I miss when Melbourne lost to our reserves team, TWICE.
Nowadays the only good thing about clashes with the Demons is knocking them off in VFLW finals, TWICE.
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Martin obv gets over run
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Redman captain
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GOOSE STEP
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Even better
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As other have noted. Tsatas is THICC in lower body already.
Some serious power out of those legs of his and should be able to stand up in tackles well.
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Stanton won the 2k without breaking a sweat, didnât he?
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Stanton looks like he is just having a quiet jog around the park.
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Whoâs in that 2nd photo? Montgomerie?
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Maybe, just maybe the correlation between height and power isnât as strong as blitz suggests.
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Câmon Nackers!
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They just told him there was a packet of Winfield Blues at the end of the track.
And FTR I am glad Stanton is back- he always kept himself to elite fitness standards. Seems like someone who knows how to get the best out of himself and I am sure will impart that upon others.
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Yep, moustache be gone
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Maybe Nackers is trolling by preparing to post and then going off for a long nap.
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Nah, looks like he is doing the Devon Smith high-knees-celebratory-run to mock all the slow people.
Training this morning in cool conditions with a cool gusty wind.
We noticed all of the group were at training today including the new draftees except Jaydyn Davey, as well as
Jones and I also canât remember seeing Bryan. There were no SSP players at training today including Eyre.
Cox was restricted to work inside the Hanger along with Stewart and Mcbride.
A number of players didnât do the 2km time trial today, including the above players along with Laverde, Ridley, Stringer, Munkara and Tippa. Ridley, Tippa and Munkara though joined in with the main group for most of the rest of the drills, while Laverde and Stringer were mostly restricted to running.
Stringer looks better every time I see him, certainly an improvement from the first day at training.
Caldwell did all the work with the main group apart from contested work, and Tex was mainly in the modified group.
In the time trial Martin had a good lead for led for most of the time, before Redman put on a strong spurt in the last lap to win easily, just in front of Kelly, Snelling and Martin. Reid was one who did surprisingly well also finishing just after the leaders and was very strong in the last lap overtaking a number of others.
Tsatas showed he has a bit of work to do in fitness finishing well back in the last four along with Philips, Alwyn Davey and Tex who was well back.
As with most sessions this pre season a lot of the drills were focused around kicking. There was one drill in particular where most of the group were in a compacted area and the attacking group had to hit a pass with the defenders just trying to mark or spoil to the finish the play. Generally the skills were fairly good. One who stood out in this which was noticed by a few of us was Tsatas, not necessarily for his kicking but his very vocal work when defending. He was continually calling out to players to mind a hole and pointing to where the gaps were, which is extremely unusual for a kid in his first real training session. They are normally much more reserved for at least the first few weeks. He looks to have a natural defensive streak in him and could well end up being someone to set up the team defensively.
Of the other new guys Montgomery looks to be a nice size and build and did quite well in match sim and general training, taking some nice marks and was neat with disposal. he was another who was concentrating on setting up defensively, and overall looked quite good in his first hitout.
I didnât notice too much of Hayes, except that heâs still very light, or Alwyn. I was surprised though by the height and build of Munkara, and from what I saw of him he looked very capable off both feet, although he along with all the other first year players sat out a number of drills to limit their load in line with previous yearsâ introduction of draftees.
In the match sims Massimo looked to be playing a quarter back type role, often being the player to distribute by foot going forward from the backline. Voss looks to be being groomed for a key forward role, and was often matched up on Ridley, He looks OK when running or on a lead but wouldnât want to get caught under a high ball at this stage.
Another who stood out to me was Draper, who again looks in great condition, but it was his skills work that seems to be constantly improving. His ball drop and general kicking are miles ahead of a couple of years ago, and his general ball handling looks much cleaner and polished as well. There was one instance in a keeping off drill where he did a beautiful no argue to fend off one player before getting tackled by another. He managed to shrug the tackle and get off a quick handpass to a teammate where previously he would have almost certainly fumbled the ball or has it knocked clear.
And just confirming what @CJohns said in his Friday report, Heppell has been training very strongly every session and is in his best condition for a number of years. Itâs very easy to forget the struggles he had with his feet for several seasons, If he continues to have a strong uninterrupted pre season he could well be a different player.
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Is 2MP okay?
Well that was an early plot twist. Draftee who wasnât considered defensively minded being super defensive focused at first training session.
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