He’s doing rehab at the club for his back. I think he’s playing TAC as a 19-year-old.
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If you pre-date Noah and Zacchary you must be about 3000 years old. That’s almost Noonan age.
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If he recovers from his injuries well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him play a few games as the 23rd man in the ressies, probably toward to back end of the season.
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Why are you expecting that instead of the usual Wednesday & Friday?
aren’t there Noonian geological epoch’s?
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It seems Zac Clarke’s name has been mentioned in a positive way in a few Essendon articles by the players and coaches. He’s making a good impression and may push Belly hard for a spot. Or is at least a good back up if Tommy is out. I know we are keen on Draper, but as a fall back option Zac Clarkes could be a valuable pick up.
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Sadly I take what people say on here a bit more seriously than I should.
As such, I’m backing in @westozziebomber view of the world, and not getting my hopes up.
Just play Draper.
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I agree. With Draper still in development (getting close, but not quite ready) we’re only a half a cm of TBell gristle away from having Zac Clarke as our #1 ruck. A bit like the fact that the US is only a few mm of DTrump cholesterol coating away from “President Pence”. I have much more faith in Zac Clarke than Mike Pence (for either role).
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It’s a different schedule this week. The blitz BBQ will be at training 10.00am on Thursday.
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Surely Nackers has finished his lunch?
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With the greatest respect to wob, the prevailing view is that while Clarke had a crap final year for the Dockers he managed to reconnect with his mojo in the WAFL last year. Not expecting big things, I wouldn’t be surprised if he performed ok for us this year.
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Player photos up on the club website. Nice !
Clarke is absolutely nowhere near belly’s level. Hes definitely a better forward than ruckman
He will be adequate backup. That’s it
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As others have said it was a very light training session today which was a bit of a surprise considering they have just had a 4 day break.
About 25 players were in the main group on the field, with 6 in the rehab group another 10-15 players who were only doing work in the hanger, which I could only catch glimpes of.
We asked one of the trainer assistants we chat to regularly about the training schedule, he said he expects it to be a full scale training tomorrow followed by the match sims on Thursday with another session on Saturday. I imagine the change of schedule is to allow for the JLT game next Thursday.
Not a lot to report from today except Redman was looking particularly good in the rehab group, doing full sprinting on numerous occasions along with plenty of kicking. He looks in excellent shape and I would think he will be ready to go by round 1, whether he gets selected or not is another matter. Apparently he has done a lot of work in the gravity free unit at the hanger to keep his fitness up during his rehab. Hooker also looks close to returning the main group.
The other one of note today was McKenna, who I’m pleased to say also looks very fit. In one of the drills he took a mark in the goalsquare, did a short chip kick over the top, got a handball receive and then sprinted through the defenders with 2 bounces to the wing to go through the entire defensive zone at which point there was no point even kicking as there was no one in front of him. I expect to see a lot of similar things particularly from him and Saad this year with the new kick in set ups.
Just another little thing from McKenna, it has been quite well documented about some of the tricks he does with the ball pre game. Today as the group was walking off the ground earlier in the session someone from behind him handballed over his head as he was walking away from him, he put out his right foot and very nearly caught the ball with his foot. It might not sound like much but is an indication of the incredible foot skills he has. He has now added a much more solid frame, could be a real beast in the near future.
The goalkicking at the end of training was generally pretty good, the standout was an effortless drop punt from Francis 55 out on the boundary that went dead straight through the centre. A few of looked at each other and said ‘how good was that’
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Club playing porkies again haha
Best news re McKenna and Redman! Thanks again for the update.
Was Joey out there, @nackers @MattPocock18?
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Thanks Nackers, Tombob & MP18. Lots to be excited about.
It will be interesting to see if/how Saad and McKenna are used for the kick ins. Their pace combined with the 10 m distance to the man on the mark and no need to kick to yourself makes them a potent option to run the ball out of the goal square.
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