Rodney (Balls) Grinter

@It's Time, I know it wasn't your first objective to rank players in this way, but I'd argue that T Mac, Melksham, Hibbard and Jetta should be considered A gradars now. Particulaly T Mac and Melksham.

Melksham is another I'd consider as midfield depth. I think he is most valuable to us at half forward, but did some pretty good mid tagging roles for us in 2017. I'm personally open to Maynard turning out ok as a defensive tagging type midfeilder. I don't think Harmes will nessasrily remain our go to lock down tagger for ever, because his offensive wepons are so good and it's only a matter of time before the tagger becomes the tagged, in which instance guys like Maynard could fill the hole. For foward depth, we also would be hoping that Preuss can step up and be an option, though without seeing how he goes, I'm not sure how realistic that is. AVB also has some fair size to him and could provide a decient marking option inside 50. The other key forward depth option we have is May, who can take marks and kick goals. Obviously our first prefferance would be to play him in defense, but with the realitive depth we have down there, I think we may play May forward if it was called for by the circumstances.

Thought he came across pretty genuine and provided sensible answers without too many stock standard modern footballer clechés. Did seem a bit nervous though and not as polished as some, which is kind of refreshing in a way.

Too right. Lynch is a pretender.

Frost tidied up his disposal and decision making in the second half of the season considerably. Agree that he does sometimes mis-judge marks (normally by running way under them), but also takes some rippers. Would like to see how his % of winning marks stacks up against some of the key forwards he plays on, I recon it would be pretty fair. Similarly some of the forwards he plays on grossly misjudge marks and he takes an easy one. Either way it's a turn over, just looks worse for a backman at that moment, but equally how many plays did Frost initiate, where he broke lines and we went practically coast to coast and goaled as a result? It was a fair few. I don't see why people don't think Frost won't continue getting better. I recon there is more possibility of teaching an older dog new tricks, than turning a boxer into a greyhound. At the end of the day, I also just love watching this guy play - seeing guys take the game on and go on big runs, taking big grabs and kicking big torpes is what makes the game exciting to watch and Frosty does all three pretty well.

Can we rookie list him maybe? Really? Yep, go back 4 - 6 years and anyone that had played a game for Geelong but wasn't in their absolute best 22 was still a champion player starved of opportunity by playing for the footy club with the team of the century. How times change. PLEEEEEASSSE let them come full circle and let people speak of the MFC like this one day!

@stevethemanjordan regards your opening line, let's face it - our whole team has gone from a shambles to strength in the last four years. ... and Fing god (actually Roosy, Viney, Taylor and Co) for that!!

Hey Man, I'll agree that May is a good addition to our side, but I think your looking through some pretty rosey coloured glasses of him in a few respects. You make out like he is some kind of messiah and to borrow a well worn quote from Monty Python: "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy" Admittedly I didn't pay super close attention to May this season, but the impression I got was that he was somewhat ordanary on the whole and was somewhat playing on his reputation from seasons gone by. I watched his game against us at the Gabba on replay again the other week and he really didn't do anything special that game (except for a 55m goal from the boundary). Sure he took a few cheap marks as a loose man on the last line of defense, but didn't really impact in his main role as the No.1 key defender on the ground - Tommy Mac and Jesse ran a mock that game. I can give May a bit of a break for that game in the sense that he was playing after coming back injured to an extent, but I'm not sure that our own supporters sometimes cut O Mac or Frost that kind of slack for their poorer games (everyone points to Oscar's last Qtr Vs Geelong, but with delivery to Hawkins that good, who really would have stopped him?). I'm also happy to accept that the team environment and performance at the Suns has been some kind of influence on May. I think a true leader may have shone above it, but also that all people are human. I am encouraged that in his interview presently up on the MFC website May acknowledges that he became complacent and needs to lift his game (how refreshing that a player comming to the MFC knows they need to be at peak performance to fit in!). I think you are stretching it though to suggest that May is as quick as Frost. I have no doubts that May is a better all rounded footballer, but I will be mightily impressed if he has the pace and acceleration of Frost. I actually find the assumptions and notions that either of Oscar and Frost being relegated to obscurity pretty uninsightful. Both these players had games in season 2018 that they would rather forget and both also had bloody rippers of games and streaks of form. Oscar started well and somewhat tapped off and Frost was ordanary early and finished like a house on fire. Going forward Oscar will get only stronger and capable of running out the whole season and unlike many, I'm not putting a ceiling on Frost or his capability to learn new tricks. Reality is that even with May, I think we still need one other key back and having competition between Oscar and Frost can't be a bad thing. However the key position spots play out though, I think Lever, Hibbard, Salem, Jetta, Lewis and perhaps Lewis, J Smith and or possibly even Hunt will have a ball playing around them. Like I think we all are, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing our quality back six hit the park together in 2019. GO DEMONS!!

On ballance, it is definitely a pretty ordanary standard. My recollection of the games last year is that there is probably half a dozen 'star' players in every side that can actually do all the things you'd expect a footballer to be able to do with any reasonable proficiency. It's very frustrating to watch players have set shots from 15m out and completely shank every second shot. Kate Hore, Daisy Pearce and a few others are the exception to that rule. If Katie gets it with 30m, you can back her in as better than 50/50 to nail the shot. All of this really pisses me off with respects to the moaning to pay all players fully professional wages. That all said, I can still find it entertaining enough to watch (just like I can low grade footy) and I think it is getting slowly better year on year (expansion to more teams doesn't help that though). I do think it's important to support the woman's game moving forward for a variety of reasons, probably one of the most important of which being the significant increase in participation at the grass roots level. I think this increased participation will actually improve the standard at the top level over the next 4 - 5 years. When I played division 4 EDFL footy going back a number of years, we had a 'chicks team' and it considerably improved the social life and viability of the club overall.

Where there is smoke there is fire. AFL trade whispers: Young Fremantle players could be circuit-breakers for Jesse Hogan deal https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-trade-whispers-young-fremantle-players-could-be-circuitbreakers-for-jesse-hogan-deal/news-story/6d5dbe87393d2fb06af54e56b7e89861 Top sports journalists like Tom Morris don't write this sort of article if there isn't any truth behind the story.

Regards the May be a forward thing, my take is that whilst he has been recruited to play primarily back and that's where he will most likely spend most game time, it certainly doesn't hurt to have some flexibility either in game or within a season to shuffle guys around if things are not going to plan.

The thing where I recon Pruess will be happy to play second fiddle is that he wasn't even that at North last season. I recon he's been told by Goodwin and Co that provided his form is up to it, there will be games where we will: 1. Play two rucks; 2. Rest Max and give him a whole crack; and 3. Possibly see how he goes as a forward option if the Weid is either injured or out of form. Like I say, any of is more that he was getting at North, where I'm guessing that Daw and perhaps others were in front of him for similar roles. Plus he gets to learn from Max and Greg.

Of our current playing group, Frost is the one which most reminds me of Sean. Brilliant athletisim, which he often uses to close in on an opponent and spoil the ball away with a late dive.

Well, until he is a Demon anyway 100% we should do this. Personally I am filthy for Freo about the way they acted with Jessy. I understand there will always be some pull for players to return to their home state and family, but to me Freo were so focused and persistent in white anting out Jessy from the start. I also understand that with the compeditive nature of the league, clubs will always have an interest in getting good players from other teams, but to me, there is a line between trying to attract outside tallent and underhanded poaching. Time to bring Andrew Brayshaw home - I want revenge.

How about Robbie?

Just going through the list again and thinking it through - in retrospect we kinda stuffed up our first draft pick in 2008, but perhaps we could fix that by drafting Nick Nat as a FA?

I'd actually say the biggest (most important) FA we landed was Daniel Cross. I do agree with the notion of picking up good players through FA, if we can, rather than having to trade for them. As people have pointed out, not really much available next year, but might be in a year or two and we should have a pretty decient premiership window where a FA would be of value. The best FAs for us to get would be those like Frawley was for us/Hawks - good players in poor sides, that would like to cross over on modest cash, so they can have a chance at sucess. May could have been that FA for us had we not lost Hogan.

Andrew certainly didn't mind a bit of rough and tumble with big brother when we played them. Made a tackle stick pretty good on Gus, which is a decient effort. Had a bit of a tussle with that bloke from West Coast, Andrew Gaff too I seem to recall.

So Vs the Hawks: "Dougy to Chuck, intercepted by Scully who has Chunks all over him as he lies there on the ground"

Thead title is a bit of an oxymoron.

Sick him Rex ... I mean Josh. Make brother Drew a Demon.

I like the idea of Vanders in 12 or 23. Both numbers with a good tough nut tradition.

Sorry, but I don't understand where you are comming from with either of these statements. Jessy's performance for a guy of his age would be top 5% in the league for a key forward. He had practically one season out of 4 or 5 where he had a stuffed back and a dog of a year last year (but still played 10 games). Asides from that he has played around 20 out of 22 games per season. Personally I'm just disappointed that he isn't performing for us in it as both he and the team hit peak maturity and performance.

I recon Weid deserves a higher jumper number of his choosing. Also sends a bit of a message that 'you da man'! I'd be reluctant to give him 1 though, unless he had his heart set on it.

I've got no real issues with giving No.1 to the right player, but alternatively, we could put it to one side and say to Jessy "we will just leave this waiting here for you when you get sick of Perth and loosing every week"