Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Big Boy turns 30 in a few days, so is getting pretty close to becoming an old boy.

6. T Mac 5. Oliver 4. Trac 3. Preuss 2. Jones 1. Hunt

Correction - in his 2 games playing predominantly forward for the MFC, he has kicked 4 goals, an average of 2 per game which is pretty decient by AFL standards. Mind you it's also a pretty small sample size and he was also the 3rd KPP forward behind T Mac and Weid.

Preuss has probably averaged around 2 goals per game as a forwad/ruck at AFL level, so I'd say he's quite a capable forward. I agree that playing Preuss 70/30 ruck and the inverse for Gawn would be a great developmental move over the rest of the season so they both get what they need with what remains of a dead rubber of a back end of our season. Surely it has to be more valuable for Pruess to be rucking against AFL standard players and adjusting to the associated pressure at senior level than running around in the twos. Gawn should just permanently sit himself in that 15m - 25m range out form goal, take grabs galore and have real set shot practice from that position to the point where it no longer represents a mental hoodo for him. The big fella is actually a pretty dam good kick of the footy and a decient set shot for goal from the 40m to 50m range - just needs to get his head and technique right for kicking them from giveme range.

Appart from the odd game, Trac's form has been very solid all year. A few of Trac's stats give an indication of that: 3rd leading goal kicker; 1st in score involvements; 2nd in goal assists (interestingly, Melksham still leads this stat, despite missing a bug chuck of the season now - shows how good he is in that department and how much we are missing him). By my assessment, Trac will easily finish top 10 in our B&F, if not top 5 or better.

No, it wasn't funny. It would have been funny if it happened to another team, not us. Would have been a serious great goal if it had just rolled one balls length further across the line though.

I think most opposition teams would be pretty worried about the prospect of a Gawn/Preuss ruck combo - The Prawn. Seriously though, we normally drop our output when Gawn is resting on the bench and if Preuss can effectively maintain that dominant ruck presence for us for the whole game, it will go a long way to us being a much more dangerous side. The impact should be amplified when either Gawn or Preuss inevitably goes up against the oppositions second string/part time ruckman. I've been very frustrated by the lack of AFL games big Preuss has played, but I can also see the sense in it when he would likely get in the order of 80-100 ruck contests in the VFL as opposed to the 20 - 50 he might get at AFL level with Gawn in the side. Really hoping this seperate development strategy for Pruess is close to complete and starts to deliver a combined Prawn beast for us on AFL game day soon.

Agree Re Cripps, but we were down Gawn. Whilst Cripps is a different sort of player that I don't quite think I'd refer to Gawn as a beast in the same sense as Cripps, I think the absence of both players pretty much canceled out the star player factor for both teams. Gawn has been an absolute freak with his ability to both win us the ruck, rove and win clearances out of stoppages, run all over the place pulling down big grabs with huge value to the team. Missing Gawn the past week and a half has been a massive loss to the team. He has consistently been our most dominant player all year. I don't think it's any coincidence that we couldn't win any clearances and died in the a against Brisbane last week when Gawn was hobbling around the ground on one leg.

He has still been a bit inconsistent and hasn't had a perfect season by all acounts, but overall, I think the reemergence of Jayden Hunt has been one of the real positives to come out of this season. Was great for him (and the team) to get that little moment in the sun after such a trying year (couple of years for Hunt). Hopefully it goes to show how fortunes can change in the space of a year. Really hoping others and the team in general can follow in Hunt's footsteps next year and mount a huge resurgence.

Yes, but a great feeling when the final siren went with us in front. I get the feeling that Carlton supporters were backing their team to roll us from the get go today, so denying them that makes beating them even more the sweeter. Not that I'm not getting carried away with this win from our perspective. For the most part, I have very conflicted feelings about how we played. We clearly dominanted them for over a half of footy with one rotation down, yet without playing anything like our best game and also missing a tonne of opportunities to put them away much earlier. But somewhat to Carlton's credit, they wanted to win pretty badly today, moved the ball well and their straight goal kicking kept them in the game. The real downers of the game were yet more bloody injuries - we just can't seem to take a trick this year. Was a huge effort for the boys to hang on in the last quarter after being down so many players on the bench for most of the game and the last quarter in particular. I had a weird moment of part elation, part relief when Hunt slotted that goal in the dying minutes, which was quickly followed by a somewhat hollow feeling of what a realitively meaningless win it was, whilst still being glad that we had won and maintained some level of dignity, compared to the utter shame and despiration I would have felt had we lost. Overall, I think the result and the way it came about still shows how far we actually have come compared to seasons gone by, but also typifies what a depressing and a complete sh_t fight this season has been for us.

Did Bedford play an average game this week Chell? I think he wants to debut next week! ?

Asides from the likely inclusion of Pruess in the side, the other 'ins' that I'm most looking forward to is Jetta. Have really missed his hardness and footy smarts in the side.

Yeah cool, understand that, I was being half tongue in cheek. But I still don't understand how we could consider cutting it so fine with such an important player. Can't train Thursday, it's not like it's a grand final. I love Gawn's comitment to the cause, but surely even he can see the bigger picture here?

Just like his role model big Jimmy, Maxy's heart is too big for his own good and no good for mine. I just about had an aneurysm last week when I saw him limping off and going down the race, thinking he'd done another ACL. I agree with others who have said it would be utter stupidity to play Gawn this week. If he does play, you can bet his ankle will get stood on by every Carlton player on the ground. Why would we risk our most valuable asset in a meaningless game? Haven't we learnt the lessons of seasons and players gone by? I don't mind @DeeSpencer's suggestion in the other thread that we mess with Kruzer's head with respects to does he play on Gawn or Preuss, but if Gawn actually plays, Mission should have his contract terminated immediately.

Agree and at the same time: 1. Any players that need surgery or the opportunity of a rest to get over injuries should be given the opportunity to do so and; 2. There will also be a number of fringe players on the list that will be going very hard at it to have one last crack at showing why they should remain on the list, which should provide some sort of motivating force within the team in those dying games; 3. I think giving Jordan Lewis the send off he deserves from the MFC in the seniors fits somewhere in here too and I don't think he will be wanting to go out without some sort of a bang.

At this stage I think it's unlikely that we could keep the Pies out of the final, but if we could deal them a body blow like knocking them out of the top 4 or setting them up for an away final or something, that would be nice. Agree entirely with what Lucifer is getting at in this thread. I want to see improvement and us gain something from the back half of the year. Part of me cares less about winning or loosing against the likes of Carlton etc than about beating the better teams, but we can't just coast against the poor ones and put everything into the good sides either because we'd never do that in a season proper. In some ways now the season is gone, it does provide us with some freedom to try things out like we might otherwise do in preseason without caring so much about the final win/loss result, but better, because every game must and will still be played at home and away season intensity. In alot of ways the several seasons that preceeded 2018 might have put us back developmentally because we were so close to making finals at the back end of the season that as much as the coaches would have said they were coaching for the future, there was probably also a reluctantace to persevere with core issues that we needed to rectify in case that meant loosing the game. As supporters, we might not immediately see the fruits in complete performances from siren to siren, but so long as the players and the coaches can use the rest of the season to get their act together, then I'm quite prepared to put up with a few more frustrating scoreboard results this season.

Yeah, that seems about right. If I recall correctly, the one that started that run on they got in the third quarter was also partly the result of us turning over the ball and our defense being out of position. There was about three of them he would have kicked from the paint right on 50 and/or right out on the boundary - an example of some great goal kicking.

I would agree with some that our pressure wasn't exactly manic on Sunday, but I think both teams were trying to play an open free flowing game and perhaps we are putting less emphasis on the tackling side of our game to try and get our ball movement happening and some confidence in that part of our game again. Certainly, I thought that in the first quarter and possibly most of the first half, I thought most of our ball movement looked really sharp. Some in this or other threads have compared Goodwin to Neeld, which I think is way off. It's clear that we are both trying to win games and are generally compeditive. Neeld style honestly would do nothing for team morale. How we play out the year I think is really quite a fine ballance. On the one hand, I think we need to persist with working on parts of our game that need rectifing for next season and beyond and if that means persisting with Weid/Petty in positions when they are getting beaten as development and or trying to implement new positioning of players at contests without it immediately bearing fruit, then perhaps we need to grin an bear a few disappointing performances and match outcomes as a consequence, but on the other hand, I think winning is important for team culture, it is a confidence game as well and we can't afford to loose that completely. There were some matches early on last season when our game looked bad and look at where we ended up. I'm not sure that the average supporter really knows what the coaches are trying to achieve in some of all this, but I really hope we can refer back to it next season and say that whilst we lost some more games than we would have liked to, we can now see what was being developed and the fruits it has brought.

Salem's game is one of the few good things to come out of this season. He was pretty good last year, but this season he has really shone through and elevated his game to the next level of maturity in my view. Despite all that, I have felt that his form had dipped a little in the recent month or so (perhaps he had an injury somewhere in there, I forget), but I felt he was really quite dominant and influential for big parts of Sundays game, which was great to see.

Don't know exactly what it was about, buy I don't mind it at all. Was super impressed with Steve May's game and I thought that on the whole Frosty played a pretty good game as well. I was sitting behind the goals, so got to see alot of the work back there. One thing that really stood out was how much Frosty was getting scragged holding the man by his opponent, but only once was a free kick played. Getting back to the stouch between May and Frosty, I thought it showed good intensity and compeditive desire from both of them and great leadership from May to make a point of whatever it was that was the issue at hand. I can only see good things comming from having a quality experienced backman working with Frost to help iron out the wrinkles in his game. I noticed this dynamic between them in a preseason training clip on the club website as well. I see it more as a robust discussion and our players calling themselves in areas they need to lift than anything more sinister. Done in the right way at the right time, it has to be so much more effective for a team mate to be having that blunt honest conversation than for the coach to have exactly the same conversation. Being their on ground level right next to them also provides experienced players like May a vantage point and perspective that the coach can never have as well.

Honestly, being at the ground, I thought up until half way through the third quarter, it was about the cleanest and most confident ball use that I'd seen all year. When Steve May kicked that goal I thought that we had opened up a break on them big enough to start putting on some score board pressure and control the game. Then a champion young players of theirs Hipwood had a purple patch to be envious of, kicked something like 5 goals straight (most of which were from pretty tough spots) and the pendulum swung completely. I can't say who was on Hipwood for all of those goals, but early in the last, it was Petty who was getting a bath, which was quickly switched to Frosty who stemed the bleading from that point on. I can honestly imagine if it had been Oscar, then the guy would be copping a huge whipping on this forum. I can honestly say that though he made it back out onto the ground that I don't feel Max had anything like his usual impact after half time either, which is fair enough. I can honestly say I can't see what good publicaly berating our players would do when one of our biggest problems at the moment is confidence. I haven't listed to many (if any) of Goody's press conferences this year, but from what I recall of him last season, he is pretty down the line and clear with the areas he thinks we are falling down in and need to improve. As much as I hate us loosing, and the emotions associated with that, I don't think unloading all of that and the associated critisism it would unleash would be productive. I also honestly think that Brisbane are a pretty decient side now and that going up and beating them on their home deck would have been a huge upset for us, which at times it almost looked like we were going to pull off, but they got the better of us in the end and that's the way it goes. I am honestly concerned about the ease at which they were able to break clear of us from their back half and through the centre if the ground and win most of the stoppages in the last 3/8ths of the game, because they made us look fairly second rate once the worm turned. Perhaps the injured Max factor was part of that, but can't be all of it and we need to do better. I honestly think the way we are playing at the moment, we are down one mature gun onballer and that the drop off of Jones, Bernie before him and then the loss of AVB has really hurt us in that regard. I honestly think it was the best game that I've seen Salem play in a few matches, that from the game he played, I can see the value in recruiting Steve May. I can also honestly say that I think Trac has elevated his game this season to the point that if we were playing better as a team he would be completely busting open games being lauded for delivering on his potential, but because we are not, he gets dragged down with the team performance.

Keilty and Mitch White, whom I would gauge as average VFL backman. I'm not denying that Oscar is out of form or advocating that he should have been picked in the 22, but out of the fit players we have at our disposal at present he isn't as far off it as being made out either.

Surely until he is actually signed/committed via the draft, he could be anybody's player? If anything, it should be better that he is getting extra development with Freo's next generation academy and will be further advanced in the event that the MFC can snag him.

Does anyone have a take on Dunkley's game? Looking like he might get an AFL game on merit this season or perhaps not?

I thought he looked like he was starting to find his feet at senior AFL level last year when he got that run of games. Deserves another decient chance to show what he can to at the top level in the back half of this year. Certainly if he could become another solid depth player for us at AFL level, we have seen this year how valuable that could be for us in years to come. There were a number of games earlier this year when retrospectively he would have been a much better option than Spargo and probably one or two others like Stretch (not holding anything against these two guys, they just don't seamed to have produced the goods for us this year).