Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Good work. Here on DL we hold ourselfs the highest of editorial and typesetting standards you know.

Add to that being in good form and a fit list hitting first week of finals so we get a repeat of 2021 and not 2022.

Out of all those current top 8 teams, I'd say Port probably have the toughest double ups. Could be bye bye Ken at the end of the season when they miss the 8. Alternatively if they make it, they could be either cooked through fighting so hard just to make it or one of the better sides in the bottom half of the 8.

My 2011 Neeld era scarf was a prized possession for me after we won in 2021 as it was proof I wasn't some cheap band wagon jumper. Think I actually lost it sometime last year and I'm devo. Also annoyed that I got rid of a whole bunch of others from that era as I couldn't justify having a whole draw full and got rid of them when my wife got up me one day about the room being a mess. Absolutely treasure my 2021 members scarfs and probably over the premiers ones, which I never bought. I'm hoping the 2023 one might become treasured in much the same way after September and it's a better more classic design too.

Another disadvantage of playing both Petty and JVR forward right now is that it's the blind leading the blind in terms of forward craft leadership. Say all you want against BBBs unwieldyness when the ball his the ground, but he is crafty and knows where to position himself and move if he misses a mark and often gets involved in scoring chains if he misses a mark. Whether he feeds it on through a handball / knock on or just running to the right spot to receive and kick an opporunistic goal, he's crafty as a forward where Petty frankly isn't on current evidence to date. We need someone like BBB to be mentoring and leading JVR in these aspects of playing forward that being an experienced forward at the MFC brings. If it's not BBB, the T Mac or Melksham would be just as good IMHO. T Mac is a leader and student of the game and has the presence that someone like JVR would respect. I'm not sure exactly what's up with T Mac at the moment as his practice match form looked pretty good to me as he has in patches at AFL level. Although he may not have taken that many contested marks in the season proper, I still think he'd contest and bring the ball to ground just as well as Petty up forward. And Tommy has good goal sense and forward craft in general.

II agree with McQueen. I think we are blooding JVR and Petty forward against some of the weaker teams early in the season. IMHO it's great that JVR is getting some time and exposure at the top level and while I see great potential in how he plays, he's not a mature player or finished product and I don't feel he's ready to take charge and carry the forward line just yet. He does a few good things in patches, but largely goes missing the rest of the game and against the stronger teams in the comp, I think he'd really struggle. My impression is that his contribution further up the ground is substantially less than T Mac or even Brown just at the moment. I do like the way he attacks the ball and is generally a pretty clean one grab mark. He's a tall, well toned and not as weedy as the Weid, but I feel he's not yet reached his physical maturity as a KPF and when he does, I think he'll be the better for it. I've found Petty's impact as a forward a little disappointing (perhaps because I had really high expectations of what he might be able to do). He's as tough and honest as they come and he competes well in the air, but doesn't actually take as many marks or kick enough goals as I think we need from a key forward. Also don't think he provides that link player leading up towards wing/half back as T Mac / BBB. We've clearly tried to be more attacking in our game style this year as well as try a few different players, which is great, but I think our defense has suffered as a result and missing Petty back there is part of that to me. For me Petty is currently a much better defender than forward and I'd like to see him back there sooner rather than later, to start consolidating our defensive game again and become that really miserly team to play against again, because that's what won us a flag and I think could win us another one. Incidentally, I thought it was a bad decision to sub Harmes in for Turner in the last quarter. Getting Harmes into the game was the right thing as he would have helped inject some extra run, but I thought Turner was just starting to find some confidence and a bit more of the ball in the second half, which would have been good to build on.

Would love to be up there as Metricon is a great relaxed venu to watch footy from. Great memories of watching of watching Harmes and Hunt play great break out games there in 2016. But alas, I'll be here in the Melbourne cold. Do many people get to the Sporting Globe venues for interstate games? My local is Chirnside Park.

Fixed

Bontenpelli at No.2, interesting. On a related note, if I recall correctly BT's famous line in the 2021 GF after kicking that 3rd quarter goal along the lines that if "the Bulldogs go on to win, he will be remembered as on of the greatest Dogs of all time" following which 'The Bont' was bearly sighted and we all know the rest of the story. Hopefully Kane's player ratings can have a similar kiss of death influence on those he's named? Interesting that he's not included every other Ch 7 comentators favorite for the Brownlow of Daicos. Guess that will get some more clicks and chatter for going against the grain. On the general Kane strategy, I'm not sure if any have read the below published reciently in The Guardian, but I think it generally hits the nail on the head: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/apr/20/the-rise-of-loud-and-opinionated-afl-media-is-reflective-of-a-wider-malaise

😊 I've tried to be pretty chill regarding Kossie's decision so far this season and tried not to be too scared by the Dogga Jackson experience, but I'll have to admit, that since the 'Gather Round' Kossie / family decision making and then the well founded rumors started that he'd made made his decision started a few weeks back, I've been visiting the MFC website in expection of good news on a semi-religious basis at least a few times a day (with a few morning and evening prayers then in for good measure). Mostly looking forward to enjoying us play out the season now as you suggest, but we've now got the Chin Chandler contract to worry about (dam, he shouldn't be playing so well and raising his contract value expctaions). In all seriousness though, I'd be highly surprised if Kade leaves. I think his management will fox about with their language and draw it out a bit to make sure that get him the best terms he can at the MFC (probably more though long tenure than $), but I sense that Kade himself is pretty emotionally committed and settled at the MFC to be actively seeking out options else where.

Peeeerrrrfect

Kane Cornes is an irrelevant leach who's life is feeding off this stuff. Now we can deny him the oxygen he craves and/or he can go suck the blood from Collingwood, Essendon or anyone other that the MIGHTY DEMONS.

The aplause that Kossie is going to get next time his name and number get called in the pre-game announcements is going to be huge. Max won't get the biggest one, but I'd love to see his reaction to the applause for Kossie, because I recon he'd have the biggest ear to ear grin like all the rest of us red and blue true believers. LOVE YOU KOSSIE ❤💙❤💙❤💙❤ forever!!

OOOOOOOOOHH YEAAAAAAAH

Perhaps it will be, but just for the Giants and not for us?

I've been pretty bullish on Chandler this year, but to be honest, to start with it was somewhat a case of hoping he could do it, because as good as he'd been at VFL level, it's a big step up and not all that dominate at the lower level do 'make it' in the big time, particularly in a team that's at or near the top of the comp. Listening to Max Gawn on his podcast last year, it was pretty clear he had some huge raps on Chandler the footballer and Chandler the person and I'd say that would have been a pretty big influence on why he stayed and to give him the confidence in what he's doing now.

Sounds odd to be saying this in a fairly 90 point win, but I (along with I suspect many others) thought that that at times our ball movement, forward entries and lack of a strong marking option up forward was at times horrible. We often overused the ball by hand and didn't use the clear options we had down the ground by foot. I like what I see with JVR in so many respects, but I don't think he's anything like ready to be our main goto option in big games. Schache did a few good things (his foot passing was exceptional), but overall didn't impact as much as I'd like. Anyone other than North or the other well at dwellers last night and I think these things could have become a big issue and the 4 points could have been at risk. That said, or small are burning. Chandler has and continues to be a revelation. Kossie was back to his best and his selfless pass to Chanler late in the game shows how he continues to mature and evolve. ANB continues to have a great season and Fritta is just Fritta and nearly every time he gets the ball around goals, you want him to be selfish and have a shot, because that's his role and his conversion is so elite. That all said, I like that we are daring to experiment and try to do things differently to go to that next level. ROOOO and Schache will likely get better with more exposure to the team at the top level. Getting back Petty and / or an in form T Mac / BBB up forward would help as well. If we'd played to our potential there was a 150+ point thrashing up for grabs.

I think ANB sums up 'Does Kade make the grade?' question pretty well in his post match (around the 1:10 mark): "Chandler the kid - for anyone there at home who was doubting him, I think it's time to stop doubting, because the kids a genuine gun" https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1319768/rd-7-alex-neal-bullen-post-match?videoId=1319768&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1682778394001 Is that a good full stop on this thread?

Keeps getting beter every week. Thought his contested marking was better than our key forwards tonight.

I was thinking before that I'd be happy with just a well controlled win that gets us the 4 points tonight, then I remembered how much pain North have caused me over the years and it's reminded me that I want us to pile drive them into the ground and rub their noses in it hard.

So, I hope the players are recoving well from the 5 day break, but personally, that umpiring at the Richmond game took it out of me as a supporter. My voice is only just getting back to normal and I'm really hoping for an easy game tonight, because I'm not really going to be able to backup to my usual vocal standard if things get tight.

Yeah, I get that and there might be a subtle difference here, but I have often seen Steve May get cranky with his team mates out on the feild too. In a sense, I think they are both just demanding high standards of their team mates in their respective positions and the important skills and work ethics required for their positions. I do sense from the interview that Jessie is a bit more mature now, given his footy/life journey and that he's now 27, not 17. I wouldn't be chasing Jessie hard, but if we could get him for the right price at the right time, I think he could be an important mature body to bridge between BBB/T Mac and JVR, Jefferson and Co. His body and current form is stacking up, I think he'd be more than just depth and could be an important cog in another premiership team.

Great movie and they hardly come cooler and calmer than the character played by Peter Fonda in Easy Rider. Hopefully the ending of the movie is a good analogy for Freo's season too.

Came across this on the AFL site and I think it has 'some' parallels in the Jackson context: https://www.afl.com.au/news/913384/-reward-for-effort-the-changes-that-helped-hogan-rediscover-love-for-footy While I don't think Dogga's (can I still refer to him as that's now?) personal circumstances were quite the same as Jessies, besides the regret of having lost a talent of him doing well, in the long run, I do wish Dogga the person well. It's great to see Jessie back on his feet properly and playing good footy again and it does help that GWS are not a great compeditive threat to us 'at the moment'. Of course, the caveat is always that they better not play well in games against us. As another side note, in the video interview in the article Jessie mentions that he's working on a 'year to year' contract basis and I'd still love to have him back in the red and blue for a few years and get him that illusive flag as a Demon, that he can share with the guys he was drafted with and went through so many footballing lows with. It all goes to show how much the club needs to invest in keeping JVR happy, healthy and loving life in Melbourne. But I'll leave this post on the note of I'll be cheering harder than usual for the Lion's this week to keep rolling the Freo death ride.

Just looking at the replay of Roo's speckie in the last quarter again, reminds me so much of the style in which Swartz use to take them. Will someone please buy the kid a headband (but no knee brace please!).