Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I was glad to see him get another opportunity at AFL level, but I think he would have quickly turned into a player I strongly disliked as soon as he played a few games in that rubbish navy blue jumper.

I have Fox, but haven't had a problem getting my Demons fix over the summer as I have a stack of great games from the last fee years recorded on the IQ which I have been watching on repeat: 2019, the two winning finals, our late season win against the Eagles & GWS, both Adelaide and Bulldogs games. The Carlton game is a bit of a favorite (I still get a kick out of watching Bernie put Daisy on his [censored] in thay game), and also the Essendon game as our season was turning the corner. 2016 our breakout win Vs the Hawks; 2015 our win down at the Cattery; A few years back Fox has a series of Max Gawn classic games which were pretty good value.

I wounder if Stephen Tingay had a clause in his contract about not falling through glass windows!!

I'm sure that early career schoolyard injury didn't help, but I'm pretty sure it's not the reason Blease never became the AFL player the equal of his athletic ability. As far as I can make out, the biggest injury impact on Patracca's career to date was when he tore his second ACL at training during his first preseason (. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/melbourne/melbournes-no-2-draft-pick-christian-petracca-tears-anterior-cruciate-ligament-at-demons-training/news-story/00dab6be48b7f26bc8ea59b8817f9d72) It wouldn't have helped loosing a season of onfeild development, but similarly, don't think that has nessasrily been the key limitation on his development as a player. Honestly my assessment is that the occurrences of an off the ground injury significantly negatively impacting an AFL players career are pretty rare. If they are a good enough player an isolated incident just becomes a footnote in their career bio. By far the biggest injury exposure these guys face is playing and training. Sure these guys earn good money, but they are not the club's property. To restrict them to everything under the sun that might remotely cause them an injury would be completely draconian and robbing these guys of the opportunity to live life during their youth/prime. Let's face it these guy's already sacrifice a fair bit compared to the average individual to get where they have got. As others have pointed out, most players will be self regulating with regards this kind of thing and in instances where they are not, the the club, team mates and it's leadership have a role to educate them and inform them of the consequences. It's only habitual repeat offenders that are really a problem for which there are natural consequences and I think most players are smart enough to work that out.

P.S. After 10 years of misery in AFL terms and never having witnessed a MFC flag in my lifetime, I similarly have a no sympathy, take no prisoners policy with respects to our opponents.

That's not very sporting of you, but I agree. I guess the other thing is that if Wines is injured and doesn't play, it could save us the irritation of watching him play and thinking how much better it would have been for him to be playing alongside his best mate for the red and blue.

Echuca apparently. https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/01/27/terrible-mistake-from-port-adelaide's-next-captain/ Looks like a dislocated shoulder if Cornes is on the money. It is a pitty, I was looking forward to Wines going head to head with Viney.

I wasn't so sure I liked the co-captains thing, but watching the way Jones and Viney lead the team back down the race after our finals victories, neither of them looked out of place as joint captains, thus I'm quite happy for it to continue. I really think there is a role in the leadership team for all of T Mac, Nev, May and probably Lever as well. When you look at our side these days, I think it is really packed full of guys with leadership qualities. Even when you look at guys like Melksham and Hibberd, Vanders, our young mids/onballers , Billy Stretch/ANB are pretty solid citizens, I think there is plenty there to work with. It should all bode well for our ability to manage ourselves out on the ground with the lack of the team runner role during play from this comming season and beyond.

I have little doubt that Harmes will be in the leadership group in the future, the same could also be said of Gus, Trac and Clarry. But for now I think we should just let these guys play footy and let them just keep developing their leadership skills and status quietly in the background.

I don't think Spargo has quite got the hoof to slot them through from much further than 45 out, but otherwise generally agree with your assessment. Will be interesting to see if he can go on with it, improve and hold his spot in the side this year, otherwise the compeditiveness for spots he could easily be squeezed out. Not a slight on him, I just think that's where we are at. I actually think he was probably borderline best 22 at times last year (still a fair feat in your first year), but he just kept holding on and the others that could have taken his spot were not quite up to it at the time.

BTW, I think this is a great thread and full credit to @WERRIDEE for going so early on his team makeup. In the current MFC environment he has more balls than I do to be making such predictions so far out. Again what a contrast to last seasons corresponding thread when all the talk was about how we would curtail all of Dangerfield, Selwood, Ablett - elimination final. I know coaches always play down Rd 1, but how good would it be to put the runs on the board early next season and set up or year, instead of playing catch up and on the edge for most of the year.

I think best 22 is more equivalent to dream side. This thread is Rd 1 team 2019, it's highly unlikely (just per any Rd really) that we wI'll have our best 22 to pick in Rd.1.

If Vanders is fit he plays. Guy is a bull and an absolute asset for breaking sides apart. The more I stew over this, I'm also l'm also thinking how much it will come down to how our forwards/forward line functions in the JLT. If Weid struggles to make much of an impact, Preuss could find a spot in the side to help cover our forward line arial presence or perhaps even someone like Tim Smith, Joel Smith or Keilty might get a gig. Will make for a very interesting JLT series for Demons supporters, which on another note is such a refreshing change for Demons supporters from years gone by. Where previously, we were looking to the preseason comp for signs we would be compeditive for the season comming, at the moment it's more about who has the inside running to make round 1 and what subtle structural changes we might be making to our game style and team setup.

Interesting that unlike many others you have also left Preuss out of the 22 for round 1. A bit like you, I don't think Preuss is nessasrily a walk up start for Rd 1 either. I do wounder if all of Fritsch, Hannan, Garlett, Vanders and Nibbler fit into the same forward line though, which could create the room for big Preuss. Nibbler and Vanders will rotate on-ball, so I'm guessing that it's one of Hannan, Freitch or Garlett doesn't play if we go tall. I'm guessing that it could come down to whether Port look like playing both of Lycett and Ryder. If they do, I think we will match their dual ruck setup.

The big question to talk about is who matches up on Jack Watts? Ooops, I forgot Casey doesn't play in the SANFL!

Harmes on Wines would be a great match-up, but agree it's or only a matter of time until the hunter becomes the huunted with Harmes. Possibly even having good mates Viney and Wines going head to head. The prospect of unleashing a fully fit raring to go Viney Rd 1 is mouth watering.

Have I missed the purpose of this discussion, getting the wrong mail or something, but I keep hearing that Lever won't be ready for selection until around Rd 9 - 12, so I'm having problems understanding why so many here (and in the 'proffesional' media) have got him in their Rd 1 sides for us.

...on another note, perhaps the reintroduction of the 666 back into the game is a sign from the underworld that the era of Demonic dominance is upon the World of Australian Rules footy once more!!

Hopefully the 6-6-6 thing opens up forward lines a bit more and enables this kind of lead and mark, one on one style play a bit more often than in recient years. Joel among others on or list like T Mac, Weid, Trac and Melksham should enable us to take good advantage of such situations.

Must say I'm impressed and have alot of respect for the players and staff like Crossy to talk to and so fully engage with our supporters in the way it appears evident above and elsewhere throughout this thread. In this day and age of intense media scrutiny, the constant public focus on AFL footballers, and their every move, being constantly bombarded with what may seem as repeditive, anoying/trivial or intrusive questions after a while, guys like Crossy could be forgiven for withdrawing away from fans, treating them as a bit of a nuisance, and responding by providing only very terse and cursory responses, which appears to be the opposite to what I'm interpreting from the above. Full credit to these guys for staying grounded and so respectfully interacting with us mere mortals. Its Time, I'd be interested to understand if you have some connection to the club beyond a standard supporter or basically just walked in off the street and got this kind of response? Either way I think it's pretty impressive.

Need to get brother Andrew into a Demons kit sooner rather than later, their poor mum looks confused with all those scarfs on and none of them a MFC one ? All is forgiven: ‘Very fit’ Brayshaw pumped for 2019 https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2019-preseason-no-animosity-towards-andrew-gaff-says-mark-brayshaw/news-story/29f8904833d17e9ca00dc78aa1005ca5

Perhaps he's a bit constipated trying to crap out our next premiership cup?

Ray, a few things: 1. I think you are misinterpreting what I am try to say with the statement that most teams would be envious of our defense even without Lever and May. By most I meaning 'the majority', not all teams. I think it's fair to say that our back six defensive personal (less the two mentioned) is better than pretty much all the teams that finished below us, with perhaps the exception of Essendon and perhaps Geelong but that's probably canceled by us having a better defense than a few of the teams that finished above us like Hawthorn and Collingwood. That's also backed up to some degree by http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-12-29/who-has-the-best-defence-we-rank-every-club , depending on how much weight you want to put on their assessment and some interpretation for the changes since. 2. Is it really reasonable to make an assessment of our backline based on that one game Vs WC in the prelim? On a similar basis it could be stated that we are a 100 point better side without Lever based on the respective Hawthorn games last year. The main point I was trying to make is that we had pretty decient backline depth last year and the guys that were left once Lever went down were still pretty solid options compared to what alot of other teams have thus why was making finals such a surprise. Of course adding Lever and May back into the mix gives us a pretty elite backline that hopefully takes us from a side that made the finals and then put on a pretty good show, to one that is setup to be a genuine premiership contender.

Thanks for the great reports It's Time. Love that from Maca. I certainly hope Jeffy Garlett can get back to his best and force his way back into the side, because at his best he is just so damaging. But to be picky with your choice of words, I'd suggest that both fortunately and unfortunately, it's not his position in the side that the competition is for these days. He relinquished his hold on the spot to a certain extent last year and sadly appeared to be on the outer by the end of the season. Hopefully the break has done him good and he's ready to attack the season ahead and make a big impact for us. Would love to see him win his way back into the side - a 40+ goal small forward would be highly valuable for us.

I know of the daily plannet, but not as far as knowing what street it is on! A mate of mine did use to live in a street in the Croydon area which is "The Nook" - there is a brothel on that street too.