Rodney (Balls) Grinter

...and his sister was a good looking sort and a refreshing change on the clubs in-house media videos.

If other teams around us improve and we do to, then we should still advance up the ladder, as there are other that I think are cherry ripe for a fall like the Hawks, North, possibly even Geelong and West Coast.

Great to hear, but hardly surprising though. Was sad to see Jordie go, always gave 110% out on the field and hard as a cats head. Was a pitty his skills weren't quite up to senior AFL standard, but it's clear he is a good footballer.

If they are going to improve the stadium, first place they should start is to put transparent panels on the retractable section of roof to improve the massive light/dark contrast you get on the ground when the roof is open. Might even partly or fully pay for it's self if it reduced the amount of artificial sun lamps required to grow the grass. In this respect, perhaps they could also cover the rest of the roof sectiond in solar PV panels to reduce or even make a positive contribution to the stadium's environmental foot print as well as being a good economic decision.

Exactly F@#k Eddie. Seriously the guy is on the nose. Does his self righteous narna/tantrum at anything and everything that may possibly threaten his darling (not so hot) Pies. Is their a F@#k Eddie thread on Demonland? If not, can we please have one?

Although given that he is presently recovering from surgery, he may not be the best option 'tomorrow'!!

Yep, I think you have hit the nail on the head with a lot of Peddo's value to the side. Clear example was a play in the Hawthorn win - Peddo crashes a marking contest around CHF, Weid picks up the loose ball and delivers it deep forward - GOAL. Peddo didn't get a stat for that effort, but had great impact on the play, literally and metaphorically. I watched him do this sort of thing numerous times over the course of the year, including the PA win (after which I seem to recall he was shockingly dropped). How Peddo didn't get rubbed out numerous times throughout the year also surprises me, as he made some big bone jarring hits on players walking the razor thin line of physicality in moden football. I actually think Jesse Hogan could learn something from Peddo on the physical aspects of the game. Jesse can make a big physical impact on contests, but I don't think I saw it anywhere near enough over the course of this year. There may actually have been a case for dropping him to the VFL like Bulldogs did Stringer...but not sure if that would have helped his 'homesickness'. Now that he is re-signed, I expect bigger things from Jesse. He came to the club with Carey like comparisons, which I think are warranted, but he clearly needs to take his game to the next level to achieve that.

Similar could be said of Jayden Hunt, but would we say the same about him? As I said, his best years for us were his first couple. During those years Dawes always worked his butt off for the side tackling, running, provided a target and helped us be a half competitive team, when we would otherwise have copped more of an absolute flogging than we regularly did at that time. It's generally not the players fault when they get injured and so many people on this forum are harsh to judge on most recent performances, forgetting all that came before that.

Sorry, I'm not sure how Lobby staying with GWS can be regarded as a good thing, or am I missing something?

Disagree. For the first two years, he had a decent presence and made a big difference to the team's performance when he played. If anything, I think the clubs lack of mature forward options in his early years with the club may have negatively impacted his career by having him play injured, always rushing him back and not allowing him to properly get over injuries. My view is that he's given good service to the club in the time that he's been here and it would be sad to see him go on the present terms. I think the real assessments needs to be made by our medical/fitness staff, because if his body just isn't up to it anymore, then I think based his performance this year (which I'm has been limited by physical fitness) then, the club certainly can't afford to keep him on the list.

Now that $cully's return is signed on for another 3 years, yes.

If the Bulldog's had their handball club, we should start a goal kicking club. Can be lead by Jack Watts, with Christian Salem as VC. If all of our players could kick for goal like those two boys, then our conversion will smell like pure roses.

Yes, even if we got an early first round pick, what's the value in that if you can not retain them once they actually become dominant players, rather than just players with high potential. Incubating players for other clubs like we did with Scott Thompson and $cully is a no returns game. I just hope we can lock in the gun group of young mids we have coming through like Pratracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, Hunt and Co when it comes time.

In the Fairfax papers trade article today: "Convincing Jesse Hogan to open negotiations on extending his contract beyond the end of next year is the biggest priority. Michael Gleeson" I couldn't agree more. Great move by Jesse and the club unless there was a Dangerfield type player up for grabs in the trade period, retaining Jesse is so much better than anything elese on offer.

Great article on the Jones brothers on the Fox Footy page: http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/zak-jones-has-older-brother-and-melbourne-captain-nathan-to-thank-for-pointing-him-in-right-direction/news-story/ff93a77a947b317bca2ea876d6c04f55 Captain Courageous, Nathan you are a class act and hopefully your day will come soon too.

You would hope that it wouldn't, because I thought that incident was well with 'the spirit if the game' ... But then, as you point out, they are umpires.

I fell asleep from about rounds 8 to 19, it was that interesting. Missed Jimmy's award which was a little disappointing.

Did they have him drug tested?

I found Gill's vote reading was atrocious and hugely disrespectful. The way he raced through some games like they were meaningless was a massive insult to those teams and players awarded votes in those games.

Sorry if I'm repeating others here, but does it make me a sadist if I really want to see a photo of Tom $cully crying?

Spencer certainly doesn't let the team down with his effort or agression, however his foot skills and footy smarts do from what I recall watching him at AFL level. That said, bar the Geelong game (in which he actually looked OK), pretty much every other game he's played in I recall at AFL level, the whole team played like crap and that's always a hard environment to perform in. I defiantly think he's worth holding on to and thought that the club should have played him a few times this year to help him develop, but also give big Max a bit of a chop out. I'm a bit concerned that Max is going to get burnt out doing it all on his own, particularly against two genuine ruck types most weeks. I also don't think it's good to use Jack Watts to relieve in the ruck on a regular basis, although it is useful that he has now developed a bit of a capability there now and perhaps it might help his physicality and combativeness in that regard to jump in there every now and then.

One about Max, not by him: "He's all of seven foot tall and about ten kilos of beard" Some special comments from Alastair Lynch during game comentary. Long live the beard. Perhaps a few more of our players should do some beard work in the gym and put some weight on there like Maxy.

As an asides (which I think could describe this whole thread anyway), has been great listening to all the commentators talking down Hawthorn's mid field depth over the past few days, with the highlight being when Jonathan Brown stated that the cracks in their invincibility started to show when they were convincingly beaten by a young Melbourne midfield in Rd 20. I do find it amusing how fickle commentators can be when at the start of the season they were all talking up the Hawks great depth, development and how they had this next wave of young stars coming through, but now they see worrying signs on the Hawks talent. We are yet to see how far and how fast the Dorks fall, but for the moment, I'm enjoying the fact that they have fallen off their high, aragent perch and the likely prospect that they will fall further.

As an aside, the current Hawthorn coach is another that could be added to that list. Was not an out and out superstar, but a very serviceable player for us none the less.

In his press conference, Clarckson said that everyone at Hawthorn would be happy if they finished 18th if Jarryd Roughead got his health back (well that's all I recall of his presser before I fell asleep - literally). I think everyone in the football world would be happy for both of these events to come true.