Training at Tullamarine on both days - Thu particularly hot.
The main focus of my interest has been on the atmosphere following the disgraceful performance at ■■■■.
The availability of players has been pretty much in line with Crow’s medical report on the club website although I note that Fantasia has now gone for an operation.
I’ve been told that much of the poor performance against Richmond was as a result of players not being fully recovered from gastro. I don’t see this as a full explanation and would question why some of the fitter younger players were not selected ahead of those affected if this was the case but the gastro was certainly a factor.
If I had to make a guess I would imagine the coach has had plenty to say about their performance and apparently the practice session on Saturday was extremely vigorous. I would think also that there has been some frank criticism of each other by the players themselves.
With Zac Merret injured and out of the game I found it strange that two key members of the leadership group were off after half time when leadership was needed but I guess that’s not their decision.
Training on Tuesday was competent without being spectacular but Thursday’s training went up a notch and I got the impression that the players were getting some of their mojo back. I’m not surprised at this because training has been quite impressive up until the Richmond game as you will have read.
I don’t want to comment on individual players but I suggest that supportive comments towards Aaron Francis might be helpful in the overall scheme of things.
My expectation, unsurprisingly, is for a much better showing against Geelong.
I was impressed with Ridley on Tuesday - he was chasing a ball and got an awkward bounce with an opponent close behind - he smacked the ball ahead of him with his left hand, gathered and kicked.
That’s not a learned skill it was the instinctive action of a naturally gifted footballer.
Can you add anything in relation to Francis? Hope the kid is ok but really want to see him back out there. Love watching him play the game how it’s meant to be played.
I don’t think it was legit that close at the end of 2016 when Ridley was drafted and that 192 figure was first provided… and Ridley has grown a bit since?
One day, Telstra will allow us to update the listings, and we’ll also find out what Smith, Houlahan, Stringer, B. Zerk Thatcher, Mynott and newLAV look like.
Not sure how we managed to sneak a photo of Saad in while Telstra weren’t watching.