Rodney (Balls) Grinter

6 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

 

Is it still school holidays in Victoria? If so, some families may have chosen to go to Adelaide this week to combine Gather Round with the school holiday break.

Yes it is Vic school holidays and that's what I'm suggesting re a combined holiday.  Even thoughs without kids often take advantage of the 4 days weekend to make it into a 10 day holiday though and present a travel target for the SA gov.

15 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

Most hated team.  Their supporters, who always seemed to number more than necessary whilst growing up during the 80s and 90s, were smug and nasty.  We havent given them a proper smashing in decades.  This is the time. Their tails are slightly up, there's a glimmer of belief that this season and their team might be ok.  I hope we belt them by 15 goals in biblical rain.

Along with Hawthorn supporters, Essendon have some of the most arrogant and I actually can't stand many supporters of these teams more so than Collingwood.

The Kevin Sheedy is the GOAT of coaches you'd get from your average Essendon supporter back in the day, and probably even still now is both sickening and crindgewothy.

Most Essendon supporters I know now are fairly sedated and resigned to the fact that thier current team are fairly average to below par, which puts me in a very happy place.  Hopefully they'll eventually get to a position of despiration and despair that they will ever have a competitive team again, if they aren't actually already there.

Having heard/read a rumor that Lever may (pardon the pun) not be quite right, I'd be seriously looking at throwing Petty back and BBB as the third/second rotating key forward.

A few reasons for this:

T Mac is back to decient form and providing a the big mussel / contested marking forward up there again now and draws the more established KPB away from JVR.  Lessens the need for Petty up there.

I didn't think Petty made as bigger impact up forward as I'd expected.  He looks a bit lost and out of position at times and if he misses the mark, I think guys like T Mac and BBB actually have a more established sense of how to stay involved and or kick opportunist goals once the ball hits the deck.

Petty playing back is such a valuable asset to us.  His ability to take big contested intercept marks down back and lock down an opponent is really important IMHO, particularly since we don't really have Gawn floating back down there at the moment.

It's not that I think it was a huge mistake to throw Petty forward and give him a go down there, but for me it's run it's course for now and, so I think we should just park it unless the need really arises again.  I actually think Petty would be better used up forward sporadically within games when we might be struggling to take grabs up forward, just to create a mismatch, throw the  break things open a bit for the odd goal here or there if the game is in a bit of a stalemate or we badly need to get our selves back into a game.  Using Steven May in this way would also be worthy of consideration here and there as well.

4 hours ago, BoBo said:

I'm quite interested to see how many people they end up drawing to Radelaide considering it's the round after Easter when a lot of people already went away for 3-4 days.

I'd suspect that's exactly why they've timed it as they have many people take the 4 days off this week as well and, so then it's about attracting some of those people to Adelaide for more than just the weekend, to stay longer and spend more tourist dollars.

17 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Stadiums will be empty for the non Adelaide team games.

May not have been the main topic of this comment, but we were pretty good at winning in empty or near empty stadiums in 2021.  Plus whatever 'neutral' Adelaide supporters are there, would they rather support us or Essendon?  I think with the exciting brand of footy we are playing at the moment, I'd rather watch that as a neutral supporter than the messy slops Essendon were dishing up last week.

7 hours ago, Gawndy the Great said:

We are in a very rare position where we don't have to recruit for right now as we have plenty of depth. Given quality bookends are as rare as pink diamonds, you have to invest in getting them when they are available and they generally go top 5. It just so happens we are in need of at least a KPD in the next 2-3 years and we potentially have the draft capital to get it done now and invest in his development whilst we still have May playing . Dont have to agree, but that is just my view.

Agree with you here Gawn dog.

I think right now, we are in the enviable position where we are recruiting for sustained sucess to replace the likes of May, Gawn, (Grundy perhaps) T Mac, BBB and Viney in a few years, while the likes of Trac, Clarry & Co still have some years in them.  We have this great second wave including Sparrow, Rivers, Chandler, Bowey, Petty, JJ, Disco, McVee, JVR etc all coming through right now to rejuvenate the team (Kossie if we can keep him). 

An interesting one for me will be if, when and how we can recruit a future Trac and Oliver.  I suspect we may try to target that kind of elite midfielder with the compensation picks from Jackson.  KPPs take a while to mature and impact games, but I think quality mids (with the exception  of freaks like Dacos and Oliver) also take a while to really mature as well.  Took Trac and Clarry a few years to really reach the level they are at now, where they are amoung the competition elite.

At the moment, overall, I think we are trying to avoid the Hawthorn syndrome where we trade out top draft picks for aging ready made players and are trying to keep our list replenished by going back to the draft ever year or couple of years with the highest draft picks we can conjure together.  While I think we'll continue to look for ready made bargains like Hunter, BBB and Grundy, I don't see us trading valuable players (unless our hand is forced by go home etc) or high draft picks for established needs players at the end of their careers, just to keep us up.  Perhaps if there was a generational type player like Lever or May, where we had a huge need that we could trade for, but like you, I don't really see us with any huge needs right now that would justify that.

16 minutes ago, BrisbaneDemon said:

We all need to continue to comment on how well Peter Bell is doing at Fremantle, we need to change the negative narrative in the media, the guy is doing absolute wonders for the MFC.  To a long and successful partnership with Freo 🍻🍻🍻

Yeah, agree.  Bell is doing a great job at Freo, but surely his tallents could also take him other places?

Was a great player at North and I think Clarko would love to have him at North in a few years, when they are starting to rise back up the ladder.

If we are serious about another flag this year, this is a game we simply have to nail.

Get the job done.

GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

I've got nothing too much for or against the game day thread or it's posters.

Use to play around in there a bit when I was interstate And watching the game by myself on the couch.  The biggest thing I have against it that I did then, even as I do now, is that I find it too distracting from the game to post and watch at the same time, which somewhat takes the enjoyment out of both. 

Particularly now we win so often, I find the game pretty much speaks for its self.

7 hours ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

That Sparrow kicks like a mule and is a dead eye [censored] from 50+ set shots.

He's a decient 50+ kick for goal off one step too - as in bang No.2 in the Bang Ban Bang.

Immortal moment.

Love the Tommy Sparrow.

So @DeeSpencer, Kade just scored an AFLCA vote for his performance, in the resounding win against a rated opposition in the Swans:

9 Clayton Oliver (MELB)

7 Christian Petracca (MELB)

6 Ed Langdon (MELB)

6 Brodie Grundy (MELB)

1 Lachie Hunter (MELB)

1 Kade Chandler (MELB)

Surely his value is up above the $2.00 Mark now?

13 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

“Chin” is because of Kade’s chiselled chin.

 I’m not sure why Judd is nicknamed “knuckles” but I reckon it suits him and it’s stuck now anyways.

Tommy Sparrow’s nickname is “Spaz” around the club, and according to his mum it’s what he insists on being called. Still feels kinda weird to hear it being yelled out though. 

Sparrow/Spaz is kinda frenetic, so make sense to me.

I played footy with a bloke called Barry who's nick name was Spaz which wasn't so frenetic and rather unkind in alot of respects really.

Both have in common that they were absolute club legends, respected by all for the people they are and real heart and soul type of players that would put their body on the line and give every ounce of energy to the team and I think that's the part that matters most.

On 3/14/2023 at 1:42 AM, Ethan Tremblay said:

I like the idea of a tipping comp but committing to something for 24 weeks (+ or - a week), seems like a lot of work. 

Yeah, I've given up on my work tipping comp after Rd 2.

On 3/15/2023 at 2:53 AM, WERRIDEE said:

Just joined watch out I'm tough to beat. My secret is tipping Melbourne all the time.

Would have almost garrenteed you a tip a week for the past few years @WERRIDEE

ROOOOOOOOO

Sorry, just had to do it.

And all good MFC supporters need to be taking vocal training to project this into the stratoshpere as loud as possible for every game from now on.

On 3/31/2023 at 6:56 PM, WalkingCivilWar said:

As far as I know it’s Rooey. Young Deakin Smith once told me that players tend to have “about 40 nicknames floating around” but they always seem to stick with the most obvious. Hence, he’s Deaks. 😁 So I’d say Rooey is Rooey. 

There's usually a few master givers of nicknames at footy clubs and nicknames can be derived from the most randomness of 'stuff'.

As an asides, I've actually been woundering where 'Chin' came from?

6 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

Clarry in his interview called him “roo - ter”

Come on Buck - this is a PG channel we're broadcasting here 🤣

33 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Jeff White was a Victorian.

Yeah, but his great grandma's aunt was a South Australian 🤪😜🤣

...I thunk the point @radar was making is that like Lingers and Lever, he's one we got back in the credits column of come homes!

P.S. at this point he had a much more accomplished individual career than the Dogga, but never had a premership medallion to show for his brilliance and character - like so many other great MFC players 1964 - 2020.

7 hours ago, MurDoc516 said:

I really don't understand why interstate teams don't favour draft players from their state.

You completely eliminate go home factor and make it extremely hard for other players to poach your lads. 

The same logic could be applied in reverse.

I'm guessing the standard recruiters lines would go something like:

"Picking the best available at that pick"

"We really rated such and such, so that's why we selected them at that pick"

I think it somewhat is a credit to Taylor and Co's credit that we are able to select these diamonds in the rough with late picks and then our development guys and team culture to turn them into solid players.

I'm guessing that if the selectors thought it was a really line ball decision or a player had a really strong go home factor about them (Nick Nat / Watts), them maybe that might sway them to pick the home grown tallent.  Otherwise, I think Jason Taylor did sum it up recently in a Demonland interview that for every player that does go home, a bunch stay and you can't generally let it influence the player selection.  We've also been on the receiving end of a couple of super star come home to Vic's in Linngers and Lever,  so I think it's swings and round abouts to a fair extent.

28 minutes ago, AzzKikA said:

I'm telling you now they're tanking.

So who's the No.1 draft pick that next week's grudge match with Hawthorn will battled out for bottom spot?

It would be like 2008 in reverse.  Hawthorn feeling Geelong taking something from the before their time is due.

OMG, that's embarrassing.

On another note, perhaps it could be thay those mad Monday antics of Dangerfield, Hawkins, Selwood and Co are pretty close to reality.

Just for Catman's information, I think the rest of the comp thinks the real conspiracy was that Geelong even won it last year in the first place.

2 hours ago, binman said:

Three beautiful kicks in that ...

Then hunter's beautifully weighted kick to Chandler.

Then Chandler nails it.

Tbat was so critical because tbey were on top, had all the momentum and had just missed a similar set shot that would almost levelled the scores. 

Absolute game changer.

Great moment for Chandler.  He missed an absolute giveme against the dogs when we were already well in control, but I felt for him a bit, because of the pressure he would be under to make an impact and numbers against the goals column in his position count.

But today he kicked at least a couple of really good goals from set shots and snaps when the team really needed to kick goals to get, the  keep the game on our terms.  That on top of his great tackle pressure, hard running, creativity and involvement in other chains that resulted in MFC goals.  Also find him really selfless in the way I've seen him repeatedly dish off to others in better positions when he could have taken a shot himself.  Everything that's valued by our team.

Really important game today for Chandler, when he really established his credentials.  He's been building, but I thought today he was huge.  So happy for the guy.

25 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

6 disposals from Spargo resulted in 2 goals, 1 goal assist, 3 score involvements. Every touch led to a score.

He's a very important cog in our machine.

Is also a tough nut, so good at applying pressure and helping retain the ball in our forward 50.

I think Nibbler is having a good year so far.  No doubt he's playing his role defensively getting up and down the ground with his elite endurance, but I actually think his offensive game is better this year than last too.  I think he's getting involved in more goal scoring plays and kicking the odd one himself too, by pushing forward into space and really following the ball forward and crumbling.

In 2021, I thought Nibbler had a pretty good year, so hopefully it's something of an omen.

26 minutes ago, frankie_d said:

I saw a mean steak to Petty that i hadn’t noticed before. Not miserly, mean

 

 Excellent

Sorry Frankie, I don't think you've watch Petty play that much lately.  I've noticed that angry man that won't take a backwards step in him for a while now, probably ever since he really stepped up and cemented his spot in 2021.

Playing with the likes of Steve May around would help that I think.

Liked his work as a forward today and while I think it's great to have some flexibility to throw him forward, I think his best and ultimate position is as a successor to Steve May.

I also think it is great that the team and our players are now reaching a point of maturity where Goodwin and Co have the confidence in them to play them in other positions and make more changes to the team, rather than stringenty stick with the stability and system is king thing like we did in 2021 and much of 2022.  In the same sense, I'd also love to Steve May go forward every now and then, because he can be a real weapon up there on his day.