Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Add them to the list. Some more oppertunity to raise funds for cancer.

I guess one thing about Billy was that despite his ultra professional approach, he was ultimately assessed as not being 'quite' good enough as a player for AFL level, which somewhat disappointed me, because I loved the effort, occational flashes of brilliance that were on display when he played and also the romance/club lotalty of the father/son player that he was. But I think the other main point that Spencer makes here is that perhaps players on AFL lists don't need to be stars or even play that many games at senior level to be a great contributor to team sucess. Time will tell if Taj becomes the Jack Viney or the Billy Stretch, but either way it sounds like he's making his mark on the culture of the MFC in an intangible way that money can't buy in this era of professionalism of modern football.

I recall starting a thread of "players that need to get a hair cut" when BBB was at North, with him as one of the main culprits, so perhaps he's another that secretly reads Demonland. First Hunt leaves, Lingers shaves the locks, now BBB. Who else do we need to address to conform the the MFC/MCC short back and sides mold? Perhaps if Kossie gets in on the act, we'll know that a signature on an extended contract with the red and blue is on the cards! In all seriousness, good on Ben. Great cause and let's get behind it and him. His potential contribution to the senior side for this year has been downplayed by many, but I can sense a 60+ goal season from the man they call BIG BENNY BROWN!!

Note, Netflix is reportedly starting a crackdown on subscription sharing and I wouldn't mind betting Kayo do at some point too. Just hope it's not soon as sharing a subscription with my sister is a pretty good deal for me at the moment! Overall, it might not be the cheapest, but I'm pretty happy to contribute my MFC home and away membership and attend at the ground as my preferred means of watching. Totally understand that everyone's finacial situation might be different though and you've got to rationalize what where you spend your money in life.

Kinda know where you are comming from here Red. What about "Spooning Freo for Dogga Picks"?

I'd be highly surprised if one of Cats, Drrs, Lions, Pies, Swans, Tigers doesn't slip out. Just look at Dog 2021 Vs 2022. Similarly saw a stat that most teams that get beaten by 40+ points in a GF, don't make top 4 or perform well in finals the following year - referring to the Swans of 2022. Can't see Collingwood getting a dream run of wins under 1 goal either, so I could easily see them slipping. Who honestly knows what we will get from the Lions and Tigers this year and I'm not even sure the Cats or ourselves are a shoe in either. I'm with those that think Freo's player losses outweigh their gains and could easily conceive them going backwards. How far is the question. It would be somewhat wishful thinking that they will regress as far as we did in 2019, but I can see a fairly low finish is not beyond the realms of possibility. However, conversely to who comes out of the top four, I can't see any of North, West Coast or Hawthorn or GWS comming out of the bottom 4.

Hearing him talk again, I'm so glad we picked up Richo for our coaching/administration team. I don't have any huge evidence to go by here, but from his experience and general demeanor, I imagine he's a great steadying influence around the club. I think he'd be both a bit of a counterbalance to Choco's exuberance, but also one with the wisdom and respect to influence Goody when the time and place is right. His well chosen words Re JVR are a case in point. Gives him the confidence that the club has faith in his ability to develop his game for the long term at the same time as tempering and toning down expectations of him being a fowardline saviour in the short term to take some of the heat off him.

Based on what little I know, I wouldn't be averse to him playing with Casey. From what I recollect, his attitude and application around the club had been reported as pretty good bar the one incident at the end.

Would be a player I'd love to watch again playing at anywhere near his best, just not against us.

I'm partly in the same boat, but I also sense in his personality that being captain might be something that Trac really wants to do and when the time is right he'd be putting his hand up, probably along a few others like Gus and Lever. Will be interesting come the time whether the club takes the option of the hand picking a captain by the coaches or throws it open to the playing group. I feel it would be the latter and that's probably the most sensible way to do it really, should the situation be similar to what we have now when the next captain needs to be decided.

Yeah, nah. Most stuff on this forum is pure speculation. Let's all hope Max keeps playing at peak performance until he's 38, but let's face it, he's 31 now, so how much longer should we leave it until we start thinking who might succeed him? I don't think anyone here is suggesting that Max be replaced as captain this season, but I don't think it too far fetched to be asking the question about what would be our succession plan leadership wise for 2024 - 2026.

No, I was thinking more about the hand over in the captaincy between NJ at the end of 2019 to Max in 2020. Don't recall Jones being too happy about that at the time, but by the end of his playing time at the club, I think he'sd accepted it, wasn't bitter. Even though he ultimately missed out in 2021, I get the impression that he was pretty happy about how things had panned out for himself in his life circumstances and for the team.

My loose thinking and evaluation of potential candidates is as follows: 1. Jack Viney - think he's really matured in his leadership style over the past few years and clearly has the respect of the playing group, but by the time he might get another crack at the top job, he's going to be close to 30 yo, so not really a pick for the future. Also proved himself to be a quality VC, so perhaps the best value he'd bring is as strong support for a new captain. Still part of me loves seeing Jack lead the team in his own right, even if it's just pinch hitting here and there when the captain is unavailable. So much lead from the front and carry the team on his shoulders like his old man as captain (as an asides, it irks me that Todd is now at North, but it's probably the right outcome and I understand it all the same); 2. Tom McDonald - has strong leadership qualities, but to old; 3. Steve May - has leadership written all over him and recon he'd make a great captain. I think he's had the rough edges knocked off him and learnt from those incidents (think we need to remember that Max hasn't always exactly been Mr. Perfect off the field), but overall, I feel similar to Viney and T Mac, age is the enemy of any formal leadership aspirations of Maysie. 4. Jake Lever - always being touted for his leadership abilities. Not something that's super obvious from the outer, but I do get where this comes from. 5. Pertracca, Brayshaw - outside of Lever, I think these guys are the next obvious options and I think it's actually a bit of a toss-up between them and Lever in some ways. Feel that Brayshaw would take the captains role in his stride, but based purely on my outsiders observations of his personality, I think it has more potential for Pertracca to mess with his head in terms of balancing his personal game / putting additional pressure on himself to perform as captain, similar to a younger Viney. 6. The developing leaders in waiting: Sparrow, Petty, Rivers, Jordon?, Bowey? Overall though agree with @Demon17 that the spread of leaders we have all over the feild places us so well. When Jordan Lewis first arrived at the club, back around 2017, a poignant observation was that the mature Hawthorn teams had coaches leaders all over the ground that could take charge mid quarter and the right make in-game decisions and directions out on the feild, but that the MFC lacked this at the time. I feel that we've now arrived at the point where Hawthorn were once at. In addition to the aformentioned who would be candidates for the top job, I feel there are also others like Salem, Hibbo, BBB, ANB, Harmes, Fritta that step up and lead at the right time, spreading the leadership around the ground.

I think the other question is when do we make the transition for Max to hand over the baton. It was a bit of a sour episode for Nathan Jones at the time, but I think in retrospect, most would agree that Max assuming full sole captains duties at the time he did was almost perfect. Whenever we do make the call, I'd be more in favour of going all in and naming a sole captain and vice captain. This joint captains business is a bit of a cop out in my view and it's really suggesting that you don't have full confidence in either, which could be quite undermining to their authority in the role.

Need the AFL to update their policy and bring in the parent / child rule for recruitment of players. 55 games from Daisy must be worth at least 110 games to get over the games played threshold! A couple of potential MFC AFL / AFLW players there in the making!

Hard to imagine a better ambassador for the MFC than Daisy during her time here. Set the standard and championed the cause for AFLW as a player on and off the field during the fledgling years of the competition and the sport of Australian Rules football is all the richer and in better shape for it. Will go down as an important figure in the history of the AFL.

Until he got powered by the energizer:

If Grundy is rucking and we're winning it out of the centre clearances and generally around the ground, Gawn dropping back could be a waste. Equally I like the idea of Gawn drifting or storming forward in the right circumstances as well. We saw what an offensive weapon he can be in the prelim against Geelong in 2021. I think potentially having the luxury of utilizing him wherever his of most value at the time could really catch some teams off guard and really splitting the game open - just like we saw that night against Geelong. On a slightly different note, there was often the suggestion that Dogga could play as a ruck rover even with say Gawn innthe ruck, but that was never really attempted as far as I'm aware. I just wounder if it's a more feasible possibility on occation for Grundy to be roving to Gawn and providing a height mis-match around the ground during general play? Will be fascinating and hopefully salivating for MFC supporters to watch.

And to think a few years ago we were chasing Jack Gunston. I think since he's perfected his set shots on goal in the past few seasons Fritta is now the sort player that Gunston once was in his prime and Gunston himself is probably 'past it' or almost finished in terms of years to play out his career. Not to say that Jack couldn't have made some kind of mentoring contribution around the club (which is probably partly what Brisbane are hoping), but I think we've come out ahead on this possibility that never eventuated for us.

And can't overstress how important that blondness is either. It's worth at least 6 - 9 Brownlow votes in a good season.

Saw a "Hawks Premiers" sticker today. Was 2019 or something which had me scratching my head a bit, until I looked harder and noticed it was a 'Boronia' Hawks - hopefully the only Hawks playing finals anytime in the next decade or so.

I feel like the somewhat forgotten man in this thread is Joel Smith. IF he can stay uninjured for more than half a season, I really do feel Joel could be a real weapon up forward or down back. Felt like he was just starting to hind some real confidence at top AFL level before he got injured 'again' last season. If our A team defenders are all fit and firing, I think Joel would struggle to get a game down back, but is quite useful depth in that part of the ground. Would definitely love to see him given another crack up forward though, where I think he's got real X factor talent about him, suited to that part of the ground. He has pace to burn, which would be a real weapon with the flood/zone/team-defense style of game we play and where there is often space out the back, begging for someone to run into and take the game on. Combine that with the likelihood that having both Kossie and Smith forward would make it very hard for the opposition to find 2 defenders fast enough to stay with them. He'd also be a tough match-up in this regard due to his height. Joel's contested marking has come on nicely in the last few years and he's got that leap which is often spoken about, but he doesn't have licence to use down back. In my view, he can be something of an unreliable feild kick down back, but is a fairly reliable shot for goal. We would need the right oppertunity to use him, as I feel that JVR probably gets picked ahead of him most weeks if he's fit and in form, but I still think it could be good to have Joel up our sleeve if the circumstances call for a player like him.

One of the real strengths of Tmac's game is his areobic capasity to work up and down the ground for a big man. As well has his strength and contested work forward of centre, he contributes in other ways. I think he plays a pretty important part structurally comming out of defense as he pushes up between the wing - half back and often provides a reliable outlet option for one of our defenders. Even if he doesn't take clean possession, his size and competitiveness mean he's rarely beaten and at the least usually forces the ball across the boundary and allows us to reset our team defense and players forward of the ball. If he wins the possession, he often uses his strength to break tackles and move the ball forward quickly with long penetrating kicks deep inside 50 for our other forwards to make use of.

Would love for Tmac to kick on for another 10 years 58, but that might be asking a bit too much of his battered body! 😉

Some other observations of mine is that I don't see many stickers from the other 'big' Melbourne clubs of Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon or Hawthorn or others around my parts either. Don't even notice many Richmond ones. No doubt this is related to the recient lack of success of the aforementioned teams - long may it continue. Also somewhat pleasing to me is that I see a high number of stickers on grubby tradies utes, implying the team has support from across the social demographic out here and it's not all snow going doctors Jaguars.