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Sorry for the delay folks, been busy with work and no comp at home for the last 4 weeks.
I sat with Daniel Batson, on a round table set for 8 wih Daniel and Brad Fisher and sponsors. Daniel told me he is 202, and 97-98kg. He has put on about 7kg since coming to the Club, and he said they aim to put on as much as possible as their bodies are supposed to be able to handle it by the time they are 18. They use a range of supplements to help with the building.
He used to follow Essendon*, but realised a couple of years ago that he could end up anywhere if he made it, so was not particularly worried about where he ended up. His family is from Nhill, but he spent the last 2 years in Ballarat. I asked doesn't Trent Sporn come from that way and he said yes, north of Nhill the other side of a small desert. He shares house with Trent in Ascot Vale, about 10-15 mins from OO. I asked him where they have been playing him, and he said all around as they want players to be flexible, but he said he is really only a ruckman, and doesn't think he is suited to KPP. He said Chris Bryan has been going pretty well, and would be called up should Barnaby get injured. He mentioned the VFL loss to Box Hill Hawks on the weekend in the last 5 mins of the game, said it was really frustrating and that the quarter had gone for nearly 40 minutes when the others had only gone about 26 and that was probably a factor.
I asked him how he is handling the discipline with diet etc, and he said that's OK. He can have the odd hamburger because it gets burned off straight away, and can go out for a drink after the game. He has seen some of the senior games, he was at TD on Friday night for the Hawks game, thought the crowd was great and was very happy they won. He agreed Jarrad had a great game!
He is studying first year Engineering at Monash Uni, Clayton, part time, currently doing maths and structures, and finding it a bit tough with all the training etc. Said he has an interest in Mechanical Eng if he goes alright (Monash Uni Eng has a common first year). It takes him about an hour to get to Monash.
All in all, he seems like he has a really good attitude and will be interesting to see how he goes. He seems fairly modest regarding his own abilities, but I encouraged him to stick with it and said that many ruckmen don't really get going until they are 23 or so. He said yeah, look at Barnaby! Domenic suggested he build himself up into a Matthew Primus with a big physical presence and become a pack buster!
The dinner was 2 courses plus coffee, the sponsors presented with a framed photo and photographed with their player, handled in order of guernsey number with Kouta last, followed by the Coaches and their sponsor the Past Players association represented by Denis Munari and David Glascott.
Graham Smorgon kicked it off, representing Collo who he said was recovering and had actually called in at tyhe CLub during the day to discuss some football matters. He said they had expected that there might be a small reduction in Membership this year, so was very pleased with the current figure of 32006 and thought we were very likely to break the 2003 all time record the way it was going, specially if we could win vs Richmond. He also mentioned the huge turnout at TD as being an indication that the right decision having been made to move the home games ... he also said the actual paid seats at TD vs Hawks were just over 53000. He urged everyone to come out and support the team vs Richmond.
The presentations were split into 2 brackets, before and after the main course. A few players were asked to have a chat with Coutts:
Digby had a bit to say about the players being willing to accept any donations for gear for their club room! The players had a table tennis comp going, I think Campo said he had just been beaten by Stevo. Said he was not sure if he would get to play vs Richmond, but was giving it every opportunity. Coutts asked Eddie if he could hear the crowd yelling "Eddie", he said no not really, Coutts reckoned he was just being modest! Eddie seemed a bit microphone shy, something Digby certainly is not! Livo was just about ready to start again. Waite was pleased with his form and looking forward to more wins, and though it was good that the boys were looking for him on Friday with Fev not there!
Denis said a little about the team's position, said that while they had no "expectations" for what the position would be after round 6 at season start, he thought they could have won a couple more, and referred in particular to the Kangaroos and port games as games they really could have won. He said before the road trip they would have taken 2 points if offered it, but that in retrospect the way things panned out the disappointment was there that they didn't win it. He said he thought it was great that the Blues fans loved him cause from the coaches box he could hear them yelling out "Denis! Denis" during the games, but was corrected by others in the box telling him it was "Eddie!" the crowd was yelling. He said the big crowd at TD for the Hawks game had been great, and urged everyone to get along to the Richmond game to support the boys.
I had a little chat to Karl, and when I asked him if thought he was going to play this week he said he's been injured since early Jan with a lumbar problem in the back, and it's been taking a while to get right. He said he really shouldn't have played in the seniors yet, but did because they needed to try something with the depleted backline. He sounded a bit frustrated with it.
That's about it, I have mentioned elsewhere that Fish said he was aiming to play in 3 weeks time vs Williamstown.
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