Rodney (Balls) Grinter

These seem like contradictory statements for a forward. Agreed.

Generally agree. But on the flip side, we could also hand out a few beltings going the other way, which should be alot of fun. I'd just temper the assertion that defence doesn't matter to King's approach. I can't remember his exact words, but he has started that the defensive part of our game is still equally important, it's just that we'll take more risks when we're attacking (which admittedly does make it harder to defend and isn't a defence dominated mindset). I think part of it might come down to the team knowing when to attack and when to defend within games. Further, when you look at how we played in 2021, I think we were always tying to develop the attacking side of our game as well. In the last few games of the home and away and finals in 2021, it all clicked and we were able to attack more effectively, with more freedom and we achieved some big wins against good sides. Even the last game of the season at Geelong, we were able to throw a bit of caution to the wind in that last quarter and significantly out score them. I can handle a few big losses so long as we're also winning games in between and beating some of the top sides in the process. If not, the pressure willl likely be on King by the end of the season. Will be an interesting year.

Has Sam Pang seen the light? Think he supported Carlton. ...AI doesn't know [censored]! Another I know is a MFC man is Paul Kelly. Not 100% sure, buy I from what I recall of an article he wrote post the 2021 premiership, I think Martin Flanagan is a red and blue man as well.

If we have a rebuilding year and just want to see 'improved cohesion' and 'getting games into kids' etc, we will be going backwards. Last two seasons have amounted to that essentially. Plus, given that we weren't really that far off the pace last season any improvements should see us actually winning those close games. There were only a small handful of games last season I felt were truly gone at half or 3/4 time. Trac and Clarry were almost a handycap last season. Trac in particular looked disinterested, poor body language, didn't put effort into chasing, before we talk about him munting kicks into the forward line. We have a number of seriously capable and talented guys in the likes of Rivers, Kossie etc that are ready to step up and fill their shoes and some solid foot soldiers and experienced players behind them. And we still have the best ruckman in the league, who is a match winner on many days. We then have a crop of talent comming through like JVR and Winsor, whom should be capable of making a step up. I don't want to put too much pressure on the kid, but I do think The Bison is one that is capable of being that mature, consistent contribtor, much in the way the Ashcrofts have been as young players at Brisbane. When we rate opposition, as MFC supporters, I think we're often quick to point out their jets comming through, but also often don't count our own against that ledger. Asides from Brisbane, the so called 'good teams' of last season weren't anything super special IMHO. Every season, there are a bunch of teams that make finals with either average talent and/or ahead of their development curve, but that are well coached and committed as a team. I don't see why that can't be us. If we go into the season with low expectations and put winning as a secondary objective, then we could come out with Bailey/Neeld type outcomes. Winning and how to win is a mentality and something we need to embed in it's self and I'm personally not turning up to the footy every week with the expectation we'll probably loose and/or maybe might win.

I thought this was super classy from the Bulldogs social media team. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bf3HYHvgx/ But gee it must have also put a bit of a dagger in the hearts of their supporters bringing back memories of that 2021 premership for them.

I'm glad you bought that one up as it's one that has stuck in my memories as well. I also reject that Harmes was a player of limited skill. For a side that many have bemoaned for not delivering well into the forward line, Harmesy was one who was capable of lowering the eyes and hitting a target in a good position inside 50 to advantage. There are those two classic instances that he did it in big moments of big games, but he also did it on many other occasions as well, so it was no fluke - the guy had skills. He was also a strong mark overhead and generally a good kick for goal as well. If anything, perhaps he lacked just a little in consistently being able to perform such feats and play to the same high standards every game that perhaps kept him to being an honest gritty player, compared to an outright elite. I'd always hoped he'd have a season where he made that step, but it was never to be, but I still thought he made a fantastic and very worthy contribution to our premiership and no one can ever take that away from him - as others have said, he lived out the dream of every Melbourne supporter in achieving that.

Awsome just how happy Kossie is in this segment.

My prediction is that all these comentators and 'footy experts' that have written us off as virtual non contenders for season 2026 will eat some humble pie and re-rate the side as a contender and be singing the praises of Kingy after the first half of the season.

I could see 2021 coming from watching the way the team played in 2020. We were better that a team that missed out on finals. Along with the horid Cairns losses, we should have also beaten Brisbane in Brisbane in 2020 (they were still a good side then and finished 2nd on the ladder that season, somewhat boyed by all the virtual home games no doubt). The way we finished the 2020 season against Essendon at Carrara you could tell we belonged far higher up than the bottom half of the ladder.

Love Melky and I still think he can play some good games for us this year. But what I really think is that we need to be developing the next bunch of players with a similar skill set. To me one of the closest we have with that penetrating pin point feild pass is 'The Bison' Langford and will be interesting to see if he can go to another level and become even more of a weapon delivering the ball inside 50m. Beyond his kicking, Melksham is also a really smart, strong and tough to beat in a 1 on 1 marking contest and knows how to position himself with respect to feild position and where the dangerous space is within the forward line - also traits I think in common with The Bison. Still think Melksham is very handy depth (perhaps more) this season, but also think he'd be great to have around as a mentor for the next batch comming through.

Well at least Archimedes could have worked out the thing about a deer, buffalo and hippopotamus sitting on the river bank!

If they must breed, at least not paying child support will mean there's less likelihood their spawn will follow that despicable team of their father's.

I still hold that we were beaten by the umpires on Kings Birthday, so there's always that variable as well.

I partially agree with the sentiment, but: 1. I don't think King has as much capital at the MFC to tolerate as many beltings as Mitchell did at Hawthorn, comming off decades of sucess, the last one in particular. Hawthorn also conceded that they needed to pretty much gut the place and that they were going full rebuild, where as I think we're more rebuilding on the run Geelong style. 2. As much as King talks about attacking and taking on the game, I've also heard him talk that we need to also defend well in that phase. I also feel we have a much stronger defence that Hawthorn did during their rebuild, so hopefully we're not as exposed to the blowouts as they were. I'm also not convinced that Hawthorn are the real deal either. They haven't actually won a premiership under Mitchell yet and although they've made finals a few time and played OK in those games, they could just as easily regress or go nowhere for a few years and big question marks will hang over Mitchell's ability to coach.

He's played every game for the past 2 seasons. I think that gives a pretty good indication that if he's fit, he's pretty much a lock.