Love that it’s the younger group guys like Pidge,Ridley,Langers etc taking charge the older blokes like Hurley,Hooker,Heppel etc should be just for support and not heavily relied on
elite
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By the looks of that photo we could do with a construction report as well.
Is that the new deck for the Blitz BBQ?
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rofl
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nackers keeps hitting submit but gets 429 error
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What happens first …
- nackers hits “REPLY”
- Essendon premiership
0 voters
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I deadset forgot we had him.
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Have a listen to @CJohns podcast. The Paul Cousins bit will have you completely lid off about the young group. 
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Training this morning in cool windy conditions. Luckily the predicted storms of yesterday held off mostly and we only got drenched once. Training went for around 2 hours, starting about 9.30 and finishing around 11.30.
The news of the training centre is that it is still officially off limits to visitors and will probably remain that way for the foreseeable future, so we were again restricted to viewing from behind the fence on Melrose Drive. It would have been handy to know that before I went in, parked my car and made my way across to the hill on the wing. I thought if we weren’t allowed in there would surely have been some sign up saying so, and as training ramps up they will no doubt get a stream of people coming in trying to watch only to be told to leave. There is a small sign on the main gate to the complex, but you can’t see it or read it when the gate is open so it’s not of much use.
Anyway enough if the rant, I wasn’t sure what was going to be happening today but was pleasantly surprised to see a number of players training in addition to the 1 - 4 year players. those that trained were:
McGrath, Draper, Parish, Langford, Caldwell, Francis, Ridley, Hurley, Jones, Bryan, Cahill, Ambrose, Zerk, Ham, Phillips, Draper and Hind.
Heppell, Hird and Johnson were doing some modified work on the sidelines. Laverde appeared out from the Hanger where he had obviously been doing some work in the gym, and Mossie was watching on from the sidelines which is no doubt good news for his contact status (although it did look like he may have been hitting the turtle soup a bit too much).
Of the remaining 1 - 4 year players there was no sign of Redman, Guelfi, Clarke or Snelling.
Other than that I didn’t spot any other senior listed or trialling players.
Heppell seemed to be moving OK but was restricted to light drills and kicking with his right foot along with some handballing and running, mostly paired with Hird.
So who’s looking in good shape? Parish seems to have really bulked up, Francis looks to have a much more mature body, Laverde looked in ripping nick (doesn’t he always?), Johnson has bulked up considerably as has Zerk, and Hird looks to have put on a bit more size.
Overall it wasn’t too strenuous a workout, really just blowing a few of the cobwebs off. There was a bit of running, some wrestling and a number of ball movement drills, mostly working on disposals of 15 to 30 metres, no in tight contested work or long full length of the ground drills.
I watched Caldwell for quite a while and he seems to do everthing OK, he has a neat kick and moves smoothly, it will be interesting to see how he goes when we get to the more contested work.
I was also impressed with the look of Hind. I’ve obviously seen him play a lot in the VFL but never seen him train. He really does have that extra gear to accelerate away and his kicking looked more solid than it has in the past.
In the running Langford looked very very strong, and he is another one who’s body seems to have matured a lot in the break.
Some of things I have heard - a number of the players have been running at the Hanger and going to the gym for a month or more. Cahill has spent a lot of time following McGrath around, basically doing everything he was doing. Cahill was also another one that was running very well.
Bryan has been spotted there for a good deal of time as well, and was apparently looking very strong (although today he blew up towards the end of the session, he could barely run at the end.
Hooker has also been in solid training and is in great condition, along with Stringer who they say is looking as good as every.
The Irish boys are expected back in the new year.
I suppose I’d better say something about Draper as well or I may be banned by @theDJR. He was wearing number 2 (for those interested in these things). Other than that he didn’t particularly stand out one way or another.
Even though not a lot happened it was great to be able to actually see the players in the flesh again.
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Geez Harrison Jones has put on some size.
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Nearly doubled in size.
Now looks more like two toothpicks glued together.
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I would have thought Draper wearing 2 would be ban-able, in and of itself. #2MP
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I agree that Big Sammy Draper is worth mentioning twice.
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I have a collector’s edition jumper now.
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FLAG!!!
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Plays every game
we should just turn this into an auto correct to help out our hardy training reporters.
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