Rodney (Balls) Grinter

This preseason seemed to last forever it only took me a couple of weeks to get over the West Coast debacle, before I just wanted us to rip-tear into the new season. As you say @La Dee-vina Comedia the banter from fellow supporters did help it pass with some fun and I typically enjoy your querky, humorous interludes on the conversation (as well as the ocasional serious footy comment ? ), so thanks to you too as well as all the other fellow contributors. It's funny you know making finals again last year seemed such an achievement and relief, that now we have been there done that again, I'm much less concerned about just making finals this year. Now that we've been there done that, with the side we have got, I am expecting finals will just happen (which it won't 'just happen' I know) and that in it's self will not be such an achievement. What I'm really looking forward to building a ladder position, form, solid system and beleif that sets us up in a genuine position to go all the way to winning the flag - i.e. what we've always lacked in my years following the red and blue. GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!!

"...well the AFLPA got us an extra week off during the off season and I got a bit bored, so I got engaged". Lol

I've got a 2011 or 2013 scarf from the time we were in the depths of our despair. If anyone accuses me of being a band wagon jumper during our upcoming period of ascendancy, I'll rub their face in it before I use the rest of the scarf to choke them.

Was that worse than Max's miss?

Ball is so slippery - yeah, let's have a night grand final.

That look on Bucks face - Priceless!

Looks much more like footy is supose to look like. With 6-6-6, all they need to do is further limit the number of interchange and it might actually be reconisable as Australian Rules Football.

Would be better if they are zip and two and are two and zip.

And they use to make us wear clash jumpers. Not that I'm having that much problems telling them apart, I just hate the double standards. Navy blue and red in more games this year please.

Less than a day to go. Not feeling so confident about tomorrow after an uninspiring pre-season performances, but the fundementals are there for the season ahead as a whole. Get the win Demons and start building towards finals 2019.

That arms crossed 'your not getting past me mother [censored]' pose of Steven May is such a trademark. Hopefully it's a pose that becomes symbolic and characteristic of the MFC's whole backline.

The open admission that Tommy and Roos didn't get on very well is interesting. It's clear that he is enjoying his time under Goody and also that he has been given more license and confidence to talk as a leader of the club. Also offers an interesting insight into that infamous pre-season camp rift that destroyed our season according to the media at the time.

Fritter - nice. Couldn't air brush him some bigger biceps? BTW great work on the caricatures again.

I recon bodies hitting the posts will produce a significantly different vibration signature compared to the ball hitting it, just like bat pad is able to be distinguished from the ball snicking the bat.

I actually can't believe that it has taken soo long to get to this point (pardon the pun). I would think that the ball brushing the post would setup a reasonable sound/vibration within the post, such that a microphone directly mounted to the post would have a reasonable chance of detecting the impact and screening it out from the surrounding crowd noise. The key difference here between cricket and AFL is that in cricket, the technology was developed and gained audience acceptance via the TV broadcasters before it was accepted as an umpiring adjudication tool. The AFL probably don't really want to go down that path, so it comes across as a little half baked to me to announce this tech before it's proven. Prove it up in private and then just actually introduce it. I'm glad they are investing something into it though as the present goal line tech is a bit embarrassing at times. I still don't understand why with the near zero price of minature full HD cameras these days why there are not more cameras mounted at multiple heights/angles on each goal post that would garentee the required vision of the ball for every occasion.

I partially accept what you are saying here and I'm not going to be soo polarizing as to suggest that there are not instantaces of good intentions and mutual benifit, although it's also a bit presumptuous to assume that they wouldn't have nessasrily got a good education where they were [not that any of the rest of this conversation is based on any presumptions on my behalf ? ]. I still think you would find pleanty of examples of talented sportspeople being cherry picked off by the private school system to make themselves look good though. Anyways my original post was a simple statement said partly in jest and I don't intend it to clog the thread with the discussion any further.

A bit of a cheap shot, maybe, but I think the sterotypes fits pretty well for the players sighted. Obviously there will always be exceptions. I probably do have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about private schools. In a sporting context, they are forever poaching the cream of the tallent out of the local leagues to make themselves look good. Out of those mentioned by @FarNorthernD I'm tipping that May and perhaps Cyril were probably candidates for this kind of thing. Going through suburban junior footy, we would regularly lose a large numbers of team members to private school football duties. That and the general elitism of the private school system doesn't sit well with me in general. Anyways just my perspective.

@Macca, I don't think too many people would have had Harmes as one of the automatic selections at the start of last season - what difference a season makes and if more players can make that same next step in their development this year, we should be right up there in flag contention.

Watts is around 12kg heavier than Fritsch, yet the level of physicality they play with is the inverse of their respective weight, so I don't think it's such a huge issue -- Coldstream EDFL Vs Brighton Grammar private school boy mentality.

When he started with the MFC we were a crap team and he was expected to be the Messiah from about age 17. ...and he did a pretty good job of doing just that for a number of years. A few doses of humility and empathy would be good virtues in this situation.

I think it was a common problem for footballers back in the day too, it's just that it wasn't as openly spoken about back then. North Melbourne great Wayne Schwass is someone who has acknowledged that and tried to make a positive change in how mental health is perceived and managed in the AFL.

Had been tracking this one and had we made the GF, Maxy would have played his 100th in the big one. I'm tipping that secretly, Max is happy that he is playing his 100th this week, so that in his words it can be "all about me" ? . Just joking as I know big Maxy is all about the MFC before himself. Along with his superstar ruckman abilities and sharp, querky humor the thing I really love about Max is how passionately he has embraced the MFC and our suporters. Hope the fans get out in numbers, we get the win and make it a really memorable day for Max.

If Viney can stay fit and find his best form again this season, that would be huge. That our on-ball brigade was so good without him for most of the season last year shows how far the others have developed. I'd almost forgotten how good Viney was, we saw so little of him in 2018. Along with AVB, the impact that Viney made for us in finals last year shouldn't be underestimated. He wasn't brilliant with the ball, but his tackling efforts were sensational. It's that kind of leadership which will take us places.

I hope you are right. I have a soft spot for Billy. Party because his old man is such a legend of the MFC, but also I think because of the faith and loyalty that Billy showed in us by nominating the MFC as his preferred destination via the father/son rule when we were total puss of a side. Love the effort, comittment and professionalism that others always talk about him with too.

I recon Nathan Jones impact on games has been on the wane in the last few seasons, but I'm wondering if he can defy the doubters and put in a few more big seasons to take us to the next level.