Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Loved the sight of us standing arms linked as a tight knit group during the anthem before Friday's game. http://m.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-09-10/in-pictures-melbourne-v-geelong If I recall correctly, Geelong by contrast stood spaced a bit apart, arms by their sides without contacting each other. I looked at it at the time and thought that body language really told a story and so it played out with the pressure we applied and how hard we worked for each other as a team. This kind of comradery is so important to sucess, can't just be manufactured and turned on at will and I'm hoping it gives us some extra edge going forward this finals series and beyond.

I thought Gus was pretty good first quarter. Has such good connection with Maxy and I think he has become a big part of us winning so many clearances in general, but that was a key part of that first quarter. Also seem to recall hI'm providing some pretty good run through the guts, but I don't recall specificly which quarter.

Without checking the record books, I think Nev and Hibbard are getting on a bit in years as well, so positions in the backline will open up over time (Jones in future seasons also). The other thing is that apart from Hunt, Lever and Smith, we have had a pretty reasonable season injury wise for backline players. Hunt has wepons that are rare to come by. Interesting to see North dump Hartung, but I think Hunt also has excellent defensive intent and execution, which I understand were Hartung's shortcomings. I think the reality is that players often take a number of years to fully develop and play their best footy, but many on here seem to think that if they haven't made it in their first 2 or 3 sesons, they will never make it. Similarly, I love it how some will claim players to have inherent deficiencies that will prevent them from keeping a spot on a list in the long run. Many here put Frost and to some extent Harmes in that category.

Without getting too far ahead of our selves, were we to win at Optus, it would be 3 wins in a row against West Coast on their home track. It would be nice to be on the right side of some hoodoo's for once!

At this point you would be pretty disappointed if you picked Trac at pick 1 over Brawshaw. Will have to wait and see what the fullness of time brings though as Trac still has huge up side. It would be well within Trac's capacity and personality to turn it on big time in a big final and blow the game apart with a burst of brilliance, though in saying that I think he is actually tempering his instincts a bit at the moment to 'play his role' and do the team things - that pass to T Mac in the first quarter being case in point. The thing I'm looking forward to and hopefully comes to fruition is some of the guys we have with this huge upside like Hunt, Trac, Hogan, Viney, Smith, Lever and Kent having a good preseason and really turning it on next year... but let's see what we can make of this year first.

We just need people to start saying something like "they have been good this past month, but don't have it in them to make it through a prelim" and/or "Hawthorn are the finals specialists and Melbourne will cave under Clarkson's system of short kicking"

Quite liked Whately as a match caller on the ABC. Use to like him on 360, but must admit, he has been grating of late (I really only watch 360 for Jordan Lewis on Tuesday's these days). Give Whately his due credit though - he's been saying for weeks now that he'd love to see what Jack Viney could do in a final and thankfully he was right on the money with that one.

Agree. He has always had most of the wepons and has been steadily increasing his midfield time, duration and consistency of output over the last few years. A few of the games over the journey that really stick out for me where he had a big impact are 2015 Vs Hawthorn, 2016 Vs Gold Coast at Metricon, 2017 Vs Gold Coast at Darwin. In each of these games he demonstrated his characterisic ability to break tackles and break lines, hit up quality inside 50s and hit the score board. Sorry, but those who thought he was fringe or wouldn't make it must have been watching a different game. All this from a guy off the rookie list. What a great example of quality recruiting and development.

I hear most of what you are saying Bub, but it will take much more than winning Friday's final to properly avenge 87, 88 and most of the last decade. ...but it would be a good start.

Absolutely. But I'm not counting any chickens just yet. If we bring the same level of intensity and phyicality that we have for the past month or so, I recon we should roll them, but who knows. How about that bloke talking up how Lewis is spent - he was one of our best players Vs Geelong I thought. I get that he is venerable one on one in space, but I think that both he and the side are pretty focused on him not ending up in that position too regularly and if it happens once or twice a game, so be it. So many of them are making their comparisons based on the game we played against them earlier in the year, which is fair enough (I'd probably do the same thing in their position), but that was pretty much our worst game of the year. We learnt alot of things out of that game that I hope for the life of me arn't repeated next time around. They should also remember that we blew them apart in the first quarter and if they think about it, that should worry them. No Viney or T Mac last time around either. I would love to blow the Hawks away in the last quarter after a hard fort game like we did in 2015 - that would be great. It would probably have us well and truly labeled as the side to beat outside of Richmond, but I think we would just have to embrace that and get on with things. After all the tags which have been thrown at us over the years, you would hope the side has got use to the fugazi!

Jessy is a gun, just about to come into his prime in a team well and truly on the way up. After coming out of contract a few years back when we were ordanary, he signed a pretty decient medium term contract with us. As far as I'm concerned he is one of ours and no MFC supporter should be speculating over his future at another club. Can someone close down this thread? It really doesn't deserve any oxygen.

I don't think this article warrents a thread of it's own, but probably a reasonable fit here. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/07/maturing-melbourne-seek-to-lay-demons-to-rest-in-afl-finals Well researched and some fine use of expression.

Some were saying he was past it a few months back and whilst he is no longer our most dominant mid (too much competition), I think Jonesy's last month has been awsome. Just keeps going about it in a tough, uncompromising, workman like manner and has been bobbing up and ramming home some important goals. Recon guys like Harmes, Brayshaw and Olivet walk taller with him around.

Jones and Viney running up the race for a finals match. What an awsome sight!

Really liked how much phyaical pressure the team has put on the opposition the last few weeks in particular. We come out like that from the first bounce tonight and it will go a long way to winning the game. GIVE THEM HELL DEMONS

Very glad to see Tyson in the side. He was part of the bedrock of our midfeild during the early years of the teams reemergence. Whilst he did seem to struggle with the pace of our improvement and find himself somewhat on the outer in the last two seasons, I think like others, his perservance and ability to improve and reinvent parts of his game are a real credit to him. Have noticed some really good ball use and involvement in passages of play from Tyson over the past few months (think you will find it was Tyson that shot out a couple of great handpasses to Lewis Vs the Crows that resulted in clutch goals during the course of that game for example). Interesting article from Wayne Carey in the Fairfax press, asserting that whilst Geelong have some great star power, the rest of their 22 is not as good as ours. Guys like Tyson are part of that picture. GO DEMONS - hanging out for Friday night big time.

Agree 100%. What really peeves me off it that this was all totally obvious from the moment that FA was introduced, so what are we paying these glorified half wits like Dil McWhatshisface all the millions for.

I have a mate who's a Cat supporter and quite genuinely concerned about facing us on Friday. I'm really hoping that we come with the same sort of physicality to finals that we did against West Coast and the Giants and that we really maul some teams (within the rules). Not sure we can go all the way this year, but if we don't go all the way, then I at least we go down fighting. If we can do that (and I think we have the team to do it), it would build some real confidence for the next season ahead and shut some people up a bit. GO DEMONS

We were within a few kicks of finishing in 4th place and had the third best %. We beat the second placed team on their home turf and then smashed a team in form and on a roll - That's not falling in. Or alternately, two or three weeks out everyone from Collingwood down was at risk of not making finals (like Port didn't), so I guess most of the finalists just fell in. West Coast last year are probably a decient example of a team that fell into finals.

If I recall correctly Deledio was traded and not FA. Still even with trading players, the top teams seem to have more currency. My memory fails me as to how Bergoin and McAvoy were viewed at the time, but they were probably the other two big player movements that kept a strong Hawthorn in the hunt...possibly others as well, but they are the ones that stick out. Granted they were trades and I forget what was received in return, but it does all feed into the problem with the power imballance between weak and strong teams. ...of course now that the MFC is embarking on an era of strength, I'm in no hurry for them to fix it, ass long as we can actually out manouver the other top teams like Richmond, Collingwood, West Coast etc.

I wonder if beard has the same effect as blond or red for attracting Brownlow votes?

Love the respect that Maxy has for big Jimmy. Though some of his contribution to some of the administrative decisions within the club during his time at the helm lost him some respect, Jimmy's passion and drive for the club to improve and be successful and his ability to impress upon others to be the best that they can are surely his lasting legacy and no better exemplified than through Max. I love that like Jimmy, Max has fought his own adversity and despite his often aparent confidence in his own ability and extraverted personality, he still comes across as being so down to earth and a great human being. Maxy is the sort of guy that great footy clubs are made of.

If Maxy keeps playing as well as he has, perhaps he will redefine the role to the point that it will be defined as the Gawnman position... perhaps a tag reserved for players of sublime tapwork, marking, athleticism and comedic skills.

If the stars align, it could be a huge week for Maxy: Brownlow Medal; Playing 100 AFL games; Demons Premership; Norm Smith. Should get pretty good odds on all that I recon.

He has always show glimpses of doing the things he has done over the last few games, but would only do it in a few passages of play and would fade in and out of games. He's now doing it for whole games and week in, week out. I get the feeling that the difference is that Harmes along many in that similar stage are now have developed strong mature bodies and the confidence and understanding/coheasion with their team mates to fully utilize it. On the whole, we really looked so much more physical and agressive at the ball and man than GWS yesterday, a team that I think we are at a similar development stage at. The contested ball stats for the season also back this up. Hoping that it is a sign we will be in a position to bully and dominate most of the rest of the comp in the years ahead.