Rodney (Balls) Grinter

...meanwhile in Freo, their star recruits are smashing it up at the pubs and clubs.

Wow. That would be interesting and amazing on so many levels. Lol

It's not just those two either. Most of their best 22 are well into the wear-out phase of their careers.

I just hope that Hawthorn can remain compeditive enough to finish somewhere in the 10th to 13th ladder position. Not compeditive enough to be a realistic chance of making finals, but high enough to cut them out of getting into the cream of the draft. ... a couple of 70 to 100+ beltings along the way wouldn't go a stray though and would absolutely love the MFC to hand them one of those beltings.

What finals chances?

Still on ADSL. For the most part it serves our needs ...on a $40 per month plan if I recall correctly. I'm not really that keen on paying any more for Internet if we don't really need the extra bandwidth/speed.

I honestly can't understand why with all the competition from Internet TV streaming services Foxtel prices haven't come down to better compete with them. I hate the infated Foxtel prices, but our internet service isn't that great, thus I like my footy viewing to be independent of something which sometimes either gets choked up with bandwidth or goes on the blink randomly or when it rains or something. We are only on a pretty cheap internet service and could probably get better by paying a few more bucks, but that becomes a bit self defeating. How/why haven't Foxtel dropped their prices a bit more? Is it the price of satellite access or something? Just curious.

I could have thought it was a reference to that guy Martin that use to play for us back in the 90s. Fairly handy player the old Pike and has a nice little collection of premiership medallions to prove it too.

All these superstar sportsman creditors that are owed thousands for fees for posting a few 20 min videos - cry me a river, how are the going to pay to put caviar on the table for their families to eat and afford the mortgage repayments on their Ferrari's and Toorack mansions (I do feel somewhat more empathy towards the Olympic athletes etc. that may be more genuinely needing some additional income). On the other hand it's also pretty poor form by the main business owners/managers of this enterprise. It does somewhat astound me that some of these people are pretty much ammune to the same rules of life that govern the rest of us. They clearly must have seen a fair way out that their business was going down the toilet, but we're probably more interested in syphoning what funds they could into their's and their spouse's inflated saleries and then onwards on to untouchable family trusts than they were about minimizing the losses to anyone that actually invested real money and services into their venture.

A nice collection of No.2 greats signatures on thay hat Big Kev. What an awsome bit of genuine supporter memorabilia. These days the professional collector types etc would probably pay a mint for something that, but I'm tipping that to you it's a priceless keep sake you're not willing to part with for a price.

I'd go along with both those statements and I certainly was aware that Brisbane had some pretty fair forwards. Main point I was making is that a dominant midfeild can make a good, forward line look like superstars. Brown was a genuine superstar, but I'm not sure Lynch and Bradshaw were absolute world beaters. Hopefully if we look back retrospectively and our forwardline of McDonald, Weid, Pruess/Gawn and Trac/Melksham are held in similar regards. ...although if they have multiple premiership medalians I don't really think anyone will really care so much what anyone thinks of them as individual players.

Who was the Lyon's backman moved forward? I forget that detail.

It's nice in a way to have all this positive publicity and kind opinions from the press, but there is only one ranking I care about and that's the one that a team achieves by winning on grand final day.

Not sure that you need to have the best forward line in the comp if you have one of the best midfields. I think the Brisbane Lyons team of the early 2000s was in this kind of position and it worked out pretty well for them.

He was a pretty handy pinch hitter as a forward on his day too (mainly later in his career I seem to remember). Probably struck a bit of Tony Lockett fear factor into anyone that got into his space, but was a dam good kick for goal as well and didn't waste many opertunities.

Good summary. I hold no real resentment of Buggy in his time at the MFC. He gave good effort, was tough and an exuberant, colourful character, but as mentioned by yourself and many others, was just that fraction off the pace of making the new standard at the MFC, which is really the crux of it. I actually think most people have moved on from the Mills thing and it is being somewhat over played here. If the coaches saw more potential in him he would still be at the MFC rather than CGWS, with the Mills incident being just a side note.

P.S. since I'm sure you're all interested, this is the full image of that I used for my profile pic. Rodney in full flight and proudly displaying that famous No.14, subsequently proudly worn by a number of other tough high quality backman at the MFC continuing the legacy.

In all honesty I picked my stage name before I realized that such direct reference to former players wasn't exactly the done thing on Demonland. But that all said, this bloke was pretty much my favorite player as a kid and an absolute bloody legend of the MFC, so I'm sticking to it.

And don't we all wish it were so. Ffff I hope there is one with our name on it soon.

Variation on a theme. To quote a Mexican food add "why not have both?"

He has only dropped a few playing No.s to 40 at Carlscum. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/unfinished-business-for-new-carlton-recruit-tom-bugg-after-enduring-tough-18-months-at-melbourne/news-story/bfa0199ed585ff4fb79913518ed9d33b Reading the article, it also states that Carlscum have now recruited 11 ex GWS players (mostly thanks to sos) - perhaps they could rename Carlscum to the GWS reserves team. ...actually GWS's NEAFL team would probably beat Carlscum these days, so perhaps the GWS reject squad would be more appropriate.

2018 was the most enjoyment I've had from being a MFC supporter in a long time. Let's hope 2019 is even better.

Just reflecting on the statement the title of this thread. As a MFC supporter, I think the logic it completely wrong. It should be: "17 other teams are there for the Demons to beat" I think that's more the mentality that Goody will be priming his troops with. No matter how good our list suposedly might be, its still one game at a time, aim to make every post a winner. As others have stated, it's probably other factors which will make it or break it for us, like with the further maturity we developed in 2018, hopefully we don't drop as many losses like the ones to St Kilda, Geelong (X2), Hawthorn and Sydney. Will still need to keep developing that maturity and game sense though as there will no doubt be a different challenge next year being more the hunted than the hunter.

Last year, due to our Rd 23 capitulation and the ensuing dejection, I mostly lost interest until trade week and even then my hunger for footy was pretty subdued. This year, I was over the West Coast game before it was over, because we had already well and truly met and then somewhat surpassed my expectations for the season, so the antisipation of what we could do next season is like an adrenaline rush that is stopping me from getting to sleep, but there is still soo many sleeps until Rd 1 and it's taking forEVER!!

83 till Rd 1 81 till selection 63 till JLT