Rodney (Balls) Grinter

To me I heard it more as the later, that we shouldn't be aiming to mimic any of the other clubs. There wasn't any Collingwood this and Hawthorn that, this is what those clubs do well and we want to become like that... History is obviously part of the uniqueness of a club, but I agree it can be overemphasized at times. On reflection, I actually think PJ started the ball rolling in the right direction on this topic, but Pert has made the right impression on me as well.

“I don’t want Melbourne to be more like any other club. I want Melbourne to be more like Melbourne – it’s a great club with a great history, but we need to re-engage the people.” I love it. I know in some respects these are just cheap words, a bit of a throw away line and that the real test is can it be turned into actions that make a lasting positive difference, but I do really like the sentiment and substance behind the statement as well. Time to rebuild some pride and respect back for the MFC and stop living in the shadow of the 'power clubs' of the AFL.

This was hinted at around the club B&F or there abouts. So good to see the club just getting on with sealing the deal on these things. Bernie would be such a great asset to have around the club and is such an all round top bloke. I recall reciently watching one of the Fox Footy shows which had a feature on David Rodan and his role as a goal umpire. Someone made the comment how umpiring could be fairly soul destroying at times and one of the biggest things that D-Rod bought to the umpiring group was his irrepressible positive attitude and fun loving outlook on life. Can't what under rate character traits like these bring to a team environment and I think Bernie would be similar.

It wasn't that long ago that we would be limping over the line to crack the 30K mark in July or August or whenever the cut-off date is. Great work MFC and Demons supporters keep them coming. Always good to welcome new and returning members on board the D- train.

Agree and plus this - https://www.sen.com.au/news/2018/12/03/are-hinkley-and-pyke-the-coaches-under-the-most-pressure-in-2019/ Now, I don't think Goodwin has show any signs of wanting out/go home, but if we don't get this extension right, then the hungry crow eaters could well come a knocking on his door.

Much has been made of Corey getting the locker next to brother Josh, but getting a locker next to brother Neville is a pretty good outcome as well.

Leaves 41 as the only unused playing No. Please bring back Peter Rohde, best custodian of this number that I can recall. 41 is also 14 backwards.

Max Gawn to get back to his best and produce the most dominant season for a ruckman in the modern era, but miss out on a Brownlow medal to some seagul midfielder. ... oh wait, that was this year!

So if all of the MFC, Geelong and Hawthorn miss finals who do you have making finals in their place, given many have also put Sydney as a team on the slide and at rusk of missing?

Oooooh, that would be sweet.

Wow. From clearly missing the top 8 with the aid of the leagues easiest draw to now making top 4. What's he smoking in his pipe?

Lol. Love the analogy Colin. Inspector Gadget - now that takes me back! I must say I'm being a bit of fence sitter on this one. But I also sense where you and others are comming from. It's almost like the club needs to do something with Pert to break the ice, because there almost seems to be a bit of an awkward silence. ...but at the same time, the more that is made of this situation, the bigger it becomes when I really don't think there is much to see, except for some past clumsiness in announcing that he had the job as CEO. I'm quite happy to wait it out and see how it all pans out in good time. So long as we keep winning and the club makes a profit , I suspect Melbourne supporters will warm to Pert in due course. Will probably love the bloke if he can pull off the right deal and get the job done, delivering our new headquarters. Similarly if we win a flag with him as CEO, I think we will all look back and think what was the fuss about his appointment at the start.

Did Santa Claus bring you all the toys you asked for as a kid Werridee? ?

Jacka has been great at re-engaging with fans and the MFC of late. Why not get Jacka and Pert on to do a joint podcast and have them talk us through this game? In all seriousness, I'm guessing thathat whilst engaging with fans would be somewhere in Pert's KPIs, I'd recon that would be for the club to be engaging with them rather than him personally... but worth a try.

Really hope they do. Has good news story written all over it: * Queensland boy; * Hard luck story who never quite cracked it in his previous attempt; I personally think this could work for Gold Coast. Liked Spencer. Big tough guy that alway gave 100% effort within the somewhat average ability he had. Was just starting to find a bit of a place within the MFC team when Max went down at the start of 2017, only to then get injured himself. I'm not sure that Spencer offers quite the same impact as Mumford, but I think he could have a similar influence by being that big bodied mature player that clears a path and looks after a young group of team mates comming through.

Here's one - Jordan Lewis to retire at the end of the season receiving accolades from all corners of the footy globe. Jordan announces that despite the lack of a fifth premiership medallion, that the three years he has spent with the Melbourne Footy Club have been the most satisfying of his career and upon confirming that he will remain with the club as an assistant, states that he is now "a Demon for life".

Another Guy wearing 43.

I'm not too sure where to pitch my own predictions right now, but these are the sort of predictions I can be comfortable with as opposed to some of the ridiculous media hype going around about how great the MFC are at the moment. I honestly don't know how some of these media types still have a job, because their credibility is rubbish. We make a preliminary final with a strong young list and all of a sudden we are practically premiership favorites next year (after many of them wrote us off of even making finals this year after half a dozen rounds). Don't get me wrong I think we have a strong list, are building something and I hope like hell that there is at least one premiership there sometime in the next 5 years, but there is just soo much that has to happen between now and that becoming a reality that it's not funny. I posted a few weeks about my late onset MFCSS and this is essentially it - so many teams over the past decade or so were anointed by the media with greatness and then subsequently bombed out miserably and my worry is that at this point that could still be us. The prime examples of this that stick in my head are: 1. Port Adelaide 2014 - following their 3 point preliminary final loss to Hawthorn in 2014 were touted as a star studded young team on the rise and premierships in the making, with a new bread of master coach in Ken Hinkley, playing a hard, agressive and exciting attacking brand of football (sounds a lot like the MFC of 2018); 2. Western Bulldogs post premiership - most media had them as top 4 material the following year and continuing to go from strength to strength over the next 2 - 3 years based on the strength of their young talent filled list after their suprise before their time flag in 2016; 3. GWS - So much tallent it was a concern they were going to compltely dominate the competition; 4. Adelaide 2018 - goes from Grand finalist to flop in an instant - the competition is just so tight. To be fair I never really rated them that high in 2017 to start with; 5. Collingwood post Malthouse to an extent. I guess all of the above is a bit of an antithesis of a prediction, so if I am going to make a general prediction in the afirmative it is that at some point in the season we will loose one or several games which will have some posters on Demonland sighting huge list and coaching deficiencies that mean we do not actually have a potential premiership team and never will, which won't actually be the case, but it will be portrayed as such.

I have a similar recollection. As much as we love to loath them, I don't know why anyone would find it hard to think Collingwood have a good midfeild. Pendelbry, Treloar, Sidebottom, Maynard (does he play mid?) and probably a few others. Scary thing is they have just added a rejuvenated Beams back into that mix. Still I also recall the huge freak-out about us comming up against Geelong's 'star studded' midfeild in Rd one last year. My hopes and expectations are that our guys will just keep getting stronger, more match hardened and experience in the next few years, whilst some of the elite players from other teams that represent the old gaurd will start to drop off. If players like Selwood and Pendles output drops, the others around them could also start looking more second rate as well.

If it works, why not.

Welcome to a winning team Demons supporters. Soak it in and I hope the club milks it for everything it is worth as these sort of things are what will help keep us finacial against the mega clubs (until we can become one). I won't be anything like satisfied until we have won that ever elusive flag, but I think we need all need to get use to being one of the good teams again.

She was awsome in The Professional, though I must admit that it was that movie which solidified my man-crush on Jean Reno.

Would be like getting some bonus new recruits if we can get them back in form and would add some serious firepower to our team. Don't understand what it would take to get Jeffy right, but whatever it is, we should do it. Clearly he as the capability as he has previously kicked 40 goals in multiple seasons both for us and Carlscum. If Hunt can get some form back, get back that confidence to take on the game and break lines again, the only thing left for him would be to learn to dispose of the ball more purposely and hit up targets rather than bomb away when he kicks it. I think that's all very doable, when you look at some of the beautiful laces out passes which Frosty nailed into the forwardline at times late in season 2018.

As well as the mustache Has this guy got a backup career in porn movies or what? Nice.

What do you call Pruess? As a bit of an asides, I'm not quite sure that Pedo was a Ruck/Fwd as opposed to a Fwd/Ruck, though I acknowledge that he did do a pretty good job on a stand in main ruckman in 2017. The only thing I'd say is that Pedo may have been somewhat more of a proven commodity than perhaps Pruess is at the moment. But counter to that is that as much as I loved what he brought as a player on his day, it's also fair to say that Pedo was also a bit on fringe side for most of his career and he is now in his 30s, so was never going to be much of an option going forward. From what I understand, Preuss has certainly shown the ability to play up to a similar standard as Pedo and being 5 or so years younger has the potential to be around for much longer. If that's not replacing Pedo, I don't know what is. When you look at how big men develop, from an overall recruiting perspective were much better off trading for a more proven commodity in Preuss with almost all of his development behind him, such that he is ready made to step up and play on the big stage than we were punting on one or more 18 yo key talls/ruckman in the draft (only have to look at King & Fliper to realise that). We also have Bradke comming up the rear as a development/project ruckman in years to come. That's not to say that we should never recruit another key position forward/ruck through the draft in the future, but my take is that we are going to sit back a bit, pick and choose ones we think have the most potential, rather than pick one or two every draft just for the sake of it.