Rodney (Balls) Grinter

It's ridiculous that the AFL has accepted that games are to be 'crowd free' and surely they need to challenge govenments and push for at least some admittance of live spectators of some description into grounds. In my view, the below should all be quite feasible: 1. Permit family and/or an invited guest of each of the players to watch from inside the stadium; 2. A limited number of somewhere in the rehlm of 100 - 1000 supporters from each club to attend the ground in segregated, physically distant allocated seating. Could allow a certain number of premium members/sponsors seats and put the others in a members lottery to provide some incentive and reward for club members continued contributions during these challenging times. Either or both of the above would result in a far superior TV viewing experience as they would provide at least some level of non manufacturered atmosphere. As an asides, Fox Footy's attempt to compensate for the lack of crowd atmosphere by playing little musical jingles as the ball was bought back to the centre after goals was worse than having near silence of only the players voices audible.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/geelong-star-jack-steven-hospitalised-after-incident/ef591f1c-3441-4d3f-a017-42e684fe9cb0 Article say he is expected to physically recover which is good news on one level. But does make you wounder what the heck is going on in his life for something to escalate to that point too. Of coarse, it could have been completely random, but unlikely. I must say, I feel somewhat conflicted on this, because on a human level very much hope this guy gets his life together and has health and happiness, but all the same, I'd also be very glad for him not to deliver anything substantial for Geelong on field.

Really looking forward to what a revitalized Nathan Jones could do this year and beyond. With players like Trac now looking like they are ready to step up and help carry the midfeild, along with an unhindered Jack Viney, Jones having more of a free reign in the forward line, with perhaps the occational injection into the midfeild could really help our team ballance. Jones could also help add that hard physical presence into our forward line in much the same way as AVB.

I suspect that Gawn would for the simple reason that I'd expect Trac to have more shots on goal over the season. But I get where you are coming from.

He's got to kick them from now on, as they will all become 'captain's goals'. Perhaps that's the genius strategy in making him captain, so we get an extra match winning goal out of him here and there? In all honesty though Max really does need to sort this problem out and probably even more so now that he is captain. These misses would have been twice as deflating for the team comming from their captain. I also think we should give Nathan Jones some credit, he was generally pretty bloody reliable at slotting goals under pressure. It's really quite frustrating, because Gawn isn't a horrible kick and is quite capable of nailing them from 40 - 50m out.

SERIOUSLY!!

Just plonk him in a forward pocket and he can slot through those inside out banana goals from the boundary like shelling peas.

Having a deep list could be a significant advantage in a compressed fixture as I think most sensible clubs would be looking to rest players week to week, to avoid burning out their best 22. If Burgess and the selection committee can get that balance right as the season progresses, I actually think we are in pretty good shape. Conversely, I really do hope the league think things through and put a sensible end date on season 2020. As MFC supporters, we have witnessed first hand what carrying too many injuries into a preseason does in 2019. To be honest, I'm pretty much hoping that we treat 2020 as a development year to get key players and our system right for season 2021, which hopefully is something like a more normal season.

Sounds pretty good to me.

A fitter than ever Nev Jetta sound like very good news. What a bloody top bloke Nev is as well helping others with their mental illness struggles. As someone who has lived with several people close to them with depression, I can empathize with the challenging situation this imposes on yourself as well.

I can only really account for the last 40-50 years of that myself, but fair to say that there's some MFC royalty among that list.

@Whispering_Jack

Might have to do the same myself now too. What do they say about a hard earned thirst...mater a fact I've got one now. Whoops, wrong beer. Anyways will be getting behind Furphy's now they have got behind the mighty Demons, as shouldd every Demons supporter of drinking age and inclination.

Jack Watts?

Possibly not private, but if they are for sale, maybe the Tasmanian govenment could buy them out and relocate them, instead of funding Hawthorn and North.

Read into this what you will: "Goodwin said one positive to take from the enforced hiatus was that Aaron vandenBerg, Nathan Jones, Christian Salem, Harrison Petty, Mitch Hannan and Harley Bennell would all be fit to return from injury when the AFL action resumes." https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-return-to-training-date-may-4-afl-clubs-return-season-shutdown-when-will-the-afl-season-resume/news-story/797bbe056823eef8f212bdb0631e2656

Like many here I will continue to pay my membership as it's currently well within my capacity to do so, but equally understand if people have to make hard decisions to support their families in times of finacial stress, that football club memberships could and probably should be one of the first things to go. What would be nice though is for the club and/or AFL to recognise and reward the suport of those members who remain faithful with some kind of token gesture like free access to premium/reserved seating and/or increased access to the players. I know my youngest son for instance would be absolutely stoked to get a phone call/face time call from Max Gawn, Tommy Mac or any number of his other favorite players and maybe it could also have a positive impact on for the playing group as well.

Agreed. I think he has clearly under some stress trying to work out how to pay all the clubs employees etc. I don't normally have much empathy with Eddy with all his Collingwood superiority complex, but if you listen objectively to what he was saying, I think he was trying to juggle the dual needs of financially struggling supporters and potentially a club that is financially struggling to support it's current expenditure in an environment with little or no revenue. I also don't think it's a good outcome for financially struggling members to see their club go down the gurgler as rightly or wrongly I think supporting your club on the weekend does give some of these people purpose in like when perhaps all else is falling apart around them. The one thing I would qualify this with is do the big clubs like Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Adelaide, Richmond, Hawthorn, WC etc have enough finacial reserves which they could reasonably dip into without too much pain. I partly think the answer to this is no, because many have probably taken out huge loans to pay for grotesquely exorbitant training facilities etc on the basis of their normally high income generation capacity.

I at first mis-read the title of this thread. Thought it said "Cats members expect a refund", which I thought would be a bit rich given they have a new stadium they need to pay for.

Jeff Hilton was one of my favorites 'had potential' type players for a bit and was good for a bit of bash, crash and snagging a sneaky goal here or there. He had games where he would really turn it on, get off the chain and play like a champion.

I was glad to have forgotten that Chris Heffernan played for the MFC.

Kowal played just over 100 games, that's borderline obscure to me.

Top work and great reward for her efforts. Doesn't quite have the same charisma and profile of Daisy, but Karen Paxman will go down as both a pioneer and champion of the women's game.

If Gillan says that buzz word agile again, I'm going to puke.

Well, that's just stuffed. But understandable.