Rodney (Balls) Grinter

And without paying overs $ wise as well.

I wasn't so disappointed in the Geelong loss, because beating them down there is always a really tough gig and although we had somewhat capitulated in the last quarter, I thought we had been more than compeditive against them for the previous three quarters that it was at least a psychological victory that we could beat them come the crunch (which we gloriously did when it counted in the prelim). The one that really hit me out of that run home was the loss to Sydney. They had been playing pretty average footy for a number of weeks and I'd felt they were ripe for the picking. Despite loosing the Geelong game, beating Sydney that day would have practically mathematically garenteed us a finals birth with two games to go and I was looking forward to getting the job done and not having to put up with the nerves of the propersition we might not make finals for the next two weeks. We came out and absolutely belted them in the first quarter. We couldn't f@$# it up from here I thought. Alas. It took me most of the following week to realize and believe that we still had very good opertunity to make finals by winning at least one of the two winnable games of the remainder of the home and away ...the other bit belongs in the other thread.

I guess what is not mentioned is that the MFC has already stitched up one of the guys who would have been on of the biggest name free agents of 2019: Steven May.

Do a quick Google of Hogan's stats for similar key position forwards at the same stage of their career development and he is right up there with the best in the game. Put this is all in the context of starting off his career in a side which struggled to win a game and then some fairly serious personal/health issues in the years that followed and I think it's a pretty impressive performance to date. Jessie could still be anything (or totally mediocre) from this point on. T Mac has been a quality player for a long time and I'm so rapped to see him finally get some reconition for his output. The guy would have be one of the best endurance athletes in the league, particularly for a guy of his size and considerable strength. His goal kicking has been phenomenal. Great character and great MFC clubman (even if Max says Tom's the worst bloke in the team). I'd like to see both these guys above all the others on Nick Riewoldt's list, but there is only one I want to see with a premiership medallion around their neck for their present club.

Meh

@dieter took the wordS out of my mouth - I hate tennis too (maybe we are bonding??). The point I'm making is that Melbourne significantly underrated the aforementioned ruckman we let go of. Jolly was a dual premiership ruckman. Carlton gave up a first pick for a ruckman who hasn't every looked like being half the player Jolly was when we let go of him. Martin had played one great season and we gave him up as a lost cause. It's a fairly common phenomenon that ruckman a) take a long time to develop and b) with a few exceptions, tend only to flourish when given the license of being the No.1 man. That's the commonality I see with Preuss, thay he has shown some potential, but has been locked out of showing his worth. I'm hoping we are the beneficiary this time. To some extent, I think it's the nature of the position that limits the number of good ruck players on any one list. The main club I can think of having made two ruckman work is West Coast with Cox/Nick-Nat and Nick-Nat/Lycett and I think that worked out ok for them both times. For what it's worth, I'm not 100% sold on Preuss as being an out and out champion just yet either, but I think he has shown some ready made potential to fulfill a desperate need we have for a Gawn backup/load sharer that adds value to our overall compeditiveness.

Neil, I must say, tha Roos was a hard act to follow and it took me a while to get use to the different personalities from a supporters perspective, but now that Goody has established himself, I think he has started to make the team and our suporter base in his own mold, which is a very good thing. Personally I didn't doubt the coach or our side early 2018, it was just that some of those losses were very frustrating, because I could see an underlying team that was better than some of those performances.

I see complete correlation. Both given indications that they had what it took to be a main ruckman and to succeed the incumbent, yet were left to rot on the vine playing reserves footy and given away for peanuts in the context of their future output. I think Preuss has shown the signs of being a pretty decent ruckman, but has been crowded our by Goldstein who played a couple of dominant seasons prior to becoming an slightly above average ruckman. Sounds pretty similar to the White/Jolly, Jamar/Martin story to me.

That's probably 9 or 10 games more than he played at Nth last year. I honestly don't care how many games Preuss plays or not, but if he helps us win a premiership then ... Re why would Nth let him go? Neither Jolly or Martin were not considered crack ruckman by their respective club at the time, but both seemed to have worked out ok. Maybe we get a bit of karma back with Preuss?

This is an area that I begining to see as a strength of Goody. He's got a great ballance of being very personable, emotionally intelegent and a good comunicator, but also being hard driven, focused and intense when the moment requires it and he carries this aura and consistency of messaging and behavior with him that demands respect. Leadership in spades. If he was my captain/coach, I'd certainly be in that zone to run through walls. I really like this video from the club. The atmosphere, messaging and expectations seem different from that which I recall during the 90s and early 2000s. There is a real ruthlessness to our mindset at the moment - I love it!

To me, what I have seen from the limited match time of Pruess as a MFC player is that he's perhaps a slightly better, more skillful version of Jake Spencer. A bit of a lumberer who has a presence, but not as mobile or sublime wit his ruck tap work as Max - yet. Hopefully his tap work is something which improves further with mentoring from Max/Greg and more time around our onballers to improve their connection. I'm not making the comparison with Jake in a bad way either, as I actually think he was pretty close to being a good second string ruckman for us and loved his hardness and attack on the contest/man. Also shows how good Max is - the guy is a freak ...but he's not superman and I think having big Preuss around to share the load and help Max sustain his output over the whole season and ready to fire at the times we need him most makes Preuss an important asset to our side. I also agree with what Garry Pert was saying during the webcast match comentary that Tommy and Weid are too valuable for us to use in the ruck for the most part, although it might not hurt for either of them to end up there for the odd centre bounce to help throw the opposition backline around a bit at times.

True

Your dead right. Pressure be that real or perceived. In the aforementioned instances, Stretch probably wasn't under much real pressure, Hibbo was, but probably didn't really move in the right direction to create space for himself and thus somewhat put himself under the pressure. Probably both mistakes that wouldn't happen so much after a few more real match practice situations. I'd actually like to see Hibbo sneak forward and kick a few more goals at times - the guy is a weapon with his boot.

Just started watching the replay and saw exactly that. Again about the 7:10 min mark of the second quarter Stretch kicks inside 50 straight to Collingwood, comes back out, Stretch wins a hard ball and feeds it out to a play, to Harmes, then to Hibbo, who has a shot on goal ...and shanks it out on the full. What I liked was Stretch made the mistake, but kept on trying, didn’t drop his head and made up for it. Hibbo is one of the best kicks in the side, but also stuffs it up ocasionally. I'm not sure that Stretch is as good as Clarry or Gus, but he puts in and would probably be welcome at most other AFL clubs. It's also his first serious hitouts since halfway through last season. I liked Dom, Iike Billy and I recon these second string/role players still have an important place in successful teams.

Guess that's why they call them a scratch match and why you have them.

That 2017 Eagles game was such a great turning point in the development and revolation that is Tommy Mac as a key forward. I think he had probably put together a fee decient games as a forward to that point, but remember him and Peddo slotting through a number of great long goals from 40-50m out to help get us over the line with that win. When Tommy snapped that goal in the final stages, it was a moment of pure elation. So many times in the recient past had we had games stolen from us at the death, it felt so bloody awsome being on the right side of the ledger of a game like that.

I was there on the GC that weekend, doing the same thing with my old man as well. Went to the Southport Sharks ground earlier in the day and watched Aussie Wonermerri play for the NT Thunder before heading to Carrara to watch our mighty Demons. Had a few quite frotties in one of the great casual beer garden areas around the Carrara ground prior to the game before watching the sun set over the grandstands and then watching the big game unfold, it was a great experience all round. It was at a stage of our Roos era when we were capable of winning games, but we were still playing with that quite defense style and hadn't thrashed a side to that point. The Suns were on a bit of a role at that point in time having won their first 5 or so on the trot and the game was pretty tight up till half time. We were on top of them in general play, but couldn't put it on the scoreboard. A couple of quick goals to Jack Viney after half time (including one from a sublime Gawn tap down, being a sign of things to come) and we had the game on our terms as you highlight for the rest of the second half. Big Maxy played a pretty good game that day, Hunt had a bit of a breakout game as did James Harmes, who racked up a ton of possessions, tackles and walked away from the night with a rising star nomination - another sign of great things to come.

They were a pretty handy side at that time and rarely lost at the Gabba. Beating them on their home deck would have been a huge win for most sides at the time.

While I was there as a 9 yo at the Western Oval for that great win in the final Rd of 87 sufficiently to embed it in my mind for ever, oddly enough, I wasn't that interested in attending the finals series, so don't really feel much in association with the 87 prelim loss. The losses that have really broken my heart over the years are being beaten at the pointy end of the season over the years when we were there with an opportunity and failed to deliver in the heat of battle when it counted. I remember sitting in the old Southern Stand in 88, hoping we might be able to turn it around after half time. In 89, I was that upset and vengeful with Geelong for bundling us out of the finals that I went for Hawthorn in the GF. 1994 Prelim Vs West Coast (we had such a talented team at that point); 1998 Prelim Vs North (they were a top team, but ultimately they lost to the Crows in the GF, who we'd beaten in a final convincingly just two weeks prior); 2000 GF In all those games we played teams that had pretty much been the form team all year and by rights, we shouldn't have won them, but we had made it that far and also had some pretty handy teams our selves over those years. We really should have been able to dig deep and pull off a win in a GF one of those seasons against the run of play like Hawthorn in 2008 or the Dogs in 2016. Asides from that, the Montagna St Kilda game shattered me, because we hadn't beaten St Kilda for so long, despite them not really being that great a team for a number of years, I was just desperate for any win at that point in our journey and felt they were very gettable, but we were repeatedly denied against them. The umpires seemed to rob us against the Saints and Dogs for an unbearable period streching a number of seasons there.

I recon it also had a fair bit to do with this crap game style that so many teams have adopted of putting every player into the 50m arc, choking up the ground to the max and double/tripple teaming key forwards. Not enough clean one on one footy these days to allow many contested marks. Hopefully 6-6-6 (the Demonic rule) provides a bit more space and opportunity for Tommy, Joel Smith, Weid, Trac, Hannan and Max/Preuss (the Greuss) to dominate our forward 50 this year, whilst Maysy, Frosty, Hibbo, Jetta, Freitch and Oscar can limit our oppositions opertunities and totally control our back 50 this year.

Loved that 94 final against Carlton. Asides from Schwarz, I remember Martin Pike, Garry Lyon cutting loose in either that game and/or the Final the previous week against the Bulldogs (and do I recall Billy Bennett playing a role in one of those games? Or was it Jackovich? soo many gun forwards in that era, if only we could have kept them all on the park more often together). Geelong 2015 was also particularly enjoyable, because I/we had been heartbroken in the dying seconds of the game the week before when Montagna had stolen defeat from the jaws of victory for us. Hawthorn 2016 so great due to their previously unbeaten streak of a number of weeks, top spot on the ladder at the time and all the talk of another Hawthorn premiership in the making. In retrospect, our victory against them unveiled their cloak of invincibility and they have been on a downwards spiral on the same time as we have been on the acent - long may those trends continue. There were probably more home and away wins in the 90s that were memorable (beating Collingwood and Hawthorn when it happened were always very enjoyable), but I don't have distinctive game that are comming to mind. A couple of the out of the blue wins that kept us going when we were down and out in the depths of the Bailey/Neild era both against the Bombers were pretty stirring and provided some much needed glimpses of joy in otherwise bleak seasons. We seemed to have to wood on Essendon in that period. The earlier one was the game when Colin Garland kicked a bag of four goals or so to get us over the line and the second was the one where Kent broke loose down the wing and it ended up with Salem who cooly slotted through a high pressure goal in the dying minutes from about 35m out, to give us back the lead. However, I think the more forgotten about that time, the better really - a glorious new era is upon us.

Final home and away Rd Vs Footscray 87 will stick with me for life. As a 9 yo, I don't think I fully realized the significance of the moment at the time, apart from it was most likely going to be our best and my favorite player Robbie's last game and the very remote chance of us making the finals that my dad explained was a possibility, but that I don't think he really believed as a probable outcome in his heart. Still vividly remember being up the back of the standing room behind the goals at one end, up against the corrugated iron fence as we came from behind and ran over the top of the doggies. Then the euphoria of the other Melbourne supporters as the score from the other games started swinging our way and we had made it. Preliminary final the next year in 1988 convincingly beating Carlton out at Waverly and that elusive premiership seemingly within our grasp. The best rendition of it's a grand old flag in the grandstands with my fellow supporters that I can ever personally recall and then my dad turning to me and our fellow Demons supporters and exclaiming "what's even better is thay we did it against F@$#ing Carlton!" Asides from those, the home and away victory against West Coast in Perth was bloody magic and I can still feel myself standing up and fist pumping the sky after Dean Kent slotted through that long bomb to seal it. Hopefully the most memorable and enjoyable Demons win for me yet is soon to come. GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!!

Huge game in the context of the AFLW and finals make-up. Match of the round I'd recon. I have watched our first two games of the season in recient days. Standard of the game have been pretty good. Our ball movement and ball handling has been great and a step above our opponents to date. Last week against Brisbane our forward line really clicked and we were able to put that dominance on the scoreboard. From what I can make out, our women's team play a similar game style as the senior men's side - hard contested ball and the good handballs out to running options to play an agressive, attacking forward half brand of football. Comparitive to some of the other AFLW sides, you can also tell that it's a fairly settled team that has good cohesion and knowledge of how their team mates play. Was great to seeing the team singing the song with pride and gusto out on the ground at the end of the Lions game. Looking for more of the same against North - alway good to beat them.

A bit like Jetta. Whilst the club obviously entertained the notion of letting some of our star players take part in this joke football, it's pretty apparent that the MFC had the priority and we weren't going to take even small risks with players that are not absolutely cherry ripe. Perhaps the surgery mentioned is McDonald getting the dressing changed on a minor abrasion to his knee or something.

I don't necessarily think it's bad news Freitch is playing in place of McDonald and I'm much happier with this situation. As much as I don't under rate Freitch as a player, we have a number of other players that can play a similar role and I don't think he is as critical to our structure as Mc Donald. Where Freitch is at, it's probably good additional experience that adds to his development and although this comp gets less elite by the day, it's probably also a pretty decient complement to how he is veiwed capability wise as a player in his second year of AFL.