Maybe Melky looks more menacing and angry in black and white?
Cheers for the Pics Karma…top job.
Dunno about the yellow, but has been great to see blokes training the actual jumper this pre season. We need to wear our colours more.
Hey ease up on SMACK
The brains trust look on with interest.
The last two slips need to start taking this more seriously. They appear to care less than England.
(Great work, KarmaBomber!)
Ah cricket! I thought it was tunnel ball.
I have to fess up…was surprised with Gwilt & McKernan…actually didn’t know much re them or their football. Especially concerned re Shaun initially seemed withdrawn & out of place…seems much more confident & Gwilt has been self assured all along. Confidence & experience surely makes a difference.
I especially want to thank these wonderful people for their insights, observances, pics & comments. I grew up in Essendon but have travelled in Aust. & ended up in W.A. Definitely missed the Melb. Footy Fever.
Now i’m a member & keep in touch my passion has gone thru the roof & loving every minute I can of EFC.
Thanks again, love my club & the cameraderie of Bomber Fans…
Went along to my first training day today. I had the same problems HM had with the “who the hell is that?”, compounded by the fact this was only the 5th time I had seen the boys live in six years. It is good to be back! So a lot of my time was spent asking others who that was, an issue that was more complicated by the number of VFL/top up players, and that players didn’t always have the right jumpers. For example, Hibberd was running around in #24…
And obviously, I have no point of comparison to previous training sessions. So don’t know how switched on they should be 6 weeks out from the start of the season.
Generally I had mixed feelings. I thought the probables looked good, but should they have been thumping the possibles by more? I thought Stanton and Heppell were cruising and yet dominant. I was very pleased to see Belly moving so freely - I am one of the few who rated him higher than Ryder, so really hoping he can prove me right this year.
Langford looked good, although not necessarily ready.
Colyer and Zerrett were providing a lot of run and carry, and pushed it forward a lot. Both looked in good nick. Colyer also took one or two good marks, one in the forward line. Think he’ll step up further than he showed in 2014, which is all good.
I think J. Merrett was #20 for yellows, thought he did well.
But overall, there were quite a bit of sloppy play and bad decisions made. I thought too often there were delays. One interesting bit was when it was shouted that they had to go back to the centre, Probables were 3 points up 2 minutes to go. And yellow promptly won it out of the centre and got it down to a set shot in the f50. Now, it missed, but it didn’t feel to me they stopped and said WTF? You were 3 points up with 2 minutes to defend and 30 seconds later someone’s having a set shot. Was just a little disappointed.
Seeing how detailed the regime was for Carlisle was also interesting. It was very controlled, with him having to do different speeds at different parts. It was funny when that was finished and he was told they were moving onto goal kicking he said a very emphatic “YES!”. Based on his training it would seem he’s going to play forward again (thank god) since many were around fighting off a defender.
Overall, enjoyed the time there and wasn’t entirely sure what to take away. The lack of context having not seen training before, and the long gap to the first week, and the difficulty not knowing if player A had just beaten someone else on our list or a VFL player.
Was I the only one that when we picked up Gwilt thought "WTF this will be a mistake"?I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about his pre-season. Maybe he’ll be quite a handy edition. Looking forward to seeing him out there.
Gwilty as charged.
Quoted PostWas I the only one that when we picked up Gwilt thought "WTF this will be a mistake"?I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about his pre-season. Maybe he’ll be quite a handy edition. Looking forward to seeing him out there.
Gwilty as charged.
A Gwilty pleasure nonetheless.
Quoted PostQuoted PostWas I the only one that when we picked up Gwilt thought "WTF this will be a mistake"?I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about his pre-season. Maybe he’ll be quite a handy edition. Looking forward to seeing him out there.
Gwilty as charged.
A Gwilty pleasure nonetheless.
Was and am more concerned about him being the wrong player rather than whether he could play.
I’m glad he’s doing well, though.
Jake C was overheard responding to his Performance trainer who had asked him to “pick it up” by saying “I can give you Usain Bolt speed if you want”..
Carlisle is starting to look built! Going to have a huge presence this season. Can’t wait.
This thread is an awesome reminder that footy is about guys playing footy, and nothing else.
I say it every year, and certainly the last few, but this is the most painful pre-season ever.
I love Blitz
Quoted PostHola HM, 24 in yellow was Josh Freezer. Got exposed playing FB a few times as he was assigned Giles and Bellchambers to whom he gave up about 10cm. Made a particularly ghastly mistake by foot deep in defence. He's one who often looks the goods at VFL level but was in over his head today.32, I am fairly sure was Hickey.
HM, I thought Tagliabue was playing? Number 2 in yellow? Was taller than Bellchambers, who continually rag-dolled him.Having seen the last half a dozen training sessions, I think Langford as a probable is no surprise. He is ticking a lot of boxes. Running patterns, Marking, Work rate and Goal Sense are all excellent for a player in his 1st pre-season. 1 hour into the Match simulation he was still presenting on 100m leads.
McKernan has actually stepped up the last 2 weeks. Seems to be playing with more confidence.
Was solid in the air and at ground level and is definitely a competitive beast. May well prove us wrong.Carlisle is getting closer and he knows it. Lots of grappling and repeat leading drills with fitness staff today. You’d reckon if he pulls up well after this session that he’ll be back in training next week. At one stage Hird came over, asked Jake how he was feeling and stood and intently watched him doing drills for a few minutes.
He knows how important Jake is to our chances this year.I thought the inclusion of so many VFL players, and the absence of some high quality, unsurprisingly, saw a significant drop in the quality (not intensity) of the match play as compared to the last couple of weeks.
Just seemed to be a lot more congested and less of the free flowing ball movement, I’ve become accustomed to! It definitely felt a little kamikaze in the first half, hence Hird asking the players to take care of each other at the break.I do I wonder whether the strong form of Gwilt since the break has lead to the coaches experimenting with Baggers further up the ground. Was interesting to see him in the f50 on several occasions today. Does seem as though he are really trying to build the most versatile list possible. As mentioned previously, Dempsey is yet to really hit his stride after a largely modified pre-season, so he is a major structural Q come round 1.
Melksham was good today. Super vocal, angry as ever and most importantly his decision making with the ball was sound again. Will watch him with an eager eyes over the next couple of weeks.
Tribunal aside, it’s anyone’s guess how the best 22 will look come round 1, On exposed form, I’d say there is as many as 10 guys fighting over 2 spots.
Melky angry! Surely your kiddin’
Nah, He’s in heat.
Quoted PostQuoted PostQuoted PostWas I the only one that when we picked up Gwilt thought "WTF this will be a mistake"?I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about his pre-season. Maybe he’ll be quite a handy edition. Looking forward to seeing him out there.
Gwilty as charged.
A Gwilty pleasure nonetheless.
Was and am more concerned about him being the wrong player rather than whether he could play.
I’m glad he’s doing well, though.
Complete opposite. Don’t know how much he’ll play or how long he’ll last but he makes a lot of sense.
Out of interest what type of player a) do you think he’ll be, with us and b) should we have got instead?
Quoted PostQuoted PostQuoted PostQuoted PostWas I the only one that when we picked up Gwilt thought "WTF this will be a mistake"?I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about his pre-season. Maybe he’ll be quite a handy edition. Looking forward to seeing him out there.
Gwilty as charged.
A Gwilty pleasure nonetheless.
Was and am more concerned about him being the wrong player rather than whether he could play.
I’m glad he’s doing well, though.Complete opposite. Don’t know how much he’ll play or how long he’ll last but he makes a lot of sense.
Out of interest what type of player a) do you think he’ll be, with us and b) should we have got instead?
a) third tall back. I’m not even going to embellish on that.
b) taller
Quoted PostQuoted PostQuoted PostQuoted PostQuoted PostWas I the only one that when we picked up Gwilt thought "WTF this will be a mistake"?I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about his pre-season. Maybe he’ll be quite a handy edition. Looking forward to seeing him out there.
Gwilty as charged.
A Gwilty pleasure nonetheless.
Was and am more concerned about him being the wrong player rather than whether he could play.
I’m glad he’s doing well, though.Complete opposite. Don’t know how much he’ll play or how long he’ll last but he makes a lot of sense.
Out of interest what type of player a) do you think he’ll be, with us and b) should we have got instead?
a) third tall back. I’m not even going to embellish on that.
b) taller
From memory, wasn’t much else on the table that was ready to go in the KPD category in trade/ FA last year.
Gwilt makes plenty of sense given the hand we had been dealt.
We were never going to have the currency to get a Frawley or Jaksch.
He’s a stop gap / short term list management solution that may end up being quite a handy asset.