Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Him getting nailed in a tackle at the end of the game was an awsome full stop

Nah, I think your maths are a bit out their old Dub. Flags in 2009, 2011 & 2022 - that's three flags in 14 years and if you go back one further to 2007 it's four in 15 years. I'd definitely take that. ...the 20 odd years prior to 2007 might have been pretty heart breaking though, but we know all about that.

My thoughts exactly. ...youngest son was going for the Hawks tonight, so I had to feign support for them to win. Part of me was dying on the inside.

Wasn't there at either, but sat through loosing GFs in 88 and 2000. Just give me that premiership at the G and I'd be complete in a footy sense.

That was a bit of a game giant [censored] vs [censored] sandwich. I think the giant [censored] won.

Perhaps if he's getting tactical moves from Dr.Who and can warp the space time continuum. That would be handy. ...in which case, I'll put the 2022 and 2023 premierships on back order as well!

You mean after we win the 2026 & 27 GFs as well?

Say what you will about the rest, but Spargo and Sparrow were solid contributors to a premership team - how many premerships has Flanders played in? While Sparrow hasn't gone to that next level we'd all like him to or perhaps even produce quite as consistently at the level he is capable of, I still see him as a valuable part of the team. If we don't have him, we're dipping into playing the likes of Henderson, Billings, Laurie and co more often and makes for a weaker team. IMHO, it's easy to look at other teams players through rose coloured glasses, when you don't scrutinise them every week and it's mainly their best games that get noticed widely. If Mat Rowell was a Melbourne player, last night we'd all be beating up on him worse than Trac, that he can't produce in the big games, being just a bully to the mid and lower tier teams. Prior to the Darcy Moore injury, Trac had a number of seasons where his output against the better teams put him as one of the true elite and best players in the comp.

Will be very happy if he emulates the coaching record of the guy in the background. Don't know anything more about him than has been publicly posted, but he's our man now. Let's get behind him and the team and looking forward to some great season ahead.

GWS were given the most extensive draft and recruiting concessions in AFL history. As much love as there is with the public for a Tassie team, I can't see that same level of concessions being made available to the Devils.

Salem is solid best 22 player at the moment. Maybe not a superstar, but a reliable contributor. Great sides need these sort of players just as much as they need the superstars.

Yeah, but you do get that impression when you combine it with all this: 8× All-Australian team: 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (c), 2022, 2024, 2025 AFLCA Champion Player of the Year: 2018 2× Frank 'Checker' Hughes Medal: 2024, 2025 Neale Daniher Trophy: 2016

I actually thought Salem was pretty solid this year and had a few good games. Somewhat surprised that he finished as high as 5th though.

I'm not going to hate on Trac, but really can't see how he should finish 2nd. Stats are one thing, but I struggle to remember where he used the ball effectively enough to make a big positive impact on the game. Wouldn't argue against him finishing somewhere in the top ten, but to me that Bowie finishes below him in 4th, just makes our B&F like the brownlow - another midfielder's medal. I'd probably also have rated Melksham above both Salem and Trac this season.

Agree. Stop radically changing the rules and nature of the game. I know someone will probably tell me the boundary umpires were only introduced in 1955 or something, but the ball has been allowed to be knocked out of play one way or the other on the bounce without an automatic free kick for the entirety of the time I've been watching (which doesn't date back anywhere near as far as 1955). Moving to this rule won't take the subjectivity out of out of deliberate bounds decisions. It will just replace those errors with umpires not being able to decide which player touched it last, players trying to hit it out off the other player basketball style etc. If they want to make the game more free flowing, start tightening up on the holding the ball decisions again. I see way too many players practically diving on the ball or letting themselves get wrapped up without attempting any disposal and or doing a 720 degree tour while getting takled etc without getting penalised it's not funny. Just go back and look at how the rule was generally adjudicated in general play in the 80s and I think that's the standard that should be replicated.

Saints had their chance to have Trac and took Paddy McCartin instead.

Yeah thought that's what you meant. I did mention that we got Lingers (aka Ed Lingers Langdon)

Agree regarding loosing any liking of Freo after they went on a poaching spree on us. I guess we did get Jeff White from them, but then they have taken the Wiz, Jessy Hogan and Dogger. There have been a few others and we got Linggers, but they seemed quite OK with trading him. While any dislike of Freo might not be on the same level as Collingwood, I'm also quite happy to see them lurk in irrelevance and starved of sucess. We might not have made finals the past 2 seasons, but at least our club has actually won a premiership and we're not Freo. On that note, this clip cracked me up a few times:

I'd actually add a point 3 to the above being executing under pressure. I reacall that in our better seasons gone by (2021 being the prime example) Max and Christian have been able to nail clutch goals from set shots and on the run, but have got progressively worse in the past few seasons. I think it's 80% in the head. When the team and individuals are playing with greater confidence, it just tends to happen as well. I'm sure Lindsay will get better in front of goal as he gets the monkey off his back and more games under his belt.

I think the point has been made regarding goal kicking Vs feild kicking, buy just to reinforce the psychological component and other aspects where goal kicking accuracy isn't a good metric for kicking ability, Xavier Lindsay, who I think most here rate as a more than reliable and capable feild kick, achieved a scoring record of 2 goals 6 behinds this season. My recollection is that like Gawn, many of Lindsay's shots were fairly easy, particularly for a player of his kicking calibre. I noticed this from fairly early on, to the point that personally, I had surprisingly little confidence in him taking shots on goal. Honestly, this is something we need to work on as a team. We could have been at least a 10 - 20 goal better team and win another 3 - 4 games just if Gawn, Lindsay, Tracc and others quite feasibly turn around this aspect of their games.

What's the governance structure of the AFL compared to European football though? I would have thought that the less well off AFL clubs would have enough voting power to curb the worst excesses of the pure wealth generation aspects (I think Ross's criticism of the FS and academies is evidence of this balancing force). That some of the previous power clubs of Essendon, Carlton and even West Coast and Adelaide have undergone some fairly long periods without sucess suggests to me the AFL isn't totally rigged in favour of the wealthy elite of the competition. Still I also totally get where you are comming from with the way the AFL executive operates, splurging millons on a single performance of American rappers etc, while making the game increasingly inaccessible for the average punter. And that Geelong have been able to stay up for so long through being able to repeatedly skim FA away from everyone else without loosing any themselves suggests to me there is something quite rotten going on.

Gold Coast used them for a great confidence building warm-up against a VFL side last week too.

The AFL are having a wet dream with an all Queensland final at the Gabba next week.

Suck on that one Peter Bell

The question also has to be asked I think is how you define fast in footy terms? There are the straight line lopers that could win a 100m race given an expansive open space to run into, but in footy terms, I think having the combination of acceleration off the mark, agility and reasonable top speed pace is the combination that makes you think that the player is pacy. Kossie, Winsor and Chandler would be my top three of our current batch in those respects. Although Chin might have the highest top line speed, I think it's the agility and ability to evade and step around traffic that make Kossie and Windsor more damaging and appear faster around the ground.