Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Agree. I think it's probably too early and to hard for us mere mortals to guess at who we should go for and around what pick they'll go. Taylor and Co. Have great exposed form of picking the right targets and then getting the deal done to enable us to land them. Trading up to pick 4 and then using it to get Oliver is the one that will always take some beating, but I'm sure there pleanty of others along the way too that I'm forgetting. Kossie was another that people questioned if we should be using as high a pick on at the time, but turned out to be spot on. In Taylor we trust.

Yeah, sure no worries there David 😉 You are right in a sense. I haven't been keeping much of an eye on Casey, but I can assure you that there is Buckley's chance Kade will loose his spot to Dunstan even if Dunstan might get 100 possessions. Kade is our second highest goal kicker this season, plays with great pressure, intensity and team first attitude and yet he's at risk of loosing his spot in the side to anyone - yeah sure. Maybe Clayton Oliver or Jack Viney might get ommited for Luke Dunstan since they play his position? 🤔

Have been on this level since around Rd 2. It's given me whole new respect for the other teams at the base of the ladder. On a serious note, it's a great mechanism against tanking when the teams that occupy those positions don't have any incentive to finish lower. Just a pity that Hawthorn didn't trade it's first rounder. Similarly, it would be a good time for the league to put them on notice Re tanking to give them some motivation to finish somewhere 15 - 13 where they should really be. Besides, it would be so 'un-Hawthorn -like" to get a wooden spoon.

Remind me how old he is again? I'm also assuming we are encouraging and accelerating his football development through the David Neiz accademey or something similar.

The It's an obscure new rule that many of us plebs knew nothing of before now. Listing to Mathew Richardson's cometary, he obviously didn't understand it either as his comment was that "but he's behind the mark". Now I want to see it paid consistently across all games??! The timing and position of this free really rubbed salt into the wounds of me as a Melbourne supporter. Richmond shouldn't have been having the shot on goal in the first place as the free kick after the May mark was so bloody marginal and they then proceeded to shepard our players out of marking contests all over the place for the rest of the night. The Gus Brashaw deliberate out of bound and non paid 50m penalty for talking the player from the man on the mark were diabolical. I understand the umpires have a tough job, but despite being non fully professional, they still get paid pretty good coin for what they do and I'm so tired of them being beyond scrutiny in the AFLs eyes.

I think you are being harsh on Brown their. He gives more second efforts at ground level than many realise and he has much better sense as a forward on how to best position himself and move the ball on in those situations and as a result is often a pretty important part of scoring chains for us. I think what Petty gives us in terms of contests, the occasional strong contested mark as a forward and fairly reliable set shot kicking once he has it are admirable and have their place, but personally I think he's much better contributor for us down back doing similar things IMHO. Not a knock on Petty at all, just how I see our best fit. I also think that when we have JVR down there still trying to find his feet, we need an established forward to take more of the heat and contribute more to goal scoring opportunities. I'm not quite sure who's our best option to fit into that role right now when T Mac and BBB arn't exactly setting the world on fire and Max plays a good resting rucks forward, but not really a dedicated forward either. Freitch to get on a lead as a focal point more often? Maybe playing Josh Schache and giving him a crack as he'd be hungry as f#$k by now and can play. Also think we need Petty to shore up our defense as that part of our game has slipped from the elite level that it's been in the past two seasons and think we do need to rebalance our game plan in that respect.

Love that he so proudly wears the red and blue and hopefully he'll join those two as team mates and wear it for real one day. He does look tall next to Roo, but not quite so tall next to Max.

The world seems right again this morning with us back in the top 4. If only we'd not dropped that game to Essendon last week, we'd be well intrentched. But overall quite happy to come away with the win last night, when for a little bit in the 2nd quarter it looked like the Tigers might get their tail up and take the game away from us. Though the 3rd and 4th quarters we played a really mature game of a side that knew it was better, but just had to keep on working harder and not loose it's head to get the 4 points.

Chandler also provides a second dynamic small forward option that the opposition will struggle to contain both him and Kossie. I'd suspect that Kossie usually gets the best small defender, but that may change and Kossie will have a day out.

Nice attempt at sarcasm David 🤣. But if you're serious, I think you've been watching different games to the rest of us!

Oh yeah. I was just reading about that last night too. It was the thought that counts though 😂🤣😂

In all seriousness, I was rapped with how sedated the Richmond fans near us were all game. A few started to get a bit extravagant when they got that run-on (umpire assisted) in the second quarter. But overall, they weren't the most feral obnoxious supporter group I've come across. Guessing they're pretty content with their three flags and are resided to knowing the time of thier current list is up. Incidentally my feeling was that MFC supporters significantly out numbered RFC ones last night and / or were alot more vocal in support of their team. Could make for a massive crowd at the Kings birthday clash against the Pies in a months time.

What the Tigers fans should be talking about now is how good the top draft pick is, but that they are going to get out tanked by Hawthorn. At least they might be able to get ahead of Freo in the draft race - "oh wait, maybe we can beat Melbourne on that one!" Pitty the second and third best players in the draft are a crow eater and a sandgroper who love their mummies.

One day he'll pull one down, then every time there after he'll do the same. The one skill he hasn't yet mastered, but watch out if he does as I think it will make him pretty much a complete player. On another note, I didn't notice him much on the ball tonight, which I thought was disappointing, because the games he's played significant time there, I've thought he's looked really good.

So only just pretty much got home at 12:40am after some great decisions by the geniuses at Public Transport Victoria. No only is there already replacement buses galore from Camberwell to Box Hill, but the nuckle heads decided to also shut down the Glen Waverley line on the way home and couldn't organise replacement buses better than a bunch of kindergarten kids. Give yourselfs an upper cut whatever manager was responsible for organising and supervising all that chaos tonight. You bloody peanut. And to the bus driver who sat in the way of other busses that could have taken some of the hundreds of passengers who'd been left waiting nearly an hour while you sat there and picked your nose - time to get a new day job. Between this crazy drama and the rubbish the umpires dished up tonight, you managed to take 'some' of the shine what was generally a satisfying win by the mighty Demons.

Perhaps Peter Bell might end up in the dust bin of football administrators first.

Absolutely rapt for Chin again tonight. Was bloody excellent. The boy from the bush just keeps producing the goods. Skills tenacity and poise under pressure in front of goal. Thought he made a very valuable contribution tonight and kicked goals when we needed them most pegging back the Tigers lead in the 2nd and third quarters and linked up brilliantly around the ground. He's definitely earnt his place in the best 22 so far this season.

I can understand it from a players perspective, but from a supporters perspective, I think we have every right to despise it and disrespect it on game day. Equally there is good reason why guys like Flower, Jones and Gawn are revered buy fans. BTW, I don't have quite the same level of distain for Frawley as I do some others. He's Max's brother in law after all isn't he. This professional / corporate view of sport also borders on a disease. It's the sort of thinking that is why the AFL permits wall to wall sports betting adds on every telecast and at games. The number of seats sold and given away to corporates at Grand Finals makes me sick. Sport is not pure business, people hardly head out in crowds to cheer on Coles, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank etc.

Agree with most of your post here Deanox and particularly this last bit. During the Dogs game first round this year, their supporters started booing Lauchie Hunter - to which I yelled back "You didn't want him you idiots" . On cue, nuffy MFC supporters boo Sauce Baker when he got a possession soon after 🤦‍♂️. I personally think players that leave for big money or to play at a more immediately successful club such as Tom $cully, Jerremy Howe, James Frawley etc deserve to be booed by supporters of their former clubs. There's an old notion of disloyalty, greed, selfishness about that, which shouldn't go unrewarded and unrecognised. However personally I'm a bit more neutral towards players that have given good service and/or just genuinely want to return to their home state like Jeff Farmer, Jessie Hogan, Scott Thomson and Jacko.

My biggest beef with this rule is when a player who's on the ground goes to gather the ball to distribute it out subsequently gets pushed in the back and then basically sat on. If players are just holding the ball in to attempt to create a ball up (as was the old interpretation of the rule) - fair enough, pay holding the ball. But if players are stacked on top of said player, in my view, should be paid push in the back. If they want a free kick for a player that drags the ball in, they should have to lift the player up by the back of the jumper etc. Players picking the ball up off the ground and feeding it out (in the absence of being sat on) would actually keep play moving and result in a faster moving game IMHO.

Full stop

And on a similar note, I get the impression that our indigenous players in particular really love the opportunity to get out into the area and then play in front of so many of thier people. Not sure if it was related or just something of a coincidence, but Kossie cut loose at Alice last year, had an absolute day out and kicked a bag. Would love to see that again (and again and again!).

Agree with this and similar to what @YesitwasaWin4theAges post, thatmy recollection was that our 2021 experience was that living and training in the hubs created great team bonding opportunities. I'm sure that partners etc would rather spend more time with the players, but perhaps a few in-season mini hub experiences could help us get that edge that helps us win another flag. In some ways though, it's not the end of the world for us to have dropped these early season games if it keeps us humble and hungry. I'd just rather have not dropped 8 point games to teams that are up there at the moment. Would have been better to drop a game to North or the Sun's as at least that would have been something of benifit to the Freo death rude.

Love the topic Monbon but: Scott Thompson was far better than a bench player in this side. I think Spalding was a better CFH than Hogan and if memory serves me correctly, Earl played in 2 Grand Final sides, including a premership with Carlton in a dominant year. I like Jessy, but I don't think he's delivered on his potential. Conversely, while he was arguably a less talented player, Earl squeezed every bit of potential out of himself and was a valuable contributor and performer for two teams right up there at the pointy end of team performance. Again nothing particularly against Walsh, but Nathan Bassett was a better player. Always loved Martin Pike. What a beast. And how many players around in the modern era could claim to have played in 3 different teams and 4 premerships. If the chips had fallen differently, he could possibly have played in Premierships with the MFC in the early/mid 90s, which was bursting with talent, but just couldn't put it together consistently enough and/or keep it all out on the park long enough to capitalize on it. Regardless of them being amoung the elites or not, I'm actually generally really enjoying see some of our recient departures like Sauce, Hunt and Jessie in particular get a game and oppertunity to perform at the top level. I've no real love or hate for Jackson and who knows if he'll be another that got away, but I'll never view him with the same kind of distain as that rat $cully, who despite all the tickets he had on himself, never really justified the huge price he accepted from that scum Sheedy and the goons at the AFL.

As well as 'The Front Bar'. Loved having the big V plastered everywhere during their live from Adelaide Gather Round special 😂.