Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Interested in Demonlanders views. Personally, I think this will be one of the intriguing things to watch our team for in 2026, along with how the team re-forms, gels and adapts to a new game style. One thing about loosing the Petracca's, Oliver's and Spud McVee's as well as a new coach and game style, is that it will great provide opportunities for players who might have been in the showdows to step up. While many would have expectations on guys like Langford, Lindsay and Windsor to go to the next level as part of their development trajectory, I'm also interested to see how the tier of more developed players like Rivers, Sparrow, Chandler, Howes & Co might fare. I suspect that many will would fancy Rivers to thrive given more of a free run at the midfield, but I also personally wouldn't be surprised if someone like Sparrow emerges in a more dominant form and sets the tone. While the likes of Langford, Windsor and Co performed brilliantly in their respective first seasons, I'm not putting any expectations on our first year draftees at this point. If they come out all guns blazing, then great, but if not, then I'm happy for them to develop at their own pace and earn a spot in the team.

Agree there is competition for that spot, which is great. I'm going off a small sample size, but from what I saw of marking contest work between AJ and Jeffo, AJ won a fair few. I actually thought he is considerably shorter than Jeffo, but 193cm Vs 195cm isn't much of a difference really. The other thing I'd add into the mix is form and injuries. Having AJ in the mix gives us another reason not to throw Petty forward for extended periods, which I think we need. Which could spawn another question about competition for our key defensive posts, with all of May, Lever, T Mac, Disco, Adams and Petty to pick from, but that's another discussion again. Bring on the practice matches to give us a better glimpse of how things might line up I say. On another point you raised, given we have a guy in TC capable of adequately competing in the ruck, do we get more proactive with the management of Gawn throughout the season? P.S. I haven't seen that much of TC in recent times to know what his around the ground type presence and maybe that's where the calculation has been made previously.

One of the best jokes I told which got a great laugh was when I spent a few minutes with the preamble only to forget the punchline when it came time. Probably helped that it was in a cab with a bunch of mates I'd been on the beers with all arov.

Lol. Sponsors - I love it. I've heard unpaid overtime termed as 'donated hours' by some in management, so stands to reason that you'd be a sponsor. But putting them in an official annual report is next level. The Collins class thing also made the engineer in me laugh, while being a bit close to home at the same time.

I actually agree with you on all accounts PF. I totally rate Tom Campbell as well, but you could take the view that as a 34 yo who's not going to develop for the future and didn't play an AFL game last year he is more of a clogger than AJ, who potentially has something like 5-8+ years ahead of him as a useful AFL player and who did contribute meaningfully to the on-field performance of the team at an AFL level when he got his chance last season. That was the point I was making with Tom. Asides from just the 'insurance for Max' factor, I also believe Tom Campbell was of significant development value to the team last year. Can't wait to see what The Moose can do over the next few years. Hopefully he'll really grab the opportunity with both hands and take his game to the next level, because as much as I see great potential, I'm also worried it could also go the other way and he could end up being an average VFL ruckman who didn't quite make it if things don't click.

🙄 still going on about Clarry are we? Honestly, loved him in the past, but I think his reaction post leaving really does show that he was a real culture killer. If we go back a few years, I similarly thought it was a dud move trading out Jack Watts for peanuts, but I think history shows it was the right move. No player can be bigger than the team. I think Clarry just learnt that.

One thing about AJ is that he's a "goer". Recently saw videos him doing contested marking drills with Jeffo. Both of them looked pretty good to be honest, clunking them with pretty clean one grab type actions. Even if it's just his attitude that rubs off on our young players, then I think we've come out ahead, but I can also see him influencing more AFL games like the few he played in last season. Every team needs good depth and think he's probably cost us much less in cap space and draft capital than a bunch of other players at our club and at others. To me the cost Vs output ballance sheet looks pretty good so far. Even if he only plays half a dozen games, but helps get us over the line for a win in games we might not have otherwise, that's of immense value in my book. Could argue that Tom Campbell was a bigger list clogger than AJ based on playing zero AFL games last season, but I don't think that would be a fair assessment of Tom's contribution either. Will be interesting to see if he can go to another level with a full AFL preseason.

I was going to troll a bit and make up some nonsense like it might belong to the late Billy Green who played 2 games back in the late 60s and then went on to play for Orbost. But that would just be silly. All I can add is that Google isn't the trove of all knowledge as all you get when you google "Melbourne Football Club Dargo" is pages full of links to stuff about Charlie Spargo.

...and at the same time label other players as useless for their lack of physicality. It's a fine line I guess.

Beat me to it! Seriously PF, take a chill pill man.

He did indeed and although the incident will be remembered and recalled, I honestly think it's something of a to be glossed over footnote. The media storm it created far outweighed the actual act it's self and I actually think the way Peddo responded, by persevering, getting on with his career and batteling it out in a somewhat struggling team actually shows more the true character of the bloke than that split second instinctive almost reflex action. Glad to see he's still kicking about in the local leagues. Personally, I'd love to play with him - a true footballer's footballer.

I don't think Jeffo will ever be a contested beast, but does he have to be? While obviously he needs to have enough go to find the ball, I think you need all sorts of players to combine to make an effective forward line. While the Weid obviously lacked enough of that edge to find enough of the ball to meaningfully contribute on a regular basis, there are others like Big Ben Brown and Jack Watts that I'd suggest had just enough physically to contest, but also had other elite attributes that allowed them to be highly effective players overall. Fritta is another that while not being overtly physical has enough smarts to complete.

$30M from the taxpayer is still a [censored] load of money to be gifted to one of the biggest / most financial sporting teams in Australia. Why should Hawthorn have got any? Don't start me on Geelong. Pokies money is blood money - who picks up the pieces from all the broken gambling addicts that contributed to that wealth? The comunity and the taxpayer.

Honestly, the amount of money being splashed around on these training centres makes me sick. $110M is like 1/10th of what Tassie are proposing to build an entire stadium. People are arcing up about the money being spent on the Tassie stadium, but not excessive Taj Mahal type training facilities of the Hawks, Essendon, Geelong,Collingwood etc. All this money being splashed around, while country and suburban footy scrapes for funds. The AFL need to put in-place some kind of equalisation measure and cap on excessive facilities development. Obviously the big clubs have already cashed in, so they need to impose a tax on the to provide a similar level of amenities for those that haven't yet.

Incidentally, this was just posted by the wees and poos.