Rodney (Balls) Grinter

As far as I understand we swapped our first round pick for this year with Essendon, so finishing higher than them on the ladder would count as something of a victory if that's the case. Kind of like a reverse mini Freo death ride.

Is he a red head like his old man? If so we'd be loading up our backline with a couple of them when you include Bowser.

Definitely not true for Brisbane and Sydney, but may have some legitimacy for GC & GWS. Still sux that we're potentially on the short end of the stick again.

I can see a benifit for those father/sons players to participate in the academies as a measure to lift the elite standards of the academies overall, just that they shouldn't be eligible to then draft them.

If I was AJ, I'd feel pretty had done by as well. Very glad McVee did get off though, he has been getting back towards his best footy in recent weeks and a really important contributor. Want to get yet more development into him and of course extend his contract to 2035.

If the umpires are going to be so pedantic on 50m penalties, then they really do need to pay every one. Earlier in the game against Port, they quite obviously failed to get it back to Max on the full and no 50 - it's infuriating. I'm very quickly getting to the view that the league need to bring it back to 15m forward of centre and/or as a blanket rule, except for the most egregious of offences. 50m penalties hand goals to oppositions as did that crazy decision to give Port a second shot on goal. Games shouldn't regularly be decided by umpires. Before anyone says it wasn't the umpires fault we kicked umpteen behinds, what they did was kept the scoreboard pressure going against us - for a team that has these issues it is a big factor. We're well capable of kicking accurately when we start hitting our straps, just look at the second half Vs the first against the Swans. It's not just missing goals or not, also impacts marking and passing for us and the opposition.

Are you serious? - No way May plays at Casey. His form has been good and he's of also of value to the team in a mentoring capasity and setting the standard. I'd even like him to play up forward with some of our developing forwards. He'd make them walk taller playing along side them and if they're not doing the required team things and/or committing to the contest, I think a Maysy rev-up could actually be a good thing for them too. Melksham should also be played when fit for similar reasons and how funny would it be to see him play in a forward line with May. I'd be quite OK with Lever and/or possibly even Petty being dropped back to Casey to find some form and hunger. Would love to see T Mac given the opportunity to get to 250 games this season - his service to the club and form this year deserves it. Sick of seeing us wasting games on Laurie. Would far rather we get some more games into Tholstrup, Kynan Brown, Adams, Woey jnr, Sestan, Culley and possibly one or two others like Sharp and Verrall. Have loved his season to date, but I think Langford looked tired and lacked impact on Sunday, so could do with a rest. Also time to end the Winsor experiment at half back put the kid back on the wing and let him play his natural game. The irony would be if by playing guys who are keen as to prove them selves, changing things around a bit and releasing the shackles of expectations as bit that we actually play with more freedom, flare and start attacking more effectively and winning games.

What ruck prospect isn't a project player? Asides from LJ

Glad we're leaving no stone unturned and have reached all the way to Europe in pursuit of kicking a drop punt truely through the big sticks 😉 😂

Disco's goal kicking is also pretty solid. Conversely so was Petty's for a while, but he seems to have lost it. Honestly think the answer to alot of our goal kicking woes is a switched on sports psychologist.

I think Petty is the future solid key back we need to build around, along with Disco and Lever (Possibly also throw Adams) If we loose another game or two, I'd really like to see Steven May up forward. I hope he's still got a few more years yet, but he's not the future of our backline. He'd probably also enjoy the oppertunity to have some fun and kick a few goals. Could alternatively play JVR and Jeffo up there around him - he'll make them wall taller and I think he'd provide some great on feild coaching to them as well.

Yeah, nah. Play Petty back before dropping him altogether. I think his form back there earlier in the season was pretty good. Poor bloke can't help it if he keeps getting asked to fill holes up the ground because our key forward stocks are all over the shop at the moment.

That was a great call DD. But such great credit to Kozzie to turn that potential into the genuine superstar of the competition he has become. How many players can have great junior careers and highlights reals that actually go on to have the AFL career that Kozzie has had just to date.

Make Greeny president for life ... oh wait

Belll "stick that where the sun don't shine!"

Well overdue. Was definitely one of the iconic players of the era, both for the MFC, but the league generally. That he had such a footy cultural impact from such an injury intrupted career is a testimony to his talent and leadership qualities. Interview is a great watch. As a MFC / footy tragic, I'm often looking out for new footy stories and this interview has some gems delivered in a thoroughly entertaining way. For so long there I sense there has been a bit of crindge about his media work within the MFC supporter ranks, but personally I've never been prouder to have one of our own amoung the media voices and I think his calm laid back and professional approach to his media work over the years have been brilliant. ...and that moment he handed over the 2021 premiership cup was just so brilliant - not sure who we'd get to hand over one we might one day win at the G, but Gazz will take some topping.

Bring back the face palm reaction.

Sounds like @Bitter but optimistic's dungeon

Honestly think something we need to get much better at is roosting it long out the back into space that Kozzie and others can run onto. Something like the old Pagan's paddock. Freitch did it pretty much to perfection with a handball well into space for Kozzie that resulted in a snap goal to him. Melksham could have done the same but even better in the second quarter on Monday, with a penetrating kick out the back and Kozzie would have smoked Howe and everyone else in the area. Instead Melksham tried to finesse a pass on the full to Kozzie, slightly over cooked it and it was cut off by Howe arially. I know it's easy as an armchair expert and Melk is actually one of our best kicks to an option inside 50 (if not the best), but I just feel we seldom use one of Kozzie's best assets to advantage in these situations and/or look to create these types of opportunities for him enough. Similarly, I think if we got a bit more creative a bit more often and tried to play Trac one out as a deep forward it would be hard for the opposition to respond to and help give us better value for our entries. Just look how many goals St Kilda scored against us last week by moving it quickly and directly into a forward line with pleanty of space.

At the risk of introducing yet another rule change which draws the ire of spectators, I think there is a pretty simple rule change that could be made to stop that behaviour - if you are tackled over the line while holding the ball, it's holding the ball (via no intent to dispose of it) or insufficient intent to keep it in play - take your pick the rule is there they just need to play it properly.

You mean, just like legalising alchol after the prohibition? Bring it out of the black market and into the open.

Agree that the concept of a remote video umpire, but that it should only be there for the absolute howlers like Kossie being tripped in the goal square against Hawthorn a few weeks back. Still baffles me how that wasn't paid by a feild umpire - maybe the off feild umpire could simply play it on the big scoreboard screens and the AFL enable the feild umpires call back the play and to play a slightly delayed decision. Don't think anyone at the ground would have argued against that one and would save the umpires the embarrassment that they missed it entirely.

All the moaning about pretty boy Daicos getting scragged here and there - do they watch what happens to Max every second week? Nope. The On the Couch [censored] have almost praised they way teams like Port Adelaide and Brisbane have gone after him on multiple occations. Sorry I can't see how it's within the rules how the do it either shepherd a player in an inconsequential way within 20m of a marking contest and it's a free kick, but on occations I've seen Max shepparded off the ball left right and centre without consequence. You can bet that if one of our players came in and laid a similar block we'd get pinged for an off the ball fee kick.

Oh, FFS, so hand Collingwood a free shot at goal because of that. My original comment stands then (pardon the pun), that the umpires have insufficient game awareness of the penalties they are handing out. Umpires that has half a brain would understand that issue presented by big games at the G and moderate their actions according. Instead we seem to have robots with no game sense, but who pick and choose in which instances they will penalise a player based on the colours on their jumper and the bets they have put on the game, not the actual merit.

Haven't watched the replay yet, so can only go by what I saw at the game, but that first 50m penalty they paid against us was the epitome of what is wrong with umpiring and how 50m penalty is paid. From what I saw, we had a MFC player who legitimately didn't know exactly where to stand the mark and an umpire being pedantic then arbitrarily pulling a 50m penalty out of their a hole that gave Collingwood a free shot on goal. In today's highly congested game, clean shots inside 50 are like gold and to pay a 50 anywhere forward of the centre circle is massively more advantous than in the back half. The umpires really do need to be cognisant of this when paying super marginal 50m penalties. To me the standing the mark penalty needs to be proportionate, bring it back to a 15m penalty. How does being half a meter over the mark 80m out from goal actually meaningfully impact the play anyway - hint it doesn't. Conversely many of the most blatant incidents to unfairly infringe and hold up play go unpenalised.