Spirit of 39
Cancelled
The Trident - Awarded to posters who do a hell of a lot on the Dees board
Melbourne Demons - Ricky Petterd 2011 Player Sponsor
Melbourne Demons - Jeremy Howe 2012 Player Sponsor
Melbourne Demons - Ricky Petterd 2012 Player Sponsor
Everything is methodical, and meticulously planned at MFC training these days. A whistle blows and coaches shout, players move hastily, bibs are exchanged, balls are dropped. Everything is done for a reason. Dave Misson stands on the sideline looking at his watch. He blows his whistle when a drill has gone the required amount of time. “Have we finished that drill, Misso, or is it half time?” bellows Aaron Greeves. “We’re done!” he screams back.
My highlight of today: It was a match simulation incident. A ball was kicked in the air to Ro Bail who looked like he would take a comfortable mark. Lynden Dunn came from nowhere to execute a spoil, landing on top of Bail in the process. As Dunn was getting up, he pushed Bail back to the ground. Bail didn’t like it, so before you knew it they had grabbed each other around the neck. It got quite serious when Dunn gave Bail a jumper punch to the chin. Dunn finally had the sense to release Bail, and as he did that Bail gave Dunn a decent elbow to the back of his neck. The two continued to play on each other with Dunn giving his usual elbow to Bail in the guts and back. Finally someone was sent out by Neeld to tell Dunn to pull his head in. It really did quite heated.
My observations:
-No Frawley, Clark or Trengove today. Gawn did his own running and skills session separate to the main group. D-Rod had the session off and helped Gawn do some skills work. Every other player took part in the main session.
-There was a match simulation exercise. It was white jumpers versus blue. It was scrappy and I was disappointed by the amount of times kicks failed to find targets going into the forward-line, and by the number of times the ball was coughed up with indiscriminate handballs, resulting in a turnover.
-Toumpas had no trouble finding the ball. He used it pretty well too. He did caught a couple of times. (He’s adjusting to the pace of the game at the higher level.) And he ran out of steam pretty quickly. (Again, this is to be expected.) I think he’ll need some good NAB Cup form to have any chance to play round one.
-Tom McDonald beat any forward he played on. He was just too good for them. Dawes, Sellar or Pedersen would start ahead of him on the lead, and he would get in front of them and execute a spoil. Tom was good at ground level and used the footy really well. BOG for mine.
-Matt Jones looks a player. He is quick, a good size. He makes good decisions with the footy. Matt just needs to put some size on.
-Shannon Byrnes never wastes the footy. He spends most of his time lurking in the forward line. (He gets to dangerous positions when the ball hits the ground from a marking contest.)
-Jack Grimes won a heap of the footy through the midfield. He is moving well. In my opinion he must start in the middle.
-Jesse Hogan has great hands. He looked a bit lost in some of the drill, but he marked strongly and was very good below his knees. The kid doesn’t fumble.
-James Strauss really impressed me. He looks fit, and most importantly for him his body language and voice is very positive out there. Strauss takes the game on. He is quick, and he was happy to get physical with and defenders he manned up today. He might surprise a few.
-The players are a vibrant, enthusiastic group who are working hard to improve. They continually encourage each other, but are happy to give out constructive criticism to each other when required.
My highlight of today: It was a match simulation incident. A ball was kicked in the air to Ro Bail who looked like he would take a comfortable mark. Lynden Dunn came from nowhere to execute a spoil, landing on top of Bail in the process. As Dunn was getting up, he pushed Bail back to the ground. Bail didn’t like it, so before you knew it they had grabbed each other around the neck. It got quite serious when Dunn gave Bail a jumper punch to the chin. Dunn finally had the sense to release Bail, and as he did that Bail gave Dunn a decent elbow to the back of his neck. The two continued to play on each other with Dunn giving his usual elbow to Bail in the guts and back. Finally someone was sent out by Neeld to tell Dunn to pull his head in. It really did quite heated.
My observations:
-No Frawley, Clark or Trengove today. Gawn did his own running and skills session separate to the main group. D-Rod had the session off and helped Gawn do some skills work. Every other player took part in the main session.
-There was a match simulation exercise. It was white jumpers versus blue. It was scrappy and I was disappointed by the amount of times kicks failed to find targets going into the forward-line, and by the number of times the ball was coughed up with indiscriminate handballs, resulting in a turnover.
-Toumpas had no trouble finding the ball. He used it pretty well too. He did caught a couple of times. (He’s adjusting to the pace of the game at the higher level.) And he ran out of steam pretty quickly. (Again, this is to be expected.) I think he’ll need some good NAB Cup form to have any chance to play round one.
-Tom McDonald beat any forward he played on. He was just too good for them. Dawes, Sellar or Pedersen would start ahead of him on the lead, and he would get in front of them and execute a spoil. Tom was good at ground level and used the footy really well. BOG for mine.
-Matt Jones looks a player. He is quick, a good size. He makes good decisions with the footy. Matt just needs to put some size on.
-Shannon Byrnes never wastes the footy. He spends most of his time lurking in the forward line. (He gets to dangerous positions when the ball hits the ground from a marking contest.)
-Jack Grimes won a heap of the footy through the midfield. He is moving well. In my opinion he must start in the middle.
-Jesse Hogan has great hands. He looked a bit lost in some of the drill, but he marked strongly and was very good below his knees. The kid doesn’t fumble.
-James Strauss really impressed me. He looks fit, and most importantly for him his body language and voice is very positive out there. Strauss takes the game on. He is quick, and he was happy to get physical with and defenders he manned up today. He might surprise a few.
-The players are a vibrant, enthusiastic group who are working hard to improve. They continually encourage each other, but are happy to give out constructive criticism to each other when required.
