ELITE performance manager Dave Misson says the players are “well and truly” into their pre-season program.
Misson said the squad, including the four recruits from last Friday night’s NAB AFL Draft, had an important period leading up to the Christmas/New Year break.
“It’s the end of week two since the five [year] plus guys have come back and [we’ve] got three weeks to go [until the break],” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“We’ll just have a standard run into Christmas. The boys have got two and a half weeks off over the break, so they get a pretty structured program.
“We come back after Christmas and we’ve got two or three weeks, and then we’re up to Maroochydore [for our pre-season camp], so it won’t be long until we’re talking about JLT [Community Series].”
Misson said draftees Charlie Spargo (shoulder) and Harrison Petty (elbow) were being monitored after arriving at the club with injuries.
Dave Misson’s December pre-season update
Nathan Jones: Nathan is back in the main group, after he just had a minor calf. It wasn’t quite a strain, but we’re pretty precautionary in pre-season, but he joined in [with the main group] on Friday.
Dean Kent: Kenty had that shoulder [injury] after the Darwin game [against the Adelaide Crows in round 17, this year]. He’s pretty close to starting some contact. He’s done a lot of running and is pretty fit.
Tom McDonald: He had surgery on each ankle and is going very well. He’s done a lot of running and is starting to get into some pretty intense agility work, and football work. He’ll probably jump into the main group after Christmas, but he’s going well.
Harrison Petty: Ten days ago, Harrison fractured his elbow, tripping over a wire fence, so both of those guys have got a little bit of time in rehab. Bayley and Oskar are going pretty well and they’ve come in and they’re pretty sharp.
Joel Smith: Joel’s towards the end of his rehab, with that fracture he had with his knee. He’s looking like the Joel Smith of old – really athletic and dynamic, so [we’re] pretty pleased with how he’s going.
Tim Smith: Tim had that navicular stress fracture. He’s done a couple of weeks of running outside and is going really well. He’s started to do run throughs and a little bit of agility.
Charlie Spargo: Charlie had a shoulder reconstruction during the year and he’s not far away from getting into some contact.
Aaron vandenBerg: Vanders has been a little bit slow, just with that foot [injury], but he’s probably had his best week in rehab this week. We’re really hopeful that he can start to progress a little bit quicker.
Jack Viney: Jack’s going pretty well, as expected with the [foot] injury that he had. He’s starting to do more, and more on his legs, and being Jack, he’s working really, really hard off legs and in the gym.
Sam Weideman: Weids had ankle surgery in the off-season, so he’s progressing really well. He’s doing some good running on the AlterG [Anti-Gravity] Treadmill and he’ll start running outside next week.
