Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Was a good hop too. ...sory, very lame joke.

One of my favorite players of the era. Congrats to him and the others to be reciently be awarded life membership. Didn't know that Hoppy, Neitz and Swartz were the last of the under 19s we were able to pick up. Pretty good group of selections in my book. http://m.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-12-14/proud-paul-rewarded-with-key-honour

It's that time of year when I'm starting to crave and pine for some footy, but trying to make a saga out of this incident is so borish and desperate it really makes me wonder. Got virtually inconsequential written all over it. It's the sort of article the Caroline Willson would write, laced with rumor inuendo over a storm in a tea cup.

Though I think he makes some cringe at times (myself not included) with his pre MCG game banter, I don't know why anyone would really ever seriously knock this bloke. So much more respect for how he conducts himself than I have for the Ox.

At 189 cm, I recon Mitch Hannan is a pretty close match for a Robbo type of forward. Although he probably tends to work up the ground a bit more, I think he has a similar skill/attribute set to Robbo - good high mark, mercurial and good goal sense.

Whist I generally agree that it wasn't that much of an out there thing to say, I still think it's pretty dumb on behalf of JW. Regards Trenners, I recon he would be smarter and too modest to get suckered into making a statement like that. It's not like this will become the whole motivation for our preseason, but guys like Jones, Viney and Goody will probably throw it out there to the playing group when play Port I'd say. It will certainly add a bit more spite to comming up against JW.

Yep, I was kinda waiting to see if they were going to put on any of our players, to some disapointent. Doesn't bother me in a way though. I'm quite happy for us to be low on hype and fly under the radar of the media during preseason this year.

I still have a number of Foxy Footy Superstar month 'Max Gawn' episodes from 2016 on my IQ which I refer to for inspiration. Had Max remained uninjured and retained that sort of form 2017, we play finals. I actually think much of our compeditiveness and 2016 finals chance came more via Max, than it did season 2017. Really hoping that Max 16 + rest of MFC 17 = Demon Finals 2018.

Agree entirely with the sentiment, but this is pretty standard corporate practice these days. I guess organizations have been burnt by employees who poach significant IP such as corporate stratigies, client lists etc once they understand they are no longer wanted, however in my experience, the type that do that usually skeem and jump ship at the time of their choosing before they are pushed. The organizations probably wage that it's good risk management, though I really do think they pay the price in the medium to long term through lack of staff loyalty and morale. I loved the Ox as a player, but although I didn't listen to him on SEN, my respect for him has only deminiished for him in recient years. As good and intelligent he may have been as an individual player, I don't think he was or is now a great team player for the MFC.

I actually though that with the academies all the clubs did get a level of priority access with some sort of discounted draft points bidding system similar to the new father son rules. Whether it is as generous as it applies for the northern states I'm not too sure (actually I tend to doubt it). Such a catch 22 situation with these academies. If it actually encourages clubs to get out there and grow the game at a grass roots level, then that has to be a good thing, but it also has huge potential to grow imbalances within the game through going back to the days where some teams (i.e. Hawthorn) were significantly advantaged above others through the allocation of the most productive zones. There seems to be an almost default position to be critical of the AFL, but on face value, I think the bidding system for academy/zone players is on face value a reasonable compromise. I'd also like to throw out another idea as some food for thought. I really do think that one of the big things the AFL has going for it is the tribalism of it's supporters growing up and supporting it's team for life and in the past for kids to aspire to play for the team they supported. The loyalty factor is something that was once and still is to a certain extent an attractive part of our code and I think the more it becomes diluted through more fluid player movements, it will become easier for the public to become disaffected with the code as a whole. Which brings me back to the aspect of kids playing for the team they supported, which has been almost completely lost through the introduction of the draft. I have wondered recently if the AFL could introduce an additional kind of recuitment/draft points category where players kids who were club members from a certain age could be drafted at a discounted rate to the club they supported. It would obviously need some kind of normalisation for the number of members/junior members of a club overall so as not to unfairly favour the power clubs, but could also serve as an incentive for people to buy memberships and clubs to genuinely engage with their supporter/membership base. Just think of a few of the players it might have netted the MFC out of the current AFL playing ranks!

What a difference a year makes. This time last year we were posing several different questions "Will this Neal Bullen guy make it?" (I recall many were claiming he was a list clogger, whom we should have delisted) and about Nibbler good mate "How good can this Billy Stretch kid be?". For what it's worth, I was probably one of the ones questioning Nibbler; probably not to the point of considering him to be a list clogger at that point. This time this year, the two sit at different cross roads entering 2018. Goes to show the truth in that modern cleché, that development isn't always linear. I Still think that Billy has the makings of a good player - good skill level, speed, tenacity and agreession at the footy. I guess it's one of the luxuries of having an improved list all round, that we can allow some of these guys with potential time to develop their bodies and game in the twos and keep them on the list.

More than just a knack. I think that through his endurance and effort he often out gut runs his opponent to get to that place. Did it many times last season.

Agree regards Weidemann. The guy actually has to have an impact before it hurts us to loose him to injury. I actually think players like Pedersen and T Mac are far more important to us than the Weid right now. I think there is more risk if Pedo or T Mac get injured or drop away and Weid doesn't step up and deliver on his potential. The other risk that concerns me with Weid is that he comes good and takes flight for more opportunity, better coin etc after everything we have put into him. Don't particularly know why I think this way, it's just a hunch, maybe the family ties to Collingwood. Hope I'm proven wrong.

And still struggled massively for big parts of last season. No first round pick 2016 & 2017. I really do hope that they are heading for a period of prolonged struggle like we have had.

Can't expect Jones to do it all on his own. Reality is that good sides need genuine leadership in all parts of the ground.

Generally agree with all of the above. I think Bernie sometimes cops it for spraying the ball, but I'm guessing that he often unloads upfeild when he feels like he is under the pump and would probably turn it over holding the ball or trying to dish off a handball to a teammate already under pressure. How many times have you heard supporters say "just kick the bloody thing" when we handball and dither in defence. I think being the senior player he is, Bernie is given a bit of licence to have that bomb up the ground when there are no other options and is secure enough in his own ability and place in the side when the bomb gets turned over. When in time and space, Bernie can be a pretty good user of the ball and those cute little kicks into the centre of the ground often create something really damaging when they do come off. I also don't think anyone should underestimate the value of Bernie playing for Casey and developing our younger players, particularly given we have lost Grimes, Dunn, Garland and Trenners that were playing that role down there so well. If I were a developing young player, I recon I'd love playing there with Bernie and he will love the role of mentoring, passing on some footy smarts and helping our youngster walk a foot taller when he plays. Similarly, I've observed that Lewis is usually a pretty good user of the ball and has a good knack of repeditively getting to the right spot where we need someone to be to link up and form a good chain of disposals and he seems to particularly do this at times the team is struggling to maintain possession and composure. If he can teach that to some of our other younger or even somewhat experienced players like Jetta (I like the Hodge comparison someone made), then that could be a real boon for the side in years to come. Conversely, Lewis does occasionally have his days and moments where he is horrendously fumbles the ball and occasionally completely butchers it by foot. People went off at Tom MacDonald for his shocking turnover last round against the Pies, but I watched Lewis do something just as bad in our game in Darwin against the GC when the game was on the line. At the end of the day, even the best players are all human.

I liked how the article spike of the hurt and hunger that our younger players have returned with. Even our prize recruit Lever should have some of that in him after the Crows finish to the year and then the way they treated him.

Would still like to see Vince more up forward. He has good sense around goals and can sink them from a mile out, which I think keeps the oppo guessing and relieves a bit of congestion in our forward 50 arc.

Agree with everything you have written here Hemingway. I probably could handle a bit of her rumor, dirt and innuendo style of reporting occasionally if was just a small part of her repertoire, not basically her only act. She never gave the impression that she actually liked/enjoyed the game of footy. A poor choice as a Chief Football writer, when all she mostly did was put off and give her taget audience the shits. Though I did think Sam Newman's take off untasteful and a bridge too far, I certainly won't miss Carro's reporting.

Well my Charlie has about another 4 or so feet still grow (perhaps more). Pretty good tank already (hyperactive little guy, drives me nuts at times). Would have been interesting to see if his namesake was still there at 37, perhaps there is hope for a son to play for the MFC after all!

If there is one thing I respect about Eddy McGuire (it's a stretch I know) it's how he has defended the integrity of Collingwoods jumper design. I also recall one of the most emotive moments in the proposed merger with Hawthorn was Don Scott ripping the Hawk off the MFC jumper. Come on Melbourne supporters - GET PASSIONATE. No more of this white jumper rubbish for the MFC.

Is this confirmed or your wish list? ...well the last is a bit of a wish list, as I understand that Maynard has 20. I somewhat like the thought of Smith in 29, but Hunt also has ties to 29, being some relation to Andrew Obst as I understand.

Well according to Demon army reports, looks like I got Lever and Maynard, but Balic has 27.

Now that would be a weapon.

I hear you brother. Please remind me just how many years this guy has spent ('clogging') an AFL list?