Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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).

Pruess is pretty good with his feet. Love those goals he has kicked for the MFC seniors where he has grabbed it out of the ruck, hacked it on his boot and slammed it through for 6 points or the ones where he has unloaded it from just on/outside 50 and drilled it home. When you can kick like that, why handball !!

For both AVB and the MFC's sake, I'm just hoping that he can make a full recovery and play some good footy for us over the next few years. The MFC has had way more of it's fair share of career ending or debilitating injuries to gun players over the past 30 or so years - Trengove, Bartram, Clarke, Lyon, Schartz, Jackovich being the ones that most readily come to mind. Throw in guys like Wonnameri, Jurrah, Sean Charles and Martin Pike that had to leave the club for personal reasons and I almost cry at all the wasted tallent we have had over the years that could have elivated us to multiple premierships in that time had we got the management of them right.

This is how I want our current crop to be remembered and I don't think they are far off it.

AVB is definitely best 22 material when fit. Joel Smith has shown glimpses that he could definitely mature into it and despite some reservations I've previouly had, Tim Smith has suggested to me this year that he could also has potential to play a role in a successful team. The only one of those I have significant doubts about is Maynard and he cost us next to nothing, as did all those mentioned. I haven't seen to many superstars develop out of pick 80, but the success rate out of rookie/mature age picks is through the roof respectively across the AFL. There is value there for the picking. That all said, I'm absolutely in favour of us holding onto early draft picks and getting some really good young kids into the side as well, unless it was the deal of the century like picking up a Patrick Cripps from Carlton somehow (which is never going to happen, but whats the harm in dreaming). A ballanced approach is what we need, both to drafting and in assessing our recruiting.

Looking forward to seeing my first live game at the ground this season. Would love for us to bring home a win, but whilst I have high hopes, I'm not particularly confident that we can get the job done. Credit where it is due to the MFC administration team. I applied to claim one of my interstate membership games earlier in the week and the sent me an email with a link for me to download my ticket. Slightly unbeknowns to me was that the email didn't contain the actual ticket, so I got a polite phone call from the club this morning telling me that an email with a pdf of my actual ticket would be appearing in my inbox, as a result of the MFC administration team doing a quick round up of those that hadn't yet done it for themselves. Well done and thanks guys - customer service at it's best! ?

I actually don't see the selection of Oscar on the bench as that unreasonable: a) If we lost a key back prior to the game through flu or something, he is about the only legitimate option you could bring in; b) I have hopes for Petty, but he isn't exactly setting the world on fire just yet and it's almost like he is the guy getting games for his development and future potential in much the same way as Oscar previously; c) We saw how much better Frosty played last week in a winning side and being relieved of the No.1 defense position - I think similar would apply to Oscar; d) Oscar is way better than your average VFL backman.

Having Preuss play against Martin could be good for his development, but going off previous weeks, I doubt it will happen. When they didn't pick Preuss to go against mummy for the GWS game, I thought this guy isn't going to get a game for the rest of the year, unless Max gets injured. If I remember correctly, Martin is beast like strong, but also has a pretty decient tank. What could have been if Max and Martin had have got together ...although one of them would probably just have become the most dominant ruckman in the VFL, hence we are where we are.

If I recall correctly Sam Mitchell also had a knack of playing ugly/dirty Hawthorn unsociable football that I've not really seen from Trac. How Mitchell and some of the other Hawthorn players of those teams got away with it still somewhat astounds me. Melbourne players would get rubbed out multiple weeks all the time for that sort of stuff, the BS 1 week suspension of Steve May at the start of this season being case in point.

Despite being a whiping boy of sorts (i.e. No.2 pick should dominate every game), my take is that Trac has been one or our better performers over this season. The main thing which has let him down is his erratic goal kicking in the 20m - 35m range. But do I think he can and want him to go to that next level - hell yeah. Like most of our team, I think Trac is struggling for that edge of confidence. Once Trac and our on ball brigade get up and going again, I think that they will dominate and bully the opposition. Trac can be every bit the power on-ball/forward option that Dusty has been for a few years now. Don't forget, it took Dusty a few years and almost being traded to get there too.

OOOOOOOZ

Number of posts it was on during the podcast is a bit ironic, or was it planned?

Seriously though, I'd be interested in Balls helping out a few of our players with some goal kicking practice. Big Maxy and Trac are a few that come immediately to mind.

Looking forward to chatting.

This really is a stupid thread. Contracted till the end of 2020. Has shown some capacity to be a servicable backman over the past 4 years as a small, young developing player. Why would we put in all that time and development into a guy just to let him go now. Steve May and Michael Hibbard are not exactly spring chicken either, so if Oscar can continue to build his game over the next few years, we could well have the need for another key back.

Yep, so I wasn't hearing things. Nothing against Magner, he was a player that tried hard and had a crack, but I think he would wish he was as good as Harmesy over the journey.

Winning - I like it. ...ALOT!!! The winning had the edge taken off it a little for me though, as I was watching the game with about an hours delay and my Foxtel recording died 5 mins into the third quarter. Endless minutes of my life wasted on the Foxtel not helpful line to try to get my IQ3 working so I could at least download the game last night resulted in nought and I had to wait until this morning to watch the last half already knowing the result. Bye bye Foxtel - hello Kayo Spot I think.

6. Viney (heart and soul of the club) 5. Gawn (really wanted to have T Mac as second BOG, but Gawn's performance and contribution was huge - as usual) 4. T Mac (Good for most of the game and stood up in big moments. I really hope that is a corner turned on his season) 3. Lockhart (great response from being dropped a fee weeks back and hope he keeps backing up that kind of performance) 2. Frost (really showed how dangerous he can be when May takes the No.1 forward and he can play with that fraction more freedom. His reading of the play, intercept marking run and carry, linking handballs and feild kicking and ball use were all excellent. Generated a significant number of rebounds from the back half that we scored from.) 1. Trac (kicked a good goal early when we needed one and worked hard all game). Even though statistically he didn’t have a huge game, I thought Nathan Jones actually played quite a good game and did some influential things. I actually didn't mind that free kick reversal thing that much - showed intent, that we were not going to take being bullied around and I think was emblematic of the bit of swagger that the team got back into it's step yesterday.

Hardly unpredictable. This guys ball drop during his goal kicking routine is a joke. He was spinning it round everywhere, jiggling it about and it was didn't suprise or disapoint me at all, when he shaked it all over the place from some pretty simple set shots. Didn't stop BT and the comentary team from praising him up all over the place as some kind of champion, dispite this obvious flaw in his goal kicking. Shiiit me to tears with all their Collingwood love crap. Had this guy been any sort of decient kick the game would have been all over by quarter time for the MFC ... not that it made much difference in the end.