Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Picket, no one here is really defending our first half yesterday as acceptable, but yesterday's result in isolation is not what this thread was about. Sure there were underlying issues that yesterday's loss had in common with others we have had this year and something that needs to be addressed, but overall this year has been a huge step forward and is not defined by one half of very poor football when we were shell shocked by a side that has played very good football all year and shown where we need to get to. In a lot of ways, the odds were stacked against us yesterday and it would have been more surprising if we had won. As some here have highlighted, many good sides have been smashed in finals before and then gone on to bigger and better things. Yesterday's poor first half is only endemic if we don't continue go on and learn from it and get better.

Really hoping for a strong MFC supporter turn out and a win to send off some of the faithful servants such as Vince, Pedo, JKH, Bugg and possibly others who won't or probably won't be at the club next year. Thanks for your contributions lads.

Is that a promise Picket? And if so, can you please extend it to this forum as well? I sometimes appreciate your contributions to Demonland, and empathasize to a point, as we are all hurting from failing to bring home the ultimate to some extent, but you have missed the point of this thread entirely and the above is absolutely putrid bile and shows you have no insight or perspective on the realities of AFL footy. Perhaps you will feel differently after you have sobered up a little, but if not, please don't pollute the digital world with this rubbish.

On ballance, I agree entirely with the opening opinion of this thread. As much as I was hoping for a fairy tale this year, it would have been a fairy tale to eclipse them all. To come from 5th spot with a young side that hadn't made finals in years, almost totally absent of finals experience is practically unprecedented. Traveling to Perth for a final and win against the side having a week off is similarly almost unheard of and as much as I thought we were capable and was hoping for a win yesterday, the nightmares of 1994 was also in the back of my mind as a supporter. It is genuinely very hard to beat them on their own track in such circumstances. Had we won, my biggest fear as a supporter was a repeat of 1988 or 2000 and I'm not sure I could have handled sitting in the grandstands of the MCG next week watching us loose another grand final. Next time we make one, we simply must grab the opportunity with two hands and win it, for the sake of my own sanity. I hardly think I could have written a better script for us at the start of the season if I had tried. Belting Carlton by 109 points in a game that the MFC of old would have coughed up and then belting Adelaide in Darwin when they were still being rated as a good side were some real highlights. It's been a long time since we have genuinely thrashed teams and this season we pretty much made a habit of it for a while which was highly enjoyable. Weid, Harmes, Brayshaw and Freitch were some of the real wins for us on a player development front I thought. I'm estatic with the sucessful return of Vanders after such a bad run of loosing quality players to cronic injuries. Unlike some I was frustrated, but not distraught following some of our close losses to good teams like the Geelong, Port and Sydney games (though the Port one was frustrating, because I thought we were robbed by the maggots). I think there were even some big positives out of the Richmond and Hawthorn ones. Out of all our losess, I could sense that we had a highly compeditive team that is capable of taking it up to any opponent on the day and I was able to watch every game from the start with an expectation we could/would win the game. Like many on this forum, I'm looking for us to step it up a notch again next year, keep building as a team and set our selves up for a genuine crack at a flag. It's frustrating, but as much as I'd like it to happen, I don't think it's a given that we go further next year. We didn't have a dream run with injuries this year, but it was hardly a disaster in that regards either. Even one of the greatest premiership player/coaches of Leigh Mathews admits that you need an element of good luck to win a flag - surely after 55 years we are due a bit though.

Agree with pretty much all of the above. I think it was evident that West Coast were far fresher than us today when it counted at the start of the game. If we can lift our game another notch to the point where we are beating teams like Geelong twice, and Sydney, hopefully the buys us top 4 and the opertunity to rest a fee more players like Gawn during the home and away. I thought the club did very well managing Viney's return from injury than we have in years gone by.

Just think back a year, we got beaten by Collingwood last round of the year to miss finals, with West Coast benifiting. This year we went two games better. I hope Collingwood win next week and then next year we go two games further.

Keeping him fresh for the Brownlow. ...it's all we have now.

Really want Trac to come of age next year and blow the opposition away.

Oscar was ok early. We have been cut up through our own mistakes today and unlike the Dorks, they capitalized.

Love you Harmesy

At least we have added 66 games of finals experience to our squad.

Could be a dangerous last quarter for Meth Coast. They just want to preserve themselves. The game is gone, but I just really want us to physically hurt these FCKERS. On the context of modern football history, I hate West Coast much, much more than I do Collingwood.

Yes. Free he gave away early wasn't tough, just dumb.

Sounds like an excuse and it obviously didn't help the Tigs last night, but a week off is a huge advantage this time of year. West Coast have shown what this MFC team needs to do next year, what no other MFC team have done in my lifetime. Dominate all year, finish top 4, home final, week off => WIN PREMIERSHIP.

Was never that confident going into today's game 1994 nightmares never faded. This is worse. Hoping for a miracle. Knowing it's practicality an impossibility.

Can't get over that punch to the throat of Viney. THEY ARE CHEATS

What I was trying to say (but my mobile kept freezing on me) is that I wish all the media hype would subdue until we have actully won a flag... but I don't think it will and we just need to embrace it and manage it the best we can.

Yes

Waiting, waiting, waiting... I have the day off today (well sort of) and just sitting on the back deck on a gorgeous Brisbane spring day, thinking how foreign it feels to still be playing finals footy this time of year. If we can pull it off and go all the way this year, it would be one of the best wins in the heat of the fugazi ever. The media and opposition fans are all over us like a rash at the moment. It's nice, but I'd

Glad that's the case. I guess you could look at it two ways: 1. Get offended and angry; Or 2. Look at the irony in it, have a laugh at that and be proud of the acknowledgement/complement; Personally I'd understand either reaction and not judging either as right or wrong. However he is somewhat comically portrayed, Nev is a bloody legend of a bloke and the MFC as far as I'm sure most of us are concerned.

I think the arrogance and superficial character of many of their supporters is at least 80% of the reason for me. You are dead right about them being many of them being the finacially well off types. My recollection of the most obnoxious of them back in the 80s and 90s is that they were arrogant privileged aholes that wanted to project more of a tuff, working class yet sucessful image of them selves by association of baracking for Hawthorn - it didn't work though, you could tell they were silver spoon in the mouth private school boys alot of them. They were always such total experts and could spend all day telling you why the Hawkers were such a successful club. I imagine things only got worse during the 2000s. The other 20% hatred is probably due to the sucess they had over us. I rank Essendon supporters only just behind Hawthorn supporters for similar reasons. Really hope that Melbourne supporters don't turn into such a bunch of arrogant ferrals if we get the sucess that we all crave.

And we would never offer him enough money to play for us, so moot point. More likely to go to the Gold Coast, they must have plenty to spare salery cap space and ambasitor cash to splash around now. He'd fit right in with the cheapness and tackiness of the glitter strip.

Jonesy, the one who could have left for greener pastures, but stuck fat with us. I recon he'd tell $cully to Fff off.

It's all about that honesty really. The thing that I think people hate most about $cully are all the lies. It's one thing to take the money and run, but he didn't have to lie about it and sell false hope to us for a year. As far as I know, Lever didn't lie and neither did Callam Ward. From what I understand, the way Ward went about it was pretty decent and people respected him for it. I'd definitely have Ward, but never that turd $cully.

I agree it was partially symbolic, but sometimes you can tell a fair bit from body language and more importantly, it was also backed up by the way they played. It's also really evident when you hear guys like Nathan Jones, Max Gawn, Jack Viney and most of the team speak just how invested they are in the club. To a certain extent the journey the team has been on, having guys like Jones who could have left, but stayed the course has built a strength from adversity and togetherness that many players at the more reciently successfull clubs who were 'born into privilege' just probably do not experience and can not manufacturer. I also don't think the pressure and physicality that we have witnessed over the past month has come from nowhere. The first half we played against Richmond the physical pressure on the Tigs was manic, we were pretty had at it against Port in Adelaide also and the stats would show we have dominated contested ball all year, it's just that we are now bringing together the other parts of our game better as well.