Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Two bad misses to VB are hurting us

I don't care if the team go on and win, but unless he does something amazing like finish BOG, this should be Viv Mitchie's last ever game for the MFC

Interesting that Fox Footy's AFL Today recognise the rise of Hayden Hunt in a little feature they just did on him, but the AFL's judges do not. I'm hoping that over the next few weeks he put's in some blinders for the sake of the team anyway.

Nope. Red and blue all the way. I could live with 80s retro royal blue or possibly the predominantly red one, but silver, grey and white have never been part of the clubs DNA. Collingwood and Essendon hardly comprise their jumper and neither should we. The AFL's infatuation with away strips is out of control. So often I see teams playing in away jumpers even when there is next to no clash with the traditional strips. Port and Freo changed their strips to one which actually clashes more and they should be the ones that change their jumper when we play them - Port should have just adopted their prison bars (much better than Collingwood's anyway Eddy!)

About the only thing that I can think of which shiits me more about the way the AFL treats Melbourne than having to continously play 'our' home games against either St Kilda or the Bullies at Docklands is having to wear poxy white away jumpers that look nothing like a Melbourne jumper.

And where is Neeld now? Let's hope he can work his magic there!

Settle petal - just saying. But otherwise agree, you can't win them all. Yep, that's been my impression as well, along with most of the Port midfield bar Robbie Grey. How much easier is it for players to look good in sides that are playing well.

How good a midfield could it have been - Jones, Viney, Brayshaw, Tyson, Oliver, Patracca, and Wines!!

I disagree. I actually thought he seemed to use the ball really well when he got it and was particularly good at spotting someone up with an inside 50 entry. Unfortunatly, he never got enough of the pill, fumbled it way too much when he did and never really seemed to get his confidence going.

Or I found this: http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/wendy_stapleton/cmon_demons_/

You'd hope the club or someone sympathetic to it like Chris Connolly still owns the rights to it. Should put it up on iTunes and see if the club can raise a bit of cash out of it - if it were to go viral, who knows?

I think I remember being at the G when they launched the song. Loved it then and still do now. Some great highlights from Billy's dad in the video. Does make me a bit sad seeing big Jimmy and Sean though.

Not quite sure where you are going with this, as I don't see Roos as "killing" for the sake of his reputation - I think he has now done enough to establish that regardless, although finals would be nice icing on the cake for that. Along similar lines though, one thing this year will do though is raise expectations put a lot of pressure on Goodwin and the players to continue the rise next year. I am hoping that transition is as smooth as the club has been aiming for.

I do recall that missed goal and agree it was more a clanger than selfish - most players should have gobbled that one up every day of the week. I hardly think it is worth dropping a player over. I get that there is a long term agenda at play too, but I wouldn't call the opportunity to play finals (whatever the slim chances) a distraction. I'd call it what the team should be playing for. With only two games remaining, I think the long term benefits of developing a few players is overshadowed by the developments available to the whole team of gaining finals experience and we should be picking our best/in form side to win both remaining games.

Agreed, but whilst I was pretty impressed with what he did against Hawthorn, I'd rather see Weid put on a bit of meat after another good preseason before we throw him in the deep end. I'm beginning to agree with some others on this forum that the Roos talk of making early draft picks earn their spot and bringing them in when they are ready has been almost just talk at times.

Anyway, enough bemoaning selection decisions that are now done and dusted, I'm looking forward to how our troops perform on the paddock tomorrow. One of thethings I've noticed in recent weeks are the good long goals being kicked on the run by the likes of Hunt and particularly Gus Brayshaw. I think this has been really important to our forward line set-up, because it has made our avenue to goal less predictable, where as in my view, there had been too much either bombing it up to a contest at the top of the square or trying to chip around and pin point a target inside 50, both of which too seldom resulted in goals. Because we are now taking on the game a bit more again and have these players kicking goals from on or outside 50, it has made our forward line far less predictable and harder to set-up against. Also looking forward to seeing more good form from Frost - gee moving him to the back line was a genius move.

Perhaps if I watched the game again with a more critical eye, I might see the incidents you are refering to, but I don't recall any pulling out of contests and or anything particularly selfish in Pedo's play in the last couple of games he has played. Sure it's easy to be critical in hindsight when a player misses a goal, when perhaps they could have tried to pass it off to a team mate in a higher percentage position, but there is a point where if a player is in a position to kick a goal, they should just back them selves in to kick it ...and Pedo is a good goal kicker. I often think we over use the ball in our forward line and turn it over - just look at our usual forward 50 entries compared to our scoring. As for backing out of contests, I'm sure that one of Port's players (can't remember their name) was wishing that big Cam backed out of that ground ball in the middle last week.

Fair call OX. Fot the record, you are right, I wasn't even a spud of an AFL player.

It would be good if West Coast can win tonight, as I think that is the best chance of GWS needing something to play for, as they would be either playing for a top 4 or just to stay top 6 and secure a home final.

Happy to be proven wrong. However every time Mitchie comes into the senior side, it is on the back of great disposal numbers at Casey, but I can hardly recall a game at AFL level where he has shown any promise. Mitchie has nothing of the competitiveness and combativeness to win contested possessions and physical battles that Harmes has. Nearly every match report I read from Casey states: Mitchie 30 possessions, 2 contested possessions, 1 tackle. Harmes is also quite a good user of the ball, although I think this applies more so to when he plays forward of centre.

I'll take the 6% chance over the 0% chance we have had at this point in the season any day of the week.

Could not agree more. Pedo had added a big phyical presence around the ground that few if any of our other players this year have been able to produce. Dawes certainly hasn't, whilst he has dramatically improved in this area, I don't think Watts has the size of Pedo to produce the same effect (similar for Weid) and I'm not sure that Hogan has provided it in past months either. Over the past few games, Pederson had been our most effective big forward, so why mess with that?

I don't generally like to bag our players, but Mitchie is a spud at AFL level and a waste of a supplementry list spot. In the numerous chances he has been given to play at AFL level, I haven't seen him play a half decent game yet. Whilst I don't think champion data points always tell the full story, they do give a fair indication. Mitchie's highest AFL score this year is only just above what Harmes achieved last round on an off game. Mitchie's best score is lower than Jack Grimes lowest for the year. I don't ever recall seeing Mitchie do anything impactful at AFL level, yet players like Harmes and Grimes regularly put their bodies on the line and create pivotal moments in matches. Harmes games against Gold Coast and Hawthorn were excellent IMHO. I would have named a slightly underdone Salem as an emergency over Mitchie any day and it bemuses me that the match committee didn't go that way.

What will it say about the credibility of the Rising Star award if Hunt wins MFC's best first year award and or finishes higher in our B&F than all our other nominations and has still not been nominated for the Rising Star? Although, that said, there are still two rounds left. The totally presumptuous dreamer in me hopes that he plays an absolute blinder last game of the year against Geelong that helps the team across the line and simply can't be ignored. Not that I really care about the award anyway.

I'm finding it hard to separate Hunt and Patracca. Different style of players, but I think both have significantly impacted games and improved as the season has gone on. Loving watching both these guys go about their business.