Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Still in it with a big shot.

We can beat GWS next week and or 3 from the next 4 is entirely doable.  Our loss to North is similar to the Bombers loss to the Lions - a setback for sure, but you don't throw away the season on the back of one game.

I was pretty [censored] with the result and particularly our last quarter yesterday, but if I have learnt one thing this season, is that our team is more resilient and I'm full expecting we bounce back from this.  

Forgetting about yesterday as a supporter and looking forward to the opertunity ahead.

Sorry to be a party pooper, but my hope is that we don't have one in the next 10 years, because our top group of players are all so good they pepetually taking and sharing votes between them, that we tally well Brownlow wise as a team, but not well enough individually to have a winner.

More interested in having a Norm Smith medalist, along with breaking his curse.

This is [censored], Come'on Demons 

Well, at least it's not 60 points at quarter time.

I kinda understand zone/team defense, but Nev Jetta on Ben Brown is rarely going to work.

3 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Hunt will be able to kick from 90m today..

Torpes from full back.

No BT on comenty off to a good start already 

Expecting a much better game from Jack Watts this week.  His game last week was pretty ordanary to say the least, but watching the replay, he still contributed a few handy score involvements.  And because he's Jack Watts, he still would have taken one of Port's best defenders allowing others like Melksham to get off the chain a bit at times.

If Jack wins and controls the ball into our forwardline today and we could be in for a good game.

It was nominally the equivalent game to this last year, that Max stamped his authority on the comp.  Melbourne supporters would have already knew he was a gun, but his performance against the reining AA ruckman Goldstein that day really made everyone else take notice.

Maximus looked like he was starting to get back to that sort of form in the first half against Port last week (before he rolled his ankle and couldn't jump).  Given his picked, I'm assuming he's good to go an would really love him to get back to top form today.

14 minutes ago, Ricky P said:

Would hardly call $1300 a year a crisis. That's $25 a week on a leisure activity. How much do you spend a week on leisure activities? 

Your assuming that the $1300 is spread evenly . Reality is that it's not.

In 2014 we were winners in the draft lottry when the Saints passed up on Christian Petracca.  I'm not buying into the whole argument of whether McCartlin will ever be worth pick 1 or not (with the eminent retirement of Reiwault it may well have been the right pick for the Saints in the long run), but Trac was definetly the player we needed more.  Every time I watch Trac play I am greatfull to the Saints.

20 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I'm happy to say we're at 42,000. It's why rounding up was invented.

So let's call it a nice round 50,000 then.

13 hours ago, Pates said:

He might feel more at home, it'll probably have a bit more of a suburban footy feel to it which is what he's been doing for the last couple of seasons. 

Hope he is able to put in a really good game, like many here I just want to see him back playing regular AFL footy. Whether that's in Red and Blue or not I actually don't mind, but let's see how he goes this week. 

Also I'm not feeling like this is MFCSS but I think it would be a mistake to take North lightly here. We definitely did earlier in the year and they got the jump on us, I know we've developed further as a team but for the first bounce we should bully them around like teams have done to us in the past. At 3 quarter time I want to see us with a big score and cruising comfortably. 

Few points:

1.  I want to see Jack as a MFC AFL footballer first and foremost.  I don't care if he is perennially on the fringe, but as far as I'm concerned, he is one of ours.  I think there is a lot of mutual loyalty there to repay, for the club for what Jack has gone through with us and for Jack from the club keeping him on for so long through all the injuries.  I wouldn't begrudge him as such if either he or the club decided he was beter as a regular at a building club like the Lions, GC or something, but it's certainly not a preferable scenario by any means.  I'd think and hope that Jack would rather be on the fringe with his mates at a successful club, than a regular at a struggling club, from his perspective I would think he's been there done that and deserves to take some part in the success I think and hope that is on the door step of the MFC.  The ultimate would be for him to become a premership player at the MFC, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves;

2.  I think any game is a potential danger game for any club, even the strong ones.  With our record against North I'm also feeling aprehensive, but really do feel the time is right and team is mature and good enough that we should just get the job done.  Windy conditions in Tassie are different, bit we played in them last year and did ok, if it wasn't for giving a 60 odd point head start;

3.  First game this year we physically took it up to North from the first bounce, but I think that distracted us from playing our game and let them bully us on the scoreboard.  We play a physically hard game naturally now, so we just get on with the gamr in a professional manner, put the scores on the board and come away with the four points.  No point in burning too much energy or getting too worked up and getting players suspended over that Norf trash;

4.  What does the MFCSS stand for?  I mean I get the loose idea what it means from the numerous contexts I have seen it in, but don't understand the explicit acronym.

21 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Hoping Trengove gets license to hunt the footy a bit more through the midfield.

That would be nice.  I felt last week's game really didn't really suit him to get involved in a big way.  It looked too much like he was playing cautious, within himself, trying harder not to make mistakes than taking the game on.

His skills liking up through half forward would be good.  My recollection of him at his peak was that his foot skills were pretty handy.

I know this [censored] probably belong in the JT thread, but beyond beating Norf, my second football hope for the WE is that Jack builds his place back as an AFL footballer.  The ultimate footy story, the side that was down and out climbs it's way back, along with the player who shared the same fate.

Come'on Demons, Come'on Jack (s)!

Non changes a good outcome for this week.  No risking Jones - keep him and Bernie fresh for the Great Wankers Side.

...but first let's smash these Norf pricks.

14 hours ago, Baghdad Bob said:

It's not unreasonable to debate the decision and those that didn't support it would now accept they were wrong.  It's an opinion business and if you're going to have a pot shot at everyone for getting things wrong you'll be very busy.

I'm not sure if I posted at the time but I was unsure of the decision until I heard Jones talk about it on "On The Couch".

My recollection of that left me less convinced it was the right call in some ways.  It was clear that, true to the media rumours, Nathan Jones was personally hurt by having to share the captaincy, which correlated with my feelings that it was alway a big risk in that respect.  Full credit to the proffesionalisim and leadership of Jones to cop it on the chin, respect his coach and get with the program.  Had he not done this, sooked and become disruptive, things could have gone down hill for the club.

I think Jones deserves full respect for the way he has lead the club in tough times and still impacts in a big way now we are on the rise.  One poster commented that we have risen more since Viney has been a joint captain, but I think that’s really as much to do with the teams rise as it is Viney's.  I'm a huge fan of Viney, but was generally in the camp of him being VC.  Now that it's happened, there is really no turning back and like Jones we as supporters should (and I think mostly have) embraced it.

7 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

Barrett was 100% right about the 'moneyball' strategy under Neeld.   Rodan, Byrnes, Gillies....     

We all defended the club at the time, naturally.    But Barrett was spot on.

Probably a whole other thread in itself, but i'd argue that we got value out of Rodan.  I'll go further and say that on ballance, we even got some value out of Lummumba, Matt Jones and probably a few others.  Peddersen is probably the most notable current recycled player that somewhat fits into this category.

The common threads are that all these players played a role for us, whilst costing us almost nothing at the trade/draft table.  While none were really superstars for the club, they helped us become more competitive whilst the next batch came through.  The likes of Viney and Co would have played in bigger beltings for longer and been more sapped of confidence were they not there, which wouldn’t have helped their development.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 3:38 PM, Ethan Tremblay said:

Smack bang in the middle of the Eagles members after McDonald kicks the winning goal. 

You lucky Barstard.

12 hours ago, ding said:

 

Yes, well, when you're an old garbo like me, your muscles do start to smell a bit like that.

4 hours ago, Skuit said:

There are of course fluctuations in games, and ‘putting the cue in the rack’ to conserve energy or guard against injuries, but we just can’t seem to put our foot on the throat of the opposition when they’re down – a mark of a ruthless, champion team, and so important as to % with the competition evening out. And junk-time goals against are a serious %-killer.

 

We also seem to have some strange 40-point barrier, and I know this well, as the only time I ever really have a flutter is when I have a sense we might unexpectedly dominate and take the big-odds 39+ option (it’s been killing me, although we got across the magical line against Adelaide with a last-minute goal to Kent).

 

The past two seasons; lead progression points and final margins (I’ve left out 2015 but it’s a similar pattern in our wins). Outside of these matches, we only capitalised against GC and Brisbane to record larger winning margins, while the Bulldogs this season was a reasonable example of cue in the rack.

 

2017

 

Port

 

20.46 2^nd – 43  /  Final – 23

 

Western

 

25.24 2^nd – 40  /  32.29 3^rd – 50  /  Final – 57

 

Gold Coast

 

18.37 4^th – 34  /  25.22 4^th – 41  /  Final – 35

 

Adelaide

 

6.56 4^th – 39  /  Final – 41

 

Essendon

 

3.59 4^th – 45  /  Final – 38

 

Saints

 

8.33 3^rd – 34  /  8.08 4^th – 42  /  Final – 30

 

2016

 

Port

 

17.53 2^nd – 43  /  Final – 40

 

Freo

 

16.20 2^nd – 43  /  12.47 3^rd – 50  /  Final – 32

 

Collingwood

 

20.55 4^th – 55  /  Final – 46

 

Richmond

 

30.34 4^th – 39

 

  /  Final – 33

 

Collingwood

 

10.26 2^nd – 42  /  18.22 3^rd – 39  /  Final – 35

 

 

 

Are you forgetting Rd 7, 2016?

We were up by 5 points at half time and ended up smashing them by 73 points.  Jack Viney started the ball rolling, by kicking two goals in quick succession just after half time.

I went to the game at Metricon with my old man.  It was a most enjoyable evening.  As I recall, it was a bit of a break out game for Harmes and Gawn got right amongst it as well (before all the media were worshiping Gawn Dawg as the super start MFC supporters knew he was).

Also, whist the Hawks game last year was only in the order of 30 or so points, it really did feel that we put them to the sword and never took the foot off in that last quarter.

7 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I'm hoping the next version of the Demonland software will have artificial intelligence so if we preface a curse word with "excuse my language", the auto-censor doesn't kick into play.

Well, if it's good for Max.

But seriously, the Demonland auto-censor is seriously lacking in intelegence on occasions.  Admittedly, there are times when my intended curse words have been picked up as such, but there are also some pretty benign ones that seemed to get picked up, even in completely benign context.  Eg:

Was a good coin toss for Josey to win today;

Or

We gave Gold Coast an absolute flogging last year.

I'm actually wondering about the logic in him wearing the head gear.  Quite counterintuitivly all that I have ever read is that the research says they are in effective in preventing concussions (something about the brain still floating around and hitting the inside of the skull, despite the padding from the helmet).

I actually wonder if the headgear is actually as much to remind Guss he has one (a head) and that it needs protecting, much like taping an ankle or a shoulder tells the mussels around it to tighten and that's the part which does the good.

Here with you on this one Maxy and happy with the outcome against Port on Saturday:

 "We focused a little bit on our start this week especially because our starts have been - excuse my language - sh--house," Gawn told Fairfax Media.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/afl/afl-news/melbourne-focused-on-turning-around-shhouse-starts-says-ruckman-max-gawn-20170723-gxgv7n.html

I don't actually notice him that much in games compared to other players like Viney and Jetta, but he just goes about his game in a no nonsense, business like manner and gets the job done, week in, week out.

41 minutes ago, fndee said:

Hibberd!        (but I take your point)

He only missed the first half dozen game of the year, so that was a flying start too...    (But I take your point, Hibbard has been gold - GO Demons).