Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Thanks for your contribution to the MFC Dom, provided us with some good service for a few years. I really value the contribution of these players that joined us when we were a very ordanary side, battled their hearts out, helped us to improve and have victories along the way, without which, I don't think the side would be what it now is. Was very glad the Dom got the opertunity to be part of our late season sucess and share in some of the joy after the lack of sucess during his first few years. All the best for the future Dom.

We have traded Kent for about the same as we got Garlett for. If the Saints do as well out of Kent as we did out of Garlett, they will be doing ok I recon. Despite what the haters may think, I recon we have done ok from Garlett. A few 40 goal seasons was pretty important to us when we were struggling and trying to get back on our feet. Practically won us the game against the Lions this year off his own boot, without which, we probably finish 7th or 8th and don't get a home final. Also hoping that Garlett may still come good for us next year and give us some more spark and zip in the forward line.

Sad to see Kent go. He could be a fast, tough and skillful player on his day. Will never forget that goal he kicked to put the nail in the coffin against the Eagles in Rd 22 this year to put us into finals.

Yet if I recall correctly, the opportunity for him to be captain was something that was part of the appeal for him. In retrospect, I think they would have been better off telling Gazza where to go on the captain thing and making Harbrow captain. GWS certainly did alot better making Ward skipper - huge respect for him.

Maybe if we could rookie him, but I think he's more like a 1% chance than 10% and we are better off drafting a kid with good athletic ability, but a bit raw than a Bennell with lifestyle problems as well as recurring injuries. I mean nothing against the guy personally and would love to see him sort his stuff out, I just don't think he is a viable option. If you listen to Mahoney and co, they are also backing Jayden Hunt to have a better preseason and become that outside runner we need. Bailey Freitch would be another, or as something from left field, Frosty could be a pretty difficult match up on a wing, if we have Lever, Oscar and May to hold fort down back.

Actually @drdrake just thinking about things, Liam Jurrah was a bigger waste of talent than Bennell. Wow could that guy play. Imagine him in our side now and the high octane outside run he could provide.

I like the sentiment, but I recon that's what Freo would have thought. I think he's run out of any credits at AFL clubs these days. For Bennell to redeem himself, I recon he would need to put together an injury free season at state level and pull his own act together. Surely there are enough good indigenous leaders out of the game who would be willing to help ...if he pulls his head in and acts himself.

Lol. Was Gaza really a mentor to any of the players at Gold Coast? Star player at the start of his time there, but a pretty average choice of captain and off feild leader I think I'd say in retrospect.

Yeah, Col was somewhat of a waste (waste of high draft pick, spot on a list, waste of free agency by Freo), but I Bennell had way more tallent to start with. Bernie Vince was the best thing to come from the Col Silvia saga.

One of the biggest wastes of talent in the last decade. Probably part of the great legacy that Karmichael Hunt left at the Suns.

GWS also lost Treloar to the Pies which [censored] me (forget what they got in return). Treloar is a better player than Shiel in my veiw. If I was GWS I definitely would have wanted to keep Treloar.

Interesting stat on the MFC site player reviews "Lewis was also amongst the best at the club for ball use by foot, ranked third, with an average of 8.3 effective kicks per game." Not particularly surprising, but evidence for what many have observed.

Not quite sure what the inferance is there. We are now up to 8 delisted/retired and possibly still a few to be traded. Obviously we need someone to step up and step into a replacement for the role Lewis plays, but I don't think that would be at his expense. That said, I do find the reference to Cross above intersting. From what I recall, Crossy was keen to play another year, but the club not so inclined. I guess part of the difference could be that Jordan was already contacted for next year, whereas Cross may not have been.

All this bartering, cloke and dagger double speak does make you think that having a good poker face would be a pretty highly rated skill for those in list management.

I recon that Freo want Hogan more than we want May, so if them trading Neale for unders gets them closer to a Hogan trade, then I think they would cave.

Sorry @Lucifer's Hero, I know this is probably deviating even further from your inital intent for this thread, but as general remark, I do like that Goodwin, Max and probably others seem to be making more of a point of appealing to, embracing and encouraging the MFC's supporters to get on board as an important part of making us sucessful going forward. See their B&F speaches in particular. Seem to be riding the wave of optimisim unleashed with our huge finals crowds. Probably hard to appeal too much to people before now, without making finals etc. Now that being on the cusp of sucess is clear for many, the club really does need to capitalize on the resurgence to set us up finacially and supporter base wise for the next 10 years or so. Should also help put us on the map better with attracting players (like Collingwood and Hawthorn have used it) being able to appeal to playing in front of a packed MCG and would be good if we can get West Coast type favorable umpiring results due to crowd noise as well. Might also mean no more or only one game in the NT as well. Need to keep building on that finals supporter turn-out for the start of the next home and away.

I signed up for the grand final garentee package at the start of this season for mainly that reason. Didn't expect to be so close to putting it into action a few weeks ago. A few more comments: 1. Like you I'm an interstate member and thus it makes the overall package still fairly afordable; 2. The claims that why should the interstate members get it so cheap are somewhat misguided for a number of reasons: i) You get three games but rarely use them all. I'm in Brisbane and there were a number of years when we only had the one game up here and a few years back when we got none; ii) The grand final garentee component costs the same for everyone. If we don't make it, it still costs you the ~$200 odd dollars regardless. Worth noting that it will still cost another $300-$400 on top of that for the actual ticket on top of that if we make it as well (the guarentee only gives you the aces to the tickets, not the tickets themselves). Still I think it's reasonable value and probably still less than paying scalpers prices; iii) I'm ok with paying something even if we don't make it, on the basis that my understanding is that the MFC still gets some portion of the fee (probably something like a 10%-15% sales margin, but I'm just guessing and when I asked the club, they couldn't tell me on the spot); iv) After being an interstate member for the past 7 years consecutively (previously also a member in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s), I think I'm as entitled as many are; 3. My sister got automatically put into priority 2 due to having a number of years consecutive membership (greater than 10, but don't quote me), so some people might also fall into that category; 4. Even though I had the grand final garentee package, it was still somewhat stressful registering for the lottery. It's a pretty tight time window (something like 9am - 12 pm on the Wednesday before the prelim) and my old man (who also signed up for it) who tried to do the online registration found the Tickatek system very unuser friendly, difficult to use and was concerned he wouldn't be able to get it to work in the time available. In the end he got there, but it stressed him (and me) out a fare bit. With the costs/prices involved, we deserve much better than the poor service provided.

Spot on. And the club should make Jayden shadow Jordan Lewis around the whole of preseason and make sure he gets some extra kicking tuition from him after every training session until he is an elite feild kick just like him. ...would love to see Jayden pull out a few more of those barrel goals like he did end of the third quarter against the Crows last year. Don't know where that one came out of.

So much has been made of the go home to WA and going back to family thing with Jessy, that I really wonder if those has been way overstated as motivating factors. Whilst it's difficult to fully know people's personal/family situations, I really do wonder what influence his family would be at this time. At the end of the day, it's only 5-8 or so more years out of his life that he would be living in Melbourne. I guess it is a personal thing, but I'd take the opertunity to play in a potential premiership team over more money (let's face it Jessy should retire with millions either way) and I'd be telling my kids to follow their own dream rather than feel like they need to stay close to home forever. I'm not sure it's a forgone conclusion that Jessy will even express an intention that he wants out. Probably fair enough to some extent that he weighs up the options in front of him and to some extent, there is no rush for him to make his intentions clear until it becomes an imperative within trade week.

Agree, but I'don't rather go after Gus's little bro. Regardless, I think we should go after Andrew and any other Victorian worth pursuing, to destabilize Freo the way they have consitanly done over the past period with Jessy. I really don't think first round draft picks are fair trade for Jessy and I'm not convinced May will deliver what we need either. All will become evident in the fullness of time, but personally I've still got a really bitter taste from loosing Scott Thompson to the Crows and also feel really duded loosing Howe to the Pies. I would absolutely spew if we lost Jessy and in the next few years he delivers on regularly being that Johnathan Brown dominant game changer type of player.

I recon that's a big part of the problem. I think Jessy needs to make up his mind and be fully committed one way or the other. I don't think there can be any half heartedness where we are going. Really looking for key players to form that tight knit take no prisoners and team is bigger than individual attitude like Geelong did at the start of their reign of sucess. By fueling this continous speculation, I think Jessy is actually presently an impediment t that kind of commitment moving forward.

True to a point, but I also think it would be the bitter taste of Scully that set the scene and lingers in tempting us to trade whist we have the capital. Ironically we pretty much used the Scully compensation picks to get Jessy, so that pretty much highlights the futility of the situation should he leave to some extent. I have been thinking that we could find out in the next little while, what matters more to Jessy - money or sucess. That is a good outcome in it's self to some extent and in my view is that he needs to make this a clear turning point. He can't continue to go on shopping himself around every time there is an opportunity to get back to WA or elsewhere, he will loose the respect of his teammates petty quickly and become corrosive to team cohesion if that's the way he continues to behave. I could understand if he did leave for genuine family reasons, but I'd also struggle to believe that if he was moving on a hugely inflated contract. IF he leaves for ridiculous money, then good riddance as I think that would mean he's not really the kind of player we want on our list going forward anyway.

Sorry, this talk of him being totally finished is such utter rubbish. Yeah he was bloody ordanary in the prelim, but so was half the side. Lewis was a stand out performer in the Rd 22 game against West Coast and also the Crows game at the Adelaide oval, for just two clutch games that I can think of. And how many of the younger guys say how invaluable his finals experience was for the Elimination and Semi finals. It's true, as Bernie somewhat showed this year, that we don't know when his body and mind will fall completely off a cliff, but even if we only get the equivalent of half a season out of him, he'll provide a much better return and investment than anything we would likely replace him with on the list, given we have already have 7 delisted/retired players.

Will always remember the great game he played in that breakthrough win we had against the Hawks in 2016, when they were still regarded as being in their prime. The way we won that day, we shattered that illusion of them being unbeatable, at the same time building huge beleif in the side. After beating West Coast in Rd 22 this year, that Hawks win was a huge building block in the beleif of the team and Pedo provided a great focal point and contest in the forward line in the absence of Jessy that day was a big part of us winning that game. As mentioned his ability to fill in for Max last year was also so valuable. Really liked the big strong pack marks he took and the hard physical presence he provided at ground level as well. Was also a pretty decient set shot on goal. I think there would be few frindge players as well loved as Pedo and I would love to see him get a regular gig at a club like Gold Coast, Brisbane or someone similar if the opportunity arose and he was so motivated. All the best for the future Cameron.

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.