It’s been a while since I’ve gotten one of these up, but with SC/DT opening in just 48 hours, I reckon it’s long due that I get back into it!

So sit back, and check out what’s been going on with Richmond, St. Kilda, Sydney, Western Bulldogs and the West Coast Eagles.

Richmond

11/1

Helbig was missing while Reiwoldt, Browne, Astbury, Moore, Batchelor and Cotchin were on a restricted program.
Martin tweaked his back a little and had to sit out half the session
Newman was training with the midfield froup, while Jackson and Houli with the defenders (as did Arnot and Griffiths).
Arnot and Ellis are both looking very strong (Seriously, Arnot looks like a tank).

18/1

MacDonald and Turner were all missing.
Good to see that Martin wasn’t effected by last weeks tweak.
Cotchin, Batchelor, Reiwoldt, Mcguane, Morris, Griffiths, Astbury and Browne were in the rehab group.
Newman trained with the midfielders again.
Derickx was very inconsistant. His kicking was top notch, but couldn’t take a grab.
Rance stood out, excellent disposal and a lot of voice.
Ellis was vary good in the drills.
The midfield group consisted of Dustin Martin, Daniel Connors, Matthew Arnot, Shane Edwards, Nathan Foley, Shuan Grigg, Daniel Jackson, Jeromey Webberley and Shane Tuck.
while Brandon Ellis, Dylan Grimes, Bachar Houli, Alex Rance, Ben Darrou, Piva Wright, Steven Verrier, Matt Dea, Bradley Helbig, Jayden Post and Matthew White were in the backline.

23/1

MacDonald was still missing.
Post was playing in Defence, while Derickx hands were a lot better than last week.
During the match simulation, Nahas did a bit of work in the midfield, while Tuck was seen up on the HFF.
Derickx copped a pretty hard wack, essentially rubbing him out for half the session.

Just quickly, it was revealed that the Tigers will not play Jack Riewoldt until week three of the pre-season competition.

St. Kilda

25/1

(This was the first open session for the year, and a massive shout out goes to the fine folk at True Sainters for getting the skinny.)

Kosi has lost a little weight and is looking fit as ever. You’d need to have massive rocks to select him though surely! Massive, stupid rocks.
Hayes is training very well. No signs of injury and should be out there come round 1. Hopefully they give him an outing in the NAB though so we can all see how he’s pulled up (Though he is planning to play them all thus far).
Gwilt is still looking injured, with a likely round 5+ start.
Goddard had his hamstring taped, but word is that it’s a nothing-to-worry-about job.
St. Nick joined the rehab group halfway through the session. Not a great sign from the sounds of things.
McEvoy was back in the main group however, so here’s hoping his tank is as good as it was last year (or better!)
Sounds like Cripps is being groomed to fill in one of the vacated backline positions at the saints. Could be a good option.

Sydney

Wow, Sydney is a tough cookie to get much out for. Seriously, if anyone can provide something- we would all appreciate it! As for what I’ve got, it’s pretty slim.

Sam Reid has added 3kg of muscle and is improving his fitness. Looking forward to seeing him in the NAB.
The Swans did a cross-training session with rugby outfit, the Warrington Wolves. They noted that bringing in their tackling techniques would be a boon.
Dan Hannebery underwent knee surgury a few weeks back, but from all reports, should be back running by now.

Western Bulldogs

11/1

Higgins participated in about 75% of the match drills, then ran laps.
Cooney, Lake, Williams and Morris were there, but none of them ran.
Murphy was missing.

13/1

Cooney looked a bit proppy, but Lake was running and looked alrihgt.
Morris were absent while Murphy and Williams were on restricted duties.

18/1

Lake, Cooney, Greenwood and Cordy were all missing.
Minson, Roughead and Campbell were doing rucking drills.
Williams was back doing running drills, as was Murphy.
Higgins did a full session in the main group.

23/1

Morris, Campbell, Lake and Cordy were there, but not training.
Cooney was back in the main group and moving well.

All in all, it sounds like the prospects of Lake being the cheap keeper we want him to be is getting slimmer. (Which sucks considering the round 11 bye!)

West Coast

Like the Swans, not a whole lot coming out of the West Coast camp, but here goes.

Looks like Swift is working with the HFF’s
Shuey and S. Selwood have both put on a few k’s in muscle.
Looks like Le Cras is going to tease us with another “move to the midfield”.
As of last week, Glass, Dean Cox, Daniel Kerr, Beau Waters, Andrew Embley, Adam Selwood, Quinten Lynch, Mark Nicoski and Sam Butler have all rejoined the main group.

That said though, it looks like there’s a promise of a training report tomorrow, so if I get my mitts on it, I’ll get the relevent details up here!