Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Yeah, well they were 2 wins and 5 losses (your point I'm guessing) after a bunch of almost seasons. If only Picket was in charge of the Lions maybe a decent coach could have been put in charge and won them the flag!

I'd say impatience has alot to do with it Watson and I quite often find myself falling into this trap with JVR. I'm guessing the lack of other well peforming big key forward options around him at present also has a fair bit to do with it as we are actually looking to him to be the man and the focal point of our attack. I also think we are somewhat forgetting that LJ had a bunch of other mature key forwards around him that took the brunt of the defenders and pressure off him most of the time. Even then, for most of our 2021 season the story was that we were great defensively, but our forward line was a weakness, which really only clicked the last 3 or 4 games of the home and away and kept surging with momentum in the finals series.

Well he was kinda hobbling on one foot in the end, but I guess he held it together for long enough to get them over the line hey! A bit like Steve May in 2021. I remember reading Leigh Mathew's autobiography and one of his big take away is that good luck with injuries is pretty key to winning a flag. Similar to the aforementioned Neale and May examples Mathew's did also admit that Jonathan Brown was pretty banged up in one of the Lions three peat flags, but passed a fitness test and thus played. I'm thinking that there is probably some value in star players just being out their to soak up some opposition attention even if they don't have a huge impact in their own right, so long as they can bluff it well enough.

In the scheme of our season, Kade has pulled his weight in terms of scoreboard impact: MFC total goal kickers 2024 1 Fritsch 41 2 Pickett 36 3 Van Rooyen 30 4 Chandler 18 5 Turner 17 6 Petracca 14 7 Gawn 11 8 Viney 10 9 Petty 9 9 Neal-Bullen 9 9 Langdon 9 10 Windsor 8 I'd love to players kicking big bags every week too, and an extra goal or thrice would be nice, but that's not footy in the 2020s. Play a role and everyone gets their lick of the icecream at some point - that's how the modern cleche goes yeah? Kade got his share of licks this year and I've seen him continue to improve and build his game year on year - maybe some more thricing in 2025 will come. I reckon that Disco Turner will have some funky moves next season too 😉.

I'm partially guessing, but I would have said more 2021 / 22. His 2023 was a bit below his par and he ended up being dropped and playing Casey for a fair portion of the season if I recall correctly.

Go easy- Chin goes all right. Makes good space, good strong mark above his head, takles hard, good at sneaking a goal here and there and I would have as one of our most solid and reliable set shots at goal from anywhere up to around 50m out.

His best is a definite asset to the side. He's pretty much topped the league in efficiency hitting targets inside 50 in 2021 and 2022 from recollection. Again at his best is an agressive beast and great at applying forward pressure. Although he had a mixed 2023, he was still one of our best performers in the final against Carlton. If we are to be up there again in 2025, we need guys like Charlie playing at their best.

Agree we could do with some more midfield depth, but I have some serious question marks with some of the above: After only a few rounds in, Billings didn't really look close. Can he put in a killer pre-season somehow and turn his career around at a late age like T Mac? I've got my doubts, but you never know. After pleanty of opportunities at senior level Laurrie just doesn't look to cut it for mine. I'd much rather put more game time and give opportunities to guys like Woey and Doggy Brown Jnr. Was interesting to see Judd McVee given some midfield time late in the season and if AMW can keep performing in defence, perhaps that opens up an oppertunity for Judd to spend more time as a mid?

May have been mentioned by others (pardon the bad pun), but will never forget the ripping game he played against Geelong in early 2021 after Hawkins smashed Steve's eye socket. Winning that game was so important for our belief and early season momentum and Tommo did more than just hold up an end in May's absence. I will personally remember Tommo as a contributing member of of premiership squad, not as frindge player in our team. Having players of his calibre as depth that season was huge. As a side note, I still can't believe that Hawkins didn't get suspended for that clumsy hit on May and really does make me think that we get harder done by that other charmed clubs/players. Kossie only has to look at someone and scare them into falling over and he is garrenteed a 3 week suspension.

Most players have some inconsistency to their performance year to year. ANB was brilliant in 2021, 2024 (third B&F) and I don't recall him being horrible in 2022 or 2023, just maybe not smashing it every game. His role also tends to go un-noticed. I felt Fritsch was down a bit this season, as have been other acknowledged quality players like Bowey and Salem at points, but I don't think we'd be branding them as fickle.

2020 was an interesting season for ANB and the club as a whole. Seem to remember him being cruelled by the AFL with what I regard as an excessive suspension for a sling takle early in the season, just as he'd worked his way into the side. Vividly recall his last game in 2020 against Essendon at Carrara stadium - he played a ripper, which was a bit of a preview of his potential in seasons to come IMHO. Will be interesting to see if Sharp can now step up and grab the opportunity that we will now provide him. I know Brisbane have a feast of brilliant on ballers, but I think they also have some aging stars amoung that group, so part of me is a little surprised that they let him go for peanuts in some respects. Guess there is a bit of a come home factor for Sharp as well, although from experience Brisbane is a great place to live and you'd think he'd be pretty happy up there. Anyways I'm not complaining with the outcome for the MFC at this point.

If Sharp can mature and develop into the ANB mold, then I think we've done well out of trading ANB to the Crows. Although I always saw early glimpses of potential in ANB, he didn't really start hitting his straps as an AFL footballer consistently until he had around 4 or 5 seasons under his belt. Alot of that development work has been done with Sharp and if he can make the grade, then I like that we're continuing to rejuvenate the age profile of our list, without bottoming out and/or ending up with a glut of aging starts that would set us up for a big fall in the future.

Don't think it's a forgone conclusion that explayers coaching at their former club is a bad thing. Of course it depends on the individual circumstances and the talent, buy for example Paul Roos at Sydney worked out pretty well. Not saying I have any intel on Jones being the same sort of all round coaching footy genius as Roos, but from what I understand, he was always well respected for his leadership and perhaps that's what he'd be helping to re-establish and reinforce?

Looking forward to what we can do with both of 5 and 9. Last time we had a similar hand, we ended up with Clarry and Weid. Not paying out for picking up Weid as not every player recruited can be an absolute hit, but if we end up with at least one player of Clarry's quality, I think we'll be doing all right, but if we could nail both picks, I think it sets us up for the future well.

Got to admit that I was a little thrown off this season, with more of the hype seeming to be that Tholstrup was the more AFL ready, yet it was Winsor that really shone (which I'm not complaining about, because Caleb was nothing short of sensational this season and definitely looks the goods for the future). I haven't really seen enough of Tholstrup to make as much of assessment of my own, but take the points you are making Macca and will be watching with interest over future seasons.

You know I think the benifit of having someone like Tom as that backup ruck option, is that he seems genuinely just happy to be still at an AFL club and a part of that environment and happy enough just to keep doing his thing in the twos for as long as is required while Max is fit and firing. I'm not knocking Grundy, but I think someone like him who was capable of playing regular AFL would have been super frustrated not playing at the top level and even as professional and free of ego that he seemed to project. I know he probably can't play the key forward role, but if Tom can make a similar contribution to our list as say Peddo or perhaps Mitch Brown, then I think we've done all right.

Sounds like a cracking bloke as a footballer. I think we've done well to recruit Tom.

Which wouldn't have been the case in this instance by the sounds of it. Honestly, I think we've actually over corrected in this respect and there are a number of worthy debutants that have been burnt by the club via the sub rule in recent years. Main culprits in my mind are Toby Bedford, Taj Woewodin and Kynan Brown. Kynan Brown in particular out of this group got like 2mins of a game against North three quarters of the way through the season, when I actually think he looked quite ready from watching him in the preseson game against Richmond. Getting back to the Collingwood game - we looked putrid, lathargic and flat for that game and an injection of youth could have been something great to booster some energy and enthusiasm, but I guess hindsight is a beautiful thing isn't it.

What odds were we and did you do this at the end of 2020?

Nah, the sky is falling down isn't it?

What about against the sides that have x2 genuine rucks like Freo (possibly others?)? I wouldn't write it off all together, but agree that it's not our intention to have them both regularly in the same side. I really do hope it means we're not playing Max if he's carrying injuries that he would benefit from resting a week, where this year he would have played because we had no quality backup option.

Yeah, fair enough. I forgot all the specifics. Even though he was out of contract, that still meant GWS had to trade for him yeah? Otherwise we could have told them we'd let him put himself up for the pre-season draft? I really wish a few clubs would follow through on this threat some more as I feel players are really too free to walk out on clubs willy nilly at the moment.

Fritta's against Geelong is my pick, as it was also at such a consequential time of the game. When he kicked that it pretty much sealed the game for us. Love alot of the other goals too. Overall, watching these clips reminded me we were really not that far off flag contention this season bar a run of rubbish season ending injuries to several of our guns. Only just lost to Brisbane (after they'd turned the corner) and Port away and even the GWS loss doesn't look that bad given how they faired this season.

I know it doesn't work like this, but GWS owe us for Toby Bedford. Quite a similar situation in a way, only Bedford was getting games and showing promise at AFL level. Still spewing we let that kid go so easily.

Just looking over the life members stuff - 45 games and 73 goals was a decent enough return from BBB I think. And for all the talk about cultural issues at the club, guys like Ben should be celebrated even more for what I understand he bought in that regard as well. His contribution to our 21 premership should never be underrated IMHO.