Rodney (Balls) Grinter

You may well be right, I haven't watch him that closely, other than noticing that we pretty much completely shut him down in the final we played them. I thought that he must have been a bloody champion, because he played for Hawthorn. I guess it fits the media's narative pretty well of the Hawks regeneration of their list with a crop of guns comming through. I don't care if we don't get him then, but it would be good if someone picked up, just to derive Hawthorn. Who are their good young players then?

Luke Breust or Jack Gunston are ones that I'd like us to get from them at the right price i.e. cheap as chips - free agents or a pick in the 70s if the opportunity arose. Perhaps even someone like James Sicily might present as a free agency opportunity for us or someone else in a few years time. I don't even care if he ended up at Brisbane, Gold Coast, North or someone like that, it would be good if someone could turn the tables on Hawthorn and rob them of their mature tallent.

Agreed. And on a similar note, whilst I didn't pay close attention to how it all played out, the way one of the Adelaide clubs was spruiking that they would poach back the SA born players off the Queensland clubs with low draft picks was pretty ordanary. I thought it was pretty [censored] weak that the AFL didn't respond strongly to that, particularly when the whole comp has put so much capital into getting the club's going in the expansion states. The extra suplemental super trade period is another chip away at equalisation and the draft. Their supporters will hate it, but clubs like Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney, West Coast and Adelaide really deserve to do their time proping up the bottom half of the ladder and anything that makes that possibility less likely is just pure evil.

Just check out the below link: http://m.hawthornfc.com.au/news/2018-11-21/our-list-by-the-numbers I count 8, possibly 9 of their best 22 will be 30 or over sometime in the next 12 months, then there is also a fare bunch of them sitting in the age group just below that Luke Breust (28), Liam Shiels (27), Jack Gunston (27), David Mirra (27) ,Jonathan Ceglar (27). Even $cully is 27 these days, with a pretty clapped out body. No wonder they were so keen to off load Mitchell, Hodge and Lewis, they are facing a playing list armageddon. When you look at the list of players they have (or don't have) comming through, the cupboard looks pretty bare for the Hawks and makes it look even more strange trading Burton for Wingard. Talking to a Hawks supporter I know the other day, he was quite disappointed by loosing Burton, because he though that was a player they could build their backline around. Addmitedly, not all the Hawks over 30s will retire at the end of this season, but their output will certainly start to wane and it's hard to see any of them being there any more that another two or three years. This will really test the mastermind Clarkson - I think they are in for a long hard road to rebuild as they will not have much to trade their way back into the game with other clubs and I just hope that free agency doesn't become their savior either.

As I understand it Hawthorn also have the oldest list with the most number of players over 30 years old, so I'd say that has the most to do with it. The aging nature of their list is a problem in it's self and I'm really hoping that they fall off a cliff over the next two years ... but don't quite hit the bottom too hard.

My point is that they are absolute puss at the moment and we are on the up and up. They seemed to really struggle to put bums on seats this season and I would have thought that would also have translated to their membership, but clearly it seems they have a fairly substantial base of welded on members/suporters. I really think it should be possible for us to climb above them, at least temporarily over the next few years, particularly if they stay mired in mediocrity or worse and from there you never know. We really need to get in early as a club, build momentum and translate that finals type attendance/support into memberships early.

It would look to be a fairly real possibility at the moment, but I actually hope GC do survive and go on to bigger and better things. I think there lack of membership numbers at the moment would be related to their poor onfeild performance, but also possibly another hang over from last season, when the didn't play many games at Carrara due to the Comm Games. I do think it would be good for the growth Aussie Rules footy in general in Qld for the Suns to be successful, because living in Brisbane, I know there is a genuinely strong presence of grass roots footy on the Gold Coast, although I also understand that top level teams from different codes have also successively failed and folded there. One differentiator though I think is that the other codes (soccer and rugby league) haven't had either the finacial resources or long term commitment to keep unfinancial teams going there more than a few years. If the AFL can hang in there long enough for the Suns to have some on feild sucess, it could be key to growth and more established presence of Aussie Rules in this part of Queensland, by being the dominant locally present professional team.

Interesting strategy, though I'd rather buy a GC membership myself for several reasons.

Some might be just interstate, 3 game members etc and not every member will want to go to every game (except during finals) but you certainly have a point. The problem of popularity and sucess I guess. The club's might need to look at preallocating particular games between its members, although games against interstate clubs wouldn’t be so bad. Still I'd like us to be in that position, because as some have pointed out, I see it panning out as a bit of an arms race in this respect at the moment, which could result in one of the lesser Vic sides be squeezed out of the,competition and/or being forced to relocate. At the end of the day, being an interstate member, the purpose of my membership these days is more or less altruistic, I just want to see the club do well ...oh and I want to be there when we win a flag, which is why I purchased one of the grand final garentee memberships at the start of this season. I do think that the strategy PJ started of trying to attract the new arrivals to Melbourne to the club is a good idea and an area where the MFC should have a small natural advantage through the name Melbourne. It would be interesting to know how much fruit this campaign might have brought us, but I think it's something that would require quite alot of nurturing of those being brought along to games, because you are not only trying to sell them the club, but also introduce them to the game it's self.

We at least need to get above Carlton. Must say, I'm a little suprised to see GWS now have more members than Brisbane as for a long time GWS had figures more like the Suns. Could easily change if the on-feild fortunes of these sides respectively change. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/afl/afl-membership-ladder-tigers-set-to-reach-100-000-once-again-as-suns-bottom-out-20181207-p50ktp.html MEMBERSHIP LADDER Adelaide (77,504)* Richmond (74,110) Hawthorn (60,007) West Coast (59,800) Essendon (51,011) Fremantle (44,293) Port Adelaide (42,723) Geelong (41,034) Carlton (38,965) Melbourne (30,096) Sydney (29,046) North Melbourne (26,921) Western Bulldogs (26,855) St Kilda (25,500) Greater Western Sydney (13,814) Brisbane (12,974) Gold Coast (5894) * Includes non-financial "We Fly as One" members. ** Collingwood refused to divulge their figures

Talking personally, it's not that I have any professional concerns with him in that capacity and I agree entirely with your remarks on him leaving etc, doesn't really bother me and I thought the way he addressed that question in his interview with Wheatly was very convincing (as he was on most topics). It's more that because he was with Collingwood for so long and along with Eddy often had a very public and parochial pro Collingwood, stuff the rest of the competition stance on things it takes a bit to get that out of your head. It will be a bit different at Melbourne, because obviously we don't quite have the same power base as he had at Collingwood, but thinking about what I just stated, I'm somewhat looking forward to now having him on our side and for GP going in to bat hard for the MFC.

Why put down that kind of endeavor? I love it that this guy is near the end, still fighting and not wanting to give it up. We seem to have please of good young talent all of a sudden, which is good, but I think it's equally good that our young guys both have to fight for a spot in the side, at the same time as benifiting from the experience and leadership that a guy like Lewis brings to the table. You can have experience around the place in a non playing capacity, but at the end of the day, I don't think it's the same. Whilst I'm somewhat disappointed that Bernie didn't go out in a blaze of glory, I think he was still a more than worthy contributor for the vast majority of game he played this year and that he had earned a leave pass over the years for the few he might have under performed in. Still such a thing as respect in football and whilst the talks that we will treat Lewis like any first year rookie, the reality is that he isn't and we will treat him accordingly.

Just goes to show that every player has their failings and strengths. Lewis is a four time premiership player and still has the occational moment when he looks like a complete unco. Pitty the average player in a poor side that suffers the same fate. So many observers are prepared to write off players, based on one or two moments in a game and ignore/be ignorant to the complete package. Jack Fitzpatrick, Lynden Dunn and probably many others have suffered this fate in the past (even absolute guns like T Mac have copped this kind of flack). As a MFC supporter I've certainly seen Lewy crap himself and fumble the heck out of it on a number of occations, but also seen him do some brilliant stuff, show the sort of leadership that has undoubtedly won us games in the past few years. I hope the twilight years of his career are the best and most dignifying that he has spent as an AFL footballer (wearing red and blue, compared to poo brown and yellow is a good start). I'd love it, to turn out that we had written off this guy as a has been prematurely and for him to pull out a rip snorter of a season.

I like how he pretty emphatically stated that the moment he got the job he became a 100% Melbourne supporter and didn't really give much attention to any other clubs. I think the stench of the filth of his Collingwood days has been hanging around Pert for many Melbourne supporters (I count myself in this boat to some small extent). Something that I try to think of whenever the thought of Pert as a filthy ex Collingwood person enters my mind is that Pert is Roosy's mate from Fitzroy and helps the black and white [censored] go away. Anyway, Gary Pert is our man now, his heart beating true for the Red and Blue and we need to get behind him and by extension the club as Demons supporters.

Yeah cool, that rings a bell. On reflection, it wouldn't be that hard of a choice would it. Full tine real estate agent Vs hanging around a few days a week with your mates and a group of young new footballers embarking on their career. I dare say it, a contunued association and maintenance of his public profile within the MFC could be good for his business too. Probably a good transition from full time professional sportsman back into the real World all round.

To me I heard it more as the later, that we shouldn't be aiming to mimic any of the other clubs. There wasn't any Collingwood this and Hawthorn that, this is what those clubs do well and we want to become like that... History is obviously part of the uniqueness of a club, but I agree it can be overemphasized at times. On reflection, I actually think PJ started the ball rolling in the right direction on this topic, but Pert has made the right impression on me as well.

“I don’t want Melbourne to be more like any other club. I want Melbourne to be more like Melbourne – it’s a great club with a great history, but we need to re-engage the people.” I love it. I know in some respects these are just cheap words, a bit of a throw away line and that the real test is can it be turned into actions that make a lasting positive difference, but I do really like the sentiment and substance behind the statement as well. Time to rebuild some pride and respect back for the MFC and stop living in the shadow of the 'power clubs' of the AFL.

This was hinted at around the club B&F or there abouts. So good to see the club just getting on with sealing the deal on these things. Bernie would be such a great asset to have around the club and is such an all round top bloke. I recall reciently watching one of the Fox Footy shows which had a feature on David Rodan and his role as a goal umpire. Someone made the comment how umpiring could be fairly soul destroying at times and one of the biggest things that D-Rod bought to the umpiring group was his irrepressible positive attitude and fun loving outlook on life. Can't what under rate character traits like these bring to a team environment and I think Bernie would be similar.

It wasn't that long ago that we would be limping over the line to crack the 30K mark in July or August or whenever the cut-off date is. Great work MFC and Demons supporters keep them coming. Always good to welcome new and returning members on board the D- train.

Agree and plus this - https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/12/03/are-hinkley-and-pyke-the-coaches-under-the-most-pressure-in-2019/ Now, I don't think Goodwin has show any signs of wanting out/go home, but if we don't get this extension right, then the hungry crow eaters could well come a knocking on his door.

Much has been made of Corey getting the locker next to brother Josh, but getting a locker next to brother Neville is a pretty good outcome as well.

Leaves 41 as the only unused playing No. Please bring back Peter Rohde, best custodian of this number that I can recall. 41 is also 14 backwards.

Max Gawn to get back to his best and produce the most dominant season for a ruckman in the modern era, but miss out on a Brownlow medal to some seagul midfielder. ... oh wait, that was this year!

So if all of the MFC, Geelong and Hawthorn miss finals who do you have making finals in their place, given many have also put Sydney as a team on the slide and at rusk of missing?

Oooooh, that would be sweet.