Rodney (Balls) Grinter

You know, watching all these replays of the umpire contact, I have been thinking that whilst I don't condone any intentional agressive behaviour towards umpires, the umpires also need to get out of the face of players and out of their personal space a bit. Thought the May incident was almost accidental and that the Carlton one was more just a natural almost instinctive reaction of someone intruding on another's personal space. Really don't see why the umpires should have been as close to the players as they are in these instances.

A few observations over the past few weeks and again last night: 1. My observation last night was that Gawn was getting benched/rested halfway through each quarter and that asides from the last quarter, the period when Gawn was off the ground corresponded in a period of GC accendancy. This worries me against the better teams. Perhaps having Viney back will help, but it's certainly something I think the team needs to work on; 2. Our pick-up in team form has correlated with much better games from Hibbo and Nev, who I though both had below averge starts to the season without being particularly poor; 3. Lever's is growing in confidence and contribution to the team, but he does have a tendency to overcommitt to the ball in the air at times, which if he misses leaves him totally out of the play and the oppo with an easy outnumber. When he connects with the ball it's very effective, so I guess it's risk Vs reward. Lever's disposal is also pretty average at times and I think it's much better when Hibbo dominates our rebounds from the backline than Lever; 4. As an asides, on the question of what happens with our midfeild upon Viney's return - I'm guessing that Jones plays more outside mid/wing, which would probably be a good thing for our ball movement as he seems to have got himself into some pretty good nick and his improved output compared to the start of the season is another of the reasons the side is playing better overall. The drive we have got out of Jones since the 3rd quarter of the Essendon game has been very good.

2 from 2 at the Gabba in 2018. The game against the Lions was more of a relief than anything particularly satisfing, but last night made up for that. Certainly a nice feeling and a welcome change for this Queensland based supporter who had only seen embarrassing losses to the Lions at the Gabba over the past 10 years, though the win against GC at Metracon a few years back was fun.

And doesn't Dew look like he's been grazing in a good pasture since he retired.

BTW I love Nev Have been very happy to see him recover some of his best form in recient weeks after an average start to the season.

Wow, that's saying something

Don't fret people. The AFL taking a cue from Demonland perhaps. Sam Day has been given a week for hitting Nev: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-round-8-match-review-steven-may-referred-to-tribunal-for-umpire-push-sam-day-suspended/news-story/a2cb3ffb07df29f1ff06fd3dbbd8fcaa

Is it too much to ask for Viney to be bristling with both form and fitness for next week?

Didn't improve at all this week IMHO and did far less than Pedo did in his last game senior Vs the Lions in Rd 2 after which he was dropped. I think Pedo is far more impactful in the ruck, because he doesn't get pushed around like Weid does and takes important marks around the ground. That said, I don't think it will hurt us overly to keep blooding Weid against the blues and he and the team will be better for it in the long run. ...and the coach seems to have a huge man crush on Weid, so I think he is safe. I'm resigned to Weid being a long term project that probably won't really consistently bare the sort of fruit we'd like for another year or so yet at least. For whatever reason, I actually found watching Oscar play over the last few years less frustrating. On that note, I think Oscar actually played his worst game for the year last night without being terrible.

I would be ok with giving him a week off to recover and freshen up his old/aging bones, but bring him back in for the Crows game as he usually does a pretty good job against them and gets under their skin. Personally I'm of the view that Bernie still has a lot to offer if he is managed right. Good old fashioned hard, tough, honest player, with a good footy brain and skills to match.

Agreed. Bar that one game where we had a complete brain fade, if you look at the respective sides played, won Vs lost and the ladder, I think we are going at least as well as Hawthorn. Yet they keep getting talked up as a strong finals bound contender and us a good chance of missing out again. I guess it's reasonable from an outsiders perspective when you look at the recient history of the teams over the past 10 years, but hoping we prove them wrong, that we keep improving and they have peaked this year and start dropping off. Can't stand those Hawthorn f#! $ers, so pussed with the way we lost to them.

When Gartlett is up and about, he is a significantly better player than Spargo is at this point in my view. But Garlett needs to show some good VFL form first at this point I think and that other modern footy cleché "work on the stuff the coaches want". I think Spargo has shown some good signs and will get better as he develops and I don't think it hurts for Jeffy to get into some good form in the VFL either, I'm hoping he takes the right approach to it, gets some real confidence and desire about the way he plays and comes back cherry ripe. Agree that it's good Carlton put all their energy into beating Essendon this week. I think in years gone by, they would have left something in the tank and focused on the MFC as a game they had a chance of winning. I've been happy so far this year in our ability to put away the bottom sides - let's hope it continues.

Sounds like the fitness team are pretty confident he has the miles in the legs, but that he is still not 'match fit'. I think this is a sound move. Even T Mac was cramping at the end of the Saints game and he is both a fitness freak and had more of a preseason than Viney from what I understand.

Disagree with this. My observation last night was that Gawn was getting benched/rested halfway through each quarter and that asides from the last quarter, the period when Gawn was off the ground corresponded in a period of GC accendancy. This worries me against the better teams. Perhaps having Viney back will help, but it's certainly something I think the team needs to work on. I know Weid is more the future and whilst I been encouraged by some signs he has given the previous two weeks and think it's good he has been given some continuity in the seniors, I still prefer the presence and phyicality that Pedo gives. Whilst the last few weeks against lesser sides playing the Weid has gone ok, I'd still prefer Pedo back in for the big games we need to win. Will be interesting to see how the form of Pedo and the Weid tracks in the VFL and AFL respectively over the next few weeks.

On the flip side it was refeshing listening to our own Daisy Pearce on the ABC's call of the Lions V Dogs last night. Some great special comments. I particularly liked one she made after Hipwood missed a fairly elementy set shot: "Do you think a haircut would help?" lol Gold - telling it like it is!

What's the odds there will be a bigger crowd than the huge one of 6060 that went to the Gabba last night?

What do you mean a few? They did it last year ?

Official attendance a huge 6060. There's a challenge for MFC supporters right there - get a higher attendance to watch Todd Viney Jnr play for Casey tomorrow.

Good starts for T Mac and Nibbler.

I do hope so. A more legitimate Aussie Rules following up on the GC than Western Sydney. It's a long was from the GC to Brisbane ...a bit like the MFC playing a home game at Kardinia Park. Based on this attendance GC would probably have been better off playing at Southport's home ground tonight.

15mins from first bounce and the MFC cheer squad makes up about 1/4 of the total crowd. Not going to be breaking any attendance records here today. Will probably be a bigger crowd at tomorrow's VFL game to watch Casey.

One of the other stats that were pretty high up (or at least we'e a few weeks ago) is runs of unaswered goals kicked against us. I think that stat combined with the quarters won stat explains our ladder position.

The ladder on the AFL we site now shows this, which I think is kind of handy.

No problems with either of this. I think that it's great that we presently have some what of an abundance of quality small forwards/goal sneaks (Freitch, Hannan, Spargo, Kent, Gartlet) that we can play those in form and send those not in such great form/output back down to the twos for a few weeks to get them selves right. Jeff has kicked 40 goals in a season multiple times as a player both for as and Carlton, and his forward half pressure/run down tackles are pretty dam good, so there's no doubt he has a place in the side when he's right. But he does have the tendency aluded to by Cook man of going missing for blocks of games during the season. It probably better that he goes back to the VFL to find some confidence and hunger during these periods, as I'd recon playing poorly at senior level for several weeks would be as confidence sapping for Jeffy as it is damaging for the team missing the output from a player of his capability and tallents, though it's probably also true that even when his output is down, he is probably still drawing one of the opposition's best small defenders (so long as they are not hurting us the other way).

It ant rocket science (I'm just a poor old ex-garbo). They (footballers) might talk up all this "one club player" stuff, but at the end of the day, they (probably at the urging of their managers) think with their head not their heart when deciding to accept a deal and stay or chase a better deal and leave.