Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Just now, P-man said:

Getting smashed now.

Lever has been awful.

But where does he rate on the list.

Well, that was offically the worst quarter of footy we have played all year.

1 minute ago, bandicoot said:

Genius move giving Wagner a game... 

I'm a Wagner fan, but a few shockers which cost us goals.  

Would rather we we 4 or 5 goals up, but what a great quarter of footy.  Free flowing, now mauls, good grabs, good attacking skills.  Both sides could do better defensively.

...but [censored] yeah - GO DEMONS!

10 hours ago, Doodle Dee said:

Maybe Tyson was dropped based on his last match? (r23)  I distinctly recall him turning it over numerous times in the first quarter, costing a goal or two and really handing them momentum. When exactly can you drop a player for the sins of a r23 match? Certainly not with a JLT game.

I do wonder sometimes if/when these selection moves are intended as punishments to send messages to individuals and the playing group.  Guess it's the coaches call, but it does seem alot like cutting off your nose to spite your face sometimes.  Surely a player like Tyson would have had pleanty of time to reflect and internally punish himself for his performance in Rd 23 over the off season, he seems to be a pretty competitive type to me and like many of the team, I don't think he would have been happy with his performance that day, but he also wasn't alone in butchering opertunities that day (Garlett was another I thought pretty guilty of wasting some very gettable shots on goal).

The Tyson lack of selection does baffle me somewhat based on his usual contribution and JLT form, when to me he looked in pretty good nick.  Gus suprises me a bit less as though I really rate his hardness and potential to be a great footballer, I don't think he has really established himself as a consistently good footballer.  Even before his multiple concussions last year, he seemed to be struggling a bit for form and whilst he was solid, what I saw of his preseason form, he wasn't really screaming out to be picked.

I'm also wondering if these selections/non selections are based more on specific roles and team ballance.  Maynard to play a hard tag/negating role on Selwood in leu of Tyson and Wagner just because he is in better form than Brayshaw.  My personal veiw is that Wagner is a pretty underrated player, who does add a pretty good mix of hardness, pace, height and quality disposal by foot to the side.

9 hours ago, Watts the matter said:

This is when you know you're in trouble. O'Brien is an ordinary player who can take a nice grab from time to time but lacks the all round game and will never make it as a result.

Hence my comment "from the limited exposure I've had to him)"  i.e. O'Brian.  But O'Brien wasn't even clucking his grabs when we played the 2016 (granted it was a shiity wet game).  Also I get how the mode game needs pretty reasonable mobility (which Weid actually seems to have in spades for a guy his size), but I really still think you want your key forwards taking a good contested mark, otherwise you would just have a team of Jeff Garlets.

Think you are missing my main point about big guys typically taking longer.

3 minutes ago, rjay said:

I hope he has a good start to the year as we are going to need him with Tommy Mac going down.

I don't have the faith in Pedders that others have. I think he is a good running ruck but struggles as a key forward. 

A lot will rest on Trac, Hannan and Fritsch to cover the loss of McDonald.

Have great faith in Pedo, he crunches packs like few of our other players do.  I actually think he is a better pack mark than Hogan at this stage.

Still I get your point about him seeming to perform better when given ruck duties.  In this regard, I think the team should actually be looking to use that to best effect in the circumstances.  I see a huge potential for Gawn to be targeted by opposition rucks this year, so I think it would be more than handy for Pedo to come in and give Gawn a bit of a chop out and take some of the pressure off him at times.  Will keep the oppositions resting ruck more honest and possibly also mean that they will need to keep their main ruck on Pedo at times.  Gawn can be pretty handy resting and drifting into the forwardline in his own right. 

I've certainly been critical of the club playing the Weid over other players at times last year, when I didn't see him as being anything like ready and it costing us games.  Still think we would have beaten Geelong and Richmond last year if Pedersen had played instead of the Weid.  That said, it's more a criticism of our coaching and selection than anything directed at Weiderman so much.

Like most big guys, I think this guy needs time to develop and establish his game.  Tom Hawkins is the classic, but the more recient example I can think of is Tim O'Brian for Hawthorn.  When we played Hawthorn for the first time in 2016, I thought O'Brain looked like a passenger in their side, failing to make much of an impact (ironically, asides from one late goal which helped sink us that day), but watching him last year, I think he started to look much more imposing as a player and gave me the impression (from the limited exposure I've had to him) that he looked like he might have a good future as an AFL player.  O'Brain is 3 years older and longer in the system than Weid.

If we can pick up guys with gammy hamstrings from GWS and keep them on our list for a few years on the basis of potential, then I think it's well worth continued perseverance and patience with the Weid.

15 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Great news. Now we’ve had Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Gawn and Lever all sign on for at least another 3 years. Massive for this clubs future development.

It is great news indeed and sets up the club for a period of stability for at least another two years.  Whilst it's clear that this core crop of really talentented players have bought into the present direction of the club, I think the need to re-sign them again in a few years will keep the pressure on the coaches and club to keep moving in the right direction.  By the time these guys are looking for their next contract, they will be pretty much in the prime of their career and worth considerably more at the negotiating table.  So it's really signing up for another 3 or 4 years in 2020 that will get me excited.  The really interesting stuff will be when these guys get to free agency status.

Still, the actions of the likes of Trac, Viney, Gawn and Oliver actually match their rhetoric of wanting to be one club players so far and I see it as a big positive that they are signing up before the season has started.  Makes for a very refeshing change from the way that $cully scum treated us.

13 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

From the top:

ANB's hair

Colin Garland's face

Jesse Hogan's arms

Jack Viney's body

Michael Hibberd's kicking action

That would be quite a player.  Not sure what ABN's hair and Garlo's face would do for them as a player, but the rest seems like a pretty impressive unit.

2 hours ago, olisik said:

Am I the only one who thinks Petracca looks slow at times?

Not alone Olisik.  I also think there are times that he is too stationary, looking for options, trying to do to much with it, holding onto the footy for too long and gets caught.  But I think we just have to cop that every now and then, as I think it happens to all players, even the best of them and Trac has the ability that most times he uses he uses it well or better than most with his vision and ability to hit up players in good positions.

It's also something about the way he moves in those situations where he looks like he is just walking around players, looking like he'll get caught, but often evading them.  Brett Lovett use to be a bit the same, but I think Trac has definitely got better leg speed.

In typical media sensationalisim, modern click bate style, the headline doesn't really match the content and tone of the article, although Caro being who she is as a writer is trying to stir the pot and create more inuendo than probably really exists.

Apart from that, reading the article actually gave me some better insight into why the players were so cautious and aprehensive.  The previous and proposed camps sounded like pretty extreme kinda stuff, almost bordering on torture.  It's fair to say that all clubs are looking for an edge, but somewhere along the line you wonder if a line has to be drawn on what's unreasonable.

For all the people critical of the players and club for pulling the pin, be prepared to suject yourself to same experience as the players on this issue before you have a right to criticize.  As for Danny Frawley, pfft he was a cheap bordering on dirty player of marginal toughness and a dead set failure as a coach, so who is he to put scorn on Goodwin and the MFC - he wasn't called Spud for no reason.

Goodwin and the team will provide answers to our most important questions on a weekly basis through their performance.  I couldn't give two shiits about anything else they might say until the job is done.  I think the manumber himself said it that they want their actions and footy to do the talking and I agree.

On 2/27/2018 at 12:58 PM, poita said:

McKenna, Vandenberg & Kent - what a waste of list space. Hopefully Tyson and Garlett are on track for the St Kilda game.

Just saw this headline on the AFL website and freaked:

'I'm keen to play on': Tyson's tough blow

2 hours ago, praha said:

What is most sad about this is that, unfortunately, many of these young men, and in some cases your women, are being exploited and pushed into lives of crime by silent assassin's who promise them the world if they knock off a few mom and pop stores. Imagine having lived through what you described. How could you possibly comprehend or understand what it takes to be a "good" citizen? It goes beyond simple integration. To be blunt, I feel that Australia has bitten off more than it can chew with some of these young men, not to say they shouldn't be here, but the only way the community and these young men evolve into upstanding citizens is if they have role models to guide and empower them. Unfortunately, they have no fear of the law or God. They need real guidance. Hopefully some of our upcoming Sudanese AFL players can provide that. Otherwise I feel a genuine divide that splinters the Sudanese community away from the rest of the country.

As you say, there is probably a certain amount of rehabilitation, counciling and support that some of these people require.  But in terms of biting off more than we can chew - Australia is a wealthy country with good social and physical infrastructure and if we can't help people in this sort of predicament, who can? In my view the media and political persecution of this group of people is reprehensible and very unfair.  Personally I have never seen first hand any problems with Sudanese or other African immigrants.  The only time I notice them are respectfully partispating at my wife's church and doing the kind of dirty, hard jobs many Australian born kids don't want to do like cleaning and pushing trolleys.

I think the article rightfully does reconise that Aussie Rules is one of the sports (perhaps Cricket would be another) that offer greater opertunities for greater multiculturalism and integration.  Just my observation that sports like soccer and basket ball that seem to lead to more segregated race based teams.  At the end of the day, all sports offer a much better alternative to engaging young people than gangs and general shanagans, but I do think activities that encourage interaction between people from different backgrounds are preferable to those which perpetuate completely seperate cultures.

Personally didn't want to see us trade Jack Watts, but please lets not have this commentary everytime he plays well, poorly or indiferent.  

Good that this has happened in preseason so it doesn't take up discussion space during the season proper when I will only be interested in our current listed players and how the team is traveling towards the ultimate success - move on Watts lovers.

45 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I also think the drop off in the 3rd quarter coincided with having Maynard and Salem in the centre bounce for virtually the entire 20 minutes, and Jones was barely sighted (probably rested that quarter). We got well smashed in the centre that quarter which allowed the Saints to control the game. All of a sudden contested ball went in their favour after we dominated in the first half. 

Winning was clearly not the priority, as I am sure if this was a real game, the set up would be very different. 

Also I don't think it's a coincidence that when OMac went off in the second half, that Bruce started bobbing up. Frost is nowhere near as good a defender as OMac, which I know is a bitter pill for some people to swallow, but he is very good and clam under pressure and while Frost does some nice things, he panics easily and his disposal is bog ordinary.

Missing TMac up forward and having Hogan playing high, didn't help our forward 50 entries, especially when we weren't winning clearances in the third so had to rush the entries. 

My biggest disappointment of the night is Hunt. We have to work out how to play him to best expose his speed. I know he is getting heavily tagged now, but we need to get 15 touches a game from him, or else his position is not warranted in the starting 22. 

I agree that Jones didn't appear to spend much true midfield time last night and at times without the likes of a Viney, Oliver or perhaps Harmes/ANB in there I think that’s when our midfield contested work dropped off.  I don't think it's total coincidence that our game picked up in the third and forth quarters after Jack Stevens went off injured.  I'd like to think that in a crunch home and away game and we are loosing the midfield battle that Jones gets injected back in there.  My assumption is that being just JLT, Goodwin wanted to persist with and give others exposure to the guts.  Asides from that, it's probably better that the Saints pushed us and gave a warning against complacentcy to the team rather than going in overconfident and cocky against the Cats.

Agree Re Frost too, though I think his game got better the more the night wore on.  I really like some of his sideways diving spoils too - a bit reminiscent of the late Sean Wight.

9 hours ago, Deemented Are Go! said:

Not mentioned much thus far is Hogan’s game. I thought he was terrific - 21 touches, 7 marks and 2 goals. Effective involvement in inside 50s, some great ball use, massive tank and just good footy smarts. 

He looks confident and happy - will be a  huge factor for us this season rotating through the midfield. I really like him as a roaming CHF, whilst TMac / resting Gawn tall timber up front. 

Thought he had a quite night big marking wise, but to rack up the touches he had and kick a couple of goals was still a good contribution as you say.  Must have had a ton of goal assists - I recall quite a few clever little handballs and kicks to setup other players in the second half.

Would still really like to see him really stamp his authority as a Carey like focal point taking big strong grabs at true CHF.  Perhaps the modern game style will not permit that kind of ball movement, although I note that we are pretty good at moving it cleanlu through the corridor at times.

Watched a few replays of or better 2017 games over the summer and one thing which really stood out is how much pace Hannan has.  Would have to be up there with the quicker players in the side.  

Certainly like his work inside the forward 50 arc, good mark, good positioning and both a good set shot and oppertunist goal sense.

Another great signing by the club.

30 minutes ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

I am a bit with @praha

I would like to go into a time machine and talk to the 2014 version of myself who was over the moon when we rolled the Toigs during the preseason that year. 

The win over North in the pre season didn't really register. Not that I don't respect North as an opponent but more that it was a step that needed to be taken on the journey. It wasn't particularly a big one when one considers where we are at.

When the season proper begins, I'll be excited. We will know where the boys' headspace is from moment dot. Big game at the G with baby Jesus making his triumphant comeback. Hopefully we can make it like his last one from injury in 2015.

Agreed that preseason form is near meaningless.

Whilst until we actually all the way and win a flag, some of these teams will still have a big one over us regardless, but I'd really like us to hand out some thrashings to clubs like North, Hawthorn and Geelong in the season proper as sort of interim down payment on the retribution we owe them for some of the games against them over the past 10 or so years.  ...Collingwood, Carlton and West Coast would be good to serve it up to some of those filth too.

Similar theme to many of you.  I after the way we missed out last year, I didn't want anything to do with footy for about a month.  But after that, Rd 1 couldn't come quick enough and has been a long summer of antisipation.

I won't get truly excited until we put together a good half season of solid form and sit firmly somewhere from position 2 to 7.  I feel like we have a team that can beat any opposition team on the day and whilst there are teams I think will make hard fought games like Sydney, perhaps GWS, Adelaide and one or two others that might rise I don't fear any team as being beyond the guys wearing the Red and Blue. 

Teams like Geelong, North, Richmond and Hawthorn are ripe for the picking, but even in the event we were to thrash them (which would give me immense immediate satisfaction), I'd be tempering my expectations for the season ahead and what that might mean until we put together a prolonged run of form and start to play with the sort of maturity that says we will be a serious contender for the pointy end of the season and not just having purple patch.

One of the things that tells me the team is on the cusp of being a genuine contender is that we never really got blown away last season.  Even the Crows the second time around, we were still within a sniff of it 10mins into the final term.  Sydney was the only game I really thought that we didn't look like winning from about half way through the second quarter, we didn't get completely smashed by the end and I think the cumulation of the injuries and consecutive 6 day breaks we had leading up to that game provided some legitimacy to the lack of performance.

Really hoping we do smash some teams this year though.  That would provide some good instant gratification.

Majak Daw knows how to defend: Scott Thompson
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/afl/majak-daw-knows-how-to-defend-scott-thompson-20180305-p4z2w5.html

All I can say is that I'm hopeful Daw lines up in the backline and plays like he did against us in the JLT, when we play them in the home and away.  Jessy Hogan and Tommy Mac would be liking their lips at the thought of the ensuing goal fest.

16 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

That Salem is there suggests the coaches aren't satisfied with how the inside midfield is working.   Perhaps, it is too one dimensional, lacking variety (excluding Oliver).

FWIW, my thoughts are:  Jones is quick but not clean as he tends to bomb it out to nowhere.  Tyson is quick but not clean, bombs it out or gets caught HTB as he takes on the opposition.  Viney, is Viney and takes on the opposition, sometimes gets away with it (and is a joy to watch when he does) but just as often gets pinned HTB.  And I'm not sure any of them have a really high footy IQ.  So our winning the hitouts isn't translating to winning the clearances often enough and immediately puts our defence under pressure.

Salem is quick, clean, tough and has the footy smarts.  He is one of those players for whom time stands still when he has the ball.  He may yet end up our 'outside polish' player (he is only 22). 

Also, maybe the club is looking at one of the new recruits (eg Balic, Spargo) or even Hunt to take up that outside role.  If Hunt learns to slow his last 2 steps just a fraction before kicking he will become a more accurate kick into the forward line.

It is an interesting 'sub plot' to see how it plays out during the year.

Agree.  I personally think our midfield has been lacking one or two players that can really pack a punch moving the ball forward.  I always thought Salem was slated as a future midfielder when we recruited him.  I like his toughness, compeditiveness and his class with his disposal.  Reminds me a bit of Jimmy Bartell in his prime.

As much as I understand the need for players with quality foot skills down back, I've often thought Salem was wasted down there and he looked like he didn't really enjoy or was fully suited to the fully defense mindset down back.  Besides, we have medium sized backline players to burn these days. We really do need players that can deliver well and find targets inside 50 as so often we have dominated time in forward half, only to miss targets and waste opportunities for quality shots on goal.

I also think the club has taken a conservative approach, holding back some younger players from having big midfield time/roles too early in their career when they were physically and psychologically less developed.  I think it's now time to throw guys like Salem, Brayshaw and Harmes in there and have them bust it up a bit and hopefully take some opposition midfields to pieces.

17 minutes ago, Rocky said:

salem ant expected to be a first 22 player?... really? he was a top ten draft choice and clearly had skill from the outset? bizarre..

I think what was implied is that he wasn't expected to be rushed into the side as an 18yo and be one of the saviors of the team.

Speaking of replys and Foxtel, they had some good MFC games from the 90s on reciently on Foxfooty's History Month.

One game Vs Geelong had some interesting moments.  Mark Neld kicking out for Geelong from full back (literally the only kick I saw him get all game).  Garry Ablett kicked 10 or 11 goals from full forward, but we still pulled away and won in the second half, largely due to a sensational game from Glen Lovett, who dominated their star midfield (including Hocking) and kicked 3 goals himself.  If I recall correctly, it also featured a few handy goals from yours truly and a bag from Darren Cuthbertson, in one of the half a dozen games of his career that he was a force.  No Sean Wight in this game and I had to feel sorry for Peter Rode and Steven Febby playing on G.Ablett - Rode to slow, Febby to weak.

The other game I have watched was Vs Collingwood.  Great seasawing close game.  Very late 90s, big Jim's 250th.  Jimmy himself played a great game, comming into his own by running all day and dropping back in defense in the second half starting many rebounding efforts.  Other notable players efforts that day included Hopgood, S. Febby, Todd Viney playing at half forward and Brent Grgic who kicked a nice bag and provided a good target when moved into attack.  Poor Jeff Farmer did a hammy in the first or second quarter, Swartz and Jeff Wight were bloody hopeless and couldn't get near the ball, let alone mark it.  Anthony Ingerson and Jammie Shannohan battered manfully against the Rocca brothers, limiting the to just a few goals.  The real star of the show for me though was Joel's dad, Shaun Smith, who sat the whole first quarter and a bit on the bench, but then came on and kicked five goals for the afternoon.  Most people will always remember Shaun for his high marking and 'that grab' he took on Garry Lyon's head, but this game exemplified his all round courageousness and the absolute dead eye dick he was from a set shot.  The MFC ended up winning the game by less than a goal I think in the end.

Great reliving those days.