Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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.

I think we will be doing well to get more than 2 out of Lewis, but hopefully by that time, his work imparting knowledge and confidence is done.

That play a few weeks back against the Swans when he turned with ball in hand and burnt off Lance Franklin like the later was standing still was the highlight of an otherwise forgettable game. Perhaps in retrospect, Franklin was carrying an injury, but was still an impressive feat.

If we make the GF, I think it works out to be big Max's 100th game, so would be quite a day for the big fella.

A Tassie team would have real passion

Rent a crowd from AFL HQ

Good lord I hope AFLX isn't the predominant future of the game.

Thing for me is that when I look around the market, there are few if any that I think I'd have over Goody. Longmire, Clarkson, the Scott brothers and I guess now Hardwick. For all his suposed brilliance, I don’t think Ross Lyons record at Freo has been anything positive. Perhaps Fagan may prove to be a good coach in years to come. Counter to that, I can also see quite a few clubs that would like to get their hands on Goody. I recon that like many players these days though Goody probably values sucess over money and on that basis, I think there is a good mutual benifit with Goodwin at the MFC and I recon both parties would think they're on a good thing at this point.

Predicted top temperature of 22 degrees C in Brisvagus tomorrow, but just try stopping me from wearing my 2013 membership scarf!

Dean Kent nails it through the big sticks - THE DEMONS ARE HOME!!! Jump to my feet and huge fist pump of the air - GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!! Finals 2018 here we come!! Ohhh yeah. I thought it was so fitting that some of the guys that steered us home - Jones, Harmes (life long MFC supporter) and Kent who has also been there since the dark days of 2013 and a somewhat maligned player at times - maligned no more!

Not sure my 11yo daughter understands the euphoria... as I was reflecting, I figured out that she was at about a 3mth embryonic stage the last time we played finals!

Great interview. Nev does come across much better in this interview than he did in the Demonland podcast earlier this year, in which he came across as a bit flustered and distracted (trying to get the kids to bed in the background from what I recall). Very refreshing in that someone of his realitive celebrity status as an AFL footballer is so grounded in family, comunity values and very self-less in his actions (just like his onfeild performances). Found it interesting (but not surprising) the love that Nev's son has for Bernie Vince, to the point of naming their family dog after him (a bit naughty like Bernie, lol). I really do get the feeling that with guys like Nev, Bernie, Max, Jack Viney, Jones, Stretch, Freitch and others around the club that their would be a great off feild culture at the MFC these days.

Missing out last year was a wake-up and to some extent our percentage and performance against the also-rans this year has been the response to that. I recon winning so easily to GC the week before Sydney was the worst possible lead up game. Would have had a sedative effect. I also think we need to differentiate lacking composure and knowing how to handle changing momentum in match situations from being mentally soft, which to me infers a lacking in resolve and giving up. One is a confidence thing and the other is an attitude and character thing. I'd agree that on many occations this year we have suffered from the former, but the only time we looked close to surrender was against Hawthorn. My veiw is that the mental toughness of this group is evident in their willingness and ability to pick themselves up off the canvas and fight another day. We keep doing this and the confidence and composure will come over time through experience and shear brute force. So who on this forum thinks our key players like Oliver, Jones, Brayshaw, Gawn, Harmes, McDonald, Melksham, Hibbard, Jetta are 'mentally soft'? And who would be prepared to say it to their face?

The let down of last weekend has seen me somewhat dejected from the pre Sydney hope that we could have been playing the last two weeks with a finals spot all sewn up. I've also almost been sucked into this whole mentally week chokers thing that so many experts (including many of our own supporters) want to burden us with, so haven't had many expectations during the week and almost accepted a yet to be determined fate that finals are gone for another year. But as I've thought about things over the last day or so, I've remembered a few things: 1. I don't think there is a side in the competition this year that we can't beat; 2. The majority/key of players in our team (Gawn, Oliver, Brayshaw, Jones, Jetta, Harmes, Melksham, Hibbard, Trac, Tommy Mac, Vanders, ANB, Salem, Frost, Lewis...) are hard, agressive, compeditive types. These blokes won't have liked the tags being leveled at them this week and will have fierce determination to right that wrong; 3. The above is also true of Goody's personally and ethos and I recon the boys will pickup and feed off that as well. Against Sydney we dominated play early, but I'm not sure the physical intensity was up there and it seemed like we were on cruise control with the expectation that we would coast to a win against them. Last week would have been a huge wake up call to the team, which I recon will jolt them into action this week. I'm hoping and expecting that the guys come out breathing fire like we did against Richmond earlier in the year and physically take it up to West Coast in a way they really don't want to deal with right now. I'm also remembering the resolve that we showed against Adelaide a few weeks back and the ability to grind their way back into the game and then dominate it after the Crows got off to a flyer. As a supporter I've resolved to not let the disapointments of the recient past cloud my outlook on the challenge we face and looking forward to the ride over the next week and a bit, then hopefully month to come. GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS - TEAR WEST COAST APART.

Blood hell, another expert putting our team down. Personally, I'm finding all this pessimism and negatively surrounding the MFC absolutely nauseating of late. To be honest, I find the media coverage of teams, fickle and mentally week in it's self. One or two good wins and they talk up teams as 'legitimate premiership contenders', lose one or two and all of a sudden the team has these huge fundemental flaws that have been exposed. Hardwick and Bucks were cannon fodder for the last three or four years and now all of a sudden they are the role models for how every struggling coach/team needs to turn things around. I think Goodwin is absolutely right about the fugazi. On the topic of mental fatigue, I'm pretty much in a place where I just want the next two weeks to be over from a footy perspective and either we fizzle and miss again or preferably we dig deep pull out a win or two and STICK IT RIGHT UP THEM and charge into finals with an opertunity to wreak some havoc. I'm glad the team has Goodwin as coach and believe we have a good opertunity to win both games. Proud of the team regardless and with the developing players we have in Oliver, Brayshaw, Harms, Freitch etc, I'm and confident we are building in the right direction. You only have to hear the way some of the improved players like ANB and Brawshaw talk of the confidence the get from Goodwin as a coach to know he is having the right sort of impact and whilst the coach has that sort of impression and suport of the playing group. The next step is really up to the players to take the games by the scruff of the neck, believe and get the job done - there is only so much a coach can do.

No more than loosing to Geelong twice, Port and to Sydney last week. This year it has been more just failing to get the job done against the better teams that has cost us. Sure the St Kilda game was disapointing but many of the top sides have lost to lesser teams during the season, as I think the competition is that close where you have a bad game, an underdog has a good one and senses a victory and gets up on the day. We have done pretty well by AFL standards getting the job done against lesser teams. Geelong bad losses: Bulldogs, Adelaide, Essendon; Hawthorn bad losses: Brisbane (twice), North; Port bad losses: Freo, Essendon, Adelaide; Sydney bad losses: Suns, North; GWS bad losses: St Kilda (draw), North, Essendon. This not beating top teams thing is starting to get over hyped and over rated. Last year we beat 4 top 8 teams (Adelaide, Port, Essendon and West Coast), but still missed finals, because we had dropped so many games to lesser sides. I feel like we have been so much more competitive overall and consistently better this year, that I'm hoping we look at the lack of beating a top team to this point as more of a querk than any kind of mental deficiency or lack of ability. It's about beating who ever is in front of you on a weekly basis and the rest is retrospect... but only time will tell in the next two weeks I guess.

Recon we have missed Melksham big time last week. I know he has probably been in the team for those 5 losses with +10, but he is both one of our best users and compeditors entering inside 50 and a real loss to a team that seems to struggle so much in this area.

Not comparing apples with apples here though. The Storm have been a very successful team over a long period now. They don't have any beleif issues and thus poor on feild performances can only be as result of lack of effort and with good underlying self beleif appeals to the honor and work rate of the playing group will be effective. I think for a team trying to establish that beleif just continuing to telling them they are lazy and need to apply more effort to win every time will only sap confidence and beleif - it's Neeld mentality. I like Goody's messaging it's about the reasurance that if we continue to work hard and learn from the mistakes along the way we will succeed, but all the while raising the bar.

To a certain extent I also see it as both a combination lack of composure, but also bad luck. In that second quarter turn around the Swans kicked about 5 goals straight from some quite difficult shots. We had players like Trac hit the post at key times. Against Geelong, Hawkins had a day out where he barely missed, last weekend he was shanking it all over the place. When you loose a game by 9 points or less, these things count. In the period of the game where we had the acendancy against Sydney on the weekend, we made them look pretty ordanary around the ground, it was just that guys like Tommy Mac, Jessy Hogan, Clayton Oliver and Charlie Spargo missed and in some cases shanked some very gettable if not give-me shots. Had we gone into quarter time 30 points up and not 18, then I think would have significantly effected the rest of the tone of the game. Say they kick 3 goals 2 instead of 5 straight, then we still go into the third quarter 10 points up after them having had a period of accendancy. It's a fine line and whilst we are one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant team for some of the fundementals like contested ball, then I feel that it's only a matter of time before we crack winning against good teams and the air of confidence and almost arrogant self beleif of the players will follow and transfer into results.

Looking at the glass half full, we have beaten the bottom sides 12 out of 13 times, so we have progressed mentally in that area (in years gone by we would have lost several more of those), no more Docklands or St Kilda curse (for the most part). Thinking that the club needs some good advice from a sports physiologist, though I was pretty impressed with how we turned it around against the Crows after that close loss to Geelong. Sooner or later we will crack it against a top side - then watch out because the mighty Demons will be on a rampage and the rest of the comp will fear us!!

The only thing I can think of that could possibly excuse it was that they were concerned Buddy was trying to milk a free kick out of the situation. Would be just like the umps to give Buddy a free kick for minor retaliatory action, he is such a protected species.

Wow - big tuff Buddy taking out one of the lightest built guys on the ground while he isn't looking. What's as concerning is the total lack of reaction from our other blokes standing right next to it.

I swear that if BT was standing there in front of me today, I would have punched him in his big head.

That nom paid deliberate out of bounds in the firest quarter was an absolute discrace. I think it was Port Adelaide we got paid one against that was a quarter as deliberate as that. The umpires almost love Sydney as much as the Ch 7 comentators.