Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I'd rather cheer on the resumption of the Walyalup death ride than boo.

Hope we absolutely pump them.  That would be the best message to send Dogga.

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

 

Pretty respectful there from Luke.

No "All duck, no dinner" type comments there 😂

No

Unless he does something deserving of that during the game and I don't foresee that as particularly likely.

8 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I’d love for Steven May to give him a bath when he plays forward and for Gawn to remind him who he learnt his ruck craft form. We don’t need to target him in any other way. 

16 minutes ago, SPC said:

I’d love to target Luke Jackson this week and make a statement 

Why not do both / all?

I don't really have super hate for Luke and have some degree of personal respect for him returning to his home state, but I do think it would be nice if the team let him know leaving the Demons isn't the right thing to do as well.  Would serve as a nice example.

4 minutes ago, SPC said:

I’d love to target Luke Jackson this week and make a statement 

Yeah, but I do wounder if effectively targeting the younger Brayshaw would actually have a bigger impact on their output.   Although doing the same to Jackson might also suck in their other onballers as well anyways, so have the same effect indirectly.

Honestly, I think this is where the game is messed up at the moment.  I've seen Brisbane target Max in much this same way and sorry, but I think it's completely BS.

Players stand their ground in the wrong way or don't have their hair brushed properly in a marking contest and it's called a free kick as interference / shepherding.  Max get's essentially shepherded miles off the ball repeatedly all night and that's ok?  You can guarantee if Max pushes the player out of the way in its instant free kick against and (would often be 30 - 50m out from the oppositions goal for kick in scenarios), yet his opponents are allowed to do the same to him all night.  Can't tell me with 4 umpires out there, they can't see/police it.  He's our main target at kick outs so you'd think the umpires would see at least some of it.  One way or the other.

There's definitely one rule for Max and another for our opponents.  The Daniels 3rd qrt GF sling tackle which would have 4 weeks for any Melbourne player, but no free for Max is case in point.

Time Goodwin actually took a public stand and held the umpires to account.

On 5/22/2023 at 4:40 PM, Demon17 said:

Well said rj. Ports pattern is target max because it worked before in 2019 and other times.  . Hinkleys predictable . Where's rod Grinter when we need him

Reporting for duty sir 😉

Not underrating Clarry's awesomeness for an instant, but I'm wounding if this provides an oppertunity for us to function slightly differently in the midfield in a way that's less predictable for the opposition and breaks open our season again?

Certainly provides an opertuity for a different few faces like Sparrow, Harmes, Kossie, Riv or Gus to rack up some serious midfield time and show what they can do in there given the opportunity.

Will it be Brayshaw Vs Brayshaw again?

37 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

Really looking forward to seeing Kynan in the Red and Blue, loved the way that Dogga played.

I loved the way that Doggy Brown played too.  Hard, tenacious, skillful and loyal to the core for the MFC.

That Dogga bloke was ok and played a great 3rd quarter in a MFC premiership, but he doesn't even have a son yet, let alone one that will qualify to play in the red and blue one day! 🤣

On 5/15/2023 at 10:04 AM, A F said:

It's frustrating and pathetic, but it's interesting and handy that we're going under the radar at the moment.

See no problem here

On 5/15/2023 at 10:06 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

I don't understand why the media are so fixated in wanting Richmond to be serious flag contenders again.

Their list is completely cooked and by having Torranto and Hopper now they've completely butchered their list rebuild.

They don't have a 1st round pick and with Riewold and Cotchin set to retire they have no up and coming talent coming through.

They'll fall harder then Hawthorn have in the next few years.

Or here.

Think I made the call a few years back that all of Hawthorn, West Coast and Richmond were very top heavy list age talent wise and were primed to drop away as we hit peak performance.  Probably also said a similar thing about Geelong and I'm optermisic that the wheels are starting to fall of there too. 

2 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

AFL Talent Manager Kevin Sheehan’s assessment in the Herald Sun online 

"has sharp vision and opens up the play with his creativity around stoppages"

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

❤💙❤💙❤💙

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

It’s a terrible headline but a legitimate issue that deserves some focus. I recommend reading the ABC article as linked above that goes in to the specifics.
 

I hope Daniel is able to get the help he needs.

Agree 100%

The headline might be skewed towards clickbait, but as far as I'm concerned that's ok in the context of the issue.

If Daniel has been courageous enough to both live through his trauma and then subsequently go public with it, then I'd say it's a story he wants to be heard and if it takes a bit of clickbate to acheived that, then so what.  I'm only partially guessing, but my assumption is that when people want these things to be heard, it's about a) some self respect in being believed and b) encouraging others to help them come forward in the hope that the problems are better managed going forward, which I think is very noble.

I think there is some very useful discussion which the article raises and I certainly found it insightful as well as saddening.

It also contains some important lessons on how the media and the general public need to tread lightly, with care and compassion around individuals and collective social and personal matters.

Read the article, it explains things far better than any of us can in this thread.

All the best to Daniel in his life moving forward and I hope he is able to reach some inner peace regarding his past trauma.

2 minutes ago, Demonsterative said:

Obviously someone knocked some sense into this kid.

Good game! 

Charlie didn't really need any sense knocking into him, he's a solid player.

Makes me wonder if we should consider him a target to poach to shore up our key backs down the track.  The GC has been a good development club for the MFC in this area in the past.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:53 AM, layzie said:

Whoever loses out of Freo and Sydney this week is done for me in 23. 

Honestly, I think they are both done anyway, regardless.

Once it's mathematically impossible for Freo to make finals, they'll just drop their bundle and play for draft picks - oh wait!! 😂🤣😂

On 5/10/2023 at 12:53 AM, JimmyGadson said:

Not sure I'd label them trash given they kicked themselves out of the game against the best team in it atm without Paddy and Rampe. 

 

Agree with @Jaded No More, Sydney are overrated trash.  I often think a bad goals to points ratio is the mark of a poorly performing side.  Yeah they can win it forward, but if it's not comming in well, the ball goes to low percentage positions and/or ends in alot of rushed behinds. 

Sydney were the most unworthy grand finalist in recent years, largely because the got a soft draw in 2022 an some extent of over performance with the immature list they had.  They were lucky to get that finals win against us too, when we were fatigued and they got some good momentum from the umps to get them back into the game.  Still I hope the Swans can dig deep and beat Freo to assist our death riding fun.

Like you I can't see us getting anything better than 4th pick Jimmy.  Let's face it, North don't have the talent, West Coast are finally wearing the consequences of riding a list that resembled Dad's Army for too long (Geelong, you're next) and everyone has been well and truely out tanked by Sam Mitchell and the Hawks before the season even started.

53 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

But we've gone ahead and given guys like Sparrow, Kozy and Rivers more time in the guts and they've comfortably kept JJ out of the side. JJ just doesn't stand out enough unfortunately. 

It's not what stands out to us mere mortals that our coaching team really care about though.  I honestly can't say quite what JJ isn't bringing, but being a flashy standout player isn't what gets guys picked for the MFC these days.

AFL - if you are listening, I hate this stuff:

TODAY ONLY! 20% off Level 1 seats for Hawks v Dees this Saturday at MCG. Book: https://brz.ai/26j0k

Optout? Txt STOP to 0429692676
Ticketek: bit.ly/TKTHelp

It's not a big game and no way will it be a sell out.  So this attitude of the AFL (and/or the club's?) to seqeeze ever last dollar out of the die-hards that do attend rather than make available the preferred seating on level 1 for GA is just rubbish (to be uncharacteristically restrained in my use of preferred language).

The AFL should focus on giving better value for money and attracting more people to games than degrading the experience for those that do attend unless they are prepared to pay more.

Gil has also utterly failed in his notion of keeping food prices at a modest level, when two Powerades, hot chips and a few bits of chicken set you back $30.

Particularly when Australia is facing a cost of living crisis, this rip off approach is misguided.  I could be wrong, but I suspect that the early basis of the popularity of Aussie Rules was that it was a financially inclusive comunity gathering that people of all finacial satus could afford and participate in and a source of enjoyment and hope through depressing times financially.  Don't kill the golden goose of the everyday punter in the outer.

3 hours ago, Sydney_Demon said:

Excellent analysis Jaded. I totally agree with you re Spargo, and I was surprised he didn't play for Melbourne last week (but he will be better given the Casey game). I think he's crucial to our structure and his skills are elite. The issue seems to be with ground ball gets with Melbourne currently and given the positive Inside 50s against GC it would have been great to have him up forward improving delivery and conversion.

JJ parked discussions regarding a new contract til later in the year which I can totally understand given his fringe ststus in the team. It will be interesting to see whether it's JJ or Harmes playing as sub in on Saturday. Harmes was good last week I thought when he came on but I actually would have liked him to play the whole game locking down Noah Anderson. That mid lockdown role is someting he excels at although I know Melbourne generally doesn't like going down that path because it affects structure/rotations. Having said that, I think we should be prioritising JJ ahead of Harmes. Harmes is a UFA in 2024 and turns 28 in October. IMO we should be trying to trade him this year as  another club would probably be prepared to offer him 3 years and a guaranteed spot in their best 22.

I also agree we need to sign Chandler, also Woewodin who is definitely much-improved.

I wouldn't be looking to trade Harmes unless he's the one instigating the request.  To even think about pushing a guy like Harmes out the door would be corrosive to the culture of the club/team:

* Followed the club as a kid

* Came up from the rookie list and cut his teeth as a player at a time when the team was puss

* Turned the 2021 GF with his magic pass to Fritta in the third that started our fight back and subsequent avalanche

* He's hard as nails, decient skills and as far as I can see a pretty decient clubman and general citizen

That all said, I understand he's also on the frindge just at the moment, but I'd be leaning to keeping him as depth at a contract value we can accommodate within the list rather than floating him as a trade option.

All the talk is about JJ missing, but I think Haremsy is easily to the same or higher standard and he's another that's missing.

Assuming we don't get more injuries and he's able to find form, there could be another selection squeeze with Salem getting close to playing again for Casey.  This depth of tallent is generally a good problem to have.

Now that we've freed JVR, my attention it solely on how I want us to absolutely poluvarise the Hawks.  Let's face it, we owe these [censored] (insert adjective of choice) more than any other team in the AFL. 

I'd love to see us totally click in a way we didn't quite against North and smash them by 150+ points.

That's not too much to ask is it?

12 minutes ago, Elwood 3184 said:

My conspiracy theory is that the long break in getting Ballard off the ground when there was nothing wrong with him was contrived to settle the Suns down and give them a run at winning.

Up until that point Melbourne had kicked 2.3 to nothing in the final term and GCS didn’t look like scoring. That trend would likely have continued but for the break in play.

Could they not just have turned the lights out? 🤷‍♂️

2 minutes ago, bobby1554 said:

Clearly Michael Christian needs to study the laws of the game

Or just the game itself.

If JVR wasn't already a MFC cult legend, he's definitely that now.  Need to feed thIs guy the ball at every opportunity and help him to kick a bag of 5+ goals on the weekend.  Would be the best reward for the week he's just had.

1 minute ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Can’t wait for next weeks episode. 

Is that the player who messes up their opponents hairstyle?

19 minutes ago, 4_Kent_Watts said:

That should be the Chant this weekend for every possession he gets. 

You mean like ROOOOO