Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Regards the May be a forward thing, my take is that whilst he has been recruited to play primarily back and that's where he will most likely spend most game time, it certainly doesn't hurt to have some flexibility either in game or within a season to shuffle guys around if things are not going to plan.

The thing where I recon Pruess will be happy to play second fiddle is that he wasn't even that at North last season. I recon he's been told by Goodwin and Co that provided his form is up to it, there will be games where we will: 1. Play two rucks; 2. Rest Max and give him a whole crack; and 3. Possibly see how he goes as a forward option if the Weid is either injured or out of form. Like I say, any of is more that he was getting at North, where I'm guessing that Daw and perhaps others were in front of him for similar roles. Plus he gets to learn from Max and Greg.

Of our current playing group, Frost is the one which most reminds me of Sean. Brilliant athletisim, which he often uses to close in on an opponent and spoil the ball away with a late dive.

Well, until he is a Demon anyway 100% we should do this. Personally I am filthy for Freo about the way they acted with Jessy. I understand there will always be some pull for players to return to their home state and family, but to me Freo were so focused and persistent in white anting out Jessy from the start. I also understand that with the compeditive nature of the league, clubs will always have an interest in getting good players from other teams, but to me, there is a line between trying to attract outside tallent and underhanded poaching. Time to bring Andrew Brayshaw home - I want revenge.

Andrew certainly didn't mind a bit of rough and tumble with big brother when we played them. Made a tackle stick pretty good on Gus, which is a decient effort. Had a bit of a tussle with that bloke from West Coast, Andrew Gaff too I seem to recall.

Sick him Rex ... I mean Josh. Make brother Drew a Demon.

Yeah, maybe. I recon the eagles were just far fresher and more switched on at the start of the game than what we were thay day in the prelim. We had essentially played 4 to 6 weeks of finals, where as they had somewhat costed to the end of the season and played 2 games in a month. It was more our shocking turn overs, though appreciate that is related to physical pressure. If you go back to Rd 22, we hit them physically as hard and with a similar sort of intensity that they did to us in the prelim. My recollection is that had we kicked straight in Rd 22, we probably would have ended up smashing them on the scoreboard by as much as they did to us in the prelim. Key thing for us is that I felt our younger guys started hitting physical maturity as team last year and pushed us over that critical mass in that respects. Guys like Brayshaw, Harmes, etc had the grunt run, rough and tumble in the guts all day. Viney was already a beast. AVB had a big physical presence when he came back. I'm really hoping that as guys like Oliver, Weid, Oscar and the rest already mentioned get that one more preseason into them that it will allow us to absolutely bully, monster and intimidate the opposition like those great Lyons sides of the early 2000s. Then we just need the runners like Hunt and Freitch to find some form, run and dash on the outside. Yes May and perhaps Preuss wI'll somewhat complement that, but I think it will be our physicality all over the ground that will damage sides more so. I also like the idea that Preuss might give us an option much closer in height to plan on the American Cox. If Cox continues to improve, watch out, he could become even more of a wepon and having tall options to nullify him could become pretty important.

Surely Gunstan or Bruest are up for free agency soon? Didn't they kick 40 odd goals for the Hawks this year? Roughead must be close to pulling up stumps and I'd love to steel one of those two off them to totally cripple their forward line for a few years, just to spite them for Frawley. Plus, how good would it be for the WEEEEEEEED to kick it to BROOOOOOOOST and vice versa.

As a bit of a long shot, Sam Frost was recruited to the MFC and played most of his first season with us as a forward. Whilst he never looked completely comfortable forward and has played far better footy for us as a backman, you just never know. Takes a mean grab, that burst of speed he has could be hard to match up on and has a huge boot on him. Frosty could also find it tough competing with Oscar for the second key back role now we have May, however I'd also think that the pace he has could make him quite versatile and I could even see him playing on a half back flank or wing, where his height would also make him very difficult to match up on.

He kicked a +55m goal against us from the boundary at the Gabba this year.

Just hoping that the new World order of Aussie Rules is the MFC dominating the next decade ....decades.

I don't need to know, I don't want to know, I wish people would stop infuring this as being the case. My view is that footballers are entitled to their own private lives to remain private. Unless you are Jessy's, Simon's, Mahoney's or their best mate, then it's too much rumor, speculation and character assination for me. Jessy and the footy club made the right call as far as they were concerned and that's good enough for me.

I see Jessy went missing from the profile pic pretty quickly though Dr. Probably just as well, would have rubbed salt into my wounds every time upon sighting it. Somewhat understanding of the scenario for all parties, but I can't help feeling that Jessy was the next David Swartz/Jonathan Brown/Scott Thompson type generational gun player that the MFC has just lost. If we win a premiership, I'll probably care much less, but both would have been better. Also because we recruited him as an 17 yo, he felt truly like one of ours. Could still hope he does a Beams I guess.

There are some players and player managers that are complete nuffies that would put out some really disrespectful stuff. I thought the message came across as pretty genuine and classy. Photo is a nice touch. Must say I find this all much easier to accept as genuine on Jessies part based on the understanding that he took a pay cut and a fairly modest length of contract. I still think we got significantly short changed by Freo on draft picks they traded, but also acknowledge that it may have been the best all round result we were ever likely to get in the circumstances.

What do you mean just hope? Gus and the MFC should be constantly in his ear telling him how great it is over here and what he is missing out on with the Dockers (the MCG, competing in finals etc) planting and well fertilizing those seeds of thought in his mind like Freo did to us with Jessy. Brothers playing together like you and big brother Anthony did for a few years. How great was that Jnr?

Americanised autocorrect?

Muuuum - are we there yet?

Suggestions that Tommy couldn’t be moved back to defense on a semi permanent or swing man on needs basis to me really lack critical thought. Tommy is both one of the fittest players and best defenders we have on his day. Distinctly recall him being one of the few players to curb the super athletic Nick Riewoldt in Nick's prime. I could imagine a scenario where for instance Frost was being carved up by Joe Daniher and we wanted to wrestle back control of the game, so shifted Tommy onto him. Frosty has great burst speed, but Tommy's endurance and aerobic capacity are practically unparalleled for a guy of his size in the AFL post Nick Riewoldt. Concerns about Tommy's foot skills and decision making down back are also being over played. He has moved on from the scared deer in headlights mode that use to define his play down back at times, through a combination of improved self and team confidence and system. He regularly ventures up the ground in his forward role these days and his foot skills can be observed to be quite sufficient and even prolific at times. All the above said, I think he is a gun forward and that's where I'd prefer he was utilized, but the flexibility he provides to be switched to the backline is an asset to the team not something to be dismissed or cringed at.

Fairly sure Tyson was actually uncontracted by us, so I think it's a pretty fair assumption that we would be paying zero of Dom's player payments moving forward. Though as I have stated, I really would have liked to have kept Dom as a pretty handy depth player and I think the club would have entertained that at the right asking price, however in the circumstances, I can also respect and admire Dom for his drive and motivation to be good player in his predominant position.

It would make a complete mockery of point 1, Gold Coast would have to be about the biggest travel from Perth that you could get in the AFL. We will have to wait and see what actually transpires, but if Tony Sheanan is the guy I'm thinking of (bit of an AFL recruiting guru?), then I think this suposed trade offer has more credibility as a rumor than some of the other muppet jurnos.

If Freo only want to trade one first round pick for Jessie, then I could settle for the the Freo equivalent of the Bulldogs deal for Tom Boyd, pick 6 and their then captain.

My reading of the last line of Mahoney's statements on the MFC website article is that that's effectively the stance the club has taken, but I'm only reading between the lines and wouldn’t be full confident in that assumption until trade period actually closes. On top of our previous trade history, for us to hold to that would send a pretty strong message to all clubs and players wanting to deal with us in the future. i.e. we will deal in a fair and reasonable manner, but don't stuff us around and play stupid games or you can go get stuffed.

I don't follow North that closely, so can't really rate too many of their mids asides from Higgins who I understand is more outside and Cunnington who I really do rate as a hard as nails inside mid who can play.

Seemed pretty fare to me. I didn't really want to loose a player of Tyson's realitive quality, but understanding the realities of the scenario fromantic a MFC perspective, I think it's a pretty reasonable win win really on the presumption that North have a deficiency of inside mids. He has been a bit of a whipping boy here for a few seasons now, but I actually rate Tyson as a pretty decent player, it's just that in our current position I'll agree that he's nowhere near as good as Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney and now Harmes.

Yes, the AFL will support several players trying to break there contacts early and demand to be traded to clubs of their choice - I think not. What is becoming a farce is the domino effect of deficient free agency rules causing players to demand trades before the end of their contract. The free agency rules need to be ballanced by making the club receiving the free agent repay the compensation pick from their own draft picks. Would still be a reasonable form of free agency, because the departure club does not need to agree to the deal.