Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Haven't read the whole thread or re-watched the game since Friday night, which admittedly I did assisted by a few good reds, but one of my biggest impressions was that we played well, without obviously big contributions from some our bigger name players that I was expecting. Asides from Kossie that is.

Mainly, I didn't notice alot of output or dominant performances from guys like Rivers, Windsor, Langford, Disco, Langdon, T Mac. That's not to say that they didn't nessacerilly perform well.

But I actually saw this as huge positive that we can play well, without relying on those players to carry the team and that we got good results from the team playing well across the board and with good systems.

Love the move it fast attacking ball movement. One thing I did also notice is that while we didn't always deliver the ball into our forward line, the chaos factor of delivering in there fast, meant that North's defence was under high pressure and often couched up goals from average forward entries, as opposed to the slow forward entry bomb that so often just ended up in a stoppage and/or a direct turn over to the opposition for us in the past.

Also contrary to some suggestions, this agressive attacking game didn't completely come at the expense of our defensive game, where we still set-up well, dominated their forwards and restricted their score. Probably also somewhat an artefact of attack being a good form of defence, because the ball still seemed to live more in our forward half.

Can't wait to see how we stack up against better teams.

57 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

With the new rules for free kicks for out of bounds between the arcs, I think playing wings with their kicking leg on the boundary side will become more important. I wouldn’t play Langdon on the wing (better high half forward or on ball). Think it also means territory is more important and kicking to the pockets inside 50 MORE important. You don’t want to get split open on the counter attack.

I actually think Langdon gets a bad rap for us for kicking out of the full. I think he has done it so often, precisely because our strategy had been to hug the boundary and he's so often the player receiving and then delivering the ball in this area of the ground. King has a quiet different philosophy moving the ball out of defence and so long as Langdon has bought into that, I think we'll be fine.

His ability to run all day and keep presenting as a option in the spots we need him to is a real asset and Langdon could have a great year for us with more space to move into in an attacking way, as well as his great defensive efforts.

8 minutes ago, Tarax Club said:

Given the Saints well publicized extravagant recruitment largesse. AFL have instigated an across the board austerity drive by stealth.

That or Mr.Werridee had one or two too many fine reds last night, was my initial thought!

19 hours ago, BDA said:

Legacy media is dying in the [censored]. I wouldn't be too fussed what the age, or any other media outlet have to say, or not say about the Dees.

This is more like the kind of media that gets eyeballs these days:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CUEbQvQ13/

It's actually a bit of a backhander to us as well, but hey - I'm happy for everyone to keep writing us off and underrating us for now.

14 hours ago, DubDee said:

what kind of a [censored] does a tackle like that in a practice match?

should be suspended just for stupidity

I think the body language of the North player in the moment immediately afterwards is telling that he knew he'd done something wrong and but also that perhaps he hadn't ment it. Still, I hope he gets suspended as we've seen so many MFC players rubbed out for similar actions and we can't afford to be inflicting concussions to players in the game.

Asides from that, watching the replay did remind me of how impressed I was of the impact from Mihocek in the limited gametime he was on. Looks like a great pick-up for us already.

13 hours ago, Ted Lasso said:

Kozzie Pickett could legitimately win the Brownlow this year. If we go okay in terms of win/loss and he plays anywhere near that level consistently he’s going to go very very close to winning the Brownlow and could finish top 10 in the Coleman as a midfielder

If he plays like that every week, yes.

However one thing I feel that has occurred in the past is that Kossie can be a little inconsistent in his output week to week. I suspect that's partly because he attracts alot of attention to shut him down, which might be harder to do in the midfield than in the forwardline. As a mid, he'd also be somewhat less at the mercy of how others are delivering the ball further a field into the forward line.

Give Dacos his credit to an extent, I'm guessing he cops alot of pretty hard tags and still produces. If Kossie plays a few more games like Friday early, he could easily attract the same. That said, Kossie also plays a lot more physically tougher game, which could be either an asset or a hindrance if he gets frustrated and gives away frees or gets suspended trying to break a tag.

This all said I do feel a growing maturity from Kossie and I hope he is ready to explode as a regular dominant mid. My God I'm glad we recruited him and then we able to retain him last season, because he's certainly developing into a genuine star.

...and then to have his cousin at the club as well, who looks like an absolute jet. Full credit to the recruitment team for going what some considered early in the draft with these player's. The both have that real X factor at another level, that sets them apart from most players.

2 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

Now that I have read the Casey report I will change the team

B: Lever, McDonald, Salem

HB: Jiath, Turner, Tholstrup

C: Langford, van Rooyen, L.Pickett

F: Fritsch, Miiocek, Kentfield

FOLL: Gawn, Rivers, K.Pickett

IC: Langdon, Sparrow, Windsor, Howes, Heath

EMERG: Petty, Culley, Jefferson

Casey

B: L.Lual, Adams, W.Lual

HB: Taylor, Berry, Bonner

C: Bergman, Onley, Culley

HF: Mentha, Petty, Matthews

F: Cross, Jefferson, Melksham

FOLL: Ah Mu, Laurie, Sharp

IC: Henderson, McAdam, Moniz-Wakefield, Laplanche, Sinnema

Are we going to revolutionise the game by playing with 15 on the ground and leaving out the HF line?

1 hour ago, In Harmes Way said:

I wonder how my radiator would go with sparkling water in it?

Probably ok enough. Just don't put it in your engine oil.

Is the game be televised anywhere?

16 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Penrite have a tent here with a bunch of giveaways: key rings, car smelly things, stickers etc. and this sparkling water in a very cool can…

Hmmmm, drinking from a can branded the same as the engine oil I filled my car up on yesterday? There's a bit if a physiological hurdle for me to get over there!

20 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

The Dogs have lost Jamarra and Bailey Smith for peanuts.

The Cats have had Stengle need medical assistance in a nightclub and now on personal leave, Tom Atkins nearly killed someone driving off the road, a rookie allegedly assault a woman and Bruhn find himself in a highly compromising position even if he was cleared of a crime. Not to mention the coach and Smith firing off on women in the workplace.

And up in Brisbane they’ve now got 2 former captains who will screw anything that moves.

There were alot of issues raised about Alistair Clarksons time at Hawthorn, Carlton and Essendon have nearly self destructed several times in the past few years. If we go back a bit further, you had a very less than perfect Wayne Carey as the leader of a successful club at the time and I'm sure that there's plenty of others I'm forgetting about.

T Mac's comment is 100% correct - no club culture is perfect.

It think one of the key things is that sucess papers over the cracks. Say Brayshaw doesn't get injured and we go on to win that premership and probably no one is talking negativity about any cultural deficiencies.

8 hours ago, Dannyz said:

Leadership group includes Lever, Chandler, Sparrow, Mihocek, Rivers and Turner.

Genuine question - Has this been officially announced, unofficially become know or just your oppinion? I do find it a little strange that the club wouldn't publicise it at the same time as the captains.

Either way, I find it pretty hard to argue with that group. Representatives spread across the ground from backline to forwardline and generally promoting some of our young, but maturing players with leadership qualities in Rivers, Chandler and Turner in particular.

There's still a great bunch of mature unofficial leaders around the club in the likes of T Mac, Melksham, Jack Steele, Tommy Campbell and to an extent Maysie (if he can get his off-feild [censored] together).

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

If we're going the fast disposal gameplan you have to wonder where Max fits in. Blocking a hole on the rebound perhaps. The long boundary kick is dinosaur play these days

Even if we're doing the fast disposal gameplan, I don't think that means go fast 100% of the time. I think there could still be situations and strategies within that go fast that make a long boundary kick to a reliable target an important asset.

12 hours ago, zoe1617 said:

Mihochek i honestly dont rate but he does know where the big sticks are

These seem like contradictory statements for a forward.

9 hours ago, picket fence said:

U must be kidding Mihocek is a great pickup for us

Agreed.

On 11/02/2026 at 12:40, old55 said:

We'll lose heavily on occasion this year because we're going to play an attacking style. Twenty point defeats went with Goodwin's defence first approach.

I'd be uninterested if we were going into 2026 with the same-old - vive la difference and accept the consequences.

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.

On 11/02/2026 at 19:35, joeboy said:

According to Chat GPT there’s lots of unexpected names:

John Farnham

Magda Szubanski

Kate Ceberano

Shaun Micallef

Sam Pang

Ross Noble

Adam Spencer

Tony Squires

Tom Rogers

Tex Perkins

Mark Phillipousis

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.

50 minutes ago, layzie said:

Vs West Coast at Optus in 2018 to Dean Kent who went on to kick the goal to seal the win and break our 12 year final drought. A massive step on our journey to the flag.

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.

3 hours ago, Demonland said:

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.

13 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Agree with most of that list except for 2018.

The entire supporter base would have torn the MCG down if we failed to make finals in 2018, after missing 2017 by 0.2% or whatever it was.

2021 I'd say we were a 50/50 shot at finals given it took until the final game of the 2020 season to be eliminated from finals (Freo had to beat Dogs in Carins).

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.

18 hours ago, Go Ds said:

Archimedes was taken.

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

13 hours ago, deemoralizing67 said:

Top 4? No [censored] way

Its more likely a pies fan will pay child support

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.