Rodney (Balls) Grinter

15 hours ago, Nascent said:

Apparently the Lions fans call him "full cream"

Will fit in well with "Milkshake" when he gets back

40 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Great news and cool interview.

He seems to have found his niche as a tallish hybrid forward - whether he retains that role will depend a bit on who else comes on in 2024, and who else we may pick up.

He needs another 58 games to get to the century in case he has a son sometime who wants to follow dad and grandpa in the R&B.    27 x 2 over the next two years and at least a few the following year will do it.  

Agree with Timothy RAB's disappointment that he isn't expecting to play the full 27 next year 🙂

Surely if he knocks up the ton, his daughter would qualify for our AFLW team?

Really glad for Joel that he got the oppertunity and produced this season.  Was a really bright spark up forward to look to for the future.

Thought he had some great games down back pinch hitting as the sub - that Brisbane game in particular.  Provided really strong contest, marking, defensive tackling, but then some good run off half back as well.

A bit hit and miss as a forward, but more often than not, provided a really good aerial contest that others failed to give.  His marking on a lead and goal kicking look pretty rock so solid too.

Love seeing him in the 29.  Would be great to see him pull down some massive hangers like his old man - I reckon he's got it in him.

2 hours ago, Neil Crompton said:

I don't think anyone here will or could forget WCW. But just maybe it's time for healing instead of continually picking at the wound.

I think I disliked the AFL far more for their inaction on this than Maynard for doing the deed. But my sincere hope and energy is focused all at Gus and his healing - so much so that I don't have a lot of energy left to waste on the AFL and that knuckle-dragger Maynard.  

I agree in part Neil.  Maynard was something of an unwitting, careless pawn in the affair.  I do believe there was sincerity in his visit to Guss in the following days.

But I simply can't forget or move on from the way their supporters started the "Collingwood" chant as Guss still lay their motionless on the ground or the way Eddie McGuire carried on "justice has been served" style when he got off at the tribunal.  Tasteless, brain dead (pardon the pun) and uncaring response from all of those aforementioned.

This thread needs to stay alive throughout the whole of next season at the minimum.

5 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

We all agree. We hate Maynard. Case closed.  

And we also hate Collingwood and the AFL and Eddy Mc Guire - probably more than even before if that was possible.

For the next umpteen times we play them, we should really be expecting our side to serve their own version of justice on those a-holes.  Makes duck dinners look like kiddies talk.

1 hour ago, mo64 said:

Message to Jason Taylor. No more Rangas. Next thing we know Bowey will request a trade to his old man's club St. Kilda.

Is that like a variation on the Sydney "No Richard craniums" policy?

1 hour ago, Demonstone said:

I think it's here to stay ... 

As for the nickname, McQualter says it goes back long before he was drafted by the Saints. "I've had the nickname since I was grade three," he revealed. "I was tiny when I was younger and I had an older brother. His friends called me a mini version of him.

 

Isn't that an even better reason to shed the Nick name?

Is he now going to be a Mini Goodie?

13 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

Don’t think there was any ‘let go’ about it - he got a better offer

I don't think he was a free agent was he?

And if I recall correctly may even have still been in contract.

This attitude we have at the MFC of helping players get to the club and trading low value 2nd / 3rd rd picks or worse for them has its drawbacks and sometimes I think we need to hold on harder to some of these types of players.

With Bedford we'd put multiple years of development into him and he was just starting to show the fruits of that investment and we let him go, what I would call cheaply.

On 10/1/2023 at 5:23 PM, whatwhat say what said:

swans picking up all the second rung mids - jj from us and dow from the blues

Maybe, but every so often one of those second strings turns into a solid best 22 performer at another club.

Still spewing we let go of Toby Bedford though.  He had potential best 22 written all over him, but I think we just needed him to be more patient with oppertities to get confident and prove it at the MFC.

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Great news!

 

New players and coaches always look infinitely better with a red and blue kit on!

40 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

Welcome Mini. Have a feeling it's a really good get. Our first CGS student as an MFC coach too.

Can we drop the Mini nickname and come up with something else? 

Seems demeaning.

7 hours ago, Redleg said:

Part of showing respect to a player is to have a heart to heart with them, outlining where they are at.

If the FD feels they won't play senior footy in the next season, then a retirement with a payment, has them leaving as a senior player, not a reserves player, who played on too long.

Conversations need to be honest and respectful as you say, but the player needs to know the lay of the land and then be allowed to make a decision, on how they want to end their time at the club.

That is the respect that you afford your long term players.

I would think most players with pride want to go out near the top, not the bottom, thereby harming their playing reputation. 

Our football department and the players involved are all quality individuals, so I'm fully confident that those types of conversations would be being had if that's where things are at.

But who knows maybe the players, fitness and medical staff have some kind of belief that there is something still worth persevering with and want to squeeze every last drop out of their careers.  I'll be fascinated to see what might be left in their careers.  Melksham looked a bit past it 12 - 18 months ago, was struggling for a senior spot and look at the contribution he was still able to make.

Each individual is different.  Hibbo called it a day when he thought his body and playing capasity was on the cliff edge or just a little over.  To be honest, I was amazed he was so good last season and even the games he did play this year.  Maybe others don't have the aversion to potentially playing mostly reserves and just want to hang onto being involved in that elite environment for as long as they can.  Whatever the case, I agree with @dimmy that these guys have earnt the right to call it a day on whatever their own terms might be.

11 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The AFL needs to make a decision. Are the Giants the team for Western Sydney or Canberra? They can't be both. It's insulting the people of both western Sydney and the ACT as it's effectively saying we don't think either of you can support an AFL team by yourselves.

Same could be said for North and Tassie

I'm honestly not that phased by the list spot and salary cap these guys might be taking up.  It's basically sunk capital.

We invested it to keep/lure them to the club at a time they were valuable contributors and they helped deliver us a premership.

Giving them extra years on their contracts and thus allowing us to spread their salaries out at a time we were also trying to secure long term deals for Trac, Clarry, Viney, Gawn, May, Lever and others probably also allowed us to keep that team together.  Will we also be asking the same questions in the last couple of years contracts of these guys? i.e. should they retire?

Plenty of players we pick at the national draft will probably never play a game.  Both T Mac and BBB played multiple games in the seniors when needed, with variable levels of output.

It also looks likely we will have a significant list turnover this season and a bunch of young talent.  In the current AFL envioment of limited soft cap having a few role models like T Mac and BBB around the place to teach the development squad in check and bring them up the learning curve faster could be invaluable, like having a couple of extra coaches available at your disposal.  The quality of character of T Mac and BBB is exceptional, so if we can have some of that rub off on the draftees, I think we are doing well.

8 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

CONCLUSION: I think we need a CHB, a half back, a wingman and midfielder and pray we don't get injuries to our best 22.

With May getting into his 30s and Petty being pushed forward, I agree we need a new KPP back.

What about this bloke we currently have Jed Adams?

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/players/7416/jed-adams

Has been a bit of discussion on here regarding the development of Jefferson, but realitively little on Adams.  Normally KPP backs can step up and play seniors earlier than forwards, due to them being lead to the ball and only needing to be the spoiler, not the play maker / need for them to take big contested marks.

Do any of the Casey watchers have much of a read on Adams?  He looked great in his draft highlights videos, but all reports seem to have flatlined since then.

1 hour ago, leave it to deever said:

It may not sound like it in my posts but he really has been one of my favorite players. But his body has really let him down.

Every time he's been back in I've thought just maybe. But I really reckon he went downhill mid 21. 

His quick goal in the Geelong prelim where he turned on a dime and kicked a goal was the last time I saw him move well.

He struggled in the 21 gf and has ever since.

His first 10 2021 games help secure a finals birth and he has been a wonderful servant of the club. Great memories of him running down the ground to take a good grab.

It's been over 2 years now for him to play a great game so it's hard to see him back. He's on the payroll though, so let's hope it happens.

Agree his body has been his Achilles heal in recent times.

22 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

I thought Tmac dropped off in the middle of the season. Had a ripper first but if you go through the games, you'll find he didn't finish well. 

Remember when weid was given fames? There was a reason why.

I'm sorry but if you watch the games again you'll find I was right.

It was the start of Tmacs slump/ injuries.

 

In the back half of 21, T Mac may not have been the beast he was in 2017 / 2018, but what he did do, even in the back half of the season was push hard down the ground to be an outlet kick comming out of defense.

Didn't always mark it, but often did and was rarely beaten and if he didn't mark, it would be rushed out of bounds, meaning we were able to get our troops over and reset our zone.  His tackeling was also pretty good, as was his ability to break through tackles and get the ball moving 50m in our direction with his penetrating kicks.

I think he did everything we needed him to, in order to get us to that flag.

He was looking pretty good in preseason games and earlier this year before he injured himself again.  I'd agree that he appears to be past his prime, but you just never know he may still make some useful cameo appearances here and there and contribute while the next generation of key forwards comes through.

On 9/26/2023 at 11:36 AM, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

According to this article, we have the third highest conversion rate of supporters into members. The story should come with a caveat, though. Supporter numbers are calculated by Morgan Research so must necessarily be an estimate.

And thank goodness Collingwood supporters are so pathetic at converting that support into membership.

The other thing I take out of that article is what a poor job the AFL have done at promoting the Giants in Sydney.

1.34 million supporters compared to 0.2 million supporters.

No doubt plenty of the 33,000 GWS supporters are free memberships given away by the AFL in an attempt to boost the actual popularity of the club.

I don't quite get it personally, as I find the Swans a boring team and GWS have probaby been close to as successful as the Swans since the introduction of GWS into the competition.  You'd think that more of the Swans supporters would have jumped over the fence to the Giants.

I have no fresh intel on what has happened to him post Damian Hardwicks appointment, but is Steven King someone we should also be looking at?

Did a great job turning around the Suns after Stewy Dew went.

10 minutes ago, BDA said:

Ruck forward 

Might as well have been for patches against Carlton when we had no one go up in the ruck.

On 9/22/2023 at 2:04 PM, poita said:

I've said it elsewhere, but we need to be signing Max's replacement now for 1-2 years of education, and then stepping up to be number 1 ruck. I can't see the value to bringing in another stopgap option, unless he's happy to play for free.

An undervalued 22-24yo ruck who's got a developed body would be perfect, if they're any good there's a permanent position there for them for the next 6 - 8 years.

24 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Minimum 3 months, maximum, not usually more than 6.

The only caveat to my celebratory mood regarding this is that Petty seems to have something of a history with doing this kind of ankle/lower leg injuries. 

Hopefully it's just bad luck, but could also be some kind of predisposition due to either his physique or the way he naturally moves and changes direction.

If he can keep his body right, he's certainly turned into the type of key position player the MFC can build it's team around for the next 5+ years, either as a forward or a back.

14 hours ago, Stina said:

No SA homecoming for Dees

Melbourne will rebuff Adelaide’s attempts to secure star duo Harry Petty or Tom Sparrow in the Shane McAdam deal.

The Crows are keen on a ready-made quality player in return for McAdam, who turned his back on a fresh deal at Adelaide to join Melbourne in the exchange period.

But the Demons will likely offer the Crows a third-round pick or low-round pick swap in the McAdam deal.

Melbourne’s top priority is to secure adequate compensation in the trade for Brodie Grundy to Sydney, such as a second-round pick.

What drugs are they smoking if they think we'd consider trading Petty or Sparrow for an average mature age player that doesn't even want to be on their list?

Unless they are trowing in a first round draft pick, but I honestly don't even think that goes close in the case of Petty.

Surely this is a joke and the jurno that wrote it is desperate for something to print.

The MFC needs to train our players to do the jumping smother charge over the off season. 

It a football action, so you know when Maynard is lying motionless on the ground during our next match against them, it will be completely within the rules and spirit of the game.

FFS this a hole makes me sick.

If he had half a brain he should have shut the hell up to any reporters about that incident.  He knows he shouldn't be playing in that GF.

The footy jurnos have got the boots into the MFC about our finals exits.  Few of the want to put forward the side the with Brayshaw and JVR in the team, we probably win both those games and thus the rank injustice of allowing Maynard to play, while JVR was suspended.

3 hours ago, Go the Biff said:

That's always been Harmsy's problem though.  The gap between his best and his worst is huge. Both in game and in season. Just on ability alone there's not much he can't do. He can take a hanger, can pass lace out to a lead, can explode from a stoppage, can kick goals.  On ability he's pretty much got it all. 

But then he'll also handball to a team mate's feet, miss a target by a mile,  go missing for large parts of a game, get caught with the ball etc etc

For me he's been the most frustrating player due to his output not matching his capacity. 

If he leaves I'll wish him well. If he stays I'll also wish him well and hope he has a year where he consistently delivers at the high end of his capabilities. 

No matter what, he's a Demon premiership hero and I'll never forget that pass to Fritta. 

Well summarised GTB.  Couldn't agree more.

This year in particular he has been right off the boil, which has been really disappointing, because we know what he's capable of.  I know it's been reported he's had some personal issues that may have played their part in that and I'm quite respectful that they are just that and his own private business.

Often players are able to level out the inconsistencies as they mature and I'd be hopeful Harmesy can do that in what remains of his career whether that's with us or someone else.