Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Surely if he knocks up the ton, his daughter would qualify for our AFLW team?

Really glad for Joel that he got the oppertunity and produced this season. Was a really bright spark up forward to look to for the future. Thought he had some great games down back pinch hitting as the sub - that Brisbane game in particular. Provided really strong contest, marking, defensive tackling, but then some good run off half back as well. A bit hit and miss as a forward, but more often than not, provided a really good aerial contest that others failed to give. His marking on a lead and goal kicking look pretty rock so solid too. Love seeing him in the 29. Would be great to see him pull down some massive hangers like his old man - I reckon he's got it in him.

I agree in part Neil. Maynard was something of an unwitting, careless pawn in the affair. I do believe there was sincerity in his visit to Guss in the following days. But I simply can't forget or move on from the way their supporters started the "Collingwood" chant as Guss still lay their motionless on the ground or the way Eddie McGuire carried on "justice has been served" style when he got off at the tribunal. Tasteless, brain dead (pardon the pun) and uncaring response from all of those aforementioned. This thread needs to stay alive throughout the whole of next season at the minimum.

And we also hate Collingwood and the AFL and Eddy Mc Guire - probably more than even before if that was possible. For the next umpteen times we play them, we should really be expecting our side to serve their own version of justice on those a-holes. Makes duck dinners look like kiddies talk.

Is that like a variation on the Sydney "No Richard craniums" policy?

Isn't that an even better reason to shed the Nick name? Is he now going to be a Mini Goodie?

I don't think he was a free agent was he? And if I recall correctly may even have still been in contract. This attitude we have at the MFC of helping players get to the club and trading low value 2nd / 3rd rd picks or worse for them has its drawbacks and sometimes I think we need to hold on harder to some of these types of players. With Bedford we'd put multiple years of development into him and he was just starting to show the fruits of that investment and we let him go, what I would call cheaply.

Maybe, but every so often one of those second strings turns into a solid best 22 performer at another club. Still spewing we let go of Toby Bedford though. He had potential best 22 written all over him, but I think we just needed him to be more patient with oppertities to get confident and prove it at the MFC.

New players and coaches always look infinitely better with a red and blue kit on!

Can we drop the Mini nickname and come up with something else? Seems demeaning.

Our football department and the players involved are all quality individuals, so I'm fully confident that those types of conversations would be being had if that's where things are at. But who knows maybe the players, fitness and medical staff have some kind of belief that there is something still worth persevering with and want to squeeze every last drop out of their careers. I'll be fascinated to see what might be left in their careers. Melksham looked a bit past it 12 - 18 months ago, was struggling for a senior spot and look at the contribution he was still able to make. Each individual is different. Hibbo called it a day when he thought his body and playing capasity was on the cliff edge or just a little over. To be honest, I was amazed he was so good last season and even the games he did play this year. Maybe others don't have the aversion to potentially playing mostly reserves and just want to hang onto being involved in that elite environment for as long as they can. Whatever the case, I agree with @dimmy that these guys have earnt the right to call it a day on whatever their own terms might be.

Same could be said for North and Tassie

I'm honestly not that phased by the list spot and salary cap these guys might be taking up. It's basically sunk capital. We invested it to keep/lure them to the club at a time they were valuable contributors and they helped deliver us a premership. Giving them extra years on their contracts and thus allowing us to spread their salaries out at a time we were also trying to secure long term deals for Trac, Clarry, Viney, Gawn, May, Lever and others probably also allowed us to keep that team together. Will we also be asking the same questions in the last couple of years contracts of these guys? i.e. should they retire? Plenty of players we pick at the national draft will probably never play a game. Both T Mac and BBB played multiple games in the seniors when needed, with variable levels of output. It also looks likely we will have a significant list turnover this season and a bunch of young talent. In the current AFL envioment of limited soft cap having a few role models like T Mac and BBB around the place to teach the development squad in check and bring them up the learning curve faster could be invaluable, like having a couple of extra coaches available at your disposal. The quality of character of T Mac and BBB is exceptional, so if we can have some of that rub off on the draftees, I think we are doing well.

With May getting into his 30s and Petty being pushed forward, I agree we need a new KPP back. What about this bloke we currently have Jed Adams? https://www.melbournefc.com.au/players/7416/jed-adams Has been a bit of discussion on here regarding the development of Jefferson, but realitively little on Adams. Normally KPP backs can step up and play seniors earlier than forwards, due to them being lead to the ball and only needing to be the spoiler, not the play maker / need for them to take big contested marks. Do any of the Casey watchers have much of a read on Adams? He looked great in his draft highlights videos, but all reports seem to have flatlined since then.

Agree his body has been his Achilles heal in recent times.

In the back half of 21, T Mac may not have been the beast he was in 2017 / 2018, but what he did do, even in the back half of the season was push hard down the ground to be an outlet kick comming out of defense. Didn't always mark it, but often did and was rarely beaten and if he didn't mark, it would be rushed out of bounds, meaning we were able to get our troops over and reset our zone. His tackeling was also pretty good, as was his ability to break through tackles and get the ball moving 50m in our direction with his penetrating kicks. I think he did everything we needed him to, in order to get us to that flag. He was looking pretty good in preseason games and earlier this year before he injured himself again. I'd agree that he appears to be past his prime, but you just never know he may still make some useful cameo appearances here and there and contribute while the next generation of key forwards comes through.

The other thing I take out of that article is what a poor job the AFL have done at promoting the Giants in Sydney. 1.34 million supporters compared to 0.2 million supporters. No doubt plenty of the 33,000 GWS supporters are free memberships given away by the AFL in an attempt to boost the actual popularity of the club. I don't quite get it personally, as I find the Swans a boring team and GWS have probaby been close to as successful as the Swans since the introduction of GWS into the competition. You'd think that more of the Swans supporters would have jumped over the fence to the Giants.

I have no fresh intel on what has happened to him post Damian Hardwicks appointment, but is Steven King someone we should also be looking at? Did a great job turning around the Suns after Stewy Dew went.

Might as well have been for patches against Carlton when we had no one go up in the ruck.

An undervalued 22-24yo ruck who's got a developed body would be perfect, if they're any good there's a permanent position there for them for the next 6 - 8 years.

The only caveat to my celebratory mood regarding this is that Petty seems to have something of a history with doing this kind of ankle/lower leg injuries. Hopefully it's just bad luck, but could also be some kind of predisposition due to either his physique or the way he naturally moves and changes direction. If he can keep his body right, he's certainly turned into the type of key position player the MFC can build it's team around for the next 5+ years, either as a forward or a back.

What drugs are they smoking if they think we'd consider trading Petty or Sparrow for an average mature age player that doesn't even want to be on their list? Unless they are trowing in a first round draft pick, but I honestly don't even think that goes close in the case of Petty. Surely this is a joke and the jurno that wrote it is desperate for something to print.

The MFC needs to train our players to do the jumping smother charge over the off season. It a football action, so you know when Maynard is lying motionless on the ground during our next match against them, it will be completely within the rules and spirit of the game. FFS this a hole makes me sick. If he had half a brain he should have shut the hell up to any reporters about that incident. He knows he shouldn't be playing in that GF. The footy jurnos have got the boots into the MFC about our finals exits. Few of the want to put forward the side the with Brayshaw and JVR in the team, we probably win both those games and thus the rank injustice of allowing Maynard to play, while JVR was suspended.

Well summarised GTB. Couldn't agree more. This year in particular he has been right off the boil, which has been really disappointing, because we know what he's capable of. I know it's been reported he's had some personal issues that may have played their part in that and I'm quite respectful that they are just that and his own private business. Often players are able to level out the inconsistencies as they mature and I'd be hopeful Harmesy can do that in what remains of his career whether that's with us or someone else.

At his best, he's also pretty good at connecting inside 50. Anyone remember that pass to Fritsch in the 21 GF?