Rodney (Balls) Grinter

2 minutes ago, frankie_d said:

the crowd is, um…,modest

Crowds disappear into the MCG. Chill out people, there is a reasonable crowd here.

At least Gate 3 was open today.

Just now, At the break of Gawn said:

Effort hasn't really been the problem apart from a couple of starts. List management needs to take some responsibility, there's been no injection of slick ball users and good runners apart from some kids via the draft.

If you can't trade for them, the draft is the spot you get them. I think we've done well with our recent selections at the draft, but as good as those kids are, it takes a few years to develop them into reliable AFL level performers.

2 minutes ago, Sydee said:

My three-word summary of that chance meeting

Hird, please no

My 6 word summary

I'd rather eat my own vomit.

52 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

It is certainly not in the player’s best interest to sulk and put up an average performance. Their future coach will undoubtedly be watching today.

I heard Paul Roos say that he watched the last few games of the season before he took over as coach, and was so impressed with Nev Jetta he saved him from a certain delisting.

Opportunity aplenty for players to show their next coach what they’re made of.

As Gawny said, footy waits for nobody.

I think two things can be true at once. I'm actually glad that the players came out in defence of Goody, which shows the level of respect and loyalty they had for their coach and mentor for he past 10 odd years. But I also don't sense a mass player dissatisfaction and revolt against the board.

I'm personally not expecting the players to sulk. I think Max set the tone well, when he said words to the effect that he was originally shocked and hurt, but that he's moved on. I think it's also possible the playing group will also be thankful for a fresh start and some clean air without the conjecture of having calls to axe the coach hanging over them after every loss.

For the love of god, I hope we give big Jed a full game.

Really don't see the value in him sitting on the bench as sub for 3/4 in the position we're currently in.

Start him in the 22, get him on early and give him maximum game time and experience to build on for 2026.

Last week, I came out before the game and said to my mate ans girlfriend that we'd probably smash West Coast by 80 points after the St Kilda debacle. That's just the kind of side we are at the moment, capable of putting in a good performance when you don't expect it.

I've got no real sense of how we will play today though. Everyone is expecting a sacked coach rebound, but I'm not confident we will. I have a feeling that we spent alot of mental energy in responding to the St Kilda game and wouldn't surprise me if we put in a flat mediocre performance and loose by 30 - 50 points.

Really hope I'm wrong. I'd also rather we have plenty of fire in the belly for Hawthorn and Collingwood.

4 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Why ??

Not being pedantic . What harm to announce when able ?

Exactly. If Buckley is the guy, the he has nothing holding him to another club as far as I understand. Assistant coaches might be another story, but then some of them may not even be able to properly fall into play until after finals.

Just get on with it and start building for 2026 ASAP. If we can be getting into the ears of any potential trade targets and potential assistant coaches during the finals period, then let's do it. I think that was the whole point of dismissing Goodwin when they did.

Great effort of Ed to get to 200. It's somewhat disappointing that it's been overshadowed by Goodwin's sacking. I actually think his performance at the presser was good. He spoke genuinely of the players perspective and love for Goody, but was also clear that he respected the boards decision.

Ed was one of the early quality young up and coming players to join a rising MFC. He made a great impact when he arrived and continues to make a great contribution to the team week in week out. He does have the occasional quite game and I think he's played one fairly average season for us back 2023 or something, but by in large, he's been incredibly consistent and reliable high performer over the journey.

Congratulations on 200 Ed and thanks for making the MFC your football home.

1 minute ago, praha said:

Watch them get pumped next week and need to beat us to make top 4. We all know how that story goes. But if the roles were reversed...

If they get pumped next week, they could very well be playing for just a spot in the 8 if all the chips fall the right way. Even if they win next week, I suspect they might still need to beat us top 4.

As a bit of an asides, one of our few losses in 2021 was to Collingwood, the week after or something Buckley resigned, so we owe them beating them in the last Rd this year for that as well as Gus and everything else. Would be great if all the cards fell right and we knocked them out of finals - a bit of 2017 karma about that as well.

7 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Have been , as no doubt are most of us , having a bit of a think about this .

I can only sense that the club will go forcan experienced operator, but that may NOT rule out a very capable senior assistant. Only time will unveil.

I would only want someone with the enthusiasm and energy to take the reigns. They could be there for a few years so I'm not looking for a temporary solution.

I note, well it's my gut feeling ( could just be the farts 🤷‍♂️ ) that not everyone mentioned is there by their own impetus. Horse is high on lists but is HE really that interested or keen to uproot. I wonder. I've moved away from Simpson. I just don't think he is THAT fit for us. He's capable but is he our best option ? Then there's Bucks. My first gut reaction was very nearly a gut reaction... lol But in thinking I've considered the qualities required.

You need to thoroughly understand Football. He does. A very good head for it. He knows where this game is. Also where it might head. Tactically I think hes shown nouse. Can he coach ? I'd have to deduce he can. His time at Collingwood. I think he was on a bit of a hiding to nothing ...and white ants were apparent. He seems keen. Thats good in my book . I don't want someone there who you had to drag there.

Something that is a trademark of Bucks in footy. He took games on !! Both as a player, and i thought a very very good player, a match turner-winner kind of player and in his coaching. He would try to win games. Im not a fan of trying to protect a win ( too early ) .

Horse likes to move magnets. Im not a fan of Simpson footy.

I hope we are not too blinkered in our search.

I want someone to relight the fire in the players.

Any which way 26 will be , imho , a sorting come discovery year. Need to become super relevant in 27.

Who ever comes needs to wrangle together assistants who can impart skills and craft.

Im a little buoyed, excited and at the same time nervous . Simon certainly didn't get everything wrong. Far from it. But we'd stalled... and like a plane that's not good. If someone can fire up those jets and wrestle control back so we can lift well, dare I say the sky's the limit.

Im warming to Bucks , but I'm not sold. Horse is the Horse of course , of course.. and not one talks like the Horse of course.... Just not feeling it for Simpson. Might be a better fit elsewhere.

So who else ??

Interesting fortnight ahead.

Meanwhile.... good luck Troy 👍

I'm actually distinctly warming to Buckley for all the reasons you mention.

Think he has a good mix of approachable mate coach, but also able to set high expectations and give the team a good rev-up when they need it. I think he was set up to fail the way the transition worked at Collingwood under Malthouse and with Eddy in the background. His closeness to some in the playing group probably didn't help either.

I initially defended Horse's initial reaction, but the more I reflect it seems he really doesn't want the job. I'm also somewhat turned off by his shocking GF record. Asides from the one premiership he actually won with them, Sydney were pretty much trounced in every other GF they played under him, which isn’t a good sign for me.

As a real left field thing - could we coax Roosy back?

Congrats to Jed.

Haven't seen alot of his VFL form, but unless he plays an absolute mare on Sunday (which I don't think he will), I hope we find a way to play him until the end of the season.

16 minutes ago, Random Task said:

Will be the first time #26 is seen at AFL level since the Weid last played in 2022.

Fun fact, the previous owner of #26 was non other than Petracca. He sported #26 in his first season at the club, however didn't play a game in it due to his pre-season ACL injury.

Other notable owners in my time were Greg Doyle and Jack's uncle Jay.

2 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

Those are great points Bobo. A logical organisation would concur. 😂

I see the incident is different just because Howe contributes to the clash more actively than Evans did. Howe leaves the ground, and that is enough of a variable for the AFL.

I also agree with you that it seems insane that the AFL tries to argue about what a reasonable player would do. Both incidents were insanely quick.

I just would temper anyone’s expectations about there being any relationship between these incidents and an expected outcome. There’s enough variables that the AFL can concoct whatever they want as an outcome. This is by design. 👍

Good lord "Howe contributed to this himself more than Evans" It's pretty much pot luck how these incidents turn out in both those circumstances. May could have just as easily copped a slightly erant elbow to the head, would Evans have been suspended then?

Honestly think they need to have some of these AFL muppets role play all of this out at full pace to show how the players should act and maybe get an actual appreciation of what's reasonable.

Read in interesting article quoting Paul Roos earlier this week how seeing Nev Jetta play one of the final games of the season before he took over as coach gave Roosy enough of an impression that Nev was worth persevering with and keeping a list spot (probably just a rookie lost one from memory). But Laurie has shown nothing like what Nev did up to that point.

Laurie was given numerous opportunities last season and in previous seasons. Pretty much every time he plays, he doesn't have the composure to execute basic football skills at AFL level.

Given Laurie had the somewhat unjustified luxury of another preseason and year on our list, I'd be against him being given opportunities to prove he's got what it takes at the top level for the remainder of this season. Give those to Adams, Taj and Pup instead as I think they have shown themselves to be far closer to AFL standard when given opportunities than Laurie. Glad that Culley is being given a decent crack. Would even prefer guys like Henderson and Sestan be given opportunities ahead of Laurie.

If Laurie has an outstanding pre-season, then he should get some good gametime during practice matches etc. Honestly though, personally, if we could I'd rather trade him as maybe a change of scenery might do him good; perhaps a change of senior coach might have the same effect for us. I doubt anyone else will be interested though and think he'll end up playing out his career as a solid VFL player.

On a related topic, it was reported by the MFC that Steve May only just came out of concussion protocols this week, so the 3 week suspension was probably somewhat inconsequential in that respect.

I guess De Koning "only gave him a concussion" and everyone loves a good specky, so we should just move on. The other thing that I take away from that is that next time players realise that they need to enter a foot race in which they might arrive at the ball at the same time, they should just try to take a specky on them and knee them in the head instead, because that's a football act that provides total immunity from suspension.

3 hours ago, GM11 said:

Just pictured the MRO & tribunal trying to figure out how to get out of the corner they've painted themselves into.

No doubt they will come up with some BS rationale that insults all intelegence and logic.

1 hour ago, Norm Smith's Curse said:

Nathan Buckley's coaching record:

218 games (117-99-2)

John Lomgmire:

332 games (207-122-3)

Simon Goodwin:

203 games (111-91-1)

Michael Voss:

196 games (88-106-2)

Adam Simpson:

243 games (122-119-1)

That was fun!

Looking at Grand Final win / loss results paints a bit of a different picture though.

Buckly 1, 0 - 1

Longmire 5, 1 - 4

Goodwin 1, 1 - 0

Voss 0, 0 - 0

Simpson 2, 1 - 1

In answer to the basic question of "how are you doing ?" - to be honest when this was first announced earlier in the week, I had a real sinking feeling and almost embarrasment like "oh no, here we go again". Melbourne are a basket case, sack the coach, ra ra ra.

But after riding all the bumps over the past 40 odd years of following our team the past 20 in particular) I've learnt not to get quite so emotional about this stuff and just switched off footy for a few days.

Putting things into perspective a bit too while its certainly not the season we'd have hoped for, our season hasn't actually been all that bad either. Yeah we've copped a couple of 60 point losses, but nothing worse than that and handed out a couple back the other way. We've been pretty compeditive against some of the higher ranked sides too and our percentage is getting close to 100%.

I don't actually read all that much into the St Kilda loss - Hawthorn had just as bad a quarter against Adelaide the other week, which took them from a dominant position to loosing the game as well. GWS had a bigger turn around against Sydney in a quarter too. If anything, St Kilda got pretty lucky to be gifted a 50m penalty and a free kick out of the centre in the dying minutes and seconds, without which we win the game and it's pretty much a non story. Big turn arounds happen in quarters these days - just look at the last 45mins of our 2021 GF.

What happened this week was nothing compared to some of the bad old days era 2008-2013. As an asides, I reinstated my MFC membership while living interstate in 2012 after a thumping loss to West Coast by 108 points that had many baying for blood. This past weeks have been nothing like that.

46 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Neither does David King.

Said May should get 6 weeks and Newcombe no case to answer, as it was an accident.

36 minutes ago, Jack Vineys Anger Manager said:

I like how Jon Ralph said that "the good news is that it's only concussion for Howe".

Not sure how many concessions King got as a player, but both these guys are brain dead when it comes to any sensible, objective critical thinking.

1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

I felt waaay worse about Jetta, Jones and Hunt missing out on a grand final in 2021.

I still feel gutted about Gus, and that hurt won’t ever just disappear.

The players that miss out on premierships is always hard and something of a regret. In that year, I also somewhat feel for guys like Melksham who I felt was a huge part of our revival in 2017 / 2018 and has been great in the last few years, but was unfortunately either injured and/or out of form in 2021.

Adam Tomlinson was also another so unlucky to get injured mid season after putting together some great form and helping hold the backline together for a number of weeks in the absence of May and Hibbo.

Similarly Aaron vandenBerg was a personal favorite of mine with the way he played the game and played an awsome late season cameo role in 2021 from recollection, but didn't make the final cut. Joel Smith another to play well late season, including a great qualifying final playing on Charlie Cameron a his peak.

Would also have been great to have seen Majak Daw played at least one senior game during the season if not for being struck down by injury at just the time he might have got a game.

Like I say, it is a typical thing with premierships, but hopefully all those guys really did feel valued in their contributions to bringing home the trophy.

2 hours ago, demon3165 said:

People should have a listen to Max not doom and gloom.

https://play.listnr.com/podcast/mmm-breakfast-melbourne/episode/max-gawn-talks-simon-goodwin-axing-club-direction-playing-groups-reaction

I'm with Max.

Wasn't that happy with the decision at the time. I think it's fairly clear from what Ed said (and many others along the journey) that Goody still had the confidence of the playing group, so the sacking wasn't on that basis. I was personally a fan of Goody's based on his cool measured approach and relationships with the players - having players happy to play for a coach is pretty important.

One of my favourite footy quotes came from a Demonland podcast of Peter Jackson era 2019ish being along the lines that improvement isn't always linear. If it was up to the press and popular oppinion, how many would have sacked Goody after 2019 / 2020. With the young talent we've bought in over the last 2 - 3 years, I think we have been doing a pretty reasonable job of rebuilding the list at the same time as trying to complete and not bottom out and as much as I'd hope it not be the case, perhaps it's unrealistic that we could have made finals every year though that transition.

I'm also not happy with the decision from the perspective that I feel there was a concerted effort from some in the media and ex administrators to white ant out Goody and sacking him hands them something of a victory. Neither do I think we should underrate how good our 2022 and 2023 seasons were. In 2021, we spent most of our season going under the radar and performed above expectations. In 2022 and 2023, we were the hunted and still performed and finished top 4. Our start to 2022 was outstanding, I think the conditioning team let us down by not keeping the group fresh enough going into finals. In 2023, I think we were dealt a hugely cruel (and grossely unfair) blow with Gus. As Leigh Mathew's has often said, there is a big element if luck in winning a premiership.

That all said, what's done is done. There's no use crying over spilt milk and I really do hope this creates a fresh environment where we can move forward without asking "Is the next coach the right guy" in both the broader media, but particularly here on Demonland and the MFC faithful. In this respects I'm happy the board did make its call at this point of the season and not post season, to give ourselves the best opportunity to bring in the best coaching talent moving forward. Personally I am bullish about our current list and potential in the seasons ahead, but also do realise that with a new coach there could be hard decisions regarding some of my favourite players to be made at the end of the season.

More than anything, I'm excited by the prospect of watch another MFC premiership sometime in the years ahead and being there to watch it at the G this time.

1 hour ago, Previously known as LITD. said:

They are indeed.

I was thinking more in terms of their financial security.

I'm sure Coaches these days are well set up compared to many a young delisted player.

From what I can work out, minimum wage for a non-rookie list player is $145k this year. If you earn this kind of coin as a kid out of high school for a few years, then need to go back and get an apprenticeship or higher education I don't think you have too many problems. Assuming they don't let it all go to their head and spend it on frivolous things, they'd be well ahead of most of their peers financially.

On 28/04/2022 at 16:47, Dees2014 said:

Presumably b/c he perceived they could not win a premiimership, which turned out to be right over that period. Wonder what he thinks now?

His words in the media I've seen is that he thinks we've got a good mix of experience and young talent