Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Yes

Waiting, waiting, waiting... I have the day off today (well sort of) and just sitting on the back deck on a gorgeous Brisbane spring day, thinking how foreign it feels to still be playing finals footy this time of year. If we can pull it off and go all the way this year, it would be one of the best wins in the heat of the fugazi ever. The media and opposition fans are all over us like a rash at the moment. It's nice, but I'd

Glad that's the case. I guess you could look at it two ways: 1. Get offended and angry; Or 2. Look at the irony in it, have a laugh at that and be proud of the acknowledgement/complement; Personally I'd understand either reaction and not judging either as right or wrong. However he is somewhat comically portrayed, Nev is a bloody legend of a bloke and the MFC as far as I'm sure most of us are concerned.

I think the arrogance and superficial character of many of their supporters is at least 80% of the reason for me. You are dead right about them being many of them being the finacially well off types. My recollection of the most obnoxious of them back in the 80s and 90s is that they were arrogant privileged aholes that wanted to project more of a tuff, working class yet sucessful image of them selves by association of baracking for Hawthorn - it didn't work though, you could tell they were silver spoon in the mouth private school boys alot of them. They were always such total experts and could spend all day telling you why the Hawkers were such a successful club. I imagine things only got worse during the 2000s. The other 20% hatred is probably due to the sucess they had over us. I rank Essendon supporters only just behind Hawthorn supporters for similar reasons. Really hope that Melbourne supporters don't turn into such a bunch of arrogant ferrals if we get the sucess that we all crave.

And we would never offer him enough money to play for us, so moot point. More likely to go to the Gold Coast, they must have plenty to spare salery cap space and ambasitor cash to splash around now. He'd fit right in with the cheapness and tackiness of the glitter strip.

Jonesy, the one who could have left for greener pastures, but stuck fat with us. I recon he'd tell $cully to Fff off.

It's all about that honesty really. The thing that I think people hate most about $cully are all the lies. It's one thing to take the money and run, but he didn't have to lie about it and sell false hope to us for a year. As far as I know, Lever didn't lie and neither did Callam Ward. From what I understand, the way Ward went about it was pretty decent and people respected him for it. I'd definitely have Ward, but never that turd $cully.

I agree it was partially symbolic, but sometimes you can tell a fair bit from body language and more importantly, it was also backed up by the way they played. It's also really evident when you hear guys like Nathan Jones, Max Gawn, Jack Viney and most of the team speak just how invested they are in the club. To a certain extent the journey the team has been on, having guys like Jones who could have left, but stayed the course has built a strength from adversity and togetherness that many players at the more reciently successfull clubs who were 'born into privilege' just probably do not experience and can not manufacturer. I also don't think the pressure and physicality that we have witnessed over the past month has come from nowhere. The first half we played against Richmond the physical pressure on the Tigs was manic, we were pretty had at it against Port in Adelaide also and the stats would show we have dominated contested ball all year, it's just that we are now bringing together the other parts of our game better as well.

Sam is a class act. Loved the part about her back in Jimmy's playing days kissing in the middle of the MCG after everyone had gone. Whilst the failures of the administration he lead are well acknowledged, I always admired and respected the passion and contribution of Jimmy during this time. As Garry Lyon says in the intro - "as he was fighting for his life, he was fighting for the footy club". Tanking saga and Mark Neeld asides, the things I think Jimmy did offer the club which it so desperately needed were passion, positivity and beleif. I recon Jimmy would have loved to have had PJ as CEO and Roos as coach. How about Sam's parting admission though - had booked the trip to Bali thinking we weren't going to be playing finals, lol (Bali, the new going to the snow for the modern MFC supporter). Making and winning finals is one thing, but I'm really looking forward to winning a premiership before we unleash the proper celibrations and acknowledgements though.

Well, we certainly shat all over the Cats in the first quarter and most of the rest of the game.

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