Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Not sure I see it actually being that inconsistent. That said, I only clearly remember the May and one of the two Curnrow incidents. On a similar note, I actually think Nick Nat deserved every bit of the 1 week ban he got though on the basis of consitancy of duty of care during tackling. The way Nick Nat has monstered several players now just falling with all his weight into their back during his crude tackles is no different in principle to a sling tackle in my veiw.

Sorry I don't see what the fuss is about here. I thought the contact from the Carlton guys and May was pretty incidental from the start. I recon you would find heaps of similar footage which no one was rubbed out for last year. I'm in the Greg Williams, Gerard Wheatley camp on this one - the umpires shouldn't get closer than they need to be most of the time. Players should exercise a duty of care to avoid umpires in general play and certainly shouldn't contact the umpires in an agressive manner, but from what I recall of the respective incidents, I don't think either of the Carlton guys were in any way agressive actions at the time. Intimidating body language also contributes and I think is where Hawkins came unstuck, where he was agressive in his demeanor towards the umpire as well as the actual swift swiping away of the hand Vs the gentle push away from Crunow. Crunow also practically had his back to him Vs Hawkins who was matching the upires confrontational stance front on. In some ways I think it is actually possible that the umpire in the Hawkins case contributed by engauging in a dispute with Hawkins - pay the free kick, if he doesn't acept it and advances towards the umpire, give him a warning of what he's doing and pay 50m.

Agreed, but one thing that I have taken out of the year so far is that I think we have learnt what is required to beat the teams we should. Teams like St Kilda, Essendon, the Lyons and Suns would have smelled blood in seasons gone by and we would have coughed up at least one of those games, like we did to Freo and North early last year. I'm not counting any chickens yet as we still have Carlton on the weekend, but I have a growing confidence in the teams mental and physical ability to get the job done. Particulaly pleasing is that we have won our last 10 quarters since drawing the second quarter against the Dons and only loosing the first quarter by 6 points. Last week agaist the Suns, we hurt them in 'red time' in the second and third quarters, when previously it was somewhat the habit of the MFC to be letting our opponents back into the game with a few late goals in the quarter after playing well for most of the quarter. Like I said, not counting any chickens yet, but encouraged by a few of these signs and just good to be racking up the 4 points one game at a time at the moment, because the 4 premership points against a weak side is worth exactly the same as against the stronger ones.

Just watched that segment. Couldn't pee into the bottle for the drug test. Lol, total pisser!

Loving the work of T Mac. Leads well, takes big strong grabs, chases, tackles and does all the 1%ers and such a cool head in front of the sticks. Kicking goals all over the place. The full forward we've needed the past few years and much more.

Largely agree, and that was mostly what I was infering, but to be honest, I'm still open and think I could be convinced on the unconscious bias argument as well. I don't actually think Australian socioty has much time for social minorities that speak up and speak loudly, openly and honestly on behalf of the disadvantage of their cultural background. The Adam Goodes saga was evidence of that. I think being a much shyer, lower profile type, Nev may not speak up when perhaps others might for fear of not wanting to bring these negative race based assertons upon himself. That in it's self may mean he gets walked over more easily in circumstances such as these. Personally I'm under no illusions how much harder it must be identifing as indigenous in this county.

Upon seeing the replay of this again, 1 week is way too lenient. It wasn't just a gut punch, he's gone straight for and made good solid contact in the jatz crackers. If this was to happen to Danger, Dusty or another big name player, it would be 3 to 4 weeks, without question. I'm actually with @DaisyDeeciple on this one that Nev (and the dog act it was) isn't getting the respect that he deserves.

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.