Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Re Clary and Gus no sugar thing, I recall that big Maxy has gone on a few preseason health and fitness benders, so if this no sugar thing translates into their form in a similar fashion to Max, then we could have one hell of a midfeild this season. The thought of our mids taking their game up another level this year is a tantalizing and very real possibility. Not only do they already have such a good base of ability, but you can really sense the hunger and desire to keep improving and take no prisoners attitude amongst them as well.

Yeah, maybe, but of so it's the wrong strategy. I want Viney the Gremlin, put him in water and have a whole team of them.

My recollection was that Dyson certainly had some wepons, but would not have been among our best onballers at the time. One of those players that was almost but not quite a gun.

Not suprised by Sydney and particular Hawthorn - they are stuffed. I'm not thinking North have what it takes, but it's hard to work out who makes it instead: 1.Essendon 2. Perhaps Port; 3. I'd like it if the Lyons had a crack.

More than just taking mark of the century, Smithy was an absolute gun. Hard as nails (probably too hard for his own good given his concussion damage) and also provided a father-son who could still be anything for the MFC. I'd find a way to squeeze him into the team somehow. Would be garenteed to feature in the highlights real for this side every week.

Generally like your side @WERRIDEE . Neitz in the forward pocket with T Mac at FF - that's a big call. Andrew Obst would be another that could be on the frindge of selection depending on the criteria being one club AFL/VFL players.

Exactly. Whilst it could be argued that it is in the players best interests due to higher risk factors (lots of spare cash, high pressures of high performace sport, constantly being in the public eye etc), I pepetually get sick of the double standards and higher burdens of being model citizens put on AFL players. Please tell me what other industry has a policy of mandatory testing and in particular 'naming and shaming' of it's employees for elicit drugs? If the AFL and those in the media keep pushing for the removal of the two stikes policy I think it could have two likely consequences: 1. The AFLPA tell them to stick the elicit drugs testing policy up their date all together; 2. Players whom are so inclined will stick to elicit drugs which become undetectable in the shorter time frames, which could be some of the more dangerous drugs; I actually like where Dane Sawn is going with his veiws on this: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/everyone-in-the-afl-should-be-tested-dane-swans-radical-plan-to-expand-footys-drugs-policy/news-story/236650c1fffdf96f77acc27aa4f01cfd

Jackovich to FF, Jackson to the pocket and Watts omitted.

And without paying overs $ wise as well.

I wasn't so disappointed in the Geelong loss, because beating them down there is always a really tough gig and although we had somewhat capitulated in the last quarter, I thought we had been more than compeditive against them for the previous three quarters that it was at least a psychological victory that we could beat them come the crunch (which we gloriously did when it counted in the prelim). The one that really hit me out of that run home was the loss to Sydney. They had been playing pretty average footy for a number of weeks and I'd felt they were ripe for the picking. Despite loosing the Geelong game, beating Sydney that day would have practically mathematically garenteed us a finals birth with two games to go and I was looking forward to getting the job done and not having to put up with the nerves of the propersition we might not make finals for the next two weeks. We came out and absolutely belted them in the first quarter. We couldn't f@$# it up from here I thought. Alas. It took me most of the following week to realize and believe that we still had very good opertunity to make finals by winning at least one of the two winnable games of the remainder of the home and away ...the other bit belongs in the other thread.

I guess what is not mentioned is that the MFC has already stitched up one of the guys who would have been on of the biggest name free agents of 2019: Steven May.

Do a quick Google of Hogan's stats for similar key position forwards at the same stage of their career development and he is right up there with the best in the game. Put this is all in the context of starting off his career in a side which struggled to win a game and then some fairly serious personal/health issues in the years that followed and I think it's a pretty impressive performance to date. Jessie could still be anything (or totally mediocre) from this point on. T Mac has been a quality player for a long time and I'm so rapped to see him finally get some reconition for his output. The guy would have be one of the best endurance athletes in the league, particularly for a guy of his size and considerable strength. His goal kicking has been phenomenal. Great character and great MFC clubman (even if Max says Tom's the worst bloke in the team). I'd like to see both these guys above all the others on Nick Riewoldt's list, but there is only one I want to see with a premiership medallion around their neck for their present club.

Meh

@dieter took the wordS out of my mouth - I hate tennis too (maybe we are bonding??). The point I'm making is that Melbourne significantly underrated the aforementioned ruckman we let go of. Jolly was a dual premiership ruckman. Carlton gave up a first pick for a ruckman who hasn't every looked like being half the player Jolly was when we let go of him. Martin had played one great season and we gave him up as a lost cause. It's a fairly common phenomenon that ruckman a) take a long time to develop and b) with a few exceptions, tend only to flourish when given the license of being the No.1 man. That's the commonality I see with Preuss, thay he has shown some potential, but has been locked out of showing his worth. I'm hoping we are the beneficiary this time. To some extent, I think it's the nature of the position that limits the number of good ruck players on any one list. The main club I can think of having made two ruckman work is West Coast with Cox/Nick-Nat and Nick-Nat/Lycett and I think that worked out ok for them both times. For what it's worth, I'm not 100% sold on Preuss as being an out and out champion just yet either, but I think he has shown some ready made potential to fulfill a desperate need we have for a Gawn backup/load sharer that adds value to our overall compeditiveness.

Neil, I must say, tha Roos was a hard act to follow and it took me a while to get use to the different personalities from a supporters perspective, but now that Goody has established himself, I think he has started to make the team and our suporter base in his own mold, which is a very good thing. Personally I didn't doubt the coach or our side early 2018, it was just that some of those losses were very frustrating, because I could see an underlying team that was better than some of those performances.

I see complete correlation. Both given indications that they had what it took to be a main ruckman and to succeed the incumbent, yet were left to rot on the vine playing reserves footy and given away for peanuts in the context of their future output. I think Preuss has shown the signs of being a pretty decent ruckman, but has been crowded our by Goldstein who played a couple of dominant seasons prior to becoming an slightly above average ruckman. Sounds pretty similar to the White/Jolly, Jamar/Martin story to me.

That's probably 9 or 10 games more than he played at Nth last year. I honestly don't care how many games Preuss plays or not, but if he helps us win a premiership then ... Re why would Nth let him go? Neither Jolly or Martin were not considered crack ruckman by their respective club at the time, but both seemed to have worked out ok. Maybe we get a bit of karma back with Preuss?

This is an area that I begining to see as a strength of Goody. He's got a great ballance of being very personable, emotionally intelegent and a good comunicator, but also being hard driven, focused and intense when the moment requires it and he carries this aura and consistency of messaging and behavior with him that demands respect. Leadership in spades. If he was my captain/coach, I'd certainly be in that zone to run through walls. I really like this video from the club. The atmosphere, messaging and expectations seem different from that which I recall during the 90s and early 2000s. There is a real ruthlessness to our mindset at the moment - I love it!

To me, what I have seen from the limited match time of Pruess as a MFC player is that he's perhaps a slightly better, more skillful version of Jake Spencer. A bit of a lumberer who has a presence, but not as mobile or sublime wit his ruck tap work as Max - yet. Hopefully his tap work is something which improves further with mentoring from Max/Greg and more time around our onballers to improve their connection. I'm not making the comparison with Jake in a bad way either, as I actually think he was pretty close to being a good second string ruckman for us and loved his hardness and attack on the contest/man. Also shows how good Max is - the guy is a freak ...but he's not superman and I think having big Preuss around to share the load and help Max sustain his output over the whole season and ready to fire at the times we need him most makes Preuss an important asset to our side. I also agree with what Garry Pert was saying during the webcast match comentary that Tommy and Weid are too valuable for us to use in the ruck for the most part, although it might not hurt for either of them to end up there for the odd centre bounce to help throw the opposition backline around a bit at times.

True

Your dead right. Pressure be that real or perceived. In the aforementioned instances, Stretch probably wasn't under much real pressure, Hibbo was, but probably didn't really move in the right direction to create space for himself and thus somewhat put himself under the pressure. Probably both mistakes that wouldn't happen so much after a few more real match practice situations. I'd actually like to see Hibbo sneak forward and kick a few more goals at times - the guy is a weapon with his boot.

Just started watching the replay and saw exactly that. Again about the 7:10 min mark of the second quarter Stretch kicks inside 50 straight to Collingwood, comes back out, Stretch wins a hard ball and feeds it out to a play, to Harmes, then to Hibbo, who has a shot on goal ...and shanks it out on the full. What I liked was Stretch made the mistake, but kept on trying, didn’t drop his head and made up for it. Hibbo is one of the best kicks in the side, but also stuffs it up ocasionally. I'm not sure that Stretch is as good as Clarry or Gus, but he puts in and would probably be welcome at most other AFL clubs. It's also his first serious hitouts since halfway through last season. I liked Dom, Iike Billy and I recon these second string/role players still have an important place in successful teams.

Guess that's why they call them a scratch match and why you have them.

That 2017 Eagles game was such a great turning point in the development and revolation that is Tommy Mac as a key forward. I think he had probably put together a fee decient games as a forward to that point, but remember him and Peddo slotting through a number of great long goals from 40-50m out to help get us over the line with that win. When Tommy snapped that goal in the final stages, it was a moment of pure elation. So many times in the recient past had we had games stolen from us at the death, it felt so bloody awsome being on the right side of the ledger of a game like that.

I was there on the GC that weekend, doing the same thing with my old man as well. Went to the Southport Sharks ground earlier in the day and watched Aussie Wonermerri play for the NT Thunder before heading to Carrara to watch our mighty Demons. Had a few quite frotties in one of the great casual beer garden areas around the Carrara ground prior to the game before watching the sun set over the grandstands and then watching the big game unfold, it was a great experience all round. It was at a stage of our Roos era when we were capable of winning games, but we were still playing with that quite defense style and hadn't thrashed a side to that point. The Suns were on a bit of a role at that point in time having won their first 5 or so on the trot and the game was pretty tight up till half time. We were on top of them in general play, but couldn't put it on the scoreboard. A couple of quick goals to Jack Viney after half time (including one from a sublime Gawn tap down, being a sign of things to come) and we had the game on our terms as you highlight for the rest of the second half. Big Maxy played a pretty good game that day, Hunt had a bit of a breakout game as did James Harmes, who racked up a ton of possessions, tackles and walked away from the night with a rising star nomination - another sign of great things to come.