Just other notes…sorry I always look at little things and miss complete drills sometimes.
McGrath looks the most confident I have seen him. Moving extremely well and today was kicking with spot on accuracy.
Parish took out the 2nd time trial by some margin… and like above looks ready to announce himself. Very promising to have two young high potential Mids looking as good as they are right now. Our Midfield with adding Shiel and the emergence of Langford(looks great too) really could transform from a weakness to a genuine strength in the competition…great age bracket as well.
Dylan Clarke: Kicking action has improved again this summer…bit more fluency in his action…still a work in progress but not far away.
Gleeson: He noted that he is still a few weeks away from running full pace…looks to join full contact training Mid Feb. Gut feel is he may struggle to play round 1.
Essendon needs more shaded public areas and seats at the ground. I like that they have opened up level 2 to public in the office outside area.
My other gut feeling is Clarke will play some ruck this year…moving really well and did an interesting drill where he tapped the ball down on the wing to rovers but sprinted behind the play down forward to open up a goal square marking option as play was going on…was quicker than I thought. Obvious if he does play they want him to be a scoring double threat…as he was in WA side this year…avg a goal a game.
Heppell is very vocal and if your in his training drill group…you have to compete and do the drill to 100%. Looks an obvious Captain now