Rodney (Balls) Grinter

The Lions paid a pretty heavy price to get Beams too. Picks 5 (Jordan De Goey), 25 (traded with North for Levi Greenwood) and Jack Crisp who has been a pretty regular player for the Pies. If the Beams rumor is true, then either Collingwood would need to repay something in the order of the premium they put on Beams or Brisbane should tell him to either turn up to their preseason or sit a year out off the AFL so he can put himself in the draft so that he can play for Carlton, St Kilda or the Bulldogs. The AFL can't stand for any more draft tampering like in the Luke Ball fiasco either. Recollecting on all this, it also reinforces to me that two first round picks for Jessie should be the absolute minimum.

Also no changes to the tripping/below the knees rule? That penalty paid against Brawshaw in the Hawks semi was an absolute discrace, but arguably within the rules. I agree with Paul Roos, the rule was bought in to protect players from sliding, not from stopping them from going for the ball.

You would hope that it's applied with some comon sense, but I can also see huge potential for sperilous free kicks if it is umpired in an overzealous manner. You would hope that runners exiting before play restarts would be applied so as a runner that is 40m+ away and running towards the boundary when play is restarting is not penalized. Generally though this rule is somewhat overdue though.

I like your thinking, but I am concerned that the way the rule has been implemented with all 6 players inside 50m will just create a more conjested forward 50m zone to start with. The way it is being phrased is not correct in my view either it's not traditional to have all 6 players inside forward 50. I think I could quite easily handle one player in the square, 3 inside 50 and the other 3 being along the front edge of the square as being traditional, but not all 6 inside 50. I caveat all that with this disclaimer that I haven't seen any trial of all 6 starting inside 50. If others and the AFL have actually seen this and can conclude that it works, then I'd be ok with the rule. But on the basis of the recient relative AFL incompetence in making rule changes, I have significant doubts. Personally I would prefer the AFL to keep progressively winding back the permissible number of rotations, I think that would be the most effective way of decreasing congestion.

Thsee rule changes together are an absolute cluster. Not only are the allowed to play on, but you are not allowed to impede them as they are going back. I can see this as having a number of consequences: 1. Upmires paying 2 x 50m penalties; 2. 50m penalties will turn into 60m penalties as players will inevitably work out that you can crimp an extra 10m for free by playing on. Might as well just make it a "have a free shot at goal" penalty (perhaps the equivilent of corner short in soccer; No not really, I hate turing Aussie Rules into another sport). 50m penalties are already a big enough blight on the game for the inconsistency with which they are paid, particularly with the protected zone stuff which was bought in. The huge impacts they can have on the outcome of games is undesirable in most instances. This will make the situation even worse.

Man that round 1 miss hurt. In the space of a minute Max givith and then Max takith away. I think what made it worse is that the moment he took the mark, I thought 100% we'd won the game because big Maxy is generally not a gumby shot on goal, as he showed with his ability to sink them from 40-50m out quite regularly. Still the rest of his season kinda made up for Rd 1. That 5 mins in the 3rd qrt Vs the Dog when we kicked something like 4 goals in a row off the back of Max's tap outs was sublime.

From what I understand cheese was a bit of an anti-performance enhancer for big Maxy in his Dominos pizza days.

Fffing stoked. Best news all week. Club obviously has reasonable confidence that hid body has fully healed signing him to 2021. Really looking forward to seeing what he could do in our present side, with a good preseason under his belt.

I can also suggest a next assignment for PJ. Since he did do well with his last basket case, I suggest that he be nominated to run for PM. I'm sure he would do a better job than any of the muppets we have presently got in Canberra. Kind of has a ring to it too - "PJ for PM!!"

Just reflecting on Peter's time and presence at the club, despite the circumstances he inherited at the start, I can hardly remember any administration or board we have had that was as calm, organized and professional. Also can't remember an administration with fewer ex MFC personal (Robbo is almost the only one I can think of). Whilst many have attributed Jimmy Stynes, Garry Lyon and Chris Conelly's time at the club as a negative influence in various respects, from what I can gather, there are also other clubs where it has worked at - as I understand it, Jason Dunstall has a fairly significant involvement at Hawthorn and just thinking about it, closer to home Todd Viney has made a pretty good contribution to the MFC. Would be interested in Peter's thoughts on the role of ex players/'old boys' within footy clubs and also if he feels we should be actively welcoming and promoting more back into the fold at the MFC.

Awesome coup for Demonland. In his time with the club, he really tried to elevate the brand of the club and in paricular the being associated with the name Melbourne as a capital city. Would be interested in hearing Peter's thoughts on what that means for us going forward. Does he believe it is feasible for us to get up there with the 'power clubs' in Victoria in terms of profile, stability and membership base. Would also be interested on his thoughts on the member/supporter demographic and attitudes at the MFC distinct to other clubs.

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.