Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Tune in ladies and gentlemen to get some Balls with your Sunday morning breakfast.

Agree 100% We paid pratically nothing for KK trade wise and the MFC knew what they were potentially up against when we signed him up. If KK had have shrugged off these concussion issues, then everyone here would be doing cart wheels. Just because the punt we took hasn't paid off, then that doesn't mean the MFC should drop KK like a hot spud. I think it's important that the club maintains support and treats injured players in a respectful manner, as they appear to be doing and personally, I that also extends to us as supporters.

I think he pulled his head in a fair bit when he got to Brisbane. One of my favorite MFC players of that era.

Talk about bogan central

From what I've seen reported, the AFL's original plan was to work towards a national competition by 2020. In 2017, the competition had 4 Melbourne sides as you are suggesting above. The competition has been expanded at a faster rate than the AFL expected and individual clubs have pushed for inclusion of their own team into this establishing national competition based on the same principle - both see the inclusion of female teams within their brand as an important part of their social license to operate and a marketing oppertunity. Once they cottened on, there was no way that clubs like Collingwood and Carlton etc wanted to be excluded from being a part of this market. I don't think new stand alone franchises would really work for anyone as it wouldn't attract the same media attention that has helped accelerate the growth of participation. It would be much harder to market a Melbourne Penguins, East Melbourne Kookaburra's women's footy teams than it is when they are attached to existing AFL clubs. I think it would also be somewhat of a put down to that competition as well to say you can't be part of the established AFL club land until you are playing at a standard deemed skillfully enough for all men to appreciate. It would be seen as treating women as second class citizens and that ain't going to cut it in 2020. The early success of the AFLW has been built partly off good will factor and the AFL elite mens comp has reaped the benefits of that good will as well. For example the good news story of the Daisy comeback created a heap of good exposure for the MFC which has a tangible value to the clubs marketing and image. But if the AFLW is treated as a token gesture and not genuinely supported by moves such as a rapid the ramp up to women players being paid on an equal basis with men, just watch that good will flip on it's head and become a negative external influence on the game of AFL socially and financially. You can't pick up one end of a stick without picking up the other.

AFLW is driving a huge increase in participation at the grass roots level, so that's the new horizons that the AFL is pursuing and achieving at the moment. Also as a fair portion of the AFL's revenue is derived from female interest in the game, in the current enviroment, don't think it's good practice to upset that portion of the market and at the same time also perhaps an oppertunity to expand that part of the market as it applies to the commercials of the mens game as well. I do see the AFLW as a complementary addition in these regards and over time moves to equalise the pay of female players as sensible. Much better the AFL fairly aggressively pursue equal pay timetable on their terms than to have it imposed by outside forces.

Thought this was a great little segment. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/562104/goldrick-s-first-taste-of-aussie-rules I could only understand every second or third word, but jokes aside, it's quite a coupe for the MFC women's side to have recruited a three time galic premiership player. Also really liked the little bit where she states that there was a bit of rough stuff but "she likes that anyway, so it's allright" - exactly the attitude we want from our MFC women's and men's teams!

I don't quite know how to take all this. Very greatful that it wasn't a full rupture, good that it only looks like being a month or so recovery and it's a definite positive to have a top notch resource like Darren Burgess, but there is a part of me that wishes they would take a conservative recovery route, take no chances and aim for a Rd 2 or 3 comeback. That said, I'll be a lot more comfortable with him playing Rd 1 if he plays the 2nd preseason game.

Must say I liked Goodies line about enjoying our footy - hopefully that goes for supporters too. Fair enough for Jonesy to be tired of bearing the brunt of the leadership burden too. I'd forgotten that Viney now has 112 games under his belt and I recon it's time that a bunch of blokes like Harmes, Trac, Brayshaw, Oliver, Samlem, Freitch, Lever, Oscar to step up and assume the mantle of leaders at the club in their own ways. They are not kids anymore and I have the potential to lift the team to that next level if they can lead the way. Not a chip on them at all, just the next evolution in theirs and the teams development to start behaving and playing like a mature football club.

Two of my least favorite words in the modern footy lingo. Such a toss.

I haven't seen the game yet, but sounds like Katie Hore was a bit of a star. In the generally low scoring game that AFLW tends to be she is a highly valuable play, because she has such a great knack of finding the ball in the forwardline and rarely wastes a shot on goal.

A few semi random thoughts: * Perhaps Tassie should push for a AFLW team, build and establish a following from there. Could take on it's own momentum and force the AFL's hand. I don't think establishing a Tassie VFL side would be much use as it wouldn't attract anything like the same media attention and would be like conceding that a Tassie side would be perennially relegated to the minor league. * I don't think an AFL side would have any problems attracting and retaining tallent. * Taking the millions of dollars in sponsorship away from Hawthorn (and perhaps a few of their members/supporters too) would be almost as good as establishing a Tassie team in it's self. This reason alone should be enough for at least 16 other clubs to support a Tassie team.

It surprising that he will be paid anything really given that he effectively walked away from it. I don't have a huge problem with this, given that Rance will not be getting the full value of his contract. What I would have a problem with is if Buddy walked away, insisted he be paid out the full ten years value and the AFL let that payment happen outside the salary cap. But I don't think that's what's happening here.

Eddy doesn't want to get wet when it's raining or feel the heat on his head when it's hot. Doesn't want to be a little inconvenienced waiting and mingling with the masses to get into Richmond station. Toughen up princess. Gee, talk about first world problems.

Yeah, but incompetentce is basically a prerequisite for that job, so he wouldn't even get a look in.

Hopefully he becomes a part of the 300 game club this year as well.

Gee, every player just looks so much better in a MFC guernsey. Really glad we signed him up. Great to hear from Josh Mahoney how positive his attitude has been and how much the players have embraced him. Will be so stoked if Harley can get back to playing regular football. Even if he doesn't make it back to his absolute best, he could still be a very valuable player for us on and off the feild. Although he is a player that looks somewhat like he plays a lot on instinct, I imagine he could give some good tips and hopefully teach a few tricks to some of our small crumbing forwards. I think just having him around the place will help those guys just feed off each other - if he has the positive attitude reported, then that kind of enthusiasm is contagious. Go Harley, Go Demons.

No problems with playing devils advocate, but I don't think it's a very credible position. Paul Roos use to put out that line based partly on his Sydney record (and playing group situation), but then Brayshaw and Oliver played a bunch of games in their first seasons and had Trac not done a knee, he would have too. I don't think anyone believes it. Similarly Sydney's young guns since like Heeney and Mills played plenty of games in their first seasons, because they were sufficiently talented and ready. If you don't back top ten draft picks to be pushing to make some kind of impact, then were you really right in picking them there? I doubt there would be another club in the AFL that that didn't publicly rate and talk up/back in their first round picks to debut in their first season at some point.

With what Josh has said, I can't see the MFC backing out from here. Is that the end of the story - no. Is this a fairly tail in the making - I have no idea. My take is that all up, this is a win-win situation. In the worst case event that Hadley's footy career eventually reaches a dead end, the MFC gets a heap of free 'feel good' publicly from signing him on and that publicly does have a tangible value. Even in this scenario, Harley gets the financial, medical, institutional support and comradery afforded to him by the MFC and a chance to put in place some more pieces in his life post footy. Best case scenario is a MFC flag, Harley becomes a star reborn and of course everything else in between is probably the most likely scenario. Anyways - why not us? Go Harley - Go the mighty Demons!

Not quite sure what you are getting at here. "There are no expectations on the trio to dominate at senior level in the early stages of 2020, but they have shown plenty of promising signs heading into their debut season." That reads like a lid on kinda statement to me. What should the club say: "You know we got a pick 3 and pick 10, but now that they have trained with us a few times, they really don't look like they have much talent, so don't expect them to be picked anytime soon, maybe if ever".

Good move. They will probably still get a bigger crowd than at the Sydney Show Grounds.

I must have watched this clip a good 10 or 20 times now. Absolutely mesmerizing stuff. Would look even better in a red and blue jumper in frount of a packed MCG! Got me thinking about just what a good player he is. I was disappointed when we missed out on Prestia, but if Harley can get those calfs right, just what a prize recruit he would be. It's been so long since he's been injured that I had to remind myself just what a gun player Harley has been in years past, so went browsing YouTube. Found the below video which certainly backs up others comments about the shot on goal from the boundary being no fluke. Interestingly part way into the video it make a mention of him having problems with his calfs way back then. Let's hope the operation he had has nailed the main source of the issue.

Interested in your thoughts on Harmes switch to the backline in particular Spencer. I must admit I've been a bit perplexed by the reports of Harmes training with the backline. He adds so much grunt and line breaking ability in the midfield that my first reaction is why would you want to take him out of there. But I'm guessing that we have plenty of other grunt midfielders that with the benefits of a decient preseason could fill that void (your full post seemed to alude to that as well). I'm also guessing that line breaking ability of Harmes could be used to good effect to launch attacks from the back half (he probably has better accuracy, vision and ball placement with his disposals than Hibbard) and that they could also still inject him into the midfield in bursts if the need arrises to exert a bit more dominance in there. What attributes of Harmes in particular do you see that have driven this move to the backline?

Sorry guys, I think I need to put my hand up here and take responsibility for putting the jinx on poor old Maxy. ?