Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Further to the Disco getting Gus's number thing, in the Disco video up on the club website, he does mention how honoured her is getting it and how he was quite close with Gus, having stayed with him and his parents when he first came to the club (as I understand many others have also).

On 15/12/2024 at 21:52, rpfc said:

Ben McKay…

I'd also say that Bolten, Kelly and Grundy grossly overpaid for their respective contributions.  Grundy somewhat at the expense of Collingwood I hope/assume.

Also says to me, how fortunate we are having Max as someone who could have demanded top dollar, but accepted a more modest salary for the benifit of team success.  His consistent output justifies a bigger pay day than so many others on that list.

1 hour ago, monoccular said:

True. And also the thinking one, or maybe a bewildered one 

Yeah, also know as the WTF emoji

28 minutes ago, John Demonic said:

It was Mentha be

Lol.  Oh, please bring back the faceplam emoji.

3 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

That’s just because you haven’t seen much of him yet, he has all the same weaknesses of Chandler and without the overhead marking and burst power. 

So interested in what you see as Chandler's weaknesses and/or if you see him as best 22 long term material?

Personally I do rate Chandler for his general tenacity, workrate, ability to find the goals on a fairly regular basis and his reliability in nailing the set shots opportunities he gets.  If you're suggesting he's a good overhead mark for his size, then I'd agree with that too.  I also get the feeling that he's well liked around the club for his good character and willingness to do the team things.

On 07/12/2024 at 20:53, Ethan Tremblay said:

Fitz rocking flared jeans and thongs

And the worst haircut at the MFC.

20 hours ago, bing181 said:

Also a raft of players to fill supporting roles. If players like AMW, Brown, Howes and of course Jefferson can consolidate themselves as AFL players, the foundations will have been laid.

Add Chandler, Woey Jnr and Doggy Brown Jnr to that list IMHO.

Sharp is also one that could be in the mix if he can take then next step, secure a regular spot in the team and leverage his great athletisim to fill the ANB role - be it in a younger body, so again more generational rebuild.

23 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Happy for him to play both ends depending on match ups and how the game is progressing. And he did play at both ends in the same game this year. (The Port win)

And I’ll always remember the Brisbane final in 2022 when they threw him up forward and he almost turned the game with a couple of snags.

His versatility is what makes him a valuable player.

Agreed.  Biggest problem I see here though, is that Goody is almost always unwilling to throw the magnets around in any significant way, until the match is pretty much lost and there's little to no value in that.  Incidently, I can also see the counter argument Goody and the coaches might have as there have also been some great wins we had where we had issues scoring, but persevered with players in their more tried and tested roles and ended up with great comeback wins like 2021 final H&A Vs Geelong and to some extent the 2021 GF. 

But as a whole I think I've seen far to many games where we have struggled to take marks in our forward 50 and lost the game, despite having forward half dominance and a key back who could clunk big marks like T Mac or Maysie and we went on to loose the game.  I'd love to see him have a bit more dare in this respect in seasons ahead.

On 02/12/2024 at 19:52, Demonland said:

👀

 

Great kudos for @Demonland!

I'm assuming someone from this forum was the photographer with the scoop?

8 hours ago, Demonstone said:

I hope he doesn't copy Brodie Grundy's hairdo and sport the Sinneman bun.

🤦 improvised.

7 hours ago, adonski said:

Disco #10 how good

Party time!

Got big rapps on this kid.  Think he's hot alot of tricks and alot of heart.  Good choice for Gus's old jumper I think.  I don't think retiring it for years is nessacery if you've got a worthy recipient good to go.

For me, I think it's Sparrow and Petty that really need it.  By some stats I've seen, Sparrow seems fit enough and to be working hard enough, perhaps he just needs to be give a role and granted a bit more freedom to show off his attacking flair and be more damaging to reach his potential.  Petty playing backline would help.

Spargo probably also needs one to get a spot in the 22 and maintain relevance.  Salem is another.

Not that they reall 'need' it exactly, but I'd love JVR and Disco to go to that next level and become regularly damaging and dangerous key forwards.

An uninterrupted preseason would help several of these guys.  If we can maintain a fit list, then I think we could be in a position of having great depth again.  I'd really like to see us manage that situation by sufficiently resting players throughout the season to hit finals fit and fresh, as opposed to tired and banged up like in 2022 and 23.

10 hours ago, Bang Bang Bang said:

Brock McLean

🤢🤮🤬

13 hours ago, Katrina Dee Fan said:

Fitzroy All Stars is a community club specifically for Aboriginal players and competes in the NFNL.  Like any community club I doubt being coach would be a highly paid role.

Cool thanks for clarifying.  Recall actually going to one of their grand finals Vs Heidelberg back in the mid/late 90s with my old man and one of his indigenous work colleagues.  Was a pretty wild and rough affair both on and off the feild.  Somehow I had in my head that this might be a team from Fitzroy Crossing in Northern Australia where maybe their may have been a little more professionalism, although that is probably still pretty grass roots type level and budget.

Goes completely with Neville's character to be seeking out a role giving back to the comunity than merely financial gains.  Still a great opportunity for him to coach a team in his own right and maybe build towards that at the top level at some point.

On 21/11/2024 at 23:20, spirit of norm smith said:

Menths 39

Nev's old number for fellow indigenous backman - I like it.

Speaking of which, I missed this bit of news:

On 8 October 2024, Nev was announced as the senior men's coach of the Fitzroy Stars Football Club for the 2025 Northern Football Netball League (NFNL) season.

Also gets him away from that filthy Collingwood bunch, so I'm just as happy about that 

44 minutes ago, kryton101 said:

Maybe he just has had enough? Its a long time in the pressure seat.  From what I have seen at the Swans is he probably goes out on his own terms rather than some sort of board coup (of course I could be very wrong).  

Agreed.  Not many senior coaches are in the position for 14 seasons.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if he reflected and just thought that himself that he was feeling a bit stale as well as his gamestyle amd message to his players.  After all, he took over the reigns from Roos in very similar manner.  He has got one flag to his name as coach and umpteen as a player, so is not still reaching for that as an unfulfilled achievement.

After 14 years on $1M - $2M+ as senior coach, plus whatever he had managed from his playing days, it's not like these guys need to work.  Again similar to Roos, he may just ultimately end up walking away from the professional football scene altogether and live a more normal life.

On the topic of hit and miss media from the MFC, here's a few precious seconds of your life you won't get back:

Agree it was an interesting little clip.  One moment that stood out to me in a bad way was that scene when they take the group photo / 'media op' with all the other 1st round draftees.  "Now have a fake laugh and have a chat to the guy next to you" - comes across so very fake stage managed moment and the way first round draftees are herded through the whole media circus really grated on me.

 Conversely that scene between Jason Taylor, Lindsay and Reece Conca in the corridor was a ripper I thought.  Lindsay talking about the call he'd got the day of the draft from JT and then Conca exclaiming "I didn't get a call from you", to which JT sharply replies "because I wasn't picking you!".  Comes across as a bit of a funny quick witted jib/backhander, which I think it is in a sense, but looking back at the 2010 draft, Collingwood didn't get their first pick until 45, so it's probably quite a blunt, honest answer from JT straight off the cuff at the same time.  Speaking of which, the post draft interview with JT as always, is a bit of media put out by the club that is a good listen.

10 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

This ought to get Demonstone's juices flowing.

Maybe a team entirely of players who have written for The Age?

Paging @Demonstone and @WERRIDEE

Many are questioning his spot in the side, but something I think this does provide us with the oppertunity to do is play AJ forward in place of Petty and release the later to go back to defence.

While he has shown glimpses of potential as a forward, I really do feel that Petty's best position is as a defender, where he adds alot of toughness and can lock down capacity.  With both May and Macca getting on in years, both being injury prone at time (though so too Petty), I think our key backing depth is a highly important part of our game, but also an area that I feel has been somewhat neglected in terms of developing tallent in our quest to plug key forward holes.  Think this move has the potential to address that in a round about way.

9 hours ago, Supreme_Demon said:

A great video here!

Simon Goodwin surprising big "AJ" with his friends, teammates and family at his house presenting him with a Melbourne Demons jumper and some merchandise.

 

This is the type of social media I like to see!

Well done AJ!  Congratulations on achieving your AFL dream!

GO DEMONS!!! 👹🔴🔵

Also love what this says about Goody and the message it sends to our players and to AJ.  Doesn't matter if you're pick 6 or 68, you're valued and everyone has the same opportunity to perform and play a role for the team.

Unless the video was massively staged (which it doesn't look like to me) I also think it says something about how committed we were to picking AJ with 68, that we would have Goody camped out near by when his name was read out.

58 minutes ago, Macca said:

Under JT, we've had a history of working our way up the draft to seemingly snag certain players

I think it just make sense to trade up the draft order whenever you can.  Not every high draft pick is a smash hit (Weid and Schache and Tompas a few obvious examples), but on ballance of probability, I they turn out OK.  To me we often seem to keep perennially trading future picks for current hight picks which also make infinite sense to me if you can pull it off - next year's draft never comes and if you can be putting that development into the player you have actually recruited that year earlier, then I think it helps keep more talent on the list now, rather than later.

i.e. if we could trade our first rounder in 2050 for a first rounder in 2024, then next year, we will just trade our first rounder in 2051 for a first rounder in 2025.  I guess sometimes it catches up, but I think those are the year's when we have a pretty well performing stable team that doesn't need replenishing and we don't really want to go to the draft anyway.

On 18/11/2024 at 11:17, Supreme_Demon said:

Jason Taylor said a lot without giving much away.

Said the Demons are going "best talent available" as is expected.

This has pretty much become the recruiter's clichè equivalent of "we're just taking it one week at a time"

On 15/11/2024 at 18:28, daisycutter said:

this has got cameron schwab's fingerprints all over it

what an absolute waste of good money

Don't know if it was Cameron Schwab's finger prints or not, but the branding / logo designers who did this probably got huge bickies for putting together this rubbish.

Are the Suns financially viable on their own yet?  If not, that's the rest of the league teams paying for this waste, both in terms of the branding outlay, plus I can't see it helping their popularity and gaining members with such an uninspiring jumper design.