Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Wow Tony, you really have made that first post count.

I'm absolutely of the view this game was well on the way to being lost at selection.  There were half a dozen players who would have given us more drive today than the three inclusions, in a game in which we were admittedly poor around the ground, but still only lost by less than four goals.

I can't quite understand the calls to trade/delist ANB - he is only a second year player and one who shows a bit of toughness and go at that.  In my view is worth preserving with for at least another season.  Not sure I would have picked him today though.

Why Viv Mitchie played today absolutely bemuses me though.  He has been on a AFL list for six seasons, played 22 games, of which I hardly recall one worthy of an AFL player.  He is the absolute definition of a list clogger (is it OK to use that term, or am I offending people again?).

And yes, I'm having a good [censored] and winge here, but only because I bloody hate loosing, think our team is much better than that and thought this was a very winnable game.  Still encouraged by the gains throughout the year and looking forward to taking further steps forward next year.

A half fit Christian Salem would have been twice as good as either of the mid sized ins this week.

To all those who have been saying we picked the team with an eye to next year, please tell me, what did Weid and ABN get out of playing that game?

28 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Simply gutted.

I think I should have followed your advice and switched off at half time, because just about all I got from that second half was pure frustration.

5 minutes ago, Old Bear said:

Should be first one picked each week

An absolute joke that he was dropped

VB owed us that push of which set up that goal to Bullen

3 minutes ago, Josh said:

We will win, clean up inside 50's and have a crack in the middle

 

 

I bloody hope so.

About the only positive I can find at the moment is that we have played like almost total crap, but are still in the game on the scoreboard.

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.

Just now, johndemons said:

We should bring in a light steel type silver and keep the Red V and have various grades of silver or grey. 

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!)

3 hours ago, SaberFang said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but am I seeing Collingwood playing their manditory home game at Etihad Stadium against Gold Coast? 

Really...?

They get theirs against Gold Coast and we get assigned St Kilda at Etihad twice.

I really shouldn't be surprised by the transparency of AFL HQ these days, it's just amazing how they don't even hide it.

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.

6 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

It's pretty well documented that Neeld was poisonous to the players and created a toxic environment.

And where is Neeld now?  

Let's hope he can work his magic there!

4 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

Tiring hearing this trotted out regularly; if we'd drafted Wines over Toumpas, who's to say we'd have become the basketcase we did? Who's to say we would end up with a new recruitment team led by Jason Taylor? Or Peter Jackson as CEO? Or Roos as coach? Or the 4 wins in 2014 that allowed us to draft Petracca and Brayshaw?

 

 

 

 

We'll just have to get Wines in 2 years via trade to make it a reality.  

Settle petal - just saying.  But otherwise agree, you can't win them all.

6 minutes ago, johndemons said:

 

Ben Kennedy might turn into our little Puopoulo when he gets back into the side RE the Toumpas trade. Maybe Wines will languish over at Port, he's hardly set the world on fire all year. 

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.

9 minutes ago, A F said:

I heard Viney wanted to recruit Wines and Neeld overruled him, wanting outside pace and ball use...

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

13 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

I just don't think he was ever good to begin with.

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_/

27 minutes ago, johndemons said:

Any chance we can get this in MP3 or dare I say it, FLAC ? The youtube video, despite it's cheesiness is actually an awesome kind of retro with those synths but the qual is obviously low. Would be great to play it in my imaginary Delorian on the way to the ground with the scarves out the window. 

We should get them to play this on AFL 360 next week if we beat Carlton by the way! Let's all email it and tweet it.

 

 [email protected], not sure of any other email addresses.

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.

1 minute ago, sue said:

While that might be true, the evidence is that they aren't focussed on finals. Especially when you consider that it is likely Roos would kill to get us into the finals to cement his place as a footy miracle worker. Whereas getting a bit more knowledge for 2017 does little for his reputation (public reputation at least).

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.

12 minutes ago, Ted Fidge said:

Only thing I can recall is where was running into an open goal and missed it. Maybe that was selfish coz he could have offloaded it? But if he'd kicked it, all would be forgiven.

I reckon it's got nothing to do with selfish acts, etc, and more to do with Pedo not being the future.

The coaches want to find out more about what is our best lineup and they're not going to be distracted by the sudden possibility of making the 8. They've done it all year and it's working. Weed's first game against the reigned champs on top of the ladder! Why change now and retreat into our shells?

If they'd stuck to a rigid idea of our "best 22" all year we'd still be playing Dunn and Garland and wouldn't have uncovered Hunt OMac or Frost.

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.

18 minutes ago, Tractor said:

Cannot wait to see Hogan, Weideman and Watts all in the same forward line. 

Will be a glimpse of hopefully an imposing, scary forward line that will be a powerhouse in the years to come.

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.

2 hours ago, Mach5 said:

Pedersen was dropped for selfish acts and pulling out of contests.

My personal view only, after tearing my hair out multiple times over his efforts last week.

He adds value to the side, but I don't think he'll be around a lot longer because he doesn't play the "right way."

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.

4 hours ago, DemonOX said:

Not having a go at u Rod but I really hate that term "spud". 

Any player on an AFL list has done more than us keyboard warriors. 

Please show some respect. 

Fair call OX.

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