I was there this morning and I certainly saw him training.
Him,may and McMahon had a goal kicking comp.
So not sure where you heard he wasn’t training
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Good to hear. I read it on Twitter and cashed in my panic dollars.
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Is this really true? Shiel hasn’t had an injury free year, but is meant to be a very hard trainer.
Any other training updates 6MAC?
Alot of work was done in there sections (ie backs,forwards,mids)
The backs from a distance where I was standing looked like McGrath,prior,Martin,Johnson, Blakiston, duursma,Roberts,laverde.
Forwards.
Wright,( who started with the mids rucking against Vigo)
May( get him in. Looked so impressive)
McMahon ( looked good aswell)
Gerryn( dropped alot of marks and very frustrated with himself)
Guelfi, ADW.perkins
The small forwards Kako,unwin,Davey,Menzies,smartt were over the other side of the ground together.
The forwards were in front of me.
Hurley was kicking to a contested situation where trav clloke played the defender .
May was very strong in the contest because cloke isn’t exactly small himself,
Tried to watch the defenders and Blakiston was the most impressive I thought.
They did a little bit of 3/4 field stuff where the first kick from defence was a little 15 MTR pass( not a Collingwood 8 MTR pass,) and then the next kick was a kick down the middle. Where a couple of times Blakiston read the play and cut off the pass
If he doesn’t play this week. Don’t be shocked if he plays against Freo .
Goldy was out there showing Vigo a few things so maybe this week is the week
Again the stupid vfl schedule stuffs us up by then playing Saturday night after our game and then the freo game being Thursday night.
I am heading over for that game. Leaving Thursday morning and coming straight back on the red eye
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Any clue for who comes in for Durham?
Blakiston and vigo debut this week i reckon. goldy back in vs freo
potential may debut too
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You think we are going to debut 3 players this week?
Not sure what our recovery facilities are like but can imagine plenty of advances have happened since the Hangar was finished so wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve fallen behind.
Edit.
■■■■ the pool is depressing. Good luck being motivated to do your rehab in that dungeon of a room.
You’re a legend mate!
Fixed
3 x 200cm debutants in one game? In for Goldy, Durham and who?
I’d rather see McMahon (another 200cm) before Blakiston, but Vigo plus one of the 3 MSD picks sounds like a lot at once, can’t imagine 3 coming in.
Potential has debuted dozens of times over the past 20 seasons.
Could do with ability making a few more appearances.
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I’ve pointed out over the years that just because we have a long injury list, doesn’t mean that our performance decline. The reason for this is that the players that we have injured are simply not that good. I would argue that we have looked better the past 2 weeks (other than the first quarters) than what we have in the past 3 years with most of these players available.
Let’s go through the list.
Draper - Super inconsistent and injury prone. Does he make us better, yes, but only when he’s motivated.
Bryan - Had limited opportunities. Does he make us better, not really.
McKay - Depends which McKay we get. Does he make us better, you would have to argue, no, he panics under pressure.
Reid - Injury prone. Does he make us better, the answer is yes, but he can’t be relied on to be available.
Ridley - Controversial take, but I think he is overrated. He is the most frustrating player on our list for mine. Has talent, can mark, can kick, but simply doesn’t damage with the ball. He has a habit of turning 90 degrees and immediately chipping the ball 15m to a player less skilled than himself. Does he make us better, yes when he takes the game on, otherwise no.
Langford - Been at the club a long time and has shown he can play. Does he do it consistently enough for a senior player. No. Does he improve us, maybe.
El-Hawli - No idea.
Nguyen - I think this kid should get a shot. Has aggression and is quick.
Cox - No idea where he fits in. No he doesn’t improve us.
Jones - See Cox
Redman - Another senior player who is super inconsistent and lives off a single very good season. Does he improve us - not really.
Hayes - No idea.
Edwards - No idea.
So with all there players missing, the common aspect is that most are unreliable. So yeah, we can look really good when it clicks, but most of them are unreliable.
Go back to 2021 when we were on fire, people lauded Essendon for playing so well despite the injury list (McGrath, Shiel, Draper and others were injured), yet we got worse as they all gradually returned to the team. This is because we had role players and a better balanced team, much like we have today. We are probably one tall short in the backline atm. Laverde cops a lot of criticism, but I’d keep him in the team ahead of 2 of the existing talls. He makes mistakes, but he tries to create play. I hate the safe football we play.
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Maybe Nick Martin is a better example, hasn’t missed a game apart from forced through covid.
Interesting assessment from an understandably frustrated Blitzer!
Get the feeling Blitzer training watchers are suggesting we all get along to the G on Saturday twilight to watch the new VFL Bombers take on the Cat’s senior team!
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But if you’re just picking some players who make the case, and ignore others who don’t, that’s not really an evidence based argument.
Shiel had a 4 year stint where he barely missed game?
In 2022 he missed 2 through suspension.
Maybe its our sports and conditoning at the dons?
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Some elements may be true, but others are baloney. For example, Parish was one of those in 2021 who got opportunity due to injuries, but now I suspect people would put him on the other side of the ledger.
But the fundamental flaw is to pretend that Q2-Q4 of the last two weeks, when the opposition is up by 30 odd points against an injury struck team is representative of our football rather than the opposition just relaxing.
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