Pre-season sometimes reminds me of the little Italian restaurant owner in the advertisement who says,  'a ship in the harbour is safe but that's not what ships are built for.'  By this, I mean the list looks really good this time of year and some guys seem to be training the house down, but it's all in preparation for battle with 17 other clubs who are no doubt looking and feeling the same way.  This time is about getting the ship ready for the rough seas of the next eight months.

One of Luke Beveridge's first requests on assuming the coaching role was to put together a pre-season camp and, sitting in on the first meeting yesterday, it's easy to see why.  He puts great emphasis on players forming strong bonds with each other and learning shared ways of communicating about mistakes and appetites for risk.

We had an initial meeting on arrival where Graham Lowe and Ben Graham outlined logistical arrangements before Luke discussed with the players what team expectations for the next nine days should be.  Then we took off for a light training session at a nearby oval.  There are several members of the clubs locker group travelling with the team on this camp and we took the opportunity to show off our goal kicking skills while the team warmed up.  Team doctor Jake Landsberger was the notable exception, informing us that his favourite position for any actual footy activity is LRO.....'left right out.'  He has agreed to show us his kicking style next session.

Yesterday's run was light.  It's what the players call  a captain's run.  This apparently has nothing to do with Murph's training ethic but instead reflects the light run the team prefers the day before game day.  Dale Morris and Fletcher Roberts ran some laps and Clay Smith did some lighter duties but everybody else joined in general training.  I later travelled up in the lift with Clay and he told me he was on track to be playing early in the season which is welcome news because he's an important part of our midfield going forward.

For a bit of training, I stood with Rohan Smith in the goal umpire position as a drill saw the ball propelled from defence to Jack Redpath, Tom Boyd, Jake Stringer or Tommy Campbell who took shots for goal.  It's hard not to get just a little excited about what our forward line might look like and do over the next few years.  Gia and Stephen King took groups for some competitive work around boundary throw-ins.  It was hard to pick anyone out particularly from this but nice to see Matthew Fuller moving freely and the recently drafted guys participating well.

I'm here for a few days until the demands of other parts of our growing business are going to pull me back to Melbourne and Ballarat next week.  I think the squad were all pretty impressed with my goal kicking, regularly slotting it sometimes from as far as twelve to fifteen metres out, on what I told them was my non-preferred right foot.  No doubt when my term as President ends, I'm going to be in heavy demand in a whole range of key footy roles.

Heavier training day today.  Dinner and civic reception this evening.  Tennis challenge for staff tonight.   Don't miss tomorrow's exciting next instalment.