Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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!).

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.