Well, technically its the 10th now, but I started writing it yesterday!

Anyways, we have another week under our pre-season belts and a few more teams have hit the tracks! The early bolter thus far is Matthew Bate, priced at roughly $290k as a forward, a predicted move to the midfield could see him push his average up past its previous heights of mid 70s. (Not perfect, but an 85 average would see him as a top 30 forward, which aint too shabby when paying for a 58.)

Anyways, the full report is over the break.

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Adelaide

9/11

Ben Rutten, Will Young, Ian Callinan, Richard Tambling, Graham Johncock, Chris Knights, Kurt Tippett and Daniel Tarlia were all in the restricted group, doing handball drills and agility/aerobic work.

There were two groups who ran a pair of 1k time trials, Van Berlo and Sam Shaw (Or Martyn) both took out the first two, while Taylor Walker lead out the second group, beating out Scott Thompson. McKernan, who had ankle surgery in the off-season stuggled to run out the distance.

Porplyzia was lively, so it will be interesting to see how he is priced. They could make him very difficult for us to refuse!

Brisbane

9/11

"Likely rookie" Richie Newell just 1 second off Harts club 3k record.

Big Jon Brown looks in roaring shape.

Drummond has had hip surgury in the off-season, so once again- put his cue in the rack early.

Newell, McKeever and Stiller were top 3 in the 3k run.

Carlton

9/11

"Pain is good for you" is the philosophy that Carlton is apparently adopting out at Qatar. I dunno, it didnt work for the Dockers last year- and certainly hasnt for the Tigers fans over the last 20 years...

On the plus side, it looks like Kreuzer has headed out to Abu Dhabi.

Interestingly (Though if you remember last week, the competition isnt huge), Bower has been the best-performed athlete at Qatar.

Collingwood

9/11

While they arent offically scheduled to start until Nov 21 (Though I believe they flew out to Azizona today?). That said though, Swannie was out there the other day, training hard as usual.

Essendon

9/11

Looks like the Bombers are focusing on strenth work- particularly in the legs and trunk, so it will be interesting to see how it effects them over the pre-season. I can think of a couple of Dons who would improve greatly with a little more strength and the ability to stand up in a tackle.

Fremantle

9/11

After last year, lets take a quick look at the casualty list.

Ballantyne is pushing himself fitnesswise in order to get some more midfield time.

Barlow should start running next week sometime.

Matt de Boer is a few weeks from unrestricted running.

Morabito should be running in a few weeks.

Pavlich is up and about.

Sandilands was running, so he should be fine to put in a big pre-season.

Garrick Ibbotson, Nick Lower and Nat Fyfe all had shoulder surgery, but it all looks hitchless and they shouldnt have lost any fitness from it.

Only 9 (Ballantyne, Silvagni, Pearce, Clarke, Mzungu, Mellington, Faulkes, Roberts and Broughton) players his the track this week though, so not too much to report.

Geelong

9/11

No report

Gold Coast

9/11

Looks like the Suns are lapping it up in snowy snowy Arizona. No real reports coming back though.

GWS

9/11

No report

Hawthorn

9/11

Much like last week, Roughead is out on the track doing everything he can to get back by round 1. Most of the boys are still on holidays. (Except Buddy, who was seen doing 100 meter sprints for over an hour.)

Melbourne

9/11

Grimes, Spencer, McKenzie, Davey, Evans, Cook and Jurrah started the session running laps, with the first three listed heading back to the rooms early.

Most of the group doing repeat 200m runs. Jones and Bail leading the charge as per last week.

Interestingly, Bate (who is already training with the mids), was paired with Watts for the sprints, which further lends to increased midfield time for Bate.

Green, Frawley, Trengove are being eased back into it after the IR Series.

Looking closer at the possible positional changes, Blease, Martin[/b] and McDonald trained with the forwards, Morton and Bennell with the defenders and Bate and Nicholson with the mids.

North Melbourne

9/11

Sure, its a puff piece, but Jack Ziebells aim for 2012 is to increase his time on ground by working on his fitness base, which was around 70% this year.

In fact, its all puff pieces as North keep tearing it up over in Utah.

Port Adelaide

9/11

Port did their VO2 testing on the 3rd, looks like the standout performers were Moore, Pittard and OShea.

Good to see that Hartlett is injury free and went hard (as they all did in the VO2s)

Richmond

9/11

Looks like the Tigers are heading out to the US for a bit of pre-season love. Havent heard exact details on it, but it should be in a few weeks before Christmas.

Annoyingly, the Tigers arent planning any open sessions for a while, so any word you hear and want to share would be appreciated by all!

St. Kilda

9/11

Gunna fill in what Stkildathunda provided through the week, it was good stuff.

<blockquote>
Saints preseason kicks off next week but is staggered depending on how long they’ve been at club: 1st-3rd year players start preseason on Monday, 4th-7th year players on 14th November & 8th year & beyond start on November 17th.

Same as i wrote other day but got pleasure of chatting to these guys aswell today.

Lenny Hayes was out on the ground when I arrived, running and then did some ball skills. He looks great, no sign of his knee injury. You probably wouldn’t be surprised but he is basically at the club everyday as he prepares to make his long awaited comeback in 2012. All seems to be progressing well for a Round 1 return.

James Gwilt was in the weights room as he continues his rehab from his knee injury he suffered in 2011. Apparently is there most days aswell, even though he doesn’t have to be. He is also progressing well & looks set to return around the Round 5 mark.

Nick Riewoldt was hard at work on the weights aswell. I know you cant take much from seeing them do a weights session but he looks determined and focused. He looks as fit as ive ever seen him.

Tom Curran doesn’t officially start preseason until Monday but they cant keep him away from the club. He is out there everyday running laps and just training his butt off. He is really putting his hand up to be promoted onto senior list for 2012 & is one to really look out for next year. The club is really impressed with the extra work he is putting in. Absolute monty to get promoted imo.

Didnt speak to these 2,but the other players said that Ahmed Saad & Terry Milera have already impressed everyone at the club. When they talk about these guys you can sense the excitement in their voices.

It looks like StKilda will be heading into the draft with 6 picks and then filling up with rookies. The aim is to have 38 senior listed players & 8 rookies with some being promoted closer to season, depending on form etc. So keep a close on our preseason for some possible smokies.
</blockquote>

Sydney

9/11

Training kicked off today with a 3k time trial including the following players: Trent Dennis-Lane, Nathan Gordon, Dan Hannebery, Campbell Heath, Lewis Jetta, Alex Johnson, Eugene Kruger, Jed Lamb, Dylan McNeil, Luke Parker, Mike Pyke, Sam Reid, Gary Rohan, Tony Armstrong and Tommy Walsh. Kruger won the trial, followed by Johnson and Gordon. Sadly, Jetta finished in last place.

Mitch Morton didnt run due to "an infection picked up in Thailand" - Brings new meaning to the term General Soreness...

4-7 year players will be starting training next Thursday, the 17th.

Western Bulldogs

9/11

Boyd and Cross both broke the club record for the HIR test (Beep test). They were tapped on the shoulder by the fitness coach and told to call it a day.

There was a nice little puff piece where Boyd declared that newly promoted rookie, Matthew Panos, should be ready to step up in the Dogs forwardline next year. For those who remember, Matthew Panos was hugely overrated by the big footy phantom drafts back in 2009, with many putting him as a round 1 pick. Obviously he had talent as a junior, so to fall that far, clubs must have seen limited scope in growth. That said, if he does take the step up over this pre-season, he could be excellent value.

The rehabilitation group comprises Adam Cooney, Brian Lake, Ryan Hargrave, Shaun Higgins, Tom Williams, Dale Morris and Lindsay Gilbee. All have commenced preseason training on modified programs.

West Coast

9/11

West Coasts entire squad will head to the Kimberley in late November for a four-day pre-season camp to kick-start preparations for the 2012 season.