Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Many opposition supporters would claim a hatred and dislike for the MFC and that we got our comupance over the last 50 years of premiership drought for effectively buying players in the 50s/60s. I think the same rational is fair to apply to Carlscum, they were buying flags and players up until the early 2000s in my book, with the likes of John Elliot running the show and their salery cap breaches. Even Chris Judd was bought in with the assistance of Richard Pratt money. I recon the cap breaches which were admitted were just the tip of the iceberg. I'd also be quite happy to see Collingwood, Hawthorn, Essendon and Westcoast starved of anymore real sucess for a number of years, but there is unfortunately some bad prospects of WC or the Pies having more sucess this year.

I read somewhere that as of about our 100 point belting of them last year Carlton have actually won less games (finals appearances included) than the MFC since 2000.

Rawlings is now in a no loose situation as far as I can see. Casey's season appears to me to have not got off the ground this season due to a severe lack of AFL listed players. Getting back more of our best list pre and post bye, the MFC's season should be on an upward trajectory from this point onward and Rawlings would no doubt get more Kudos for reviving the floundering forwardline of an a senior AFL side than anything which he might have achieved with Casey for the remainder of the season. Personally, I'm glad to see Rawlings more involved at the most senior level. I kind of get it, but why should the MFC do more favours by Rawlings by giving him the opportunity of showing his wears coaching his own side at Casey, than getting more value out of him where he is most presently needed at AFL level? I care more about the fortune of the MFC than I do about Rawlings coaching aspersions at another club and that's the way the MFC should see it too. McCarthy has been widely acknowledged as a great development coach, both at the Cats and the Dogs, so : i) I don't know why we would move him from that role in the first place; ii) I think it's good he is now back in that role and it doesn't indicate to me he is on the way out; iii) Would Maca have been a better fit for the Casey coaches position than Rawlings either in the first place or now that Rawings has been promoted? Or it best to keep the team coach and development coaches roles seperate?

If I remember correctly, Roosy originally publicly said he wasn't interested in coaching the MFC either. Not saying that means he will end up at CarlsIcum or not, but just that until the new coach of the scum is named, that we shouldn't completely dismiss it either. I really do hope that Carlton get the coach they deserve, i.e. one that keeps them out of finals and anything that remotely smells like sucess for another 20 or 30 years. Carlton are currently ahead of us as being the least sucessfull team this century and let's hope that we put a complete gulf between us and them over the next 2 - 5 years. I want it to get soo bad for them that Carlton are part of the talk of relocation to Tasmania, a third Sydney side or maybe a merger with North. LET them feel some more PAAAAIN

It is a fair bit different to outright tanking or putting the cue in the rack. Those developing/fringe types that we would be putting extra games into would be going pretty hard at it with the opertunity they are given I recon. I'm in agreement that it's the approach that we should take, but only from around Rd 18 - 19 onwards. We need to get games into as much of that best 22 as we can get on the feild between now and then to build back confidence, build that game style and winning culture for 2020. I think once we do build back a bit of confidence and system, it should actually be easier to slot a few of the lesser likes back into the lineup and give them a go at the end of the season.

I'm looking forward to more of winning. Really want us to get that compeditiveness, confidence, dominance and respect back in our game. Last season I genuinely felt like we were a better than even chance to beat any side we came up against. Contrast that with this season, where I feel like there is some chance we could beat sides if we switch on and find some confidence there is a chance that we 'might' be a small chance to win. I'm hopeful that with the players we got back in the past few weeks and some of that good attacking ball movement through the centre of the ground in patches of the second half against the Pies from Gus (who looked to have regained some form ), Hannan, Hibbard and Weid looked to have regained some touch, that we are close to regaining that dangerous 2018 form again. I'd like us to win at least 3 of our next 4 games and then be right up there and beat whatever top 8 sides we can before the end of the season, with Richmond, Collingwood, the Crows, Port and Geelong? being prime targets. If that has us giving up a good draft pick for pick 10 or 11 because we end up finishing outside the 8, then so be it. Whilst I don't want us to put the cue in the rack of our season as a team at any point, if there are players carrying injuries that need surgery, put them in at round 18, so they get a full preseason and hit 2020 in top condition. I want some respect back for our club. Whilst I never one that thought that the 2019 flag was in the bag and all the outside noise, I utterly detest joke and flash in the pan, that we have become. So most of all, I'm looking forward to winning back some respect and the club showing the AFL world and us as supporters that we can be a genuine threat next season.

Reminds me of my first Jnr coach who had this smallish dog that use to chase the ball. Usually it was just at training, but it did make one or two match day appearances, which was an interesting interlude from normal game play.

So, she goes along and supports Geelong against someone other than the MFC. Yeah, not rapped with that, but whatever. But why post it all over social media? That's just plain silly and kind of rubbing our noses in it.

That does sound like Collingwood supporters.

You know now that Sam has committed to us, I think it's time for MFC supporters to lift on game day as well. Every time this bloke goes near the ball, you shouldn't be able to hear yourself think for all the cries of WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEID. Think how much of a confidence booster and sense of belonging it would give the young bloke. Also need to get into it big time on Monday, to get up Eddie's goat.

At risk of being self contradictory, I'm somewhat anoyed that this thread has been high jacked by @Matsuo Basho and the barrage of responses to his inital post, which I feel are also somewhat disproportionate to the actual post, though I also sense a recient history which has contributed to the backlash. By coincidence in contrast to the view that expressions of feelings, emotions and perceptions of outside pressure in the internet age, I stumbled across the below after I left Demonland, somewhat in disgust early this morning: Surf legend Kelly Slater reveals personal anguish after Sunny Garcia tried to take his own life https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-08/kelly-slater-opens-up-about-sunny-garcia-suicide-attempt/11191684 Clearly Slater is a world champion, so I don't think showing emotions is an indicator or mental weakness or lack of compeditive edge. There are also some other overlaps. Anyways, this thread should be more of a celibration that the MFC has sured up a promising key position forward, which post Jesse Hogan, the absence of which would leave the club quite structurally exposed. Dispite the missed goal, I also saw some good signs from Weid last Saturday night. Perhaps they were a sign that he had made up his mind and cast asides the decision, dedicated his focus to footy and that what we saw last Saturday is more indicative of what to expect from a physically fit and focused Weid for the rest of the year. GO WEID and GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!!

Bring back Russell Robertson I say. Couldn't play any worse than some of our forwards and might even teach them a few things about kicking a goal. Seriously, I think it would actually be possible as we have another Cat B rookie spot from what I understand and he wouldn't have played in a league for a number of years I'm guessing.

I didn't realize this was the situation. I'm honestly not sure which is worst though Lucifer. I mean I dig it that Carlton don't have them and it will help to keep them weak and in the doldrums for longer, but I don't really want the crows to get any good players either. A bit of a devil of a problem as they say. I guess one thing it might do is discourage Carlton to tank and for them to finish a few places higher would be a good thing in the grand scheme of things.

Six quality in's to the side, now Weid signs - great new week for the MFC for once in this dismal season. Now to beat the filth on Monday.

Should be part of the logo licensing deal. Every beer you drink, sponsors Neita to coach another shot on goal. Perfect deal all in-kind, so doesn't eat into Neita's profit margins and outside of the soft cap on football department spending for the club. However based on your philosophy of drinking beer to drown or sorrows, that might become a disincentive for David to fix our goal kicking. I think having a Demon Brew would taste soo much better and I'd drink more of them celebrating a good win by the red and blue!

Another thing that has somewhat surprised me is that Jeffy Garlett has got as many games as he has. Not that I think his inclusion has been totally unwarranted, but he was soo out of favour last year and hasn't really set the world on fire this year. His radar for goals hasn't been so great this year, but he has been getting to the right spots and threatening to explode or tip games in our favor with that well timed goal on occations, but just can't quite seem to crack it at the moment. I feel that unless Jeffy can get his kicking boots on, he will be replaced by Hannan or Baker in comming weeks as our list hopefully regains some strength. Conversely to Jeffy, a disapointing (though not completely surprising event) is second year blues Spargo. I do get the feeling that many of our players individual form and confidence is suffering due to team performance. It's much easier to be a good player in a side that's performing well and it can be a fine line. I wouldn’t just say that it's soft receiver type players that are suffering either. Angus Brayshaw goes from what was it 2nd or 3rd in the Brownlow to having a somewhat below par year and even Oliver hasn't consistently produced what he has over the previous two or three years and I wouldn't say either of those players are soft by any means. Overall I'm kind of ok with putting our performances this season so far down as a kind of team mulligan, but what has to happen now is that we get our shiiit together and build for a genuine crack at the premiership in 2020. ...but that's probably another thread of it's own in the making come bye week.

I'm simultaneously surprised and unsurprised by Marty Hore's performances this season. Surprised in the sense that his preseason and early real season games didn't give me much of an indication that he could really play and I wrote him off a bit based on that. But perhaps my initial judgment was partially due to an expectation that Taylor and Co have been pretty good at picking up quality diamonds in the rough from the VFL (i.e. Fritsch and Hannan) that I had put high expectations on Hore's potential to walk in and look at home at AFL level and in that respect I'm not surprised. The key thing now is, can he maintain it? There was a mature guy we got from SA a while back Alex Georgiou who put in a good string of early games for us and looked the goods to an extent, but couldn't maintain that form or rise to the next level. Dean Terlich was another mature age defender that showed early promise, but didn't have what it takes over the long haul. I really do hope that Hore can make it, as we will need some replacements for Hibbard and Jetta in a few years as age catches up with them. Oscar McDonald has been my biggest disappointment because he held our defense together reasonably well last year and I was expecting him to take another step forward and instead I think he has gone backwards. Some might say I'm delusional, but I still have hope that Oscar can step up and make it, but perhaps he now needs to do what so many of our other players did, but he always seemed to avoid and that's build on and correct deficiencies in his game at Casey. Asides from Oscar, my biggest disappointments for somewhat the inverse reasons to Hore have been Keilty and Petty. I sense that Petty has more scope and potential to further mature and make it, but that Keilty may be living on borrowed time as a MFC listed player. I'd love to be proven wroung on Keilty, because I like what he gives, but my perception is that you only get so long to develop, particularly as a mature age player and he has been with us a few years now.

His tap work is sublime, his marking is magnificent and for a guy that is well over 2m tall, he picks the ball up off the deck better than some rovers of a fraction his height. The guy is a freak. Love his sense of humor, love his compeditiveness, but beyond all else, I love his passion and loyalty to the red and blue jumper. Go Maxy - long live the bearded warrior.

Re the Weid miss I"m just as disappointed in Smith missing the cider a few minutes prior to Weids and Smith probably had even less pressure on him. Conversely I was stoked with the poise of Hore slotting through that pearler on the run against the GC a few weeks ago. You win some, you loose some, although as we move forward I would like to think that we will develop that confidence and poise that we win more than we loose in this situation.

Alot of players have a good look around these days though it's all part of the game. Doesn't mean all of the go.

Agree Re the set shot thing. I mean Weid is normally a pretty good set shot at goal and doesn't really need a Viney getting in his ear. It could have had the opposite effect of putting him off and/or eating into the 30 seconds he had for his set shot routine. Weids nailed a much harder shot from around 50 out against Sydney earlier in the year when they were comming at us in the last quarter. I also remember a really young Salem slotting through a goal against the Bombers to effectively win us the game a number of years ago. Weid is a professional footballer and I'm certain he has had pressure shots on goal before, so I'd think he would generally know how to handle the situation, but he just didn't on this occasion. In the grand scheme of things, I'd rather Weid miss this shot, learn from it and nail it for us when we have something more worthwhile ridding on it in another season. I hope you're wrong about Weid flying the nest though.

Yep. We should probably sell it directly to the Crows and let it be played at the Adelaide Oval: 1. We have a pretty good track record against the Crows there; 2. We wouldn't have to play in the heat and humidity and sucked our energy of the next week.

And the inverse is also true. Many of the great coaches like Leigh Mathews openly acknowledge that to win a premiership, you often need to have a pretty good run with injuries. Was a big part of Richmond winning the flag a few years back. Conversely we have been on the back foot injury wise the whole season. I do wounder if we played injured players we otherwise wouldn't have to try to go as deep as we could last September? I'm not saying that was nessasrily the wrong strategy, but we gave certainly paid for it this season. Some warned of it from early preseason, but I have lived in hope until around now that it wouldn't completely stuff our season, but alas. It seems like we started the season underdone and on the back foot injury wise and just haven't been able to have any run of luck or good injury management to be able to recover from that position.

Oh, yeah. Lol! Sorry about that one old chap.

Part of the opposition accuracy thing could be down to us letting them get the ball in good positions in their forward 50. Why our players/coaches don't say to hell with the high performance managers and spend more time on getting our goal kicking right astounds me as well. Though the inverse to the easy shots in good positions logic could be partly true for us as well, I recall far too many goals missed from near on straight in front 20m - 40m range, which should be givemees for AFL footballers. A bit more time focused on our goal kicking could make us a 4 to 6 goal better side each week, even without any improvement to other parts of our game.