Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Hoping that to JKH this one year contract yells "I've got one more season on a good AFL list. I'm going to work my butt off and not die woundering if I could have made it".

Yet if I recall correctly, the opportunity for him to be captain was something that was part of the appeal for him. In retrospect, I think they would have been better off telling Gazza where to go on the captain thing and making Harbrow captain. GWS certainly did alot better making Ward skipper - huge respect for him.

Maybe if we could rookie him, but I think he's more like a 1% chance than 10% and we are better off drafting a kid with good athletic ability, but a bit raw than a Bennell with lifestyle problems as well as recurring injuries. I mean nothing against the guy personally and would love to see him sort his stuff out, I just don't think he is a viable option. If you listen to Mahoney and co, they are also backing Jayden Hunt to have a better preseason and become that outside runner we need. Bailey Freitch would be another, or as something from left field, Frosty could be a pretty difficult match up on a wing, if we have Lever, Oscar and May to hold fort down back.

Actually @drdrake just thinking about things, Liam Jurrah was a bigger waste of talent than Bennell. Wow could that guy play. Imagine him in our side now and the high octane outside run he could provide.

I like the sentiment, but I recon that's what Freo would have thought. I think he's run out of any credits at AFL clubs these days. For Bennell to redeem himself, I recon he would need to put together an injury free season at state level and pull his own act together. Surely there are enough good indigenous leaders out of the game who would be willing to help ...if he pulls his head in and acts himself.

Lol. Was Gaza really a mentor to any of the players at Gold Coast? Star player at the start of his time there, but a pretty average choice of captain and off feild leader I think I'd say in retrospect.

Yeah, Col was somewhat of a waste (waste of high draft pick, spot on a list, waste of free agency by Freo), but I Bennell had way more tallent to start with. Bernie Vince was the best thing to come from the Col Silvia saga.

One of the biggest wastes of talent in the last decade. Probably part of the great legacy that Karmichael Hunt left at the Suns.

GWS also lost Treloar to the Pies which [censored] me (forget what they got in return). Treloar is a better player than Shiel in my veiw. If I was GWS I definitely would have wanted to keep Treloar.

Thought he struggled a bit in his first game back against the Suns, but just kept getting better as the season rolled on. Earlier in the season before he had even played again, some on here were suggesting (hoping) that he might come back into the side and provide some X factor for finals. To be honest, with the run the MFC have had with cronic injuries I'd pretty much conceded that he wouldn't play again, but was pleasently surprised. All this in the context of his tragic personal circumstances. Really shows the great character of the guy and you can understand how he would be such a good influence on the younger guys like Oliver that I recall it was reported he shares a house with. As suggested above, really hope we don't loose him, but wouldn't begrudge him for leaving under the circumstances and he has already made a pretty valuable contribution to the MFC in the time he has been here.

Probably one of the real improvements I think he made after comming back in the back half of the season was cutting out most if not nearly completely the absolute clanger turnovers where he would kick it out on the full or straight to the opposition at short range. My other observation was that even the times he did turn it over after really taking on the game, it didn't hurt us so much, because he'd gained so much ground for us that we had time to reset our defense rather than it turning into scoring opportunities for the opposition, probably also in part due to the rest of the team transitioning back into defense around these plays as well.

His goal kicking is generally absolutely supurb. I had a bit of a dig on Demonland at one point that his goal kicking was off for a few games (cumulating with the Sydney game) there because he wasn't kicking at his usual +80% accuracy. I was actually giving the guy a complement for his usual superhuman accuracy, but another poster thought I was being serious, took it to heart and thought I was being a bit harsh. Tommy himself admitted later that week that his goal kicking hadn't been what it could have been, but that he'd identified a few things that he wasn't doing right, but that he'd done some practice that week and thought he had sorted it out. Low and behold, from that point in the season onwards, his goal kicking was back to it's superlative normal. His one grab pack marks are also such a treat to watch. Love big Tommy Mac and really hoping that Oscar turns into a similar build and player in seasons to come.

Awsome news from Demonland's resident time traveler. In all seriousness though, I'm looking forward (pardon the pun) to what he can produce in 2019, given that he had a pretty interrupted preseason this year with his foot issues.

One of the other things I really like about Frosty is his ability to really put the boot into it. That kick out against the Hawks in the semi was something else. Also remember him slotting through a similar length kick for a goal a few years back (against North perhaps?). Will be interesting to see what the future holds for Frosty. If we were to pick up May, could we be looking to turn him back into a ruck/forward perhaps? The addition of May would make things interesting all round, as from what I understand, May can play forward pretty well himself. I'm also wondering if Frosty might even be used as part of a trade for May, as were we to pick up May, either he or O Mac could become a bit redundant.

Reminds me of Sean Wight more than any other player on our list, the way he can come from nowhere with a diving spoil. Love his ability to read the ball comming down and courage to run off his man to spoil or intercept, best example I recall was him playing off Lance Franklin to spoil, the week or so after Franklin had booted a bag and won Sydney the game off his own boot. That time he evaded and burnt off Franklin like the latter was standing still was a rare highlight from an ordanary game.

I haven't really seem much other than highlights from his time at Casey, but from what I can gather he is a contested ball, bull type of player. Not sure that he has as much footy tallent, but could be important to us if we lost Vandenberg. Depth isn't something that should be underrated in my veiw, neither having too many on ball bulls. Asides from Viney, we had a pretty good season injury wise in the guts and I also though Vandenberg's impact in the last 6 games or so of the season was pretty important to us.

Will go down as one of my favorite players for the MFC. It's a pitty that his career was somewhat of a fringe player and that's not how I will remember him as a footballer.

Interesting stat on the MFC site player reviews "Lewis was also amongst the best at the club for ball use by foot, ranked third, with an average of 8.3 effective kicks per game." Not particularly surprising, but evidence for what many have observed.

Not quite sure what the inferance is there. We are now up to 8 delisted/retired and possibly still a few to be traded. Obviously we need someone to step up and step into a replacement for the role Lewis plays, but I don't think that would be at his expense. That said, I do find the reference to Cross above intersting. From what I recall, Crossy was keen to play another year, but the club not so inclined. I guess part of the difference could be that Jordan was already contacted for next year, whereas Cross may not have been.

All this bartering, cloke and dagger double speak does make you think that having a good poker face would be a pretty highly rated skill for those in list management.

I recon that Freo want Hogan more than we want May, so if them trading Neale for unders gets them closer to a Hogan trade, then I think they would cave.

Forgot to add Jim Stynes Memorial medal for comunity service to the list of honors for the year. Top effort by Nev in that respects and does further demonstrate the quality of his character.

I'd just about give him our player of the finals series for just those two acts alone, but the truth is that over the last month or so of footy in particular, Nev played some top footy all round and was one of the players to really step up to the plate, set the standard and accept the responsibility for taking us to the next level in big games. If the All Australian team was picked after finals, Nev would have been picked hands down.

Sorry @Lucifer's Hero, I know this is probably deviating even further from your inital intent for this thread, but as general remark, I do like that Goodwin, Max and probably others seem to be making more of a point of appealing to, embracing and encouraging the MFC's supporters to get on board as an important part of making us sucessful going forward. See their B&F speaches in particular. Seem to be riding the wave of optimisim unleashed with our huge finals crowds. Probably hard to appeal too much to people before now, without making finals etc. Now that being on the cusp of sucess is clear for many, the club really does need to capitalize on the resurgence to set us up finacially and supporter base wise for the next 10 years or so. Should also help put us on the map better with attracting players (like Collingwood and Hawthorn have used it) being able to appeal to playing in front of a packed MCG and would be good if we can get West Coast type favorable umpiring results due to crowd noise as well. Might also mean no more or only one game in the NT as well. Need to keep building on that finals supporter turn-out for the start of the next home and away.

I signed up for the grand final garentee package at the start of this season for mainly that reason. Didn't expect to be so close to putting it into action a few weeks ago. A few more comments: 1. Like you I'm an interstate member and thus it makes the overall package still fairly afordable; 2. The claims that why should the interstate members get it so cheap are somewhat misguided for a number of reasons: i) You get three games but rarely use them all. I'm in Brisbane and there were a number of years when we only had the one game up here and a few years back when we got none; ii) The grand final garentee component costs the same for everyone. If we don't make it, it still costs you the ~$200 odd dollars regardless. Worth noting that it will still cost another $300-$400 on top of that for the actual ticket on top of that if we make it as well (the guarentee only gives you the aces to the tickets, not the tickets themselves). Still I think it's reasonable value and probably still less than paying scalpers prices; iii) I'm ok with paying something even if we don't make it, on the basis that my understanding is that the MFC still gets some portion of the fee (probably something like a 10%-15% sales margin, but I'm just guessing and when I asked the club, they couldn't tell me on the spot); iv) After being an interstate member for the past 7 years consecutively (previously also a member in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s), I think I'm as entitled as many are; 3. My sister got automatically put into priority 2 due to having a number of years consecutive membership (greater than 10, but don't quote me), so some people might also fall into that category; 4. Even though I had the grand final garentee package, it was still somewhat stressful registering for the lottery. It's a pretty tight time window (something like 9am - 12 pm on the Wednesday before the prelim) and my old man (who also signed up for it) who tried to do the online registration found the Tickatek system very unuser friendly, difficult to use and was concerned he wouldn't be able to get it to work in the time available. In the end he got there, but it stressed him (and me) out a fare bit. With the costs/prices involved, we deserve much better than the poor service provided.