Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Which would also sort our run for position 1/2 as well.

I'm quite interested to see how they go too. ...but I know what you mean. ? Darn autocarrot!

I think it does the Weid good to get pushed into the ruck a bit - gets him a bit angry, fired up and into the game physically.

This will be one of the things I will be watching most intently on Saturday night. We will need key back depth. At his 2018 level O'Mac was good enough. If he can improve a few notches on 2018 through that long maturity curve of KPPs, then I do think he could be a very important yet underrated part of our success going forward.

Bulldogs were what the only team to win a flag from outside the top 4 in 20 years? Don't get me wrong if we repeated what the Bulldogs did, I'd be estatic, but it's not the percentage play by a long way. 2018 was a drought breaker and I was very glad to see us just make finals and each to their own, but as a supporter, I no longer see just making finals as a very worthy achievement or representing much of a step forward.

Aims can't just be finals though. Finals without a realistic oppertunity at a flag, are a frustrating waste of time. I could handle finishing in the top 4 and getting knocked out, because that would suggest that we are actually close to winning a flag. The MFC consistenly made finals for the best part of 20 odd years, but never really had a serious crack at a flag, because it almost always stumbled into the top 6/top 8 and even when it made it through to the last game in September the team was physically stuffed and played up against well rested outfits. Same deal in the 2018 prelim. If the club and the players give themselves a pat on the back for making the bottom half of the 8, then to me that would say they are not fair dinkum. Time to get serious and raise the bar. I want the club to be ruthless and relentless in pursuit of that illusive flag.

With a bit of a segway over to the Burgess' Management Plan for Preseason Games thread and as indicated by @Kent and @spirit of norm smith, my take on the injury list and those missing full training is that having put in a solid block of preseason training before Christmas, we are now in a conservative injury management mode to make sure that we have as near to a full list as possible for the start of the season and aren't playing catch-up all year getting back a critical mass of top line players or carrying as many injuries for those that play week to week throughout the season. At least that's what I'm hoping.

I guess making finals might mean something to our membership, sponsorship and perhaps some revenue from playing a couple of finals, but asides from that finishing in positions 5 - 8 is pretty much meaningless and hardly worth any more than finishing 8 - 12. The club has stated in recient days that it has an aim of a mens premiership in the next 4 years. Premierships don't happen from outside the top 4, so if the club is serious, then just making finals can't be an achievement of any real significance.

My general reactions to the this topic are: 1. So much better to bring back state of origin which actually meant something to the football public than have that other AFLX rubbish with the Patrick Dangerfield Lightening bolts or whatever; 2. Would be better to have the Vics playing WA or SA than this concocted 'All Stars' thing; 3. Perhaps if it is a huge crowd drawer and ratings puller, the AFL could/might consider dropping a few home and away games (thus creating an even draw) and substituting them with a few SoA games - perhaps even a series; 4. If we win a flag or two, I couldn't care how many of our players get into the state of origin games - heck half the side could be made up of MFC players for all care and if we were to get a few minor injuries out of it, then so be it.

So our players getting selected or not in an exhibition game will determine or is some kind of indicator of the season ahead? Yeah right. I agree with others that this is all based on 2019 performances. If this game was played at the start of 2019 when we were flavor of the month with all the so called 'experts', there probably would have been half a dozen MFC players in the game. So fickle.

Nice bit of acting. Perhaps these guys could apply this newly found tallent to staging for free kicks? (Yes I know the AFL has rules against that, but all our opponents and the AFL umpires pets always seem to get away with it, so if you can't beat them join them).

Nice clown shoes.

Took the words out of my mouth. Going along with the analogy, I would say that no sooner had we walked that we tripped over our own feet and fell flat on our face! @Pates it's not so much that I'd see just making the bottom half of the 8 as complete failure, but it really wouldn't represent real progress to me either. Similarly I've got to the point where I am indifferent finishing bottom half of the 8 compared to finishing in position 8 - 12 as neither really indicate to me that we would be getting any closer to actually winning a premiership. I don't see that finishing top 4 is beyond us either we were a couple of close wins off it in 2018 and Brisbane came from outside the top 8 to finish top 4 last year, so as Peter Jackson put it in his Demonland podcast a while back, these things don't always follow a linear trajectory.

Love it. The time for mediocrity is over. As much as Paul Roos was fairly instrumental in turning the ship around, the aim I most commonly heard him talking about was being competitive and building a team that could go deep into finals. I understand Roos was both starting from a lower base and had a shorter term horizon, but just making and being competitive in finals doesn't cut it for me. From 1987 to 2006, the MFC had a great period of being competitive in finals without bringing home a premiership. Don't see why we have to wait patiently to keep building our list and playing off in finals for a number of years to put it out there that winning a premiership is what this is all about. I'm so glad the club leadership continued to put it out there, as it would be so easy to retreat back into our shell after 2019 and that would be such a mistake. Aiming to win premierships is a winner's mentality and we need to have that for the players to build the kind of belief that it will take to get us to that goal.

Who cares about top 8 spots anyway. If we don't make top 4, then we are just making up the numbers when it comes to a genuine tilt at a flag.

I know that this is not directly MFC related, but I do think it's great to see an AFL player/person come back from a pretty dire situation and making a good fist of it. For Norths sake, I hope he is able to deliver some star performances in a struggling side. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-north-melbourne-intra-club-report-majak-daw-bridge-fall-round-1-ben-cunnington-forward/news-story/904ab94281fd8ed76f1b839498d35cc2

SEN often put up podcasts or streaming sound files of segments, so hopefully this one ends up online.

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.