Review The Pre-Season Report Thread (Requests, reports and much more!)

[Captain Jack]

Went down to training for a look today. Pretty windy, so some of the skills were a bit scrappy, especially those with suspect foot skills (Fitzpatrick, and disappointingly Gysberts, were probably the worst).

A standout to me was Blease. He's obviously not the fittest out there, but he really attacked training today with huge enthusiasm. More importantly, his kicking is so silky - a nice low trajectory, ball spin 100% correct every time, great penetration. He really stood out in difficult conditions. Fingers crossed he can get his endurance up and stay fit. On a side note, he trained with the forwards when the groups split into forwards-backs-midfielders.

The boys did a time trial early before heading into group work. The most part was spent really concentrating on breaking through a press, which was done with varying success. Still, great to see the boys working on something that we really struggled with last season. Jamie Bennell was also eye-catching here working the ball through from the backline with good evasiveness, vision and delivery. Hopefully he can be that rebounding small defender we need.

Other random notes from today:

- Garland was training with the mids. Looks really fit.
- Sellar was really throwing himself into everything. Can't doubt his commitment. Training with the backs.
- Bail was absolutely flying during the running drills. He looks like an elite middle distance runner.
- Sylvia did solo laps for nearly all of the session at about half pace. Must've run about 20 laps before heading away.
- Cook and Tapscott just walked laps. Petterd was also jogging slow laps.
- Didn't see Jurrah or Jamar
- A couple of unknown faces looked quite handy, a tall well-built blond fella, and a smaller, speedy aboriginal bloke. No idea who they were unfortunately but both looked to have good attributes.

Then Mitch Clark was handed the No.11 jumper by Jimmy. He looked very humbled.

That's all I can remember.

I was there too, as The Dr says it was very windy. This put a severe dampener on the skill level for the session, which was fairly disappointing from what I saw.
Blease was training hard because he was copping it from the coaches. Brian Royal was on his back regarding the repeat sprints (fitness terrible at this point, to be expected I guess but it's really not up to standard yet). He also copped it from Watts at one stage about a lack of talk, good form by Jack I thought.

Can't comment much on the new blokes as I didn't really know any of them by face. Sellar was right into it, which was good to see. High intensity.

The 'Press' drill was frustrating tbh. White vs. Blue, they took turns pressing and getting through it with generally average results. There were a lot of turnovers from those on the last line of the blue team - Garland, Rivers, Morton - based on lack of options up field. It was 2011 all over again. Not to single those guys out, but that was where I was standing. Suffice it to say that getting through the press needs a lot of work.

More to come as I think of it, I'm in a hurry atm.

 

[Wise Guy Sam]

Maybe we are just amazing at performing the Press

 

[Demon Revival]

Maybe we are just amazing at performing the Press

Answer is: NO...

 

[Crimson Azure]

Maybe we are just amazing at performing the Press

Thats the dream, 2011 was the reality.

 

[Demon JP]

Good to hear there's an altitude room at AAMI park now for the lads to use

 

[Demon JP]

[youtube]zl2REg8fxRE&feature=g-u[/youtube]

 

[Bartram_Class]

Jeez he looks good.

Be nice to have a left-footer in the mix too.

 

[BringBackTheOx]

i think im in love!

 

[LouisCK]

Viney looks a touch slow, but still very impressive.

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Looks like his old man handballing in traffic.

 

[Crusty Demon]

Jack Viney! He looks like the type of player that says follow me boys! Leader written all over him. I've watched him a few times live now, and the thing I love about him most is his 1 percenters. Shepherding, tap ons, tackles. He works really hard and looks like a team man. Tough as nails like his old man with better skills. We'll soon forget about that $cumbag at the Giants when Viney crosses that white line for the first time in red & blue. Can't wait...

 

[Demon 16]

Good timing - the exact type of player we need.

A tough, inside, quality extractor.

 

[richskee]

Will he be playing in VFL next year?

 

[richskee]

He has great evasive skills, moves very well through traffic.

The music on the other hand , Sounds like the music they use on sunday fishing shows.

 

[The Professor]

Nice clean hands and disposal looks good.

Could be a touch taller and quicker but he looks to be a one touch player so that should help him play quicker.

 

[dee64]

Nice clean hands and disposal looks good.

Could be a touch taller and quicker but he looks to be a one touch player so that should help him play quicker.

Can someone explain to me what the downside is of being a short midfielder?

 

[richskee]

Can someone explain to me what the downside is of being a short midfielder?

No diff. Ablett, Mitchell, Montagna.

 

[LouisCK]

Can someone explain to me what the downside is of being a short midfielder?

Better st standing up through tackles, better balance and lower centre of gravity.

Short blokes tend to be more co-ordinated than tall blokes also.

The flipside is that you get killed in the air and probably can't run as fast as the taller blokes. But you'll likely have better agility.

 

[richskee]

Mitch Clark was on SEN this morning. Nothing to exciting tbh, sounded like he just woke up.

Gaze and Watson could've been a lot better with there questions instead of the usual, tell us how neeld and co came up to Brisbane to get the deal done?

Zzzzz

 

[Franky_024]

Bit of an update from Jonesey

[YOUTUBE]RpFt41C2jZ0[/YOUTUBE]

Great highlights clip of young Viney Hard at it player, couldn't come at a better time for us.

 

[dees_2012_flag]

why is theres such a lack of training pics this preseason?

Poor form from Melbourne FC to have uploaded a grand total of 32 pics to the Facebook page,all of them taken a few weeks ago

I guess they are too lazy to take 40 or 50 photos from yesterdays session, its hard work after all

 

[Demon JP]

why is theres such a lack of training pics this preseason?

Poor form from Melbourne FC to have uploaded a grand total of 32 pics to the Facebook page,all of them taken a few weeks ago

I guess they are too lazy to take 40 or 50 photos from yesterdays session, its hard work after all

true, this person has been taking photo's and uploading them onto youtube, theres a whole stack of them. music is a bit shizenhousen though!

[youtube]SxqTZFLc43o&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

 

[richskee]

[YOUTUBE]TVrWHigYkSM[/YOUTUBE]

 

[dees_2012_flag]

true, this person has been taking photo's and uploading them onto youtube, theres a whole stack of them. music is a bit shizenhousen though!

[youtube]SxqTZFLc43o&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Thankyi

thats exactly what i was looking for

Whoever is taking those pics is a champ

Melbournefc.com lift your game!

 

[stretcharmstrong]

I have a request... How about a training report?

It's been 6 days since the last report, anybody get along today?