Rodney (Balls) Grinter

As you point out Cunningham had serious form in this area, for the AFL to let him off after making all these big statements about stamping it out is quite simply astonishing. Bernie had form too, but that's against the point. I actually think Max will be a protected species against Geelong this week though - you watch. It would be a huge embarrassment for the AFL to let a high profile player like Max to be snipped off the ball two weeks in a row. Recon a few early free kicks and/or 50m penalties would do the job. If the umpires don't control it and Max us targeted again, then it just needs to become open warfare from our guys and I'd back us in against the hand baggers any day.

Seriously the AFL needs to start basing these suspensions on the intent of the action, not the outcome. If you throw a punch that isn't something that is could reasonably an action of playing the ball (i.e. a spoil or handball) - automatic 1 or 2 week suspension. Whether it glances or makes good connection, what's the difference. A glance is only good luck away from becoming a Tom Bugg/Andrew Gaff outcome. If physical injury occurs as the result, then the minimum 1 - 2 weeks can be increased. Players and clubs hardly care about fines - they care about missing games.

Not sure I'm the best candidate for the job, but I'd be more than happy to give Christian a first hand explanation of how much force is in a gut punch without breaking any ribs.

Our centre clearance work against the Lions was also bad. Max was winning the ruck, but we weren't getting the clearance. I think adjusting to the 6-6-6 rule is a fairly significant issue for us at the moment. Where as many teams just used it to clog the oppositions forward 50, we used it extensively to get that spitter (often ANB) off the back of the square and assist with centre bounce clearances. I do wounder if we should do something risky like just use on of the back flankers (probably Hunt) to run through the centre square to assist with our centre clearances. The opposition would be left with the choice of running with them or letting them run through unmanned and most times I think they would follow them through. Sure our tactical guru would be working through this issue with the on ball brigade in the off season and will be interesting to see how it all falls out once the dust settles.

BTW though, I think naming a guy on the bench is practically meaningless these days. They are either named in the side or they aren't. At most it sends a subtle message that your next move is out of the team, but there are better ways to do that like just a direct conversation between the player and coach, but I'm not sure threatening players that are down on confidence and trying to establish themselves is the right move for a coach and I couldn't see Goody doing this to be honest.

At this point in time, I'm inclined to agree up to a point. I put the question on the match day thread as to why people thought he was getting a game over others like Petty and the only thing anyone could come back with was to quote his reputation as an experienced intercept marker. I haven't been impressed by this guy's JLT or senior match day performances to date at all. His kicking is only average. Is he considered a better stopper that Petty at this point? I'm not making my final judgments on Hore any time soon, as I think he and the team probably need more time to find a bit more form and for me I'd be happy for that to be at Casey at this point for this guy. But that then poses the propersition that it's not going to get any easier for him to get a senior game with May and sooner or later Lever and/or Lewis comming back into the side.

I thought we spotted up forward 50 options pretty well yesterday. A couple of good hit-up to ANB (which he unfortunately missed), was a pretty decent pass from T Mac to Jones in the last (wiped my mind of that outcome). On a more positive note, I did think that kick to T Mac in the first quarter on the edge of the square was a pearler and Melksham's foot skills passing into our forward 50 are elite. Does make me also think that we are missing another medium-tall forward option at the moment though like Hannan or J Smith. Hannan doesn't always rack up huge numbers but often really makes his possessions count and I was impressed with both Smiths (Joel in particular) before they were injured. Not sure Keilty plays quite the same role, so he might be needing to be seen as either a better option than Weid or better than Preuss in the ruck.

Agree. I thought Wags was actually one of our better players. Also thought Nathan Jones was ok, with the exception of that dropped mark. No way Goodwin is dropping both Oscar and Frost in the same week as some are suggesting. I'm tipping very few changes to keep some team stability. Will certainly be some interesting reviews, but then they challenge will be laid down to respond and I recon we will.

I don't get why so people on this forum go on about a lack of pace and are then so quick to say - drop Frosty. He's one of the quickest players in the league and when he gets up and going, uses it to great effect. I also agree with your assessment of the compeditive nature of Frost Vs Oscar. Frost didn't play a great game for us yesterday, but few did. I'm still fairly baffled how Hore is getting a game over Petty at the moment. Petty has looked far better than Hore so far this year to me. I'm tipping Max won't get dominanted like that too often and that will change the dynamic significantly. Apart from May, I can't see us making many unforced changes.

It sounds like a load of BS to me - Gaff shouldn't have been allowed to play either, particularly the AFLX rubbish, where there was the additional reward of some extra cash (although for Gaff, perhaps that could go towards Andrew Brayshaw's dental bill - from experience, trust me!). But I'd say the disallowance of May (and probably others) to play in VFL practice matches would be due to the VFL games being played on a concurrent weekend as an AFL home and away game for which the suspension applied. I don't know why a) there couldn't have been a VFL practice match last weekend and b) why the byes season start and end for the VFL isn't made to line up with the AFL season - leads to some very sub optimal situations at times.

6. Salem 5. Melksham 4. Harmes. 3. Freitch 2. Wagner 1. Hunt

Great chicken at a Korean place opposite the Gabba if you're in town for that one.

There have been a few desperate calls today, but I think this is an early and probably unbeatable contender for overreaction of the season.

Lever didn't put a foot wrong today. No problems with his game.

This is a laughable response to a game we lost by around 20 points. Soo predictable, yet so expected. Demonland, you've done it again! Lol

Brayshaw started lIke a house on fire, but died in the preverbial today. Oliver was hardly seen. My take so far is that we are under done. That effect/excuse can only last a few rounds, but until then I'm prepared to give our guys some grace. That said Geelong are comming off a very similar base to us next week ad expecting that step it up and 'show them who's boss'.

Calm down dood.

They had a 4 week head start - how can you put the blame at our fittess staff. It's the penalty we paid for making finals last year. I'm happy to leave my assessment on that until the end of the 2019 season.

Really?

Fair show of faith in young Sparrow. He seems like the type to take the expectations in his stride and not be intimidated. Good luck to him. GO DEMONS!!!

Hammies are an old man's injury, so would be very unsurprising really. I'd never done one until my last season, but I was hardly the professional footballer that Lewis is either. Probably done it at this point as he is priming himself to go full bore in training, where as I could understand if someone of Lewis's age and experience could have been more or less in cruise mode up to this point.

Less than a day to go. Not feeling so confident about tomorrow after an uninspiring pre-season performances, but the fundementals are there for the season ahead as a whole. Get the win Demons and start building towards finals 2019.

The open admission that Tommy and Roos didn't get on very well is interesting. It's clear that he is enjoying his time under Goody and also that he has been given more license and confidence to talk as a leader of the club. Also offers an interesting insight into that infamous pre-season camp rift that destroyed our season according to the media at the time.

When he started with the MFC we were a crap team and he was expected to be the Messiah from about age 17. ...and he did a pretty good job of doing just that for a number of years. A few doses of humility and empathy would be good virtues in this situation.

I think it was a common problem for footballers back in the day too, it's just that it wasn't as openly spoken about back then. North Melbourne great Wayne Schwass is someone who has acknowledged that and tried to make a positive change in how mental health is perceived and managed in the AFL.