Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Yup, I did. The MFC have been so poor on sharing this kind of info and there hasn't been much news asides from COVID 19 stuff that I've given up on checking the MFC website and even Demonland for actual player/footy news for the last week or so. Actual footy will be a great break from the real world for a while, while it lasts.

Unfortunately I think it's a bit ominous that AVB isn't on the extended bench. He would have been one of my first picked against the Eagles if he was fit.

Just think out loud here, but I think the AFL has mad a monumental stuff up in cutting short quarters. Given that from my understanding there are no second tier comps like the VLF for AFL listed players at the moment, they should have introduced X 3 subitutes instead of cutting game time. That way it would still provide a means of managing match minutes, but also provide more of an oppertunity for match practice and fitness for the players just outside the best 22.

I suspect only one of Bedford and Picket will play as will one of Weid and Brown.

From the other side of a plastic bubble or a distance of about 20m!!

The present compromises don't exactly turn it into an AFLX premiership do they.

Lol

Oops! and agree.

Considering all clubs are expected to take a finacial hit due to COVID, winning the premiership would put us in the best position financially available in the circumstances for moving forward. I don't even want to think what it could look like if we have another 2019.

Adelaide 2018* Home and away finish 5th Get pumped by the MFC by 50 points in the first week of finals and then get an armchair ride through to the GF and beat Norf who we had to play the week before under lights heavily favoring Norf.

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?