Rodney (Balls) Grinter

To me the playing every other team once means that asterisk is more of a positive than the flag the Tigers won in 2017 which could have an asterisk next to it from having an easy draw and no one really devalues the their 2017 premiership. Biggest beef for me is this reducing the time of games thing, to me that has the potential to quite drastically shift the ballance of the game due to the lists teams had built around a the normal game duration. Just watch the AFL try to make shorter games the new normal after this season.

Agreed. I feel like the MFC has had a really strong pre-season and then this bloody virus has put so much uncertainty into the picture that it has taken a bit of the shine off the excitement that I was feeling towards Rd 1. Really keen to see how we stack up against some good sides in real games and would love for us to prove all the doubters wrong this season. I'm feeling confident in our mids being fit, stong and ready to tear some opposition apart again. I think our backline will hold up well and that we are well placed in the mid sized forward area with Freitch and Melksham. Really just need T Mac and Weid to start pulling down some big marks and we could be pretty balanced all over the ground. Carn the mighty DEMONS. Smash the Eagles like a COVID from hell!

BRING IT ON!

It's not emotional support and motivation with respects to finances that I was suggesting at all. My suggestion of encouragement in order to provide motivation was more from an on feild performance perspective. Playing in front of empty stadiums week in week out and total physical isolation from supporters could become somewhat meaningless to professional athletes. Before you tell me that amature athletes play with limited external crowd support every week, they don't train and base their everyday life schedule around their footy either. I doubt most in everyday life will be putting themselves into the degree of social isolation that has been suggested our players are to reduce their risk of contracting COVID 19 as well. More than anything the sentiment it was just a show of solitary of us supporters with them and to remind them that they are playing for us as well.

Agreed. On another note though, perhaps in the absence of actual crowds, perhaps something which would be of more immediate benift to the players would be some well delivered words of encouragement and support from us supporters to let them know we're behind them emotionally. Should be delivered in a way the filters out all the negative crap. I can imagine that this could be an important way to keep our players motivated and competitive in the absence of the normal stimulus.

You would hope that if games can be played before crowds towards the back end of the year, that there may be some pent-up demand which delivers higher than average crowds and finacial returns once footy returns (obviously a best case scenario).

As a bit of a side issue, I do wounder how this will affect the wealth distribution between clubs. I'm not sure that it will necessarily go the the big power clubs will be least hard hit, because they probably also have higher expenses and I suspect some like Geelong and perhaps Essendon also have big debts from facilities developments. Pokies revenues may also be disproportionately relied on and affected. I also wounder about the sponsorship revenue that we get from the NT govenment, the Hawks and Roos from Tassie and if it has contractual contingencies in them to pull it if games are not played their due to the absence of visiting supporters bringing money and exposure into those local economy? Whatever the final outcomes the AFL needs to give serious consideration to financial equity between the clubs when dealing with the fallout as the competition would be the poorer for loosing teams at this point. I could also see it putting the breaks on a Tassie team or alternatively providing the AFL leverage to relocate a team, depending on how bloody minded they were about it.

I can't read either, but it's fairly easy logic Tigers would have had a hard draw because they finished on top and would have had more of the top teams from last year as their double ups and the inverse for the MFC. Having an easy draw was certainly one factor which helped Brisbane in 2019 and to some extent the Tigers in 2017.

Do they expect family members to self quarenteen as well? I see that has close to the same potential for spread as comming into contact with other VFL players on game day. I fully expect most white collar personel will be told to work from home soon and schools also to be closed, so if that keeps the spread in the general community low, perhaps the risk of transmission between players will be acceptably low and sporting teams granted an exempt status from the general quarenteen efforts to keep up community morale? If mixing with VFL affiliates is off the table, then how do the AFL clubs expect players outside of their best 22 to stay match fit and select based on form? A micro comp with just AFL listed players mixing from diferent teams perhaps?

How about the AFL execs giving up some of their fat pay checks like the ones at QANTAS? ' I'd like to see that! '

Agreed. It would likely compromise the integrity of the competition too much IMHO. Better to postpone games/rounds and consolidate the season into a 17 game every team plays off once type of scenario, which in a way would be kind of [censored] for us, since we supposedly have an easier draw due to our low finish last season. Damn MFC luck.

F@#% that. We should be past peek COVID by then surely. I'd absolutely spew if we one a premiership and I wasn't able to be there at the ground.

So long as everyone else watching Netfilix etc during isolation lockdown because there isn't anything else to do don't also chew up all the bandwidth as well. I recall the soccer world cup on Optus internet viewing completely died a few years back and I can envisage similar scenario's happening again.

The time and space thing is a pretty big key to it I think and it can be a bit like comparing apples with oranges in this respects. My first reaction to Lyon's call was that it was a bit of a stretch, but as I've pondered it further, I think he is pretty close on the money. On Nathan Jones my thoughts are: 1. Early in his career he was a bit of a turnover king, but I think that was more about picking the wrong options, letting players close in on him too much and putting himself under the pump. He prety tidied this up significantly as his career progressed to the point of it becoming a non issue; 2. Being an in and under, on ball type for most of his career, he has nearly always in tight in positions where little time and space exists. However through a combination of physical strength and pretty good evasive skills in tight, he is able to work his way out of tight spots and still get a reasonable kick away to position. I see Trac and to some extent Brayshaw as developing their proficiency in this respects; 3. I've not paid much attention to Jones general feild passing until now, because he's previously been more of that burst kick type, but his skills in this area do seem to be quite good; 4. He is a pretty decent long kick for goal up forward, on the run, snapping or from a set shot. Along similar lines of being a good kick thing need need to be in the context of where on the ground the kick is being taken and the particular attributes of the player. Freitch for example was pretty bog ordanary down back by foot and turned the ball over much more frequently than I would have expected for a player of his generally high skill level. Up forward he has his bearings and sense of where to look for options right and he can be really damaging. Players like Salem and Melksham typically get the ball in more space than Jones has over the journey. Asides from the obvious of Salem and Melksham, a few of the others in probably the next tier below that I'd really rate are May, Harmes, Jetta and to some extent Mitch Hannan and possibly Trac. As others have mentioned, Rivers has the potential to be in the upper eshalon of kicks at the club, but still needs to establish himself at the top level before he can stake a genuine claim in my book.

Early during the call of the game of the Hawks preseason game, after a laces out pass from Jones (to a leading Freitch I think) Garry Lyon made a statement about what a boon it could be for the MFC to have Jones in the frount half, because he was "pretty much the best kick at the club". Interested on other's views on a) the Jones statement and b) who would you rate as say our best 5 - 10 kicks in the team at present?

I don't know if this has been bought up before in the thread, but I can see Foxtel being a potential winner out of this, particularly for satellite subscriptions. Have a feeling that the combination of the Netflix and possibly overwhelmed Kayo sport servers crashing net based viewing.

All the arguments you have presented here is far too logical to ever be implemented Lucifer.

Well, based on the social distancing counter measures against the spread of COVID 19, perhaps they may permit some fans to attend on the basis of having 3 fans per bay totall!

I honestly think it's a mindset, system and application thing from here. The team just has to get good at always finding a way to win, even games that we shouldn't because of poor form, injuries etc. One hall mark of the Hawthorn teams in their eras of success is that they rarely, if ever lost three weeks in a row and I think that gets you a good part of the way there. Similarly, I know coaches always play down the importance of winning round 1 (probably mostly the ones that regularly loose Rd 1), but I really do think that's a bit of a misnomer. To finish top 4, teams can only loose 4, maybe 5 - 6 games within a season. To me that says that the team needs to be winning every 4 out of 5 or 5 out 6 games. Loosing in round 1 puts the team on the back foot from the start and always playing catch-up to finish in a strong ladder position. Playing catch-up means the team has to take more risks injury wise towards the back end of the season as opposed to being in a position to manage players for a good finals series. Classic cases of teams who's strong mid season ladder position enabled them to better manage their lists for a solid attack on a premiership were West Coast in 2018 and the Tigers in 2019. For as long as I've followed them, the MFC haven't been able to put together a consistent well controlled approach to consistently stringing together wins over the course of the season to position us appropriately for a genuine attack on a flag - we've had the superstar tallent, but it's the consistency, system and management over an entire season that wins you flags.

Agree in principle, but I'm impatient, so I say the winning with consistently starts now. 2018 and perversely 2019 were our learning years. In my view, the age, experience and talent profile of the club is now at a point where we should be seriously be competing for a flag each and every season we set foot on the park (pending endemic injury riddled seasons). As you point out, seriously competing for a flag means winning consistently and against the best teams, with the implications of finishing top 4. Consistenty just aiming at and making finals won't translate into a flag.

It's always been fairly well known that Lever's role is as the third tall to peel off and intercept, so I don't think we should start having expectations of him becoming a lock down type defender. We did try him as a lock down for half a dozen games at the start of 2018 and it did benefit anyone, so I don't think we should waste our time with that anymore. My personal view is also that Lever is only an average kick himself though, so not sure that logic stacks up. On the positive, although it's only a small sample of preseason games, I'm encouraged that Levers intercept numbers are up their - pretty hard to get hurt by his loose man or the oppo's small forwards if we have control of the ball. I saw some encouraging signs against Hawthorn that O Mac is starting to find his mojo again, so I reasonably comfortable for him to lock down the key forward and release lever. Otherwise, perhaps we need to send Petty back there again once fit or perhaps it's even an oppertunity to give Weid or T Mac a run in defense - if they struggles find form up forward, perhaps a run down back could actually help them find the leather again. Overall though, key lockdown defenders are probably where we should be looking to stock-up and develop at the next draft, somehow trade for or prefferably poach as a FA as May won't last that much longer in the scheme of things.

Yeah, but he was probably TBC the week before he was named in the practice match against Adelaide as well. I don't think we are going to get any simple straight answers on the AVB injury front as the year progresses.

Hawthorn - the arrogance of their supporters is unbelievable. Decades of slow painful non-competiveness would be a fitting fair for this mob. Daylight second Essendrug Carlscum West Coast - I actually wish the AFL would introduce a popular 3rd WA team, just to help break up WC's finacial monopoly a bit more and reduce their dominance as an AFL power. GWS St Kilda before we broke our hoodoo against them North Perhaps the crows. I actually don't mind some of the other interstate sides, except when we loose to them or loose players to them. Every club's supporters has a few half back flankers, although the standouts in this regards are probably those listed above 1 - 4. Collingwood and Footscray supporters are just garden variety inbreds. Melbourne supporters use to be the wealthy man's club, but I think a lot of the well to do band wagon jumpers have followed the success, so I hardly think we hold that title anymore.

Well that works doesn't it? Pretty hard to rotate 6 players through 6 positions.

I like the thought of the flexibility this could give us and the opportunity to manage the workload of our mids over the course of the season, to avoid burn out. If the opposition has a damaging mid that we want to contain, then throw Harmesy onto him, but if not then we roll with a different midfeild structure. Could also make us much less predictable to play against. People have also been critical of Goody in the past for not reacting quickly enough in games, but perhaps up until now, he hasn't had the luxury of enough mature, quality players to shuffle the magnets around with confidence.