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2023 Player Reviews: #6 Brodie Grundy

Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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BrodieGrundy2023.png

Date of Birth: 15 April 1994

Height: 202cm

Weight: 95kg

Games MFC 2023: 17
Career Total: 194

Goals MFC 2023: 10
Career Total: 70

Games CDFC 2023: 4
Goals CDFC 2023: 4

The experiment of employing two elite ruckmen  as on ballers and forwards proved illusory. Grundy was a valuable and productive member of the team early, especially when Max Gawn was injured but the dream combination stuttered after the skipper returned and was abandoned in the final third of the season. Gawn produced his best when rucking solo and Grundy moved on to the Swans.

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    Positive is Max is gonna say when he wants to retrire...

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    Max Gawn polled coaches votes in 5 of the first 9 games that the combo played together. 

    All five of those games that he polled were dry weather games.

    Grundy didn't play well in 2 of the next 3 games (Geelong, GWS and St Kilda) and we all know how bad the weather was in 2 of those games.

    To say the combination didn't work is ignoring what happened in the first half of the season, and Goodwin made a selection blunder in the dry semi final simply due to valuing T Mac and Schache ahead of Grundy.

    With that being said, Grundy is a ruck by trade so I have no issue that he chased a starting ruck role at Sydney. 

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    35 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

    Max Gawn polled coaches votes in 5 of the first 9 games that the combo played together. 

    All five of those games that he polled were dry weather games.

    Grundy didn't play well in 2 of the next 3 games (Geelong, GWS and St Kilda) and we all know how bad the weather was in 2 of those games.

    To say the combination didn't work is ignoring what happened in the first half of the season, and Goodwin made a selection blunder in the dry semi final simply due to valuing T Mac and Schache ahead of Grundy.

    With that being said, Grundy is a ruck by trade so I have no issue that he chased a starting ruck role at Sydney. 

    I'd nearly forgotten about the Schache selection in the finals. Truly bizarre stuff - needs a bit more oxygen to make sure selection isn't done without question. Would Grundy have done better than a non-utiliesd Schache? Almost definitely.

    I think the excuse (or even reason) for poor performance being attributed to wet weather doesn't really stand up.  Footy is a winter sport.

    I also have no issue with Brodie wanting a starting Ruck role and wish him all the best up north.

     

     

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    Brodie's impact on the group, from a human perspective, can't be underestimated. A fantastic human and a genuine gun ruckman who absolutely deserves to be the number 1 at his club. 

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    2 hours ago, D Rev said:

    I'd nearly forgotten about the Schache selection in the finals. Truly bizarre stuff - needs a bit more oxygen to make sure selection isn't done without question. Would Grundy have done better than a non-utiliesd Schache? Almost definitely.

    I think the excuse (or even reason) for poor performance being attributed to wet weather doesn't really stand up.  Footy is a winter sport.

    I also have no issue with Brodie wanting a starting Ruck role and wish him all the best up north.

     

     

    Me too.

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    “WouldGrundy have done better than a non-utiliesdSchache? Almost definitely.”
     

    Absolutely 100% without any shadow of doubt could not have done less  - and not blaming Schache at all for that.   

    Edited by monoccular

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    On 08/12/2023 at 09:16, Demonland said:

    BrodieGrundy2023.png

    Date of Birth: 15 April 1994

    Height: 202cm

    Weight: 95kg

    Games MFC 2023: 17
    Career Total: 194

    Goals MFC 2023: 10
    Career Total: 70

    Games CDFC 2023: 4
    Goals CDFC 2023: 4

    The experiment of employing two elite ruckmen  as on ballers and forwards proved illusory. Grundy was a valuable and productive member of the team early, especially when Max Gawn was injured but the dream combination stuttered after the skipper returned and was abandoned in the final third of the season. Gawn produced his best when rucking solo and Grundy moved on to the Swans.

    Wish him all the best at Sydney. Ironic that he is the November man on the MFC calendar 2024. 

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    On 08/12/2023 at 21:24, monoccular said:

    “WouldGrundy have done better than a non-utiliesdSchache? Almost definitely.”
     

    Absolutely 100% without any shadow of doubt could not have done less  - and not blaming Schache at all for that.   

    Or an injured Tmac for that matter.

    I'm still perplexed by it all.

    He wasn't the fwd we hoped he'd be though for most of the year.

    It was worth a gamble .

    Best of luck to him.

     

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    It was utterly bizarre when we were planning on doing it, a clumsy situation when we tried it, a confusing mess when we abandoned it for worse options, and an apathetic catharsis when we moved him on for about what we paid for him.

    If failures can be measured in wasted time and effort - this was a failure. 

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    13 minutes ago, rpfc said:

     

    If failures can be measured in wasted time and effort - this was a failure. 

    “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

    Edited by Wrecker46

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    On 08/12/2023 at 21:24, monoccular said:

    “WouldGrundy have done better than a non-utiliesdSchache? Almost definitely.”
     

    Absolutely 100% without any shadow of doubt could not have done less  - and not blaming Schache at all for that.   

    Grundy would have not only been better than an unused Schache, he would have been better in the ruck than no one and Petracca, two options that Straight Sets Simon went with in the semi final.

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    On 08/12/2023 at 14:50, D Rev said:

    Would Grundy have done better than a non-utiliesd Schache? Almost definitely.

    *massive sigh*

    If he had been ready, willing and able, maybe. 

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    I feel sorry for Brodie Grundy and us as supporters, it was worth a try and had we had a bigger better forward line it may have worked but Max and Brodie were never going to carry the forward line in lieu of BBB, TMac and Harrison Petty. Brodie is just to good to be playing second ruck, I am glad that Sydney picked him up along with the $600k/year contract for his services, so good luck Brodie I wish you good luck and a fond adiue.!!

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    Other than hit outs, I'm really not sure what Grundy brought to the table this year.

    5.9 kicks, 2.7 marks and 0.6 goals a game is not a great contribution from a player aspiring to be a number one ruck, let alone a 29 year old being paid $900K a year.

    I'm sure Grundy is a nice bloke and did his bit behind the scenes, but most people could see 12 months ago that this wasn't going to work. We're now a further 12 months down the track and no closer to having Gawn's replacement in place to learn off the great man before he heads off into the sunset.

    That said, and only Goodwin and Grundy really know what went on, to not have played him in the semi final was criminally dumb. Schache is nobody's idea of an AFL footballer, including his own coach by the looks of it.

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    I was against the move from the very start but at the same time I was certainly intrigued in seeing how Goody would make it work.

    Unfortunately I saw nothing in the slightest that swayed me to even think that it would work.

    I honestly wish Grundy all the best at Sydney. By all reports he brought unto the culture and was a fantastic mentor around the club. His content on instagram within the club was also pretty insightful as well.

     

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    Can't win if you don't try. 

    The move did not gel with me at all initially but I was open to the FD taking calculated risks. 

    High hopes early on and some good games while solo ruck, perhaps not enough of a data sample to see if it could have worked but I was never really convinced. The main undoing was that neither of them could give us enough up forward, it wasn't Simon Madden and Paul Salmon and it was never going to be.

    I don't regret the move because as mentioned I'm proud of our FD taking gambles that could potentially put us over the top and not being afraid to fail. For Brodie's sake I wish he'd got his move to Sydney after Collingwood, seems like he'll be a great fit. I do feel however that while he will offer value I think we've seen the best of him due to the injuries he's had.

     

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    Yeah for me this trade broke even. In fact with Gawn out for a while, having Grundy probably was key to making the top 4.

    And the trade had so much potential upside that it was absolutely worth the gamble.

    Pity we didn't quite find a way to make it work later in the year.

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