Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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 😂.

...and so little known 'fact': "Harmes was raised as a horse in Devon Meadows, Victoria" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harmes

Either or both options to read into are highly worthy IMHO. Love Harmesy in so many ways: * Loyal Red and Blue to the core and living the dream of any die hard MFC supporter (read this if you need any reminding https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/lifelong-melbourne-football-club-fan-james-harmes-fulfils-his-demon-dream-through-draft/news-story/687a68a12ad631327bea0b0842a4c69f ) * Might not be the most talented player on our list, but always has a red hot crack. I think this would put him in good regard with Goody and Max. * Plus I think his skills and athletic ability are better than many give him credit for. I think there's still plenty more to come in the James Harmes story, but amoung other things, I'll always remember him as the player that gathered cleanly at pace, burst clear and nailed the pass to Fritsch that turned the 2021 Grand Final into the first MFC premiership in my lifetime. I get the impression from afar, that he's also a pretty solid character that's elevated himself to achieve within his best abilities from the outer burbs in Melbourne. If he's been through something personal sufficient to keep him play for 2 weeks, then it must have been something pretty significant to hims, so I just think it the perfect time for the MFC faithful to get around him and show him some love. 34 touches for your first game back in a few weeks is a pretty decient effort and I'm personally backing him to show that kind of form and determination when he gets his chance again soon at AFL level.

Have definitely given them preference since being a MFC sponsor and a bloody nice drop at that.

Perhaps we have different taste in wines, but any wine that celebrates a MFC premiership is like the wine of the footy gods and one to be savored IMHO 😊.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.