actually playing. He is as good a mark as anyone on the team, and not a whole lot gets past him which doesn't seem to be speed, its just instinct and positioning. I'd go as far as guessing that he got the better of most of his opponents this morning. He also is quite loud out there - I get a very strong impression he fancies himself as a future leader. Or maybe he is being specifically told to be vocal and show leadership out there? Weirdly this made me think he is a bit of a knob. I am aware this is a dead stupid instinct - maybe I have a natural distrust for anyone that tries to tell others what to do. Or it could be his truly terrible comedy moustache that he is getting about in these days - he looks like a baddie from a B-grade foreign film. Anyway, leaving aside my random prejudice that I appear to have suddenly developed, his fitness looks very good. He ran strongly on top of the ground all day. In the later running drills he was doing runs around the boundary with a couple of the younger guys (I forget who now, and I wasn't taking notes) and he was still talking all the time. Lots of "good stuff - stay with me" etc, which somehow made me think again he might be a flog, but all the same speaks for his fitness. If you can run around for a few hours and still run and talk then you're in pretty good nick.
Mitch Brown looked decent in some early drills of forwards v defenders, but copped an elbow to the head about 5 minutes into the match sim. Might have been Hore or Hibbard? Not sure as it was down the other end. I don't think he fully lost consciousness. The trainers made him stay down for a few minutes, and after that he took himself back to AAMI and didn't return. I imagine that is the general cautious approach with head knocks in training these days. He walked right past me and looked cheerful and didn't appear too groggy, so good luck to him.
May is definitely a good player, with a very reliable kick. Also very loud out there, though for some reason less annoying than Lever to me. I suspect I have a general bias against cocky youth or something. Trac never shuts up though, even if he has to talk to himself, but for some reason I don't mind. Probably because he has that thing about him that makes you think of someone letting loose a massive 10-month-old half trained bull mastiff in a retirement home.
Tommy looks good again. Much like his old and better self. He did do a spectacularly stupid kick to turn it over at one point, but that was when he was briefly down the defensive end, which is consistent with the way he has always defended. He also turned one over in the forward half, but from the mighty serve he gave Melksham I'm assuming that was somehow not entirely his doing. Omac also looked okay. He has always been a reasonably neat field kick in a conservative way. Nev Jetta looks a bit fitter than he did during our forgettable 2019, and Hibbo seemed noticeably better (he would want to though). We have a shedload of pretty tall defenders now that I think about it. If Tomlinson doesn't work out as an oversized winger than * knows where we play him.
Fritsch also a standout today. Again. Other than VDB he was pretty much best on. He is such an intelligent footballer and his forward craft is probably the best out there. He marked pretty well in the slippery conditions too.
So that's pretty much it for training. It's interesting that we have progressed to full-ground practice so early this year. Other years I have been, December was pretty much devoted to small group drills and so forth. I'm hoping this is a sign that everyone is in good nick and our early start means a better year. It's good to see that there seems a focus on moving the ball by foot. If there was ever a team that could use some practice in this area, it's us. I don't think I can watch another season of strings of 15 two-meter handballs to standing players under increasing pressure before the inevitable turn-over.
Proper Gander
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I would say indeed, but I'm not sure who OB is?Hhhmmmm, PG and OB has a certain symmetry about it.
Ah! Oskar!
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Proper Gander
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- #393
No problem. And thank you for posting the Demonland write ups. I like following pre-season, its the time of year when its easiest to delude yourself that we might be successful. Looking at the people on the boundary I kept wondering who are the DL posters amongst them. The only slight concern about the whole exercise is that unless you can disguise your motives by bringing a small child along, its difficult to look like a normal person as opposed to a saddo obsessive one step away from buying an anorak and hanging around train stations.
Proper Gander
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- #394
I just had another thought. Does anyone know where the f Spargo is? I don't think he has been sighted since training resumed? (Going on my recollections of DL reports etc). I'm getting concerned that he is chained up in Dr truth's basement or something.
Cobwebs
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Rolled ankle way back on November 18th it was reported. [page 8 in the New recruit small forward late starters post] Must be bad ligament damage for this long.
Proper Gander
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That's right - I remember reading that he did show up to earlier sessions in a moon boot. Maybe they have let him take a break for Christmas a bit early, or they've got him in the gym or something. To be fair, it must be dead boring to hang about training when you can't participate (aside from me and the collection of weirdos that ring the oval and try to act like "I was just passing"...)
Oh Dear ...
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Nietschke suffers second ACL injury
Young Demon Aaron Nietschke has gone down with an ACL injury for the second time this year
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Moonboot, into the pool and onto the alter-G - all of which means he's inside.
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Oh Dear ...
Nietschke suffers second ACL injury
Young Demon Aaron Nietschke has gone down with an ACL injury for the second time this year
Well that sucks. He might be another one of those Daniel Menzel/ Alex Johnston types with recurring ACL's. Poor kid
This may mean that we now have 2 open spots. One for Bennell and another one for ??? in MSD, once again as replacement for Freddy.
Well that sucks. He might be another one of those Daniel Menzel/ Alex Johnston types with recurring ACL's. Poor kid
This may mean that we now have 2 open spots. One for Bennell and another one for ??? in MSD, once again as replacement for Freddy.
Poor kid, i like that we are going to extend his contract, looks as though he is very highly rated at the club.
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