Rodney (Balls) Grinter

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

You can literally see the crowd rise as soon as he marked the ball.

Everyone knew exactly what he wanted to do.

Agreed, I could see Latrelle in the open, an open paddock to run into and was just cheering and hoping that he'd pull off what we'd seen him do in preseason on the big stage.

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

I do wonder how long before opponents catch on that he does this thing.... runs straight.. then zags to the right ( his ) to skirt round a defender. ( bouncing when required )

Hopefully a lot lot more in bag of tricks 👍

I think opponents are probably well aware that he does this thing, but knowing that's what he's going to do and stopping him from doing it are two very different things.

Agility like him and Kozzie have got is a rare thing and I don't think there are many that could match them in that department well enough to lay their hands on them.

I'm not a CJ hater, but didn't think kicking out to him short in the pocket from kick-ins was a winning strategy. Most times, he just bombed down the line to the back flank/boundary and/or turned it over.

2 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

My highlight was Sharpie - played above and beyond. Trelly well I have seen him at training and did what was expected. For his first game, fantastic.

Yeah, I'm with you there on Sharpie as well. Loved how he worked his way into the game, stood up in some big moments in the last quarter. Hope he can keep it going over the next few weeks and really make a spot for himself in the side.

2 hours ago, Ditcha said:

A great win to start a new era. The Pickett's will supply a lot of excitement for many years. A very happy walk home after the game.

Latrelle's running goal was the highlight of the game for me. The build-up and the roar from the crowd when he kicked it was incredible and I thought really got the crowd into the game and got us going.

There are some players that have a real connection with the crowd, just doing their own thing and he's definitely one of them. Excitement machine and hard worker in one.

HELL YEAH!!

6 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

If you hate the pregame nonsense there’s a simple solution.

Get yourself a reserve seat. I rock up 2 minutes before the bounce. Happy days.

There's no point in rocking up early anyway. All the decent seats in the ground are reserved anyway.

Little point being a member unless you pay for reserve seats as well - it's BS.

Just got to some seats in the Southern Stand. Feeling good about this game.

Can see us winning comfortably by 35points and St Kilda fans walking home disappointed and questioning another mediocre rebuild.

GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

In one of the worst kept secrets, it has been officially announced that Maysie will be pulling on the boots for the Roos this season:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DV20GCRkYcQ/?igsh=cWgwbXZlMmViNTBr

Pencil them in for the premiership, that backline will be impenetrable.

13 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

A poor list management decision to cut him.

He's a better player than several currently on our list.

50 games Well Done.

Isn't hindsight a great thing. Not sure you would have found much of that sentiment at the time. Also keep in mind that around the time of his departure, he was fighting for a spot in the team amongst a group of similar players to which he was viewed as the least likely to make it.

He might be better than several on our list, but he's also older than many and it's good that we've been able to maintain a relatively ballanced list profile age wise. If he were still at the club, he'd be fighting with the likes of Havey Langford, Xavier Lindsay and Jai Culley for game/ground time and I don't think that would be constructive.

Great personal story and I'm really happy for him that he's found a fit and made something of his career at the Bulldogs.

Congratulations Salo.

Particularly with the departure of Clarry and The Brand, this makes Salem one of the few along with T Mac, Max, Viney and perhaps Petty, that started their careers at the club in the dark days when we were truly putrid.

It's a great testament to Salo's character that he was able to weather those early days, rise above and help lift the team out of our dark times and to then be a major part of delivering us premership glory. Particularly given the struggles he's had at times with his own health and injuries.

Hopefully the team can pull us over the line for a victory, but either way Salo will walk off the field a winner.

8 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

I’ll go a step further and say that they have a negative effect.

I’ve noticed at games that a blaring (often sh*thouse) tune after goals can actually discourage the crowd from making their own noise. Why bother cheering when you can’t even be heard over the Venga Boys?

If it was me I’d just ask for a few car horns.

That and all the blaring pre and half time entertainment noise is bloody horrible. It's so bloody loud that you literally have problems having a conversion with the person next to you alot of the time - do the AFL and the stadium management people not realise this? Or maybe that's just how they do it in Merica, so we must follow?

9 minutes ago, picket fence said:

As to comparing to Jeffo?? Get real two totally different players.

You are comparing small to tall.

Yeah, I get that's your new favourite excuse, but the fundamental proposition that you need to admit is that Chandler IS currently a best 23 player and Jeffo is NOT.

That all said, I see definite potential for Jeffo to soon become a best 23 player and hope he delivers on that. He's also a good few years younger than Kade, so it's also not a fair match in that regard either.

But reality is that one player has jumped over that hurdle and the other is yet to.

Guess we'll see at the end of their careers what relative contributions they make to the mighty Demons. If either or both of them play in another flag for us, I'll be more than happy with that.

Semi serious question - what's with all the double quoting of posters?

Is it just human error, a glitch in the Demonland matrix, the new way of trolling or all of the above?

Already mentioned in the pre-match thread, but think he well and truly deserves some more personal recognition in his own:

melbournefc.com.au

Well done Latrelle.

Were some questioning early, if we just picked him up so early, because he's the cos of Koz. But from the limited bits we've seen so far over the preason, I'm sufficiently sold that he has the talent and abilities to be a future star in his own right.

Don't want to put too much expectations on his first few games of AFL footy, but wish him the best in his debut and I expect that there will be plenty of moments of excitement and satisfaction when he gets his hands on the ball.

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

Bingo! and thats why,in the absence of ability, he doesn't cut it!

Lol. I didn't even need to back-track through the thread to know that you were talking about Chandler 🙄

Thing is that he is more than just a role player though. He's an elite endurance athlete, that also has a bunch of great footy skills and character attributes to go along with it.

• Hard and tough

• Does the team things, chases, does a bunch of unrewarded running and tackles hard

• Takes a strong overhead mark (particularly given his size, but even irrespective of that he's still strong in this aspect)

• On average, he kicks goals regularly enough to be one of our most prolific scorers.

• One of (if not the) most reliable player we have for a set shot on goal anywhere from 0 - 50m out from goal

I'd easily rate him in the same league as Nibbler, if not ahead of him at an earlier stage if his career.

Face facts Pickett, he's well entrenched in our best 23 for all those reasons, if not more and he'd need to lower his colours alot over a number of weeks for that not to be the case.

Even if Jefferson was fit, Chandler would still be getting a game ahead of him.

11 hours ago, Bendigo_Demon2 said:

About 6 weeks ago, I found myself at Melbourne Airport on the way to New Zealand. As I sat waiting for my flight, I decided to email MFC and ask them if it was possible for my 93 year old father, my son and I to have our pictures taken with the 2021 premiership cup....

Awsome story. Thanks for sharing.

It does make me proud of our club and give me hope that as much as the game has become commercialised to the hilt, the club is willing to go the extra mile for such personal connections to us as members / supporters.

Incidentally, I had to look pretty hard at your photo and read your full story, because I kept expecting to read the bit where you'd say that our new draftee from East Ringwood, Xavier Taylor came our to visit you with the cup!! - one for the look-a-likes thread maybe 😂

Incidentally, hoping Xavier Lindsay can actually slot a few more this year.

For such a good field kick, he had a massive case of the yips last season 2 goals 6 behinds is beneath him, including a bunch or relative sodas that he should have gobbled up for breakfast.

The Charlie Cameron Country Road is epic, but pretty much everything else in the AFL goal song wise sucks.

4 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

already has his grandad's arms.

Was my thought exactly. Iconic.

12 minutes ago, Demon Jack said:

(Grand)father-son rule?

Grandfather-son of a club legend rule!

1 hour ago, beelzebub said:

Im not sure in what universe its more accessible. You know they never did build the rail to artic Park

Caulfield, well Glen Iris is actually the geocentre of Melbourne.

Waverley is and always has been the boonies where unfortunates freeze to death.

Will be interesting to see what effect in reality occurs.

I'm talking some what out of self interest when I talk about accessibility, living in the outer East near Lilydale it's ~40mins by car to Waverley Vs 1hr to Caufield and probably more like 1.5hrs on the train (until SRL becomes a reality). But I also see that band from Ringwood out and the Cranbourne/Pakenham area as being where the younger generations of Demons fans can afford to live.

2 minutes ago, Demonland said:

STEVEN King says Kozzy Pickett is expected to play in the club's season-opening clash, during his first game-week press conference as head coach of the Melbourne Football Club.

He shared news that star Demon Kysaiah Pickett has travelled to Darwin to deal with personal issues ahead of the club's season-opening clash with St Kilda.

Kozzy Pickett

"We were pretty proactive with it, Kozzy needed to get back for family reasons and I fully support any father at our club to make sure they get to support their family," King said.

"Kozzy will be back tomorrow, he'll do our T2 (main training session two) and play.

"That's something I want to provide flexibility for our staff and players that family is equally or more important than just the game of footy.

"We'll give Kozzy all the time he needs to take care of his family and his daughter and he'll be fine. We'll work that with him throughout the season as it progresses but he'll play."

MORE TO COME

Somewhat speculation, but relationship issues of this magnitude usually doesn't happen out of a vacuum and likely may have been bubbling away for months out of the public eye and during that time Kozzie's form on the track and in match like situations has been exceptional, which suggests to me that both he and the club have been managing things in a highly professional way.

Well done to all parties for the open and clear communications from the club regarding the situation. Having a strong well managed response from the club should go a fair way in taking off some of the pressure from Kozzie, giving him the space to get on with what he needs to off the field with less noise and speculation.

I think the media (including social media) also have a role here to shut down the speculation, innuendo and rumour mongering in order to let private matters remain private and let one of the generational talents of our time do what he does best and play great footy. Credit to Demonland for the moderating approach in this regards.

Personally, from the perspective of accessibility, I'd prefer Waverley to Caufield anyway.

Does put us more in the population growth belt than Caufield as well at the same time as being a little more central east where alot of our younger supporters live.

2 hours ago, Adam The God said:

If you've watched the Fox Footy interview between Gary and King, King indicated Max would get rests this year.

Again, I think we'll see more Chris Scott type management from King. Geelong have been experts at managing their older players.

Pretty much like what happened in the practice match against North.

Gawny rested out the game and The Moose got a full game against one of the best rucks in the league in Xerri.