Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Don't need big biceps for tunnel ball.

Absolutely. Similar things could be said about guys like Nev. Stefan Martin and Martin Pike are others in a similar vein that I have serious regrets about us trading, though they might still have been an almost unviable options for various non playing ability reasons. A bunch of guys presently on our list this applies to moving forward (Stretch, JKH, T Smith, Keilty etc). As a supporter I have the luxury and prefer not to make a call on a player's future potential with us, with a few exceptions. I never felt that Freo guy we picked up in Mark Neilds time was any chop - impressive numbers at VFL level, but always looked useless and never produced when he got an opertunity at in our senior side. It's so much easier to be an armchair expert with the benight of viewing things retrospectively and without actual responsibility for making list management calls.

I'd be quite happy for Freo to develop him as a footballer for a few years and for us to pick him up as a free agent in the prime of his career. Sick of us giving up players and draft picks, it's our turn to pillage the lists of other teams and it would be sweet revenge to take him away from Freo like that.

I think Jones is in a situation more similar to Shane Crawford than the other ex Hawks players you mentioned. I don't think anyone would be complaining if Nathan Jones career ends in a similar fashion to Crawford's.

Hate the suspension. Love the reaction from May to the press after the tribunal hearing. Total proffesional and great leader.

Absolutely, it's not like May actually lined him up or deviated to hit him. Bloody Lions player has a duty of care to him self to watch the F where he is running.

Interesting that you still have Preuss in your side Werridee, where others have dropped him like a sack of spuds. I'm also in the boat that he should and will play. From reports I've read Lycett and Ryder have tag teamed well in the ruck and I think we will be looking very seriously towards Preuss to give Maxy a decent chop out. I've been relatively unimpressed by Hore though. Doesn’t appear to have any real weapons, unless he is an A1 stopper, which I didn't see great evidence of from the JLT telecast, but apreciate that sometimes you can get a better understanding of such things watching at the ground. I'd have Frosty over him in a side that included May, but in May's absence, I'd play Freitch half back/wing and have Smith in the side in place of Hore, assuming he pulls up fit in time. Was also very impressed with Petty and he would be another that I would be playing before Hore from what I've seen.

If you lined up against that during a game, you wouldn't need to be a very creative sledger would you? Just point and laugh!

Who would have thought after his first year or two that he would be the pick of this bunch for the red and blue.

One of the best reads from a footballer I've read in a while. He is a unique, lovable and slightly contradictory character Maxy. Very clever, witty, funny and layed back, but has also developed into a highly professional and motivated athlete. Will go down as one of my favorite all time MFC players. Love his closing quote “Really, the only time we can go to an off‑season happy now is winning the flag.”

And here was I thinking that our Bali top clash jumper was bad. I think pleanty of Dogs supporters and players would rather swap a try hard superhero costume for a crap Bali top. Guessing it's all part of the Marvel Docklands stadium sponsorship thingy. The Dogs would want to be making bloody good money out of it. Biggest pawning of a jumper since the m and m baby blues - lol.

"In your first year playing at AFL, you will introduce your first born prematurely. Driving to and from hospitals and training for over a month, until you can take her home to the ‘granny flat’ of your in-laws house, will be exhausting." Not the cushy ride that some over privileged playboy type draftees get. Respect.

Seems like the media are already linking Andrew's performances to the red and blue. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/its-only-preseason-but-what-we-learned-from-week-2-of-the-2019-jlt-community-series/news-story/b7df1570aa7410db51786f71be2f9b9c The Demons on the other hand lost a number of players to injury in the clash, including versatile James Harmes who was sent to hospital with a finger injury. Clayton Oliver was again dominant, suggesting he is in prime condition ahead of Melbourne’s first match. Andrew Brayshaw (26 disposals and 11 tackles) and Aaron vandenBerg (18 disposals and 16 tackles) also impressed around the contest.

What complete BS. I just can't believe that it should be so far skewed. Bulldogs always seemed to get the better of the free kicks against us, but so did the Saints, so go figure. The AFL really does need to step up to the plate and do something to deal with the situation at Perth Stadium this year though. Perhaps the umpires need to come out and state they will pay free kicks against the home team over there for obnoxious booing, or perhaps Hern needs to stand up on behalf of the team and say they don't want to be known as a bunch of cheats by getting excessive free kicks at all their home games?

One thing that Jessy Hogan does really well is get up the ground and link up coming out of half back when the situation requires it. I think there are several really good reasons for doing this: 1. Providing the team with an easy get out kick; 2. Getting some confidence as a forward getting your hands on the pill; and 3. Working over the backman aerobicaly - something which T Mac in particular should be able to exploit. Perhaps it's just that T Mac has has an interupted preseason and isn't in peak fitness just yet, but I didn't notice him doing much of this yesterday. The realitive lack of form of both T Mac and Weid has been well commented on, but really hoping they can turn things around quickly and I think getting Milkshake (really needs a better nickname) back into the team will help this as I think he is such a key cog in our scoring machine with his precision passing, line breaking ball movement and aerial contested work.

Agreed. For me, it wasn't just Clarry either. I also thought that Gus, Max and our whole on ball system was down yesterday. Max was winning the ruck hitouts most of the time, but most of the time they were going to no one in particular and we struggled to get a clean center clearance. Losing Harmes just before half time couldn't have helped, but it's not like I felt we were actually much better with him out there though. I did think Gus did some good things I'm patches, one of them being a good goal on the run and if I recall correctly, another not long after from a set shot. In general I really do like Gus's proven ability to break lines through the half forward line and kick goals, because it makes it that bit harder to setup against us defensively when you have players that can do that. It's by no means panic stations and in many ways I'd rather we had a game like this as a bit of a wake-up call and learnt a few things from this game than having cruised through preseason unchallenged and get a rude awakening in round 1.

What it was is a great conversation and space filler for comentators to talk about in an otherwise pretty meaningless game and sensational head line for the media to milk for a few days.

True, but the Lions had a 6 day break as well. Don't know what the conditions they played under were like though and it's also possible they had more on the bench than us.

Would love to see us dominate from start to finish today, but will be a tough ask against the Lyons who I am expecting big things of this season. GO THE DEMONS!

Big game for us today in the context of the Jalapeño Lettuce & Tomato season. Brisbane sitting pretty in second spot and will be keen to post another win to lock in a top four finish and due to our reasonable percentage, a win for us should see us slot into the top 8. ...hmmm, I should have read the rest of the thread better before duplicatING a fairly obvious point. Ar well, I guess it is just a preseason post, doesn't count for as much as posts in a few weeks time against Port.

Lucky it isn't such a binary propersition. 22 players in the match day team and they all can play a role of some kind. For so long we were crying out for good ball users and Salem has that attribute in spades - so does Clarry, but as much of a freak that he is, Oliver can't actually be in all positions on the feild at once.

I hear you Macca. 2018 was far more enjoyable as a supporter than any of the previous 12 to 18 years. Getting thrashed every week sucked big time. Winning more often than not and handling out a few thrashings of our own last year was alot of fun. Playing well in finals and making an impact the way we did also provided a level of satisfaction. But I was neither elated or shattered by us making the preliminary final and subsequently losing. The present compeditiveness of the team certainly encourages me, but as a supporter who has seen us make it to and lose numerous preliminary and grand finals, just making a preliminary final doesn't seem a particularly victorious occasion. Love the simmering ruthlessness that Goodwin has bought and the team are embracing. The MFC has unfinished business until we bring home that next premiership and it can truely be a Grand Old Flag once more.

The Bulldogs comparison is pretty tenuous. If you look back to the 90s and early 2000s era, we always had heaps more supporters than them, so should have a much bigger base from which to build.

I agree Chazz, why my was that assessment that we were dominated for only 60% of the game. We played similar games against Hawthorn and Sydney last year where we put in a brilliant first quarter and then let the game go to crap from there. Not saying that will nessasrily be a cronic problem for us again this season based on one JLT performance, but probably a good issue to have highlighted in the preseason and not to be bitten in the season proper. ...for whatever can/can't be read into a practice match. It's interesting to note just how our demeanor as a supporter group has changed in just the space of 12 months, if we had have put in a similar performance at the same stage last year I think a lot more would have been made of our poor performance in the 2nd and 3rd qrts.

So hard to get a good read on where teams are at this time of year. We lost to one of the top teams last week with a very undermanned team on our behalf. We only lost by 12 points or so, but I think that scoreline really flattered us after we were dominanted for probably 60% of the game and they possibly rested some of their guns in the last quarter which let us back in. Brisbane were pretty good last week and I do consider them to be a capable team on the rise. I expect Brisbane to be playing fairly hard for a win this week to build confidence for the season ahead and get their supporter base energized in much the same way as I believe we selected teams and played JLT to win last year. I actually think a good hard hitout for us this JLT win or lose is exactly what the team needs to keep them grounded and hungry for the start of the regular season. I see danger written all over our first three games of Port, Geelong and Essendon if we go in believing the hype. Learning how to best handle the favourites tag and being hunted every week is the next step in our development and I'm hopeful that with Goody's down to earth demeanor and approach that it's something that we take in our stride in a clinical workman like manner.