Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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.

In other news: AFL 2019: North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says rule changes will see more teams be ‘hammered’ https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2019-north-melbourne-coach-brad-scott-says-rule-changes-will-see-more-teams-be-hammered/news-story/200d19422dcdd01b850c85b8645be849 Having been on the receiving end of more than our fair share of thrashings over the last decade, I have zero problem if we hand out some to other's this season and beyond.

Gee, the babies are popping out all over the place at the moment, with little infant hearts beating true for the red and blue. ...yet another father-son for the MFC in the making.

Nev didn't mention anything about his recient Demonbracket 2019 runners-up. Might be a bit more unfinished business there as well.

Would be very disappointing if Hawthorn and neither of the Sydney sides make finals.

Seeing that ladder at the end of the home and away season would make me very happy. I'd quite happily settle for just being top four, but finishing top 2 would put us in a great position for double chance and garenteed home final as well. I'll believe it when I see it, as the MFC has finished top four maybe once in the whole time I've followed them - hopefully our present crop of players can break the mediocrity mentality and change the ills of the past in this regards.

3 days, 13hrs. I know it's only a scratch match but I'm soo hungry for the season to start and for us to start winning. If our players are only half as hungry as I am, the premiership is ours.

Harmes has certainly had his doubters and knockers on this forum before and clearly also in the professional world of AFL footy having to work his way up from the rookie list. I just love the way he has stuck at it, kept applying himself, working hard and learning from those around him. I understand that he identified Nathan Jones as an early mentor (couldn’t have done better in that respect). From being a tagger at the end of last season, I think it's only a matter of time before our opposition start tagging Harmes himself and he will need to learn new tricks to deal with that. What should make it easier is that our opposition will be left with a devil of a problem trying to work out who they should actually tag out of Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw and others like Trac and Vanders that we could use in bursts through the guts. I think it will come down to them having to switch strategies mid game, depending on who is hurting the most at the time. What should make it even harder for our opponents is Gawn's dominance out of the ruck. We could soon find ourselves dealing with taggers on a regular basis. I've personally found it difficult to reconcile the various media articles about us having the best midfield in the competition with my own assessment of our team in this regard as it's taken a while to break out of the psychology of us being inferior to other teams and of being a young developing team. The Geelong games of last season clearly demonstrated to me that our guys have matured to the point where they are ready to match it with the same level of skill, endurance, physicality and not be intimidated by the previous old gaurd. I'm really looking forward to seeing us take that to the next level on a consistent, regular basis next season against sides like Collingwood, Richmond and West Coast.

Think you are a little off the money here. Harmes is no one game/season wounder. I've been watching the MFC rebuild over the last decade and the signs have been there for Harmes from the beginning. He showed glimpses of what he can do in that breakout win against the Hawks in and others in 2016 and has been steadily building his hard agressive game style ever since. He set a new standard for himself in 2018 and it will be interesting to see if he can maintain that level - I'm quite confident he will, but even if his form drops off a bit, I think he will still be a fairly solid contributor. I think what we are seeing with Harmes is something which is common to quite a few of his contemporaries in the red and blue at the moment, is that the years of football and phyisical development they have done to date are starting to pay dividends as they reach a point of physical and mental maturity together. Watching these guys like Harmes, ANB, Guys, Clarry, Track, Viney, Oscar, Freitch and Co impose themselves upon the competition is a tantalizing prospect.

Awsome news. A great day for our club. I'm wondering if Daisy is the first AFL player to give birth during their playing career, or have their been any others in AFLW of lesser profile we just didn't hear about.

And before you know it, they will be forcing us to wear some craappy white jumper because there is a clash with our blue jumper that we have worn all along. Why any team would want to change away from their original/traditional colours is beyond me. ... although having said that if my teams colours were black and white or poo brown and yellow, changing them to red and blue would actually seem entirely sensible.

I think the Weid is a much more conventional and well rounded footballer than Cox. Whilst I must admit, I haven't see that much of Cox, he seems a bit one dimensional to me - a big tall guy who take marks and can play in the ruck, though if he can do those things well enough, he has few rivals that can match his physical advantages. His goal kicking is pretty reliable and I'm pretty impressed with how the guy has been able to make it at the top level of a sport so completely foreign to him. Like you say, it will be interesting to see if he can maintain his form moving forward and how the opposition might combat that. In this respect, whilst I know we recruited Pruess with the intention of playing him as a ruck/forward, I wounder if playing him back on Cox would be the way to go as from all reports Pruess has incredible strength and when combined with his height, he might be a good option to nullify Cox if he posed a threat to us we needed to contain.

BTW I do like the look of what the Weid is becomes, just don't want to count any chickens. The thought of Tommy, Sammy and big Pruess imposing themselves in our forward line is very mouth watering though.

Hogan is/was a sensational ball handler off the deck