Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I'm starting to feel all this "if he hasn't signed by Rd 2 then ..." talk is a bit of emotional scaring from Dogga 2022. Let's just settle down and see what transpires. Wouldn't surprise me if Kossie holds out for half a season and then signs on for another couple of years and backs himself to pitch for the mega dollars, long term contract when he's right in his prime like Trac, Clarry etc. He'd be worth good money now, but he could be worth more in a few years. That in itself wouldn't nessacerilly me a part of him does or doesn't want to get to Port/SA, just that he management are playing a long game. If he's thay desperate to go home, I don't think he would have played out the season and a deal would have been done. I'm not convinced we're anywhere near desperation point on anyone's side.

Hope you're on the money here dworship.

It's mid Jan and the traffic and topics here on DL seem a bit slow this off season this time of year, so here's a topic for something to do. Having moved down here to the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne from Brisbane last year, it's refreshing to see the number of MFC bumper stickers getting around at the moment and particularly still pleanty of Premiers ones. Gives me something to smile about on the inside when on my morning/afternoon commute.

At risk of yet again deviating from the please Kossie stay topic, I actually find it somewhat refreshing that we are debating on DL, why we didn't win back to back, instead of flagellating ourselves and each other over what a pathetic team of players we have. The fact we are fretting over potentiality loosing one of the best young forwards in the comp is a sign of the times it's self. DL of old would be berating over how we have no elite talent, can't draft them or attract them from anyone else, when now we're in the box seat of having Kossie and an almost embarrassing pleanty of others at the club that others envy and want to poach from us.

He pulled the pin sighting a lack of passion for the game to play at the top level, so good luck with that. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/adelaide-crows/afl-news-2023-fischer-mcasey-retires-top-adelaide-crows-draft-pick-steps-away-from-elite-level-draft-pick-carlton-trade-rumours/news-story/c9fec52f6611b1db0f50bba52d6296a5

Saw this pop up on my FB feed courtesy of Zero Hanger. Bodes well for the MFC, particularly considering Grundy only played the 6 games in 2022, otherwise he'd probably be the outright leader and the gap to the rest would be greater, although similar could also be said for Witts who played just the 3 games in 2021. Also highlights the quality of Witts somewhat as a ruckman and I recall Max publicly rating him highly on numerous occations as someone he finds challenging to play against. Top 15 Total Hit-Outs Between 2018-2022 3806 Max Gawn 3482 Brodie Grundy 3258 Jarrod Witts 3174 Todd Goldstein 2383 Reilly O'Brien 2174 Sean Darcy 2123 Oscar McInerney 2018 Nic Naitanui 2010 Toby Nankervis 1944 Rhys Stanley 1932 Scott Lycett 1830 Ben McEvoy 1789 Paddy Ryder 1751 Stefan Martin 1684 Rowan Marshall

Yep, that's the one. Wasn't the only dodgy umpiring anonomly either. As I suggested the free range that Brisbane were given to harass Max off the ball was a disgrace and they were probably looked after like a protected species. I actually made the Foxy Footy telecast that game going off my nanna as one of the few Demons supporters they could find in the crowd 😂🤣. Win that game and we make finals. Brisbane were decient that year, but we weren't actually that far off the mark either. If it wasn't games like the Brisbane one and being dealt a rubbish fixture going to Cairns two weeks in a row, we would have made finals and I think we actually could have done better against Richmond than Geelong. Totally spewing as I would have been able to attend that GF.

Good ruckman can often studdy and decelop a strategy to take an opponent out of the game, and/or match-up better against some opposition better than others. I agree that having 2 elite rucks would make it so hard for our opposition to take both of them out of the game. One or both are likely to dominate. Similarly, it should give our mids some really good unpredictability in terms of setup for the opersition to counter. Guys like Trac, Clary and Viney don't exactly need much of a head start, so if it gives them additional advantage, we could really tear some teams apart.

I feel like this is a key issue, as @Pates also pointed out, having both Max and Brodie in positions able to receive at kick-ins would be a big advantage. I recall a game at the Gabba in 2020 against Brisbane (that we should have won, but didn't), when big Maxy was being repeatedly blatantly and crudely shepherded out of running back to position himself for kick-ins by Charlie Cameron. I'm sure it was a premeditated deliberate coaching tactic by Fagan, well executed by Cameron and it was quite effective at mitigating Max's output at kick-ins in particular and to some extent generally around the ground. Much harder to put work into two genuine marking options like this. I'm also not sure that Jackso was subjected to anything like the same level of oppisition attention, somewhat playing second fiddle to Gawn, who in my view would still have been viewed as the main threat.

Found an article that outlines Burgo's philosophy: Fitness guru reveals secret to Dees' incredible injury-free run: https://www.afl.com.au/news/686425/fitness-guru-reveals-secret-to-dees-incredible-injury-free-run Some key statements below: "There's two ways to go about injury prevention, I think. "If someone has niggles you give them a rest so they complete as many sessions as possible, cut the sessions short if someone's a bit sore, or you can build them up and push them through those periods where they're a little sore, a little bit tender and a little bit fatigued … to provide them with that robustness to get through." Burgess said he used to subscribe to the former theory before evolving to the latter in recent years. After an improved 2020, Melbourne won the 2021 premiership partly off the back of player availability, and the work of Burgess and his team. Nine men played in all 25 games, another four missed just one, and 16 played 20 games or more. "Providing that physical resilience was about turning up, day after day, with training intensity at a super high level," he said. "It's really tempting for medical, performance people to say 'we train from November to March and then we play games. And in January when it's a bit hot and someone rolled their ankle slightly, it's tempting to say just have this session off, it's just January, it doesn't matter if you miss one session'. But it does. Somehow this worked for us in 2021, with players no doubt carrying some injuries through the middle parts of the season, but in 2022, if Selwyn Griffith applied the same philosophy, we are supposing that it wasn't as effective, because the players weren't in as good a condition headding into finals. Maybe there's also some nuance that we didn't quite get right in 2022. I'm also actually woundering if injuries in 2022 were really as significant as is being made out? We weren't that far off Sydney and Brisbane in the finals we played them. Brisbane we'd smashed comprehensively just a few weeks earlier on their home deck. I'm woundering if it's more down to being outplayed on the night in 2022? To some extent I also recall Sydney being helped back into the game by some fairly dubious, momentum shifting umpiring. We beat Sydney and then we'd have had a weeks rest for the whole side before the prelim like we did in 2021.

Not sure 2022 was really that hellish injury wise. The only players I can recall we lost for big parts of the season were T Mac, BBB, and perhaps Salem and Hibbo during the first half of the season. There was also J Smith and Disco, but they're not established best 22. There would have been a number of other top 8 teams that dealt with more injuries than that I feel. T Mac exposed a key structural area we lacked depth (and or a willingness to experiment with others), but the others like Salem and Hibbo were positions we had plenty of depth. The rest were really more 1 or 2 week injuries and niggles and/or trying to keep players playing with underlying issues that really comes more within the space of player management.

I feel a big part of the issue to pick through here is that seemingly what worked for us in 2021 in terms of player management didn't in 2022. From what I heard of the Burgo philosophy, it was all about big pre-season, training at high intensity and playing players through niggles rather than resting them if they were 80% or there abouts. There were some exceptions in 2021, such as late starts for BBB, rests for Salem and possibly others like Viney at various points in the season to 100% recover from more chronic injuries, but from what I recall Burgo's mantra was mostly about train hard to play hard and not resting players.

A fully fit and in-form Salem would be a big lift for the side. Really important player for us when firing. I feel he never really got going in 2022 like in 21. At least Trac was pretty awsome at the start of the season and even then in patches after he was apparently carrying an injury.

But is he the right guy? 😁

Ray, agree with your main points. I was meaning that he's good enough to be given a decient oppertunity at senior level to establish if he can make that step up. I'm not sure he has massive X factor like Kozzie and he definitely wouldn't be like for like in that sense, but I'm not sure he needs huge X factor to be a valuable contributor to the team.

Mostly agree with your broader post fr. However from my own corporate experience of having worked in several companies, I would say that organisational / team culture does impact significantly on how I'd differentiate. Hopefully Kozzie's manager is awake to this. Not sure clubs like Hawthorn or North or Essendon would be particularly attractive options at the moment based on organizational culture. Conversely the players often talk highly favorably of the culture built by Roos/Goodwin and of the positive relationship they have with Goodie. I know there was rumors of disquiet just prior to season 2021 and without being a true insider, I'm not sure where the truth lies, but if the club / team culture at the MFC is strong and imparts a good sense of belonging for Kozzie, I think that would be an important factor he'd consider.

I'm inclined to agree more with @dazzledavey36 that it will be more down to the family / lifestyle propersion for Kozzie. How much he's settled in Melbourne and at the MFC and regards that as his new home and place of comfort / support will factor more than sucess for him IMHO. (BTW Dazzle, not sure where you found the amusement in my earlier post. Not offended, it just bemuses me). One thing with wining the flag in 2021 so early in their careers is that guys like Kozzie and Dogga had it come to them realitively easily, can considered that achievement checked off the list and may consider they have plenty of time to build into a sucessful team at another club where they can do so around established family and freinds. I also can't see Port being down for that long.

The other thing that I feel comes into this is does our players getting tackled with ball in hand give the impression that we are slow? While it would depend on the circumstances sometimes players getting takled and disposesed with the ball is a good sign as it means they are taking the time to seek out and deliver to the right option with steadied delivery. When it's done right, it's to the team's benifit, but you can't get away with it all the time and getting tackled in possession 5%-10% is I think the price you have to accept sometimes. Doesn't mean the player is slow and or too slow to dispose of the ball by nature. I remember a bull of a midfield playing coach of mine often emphasising this point and stating that the best players would rather take the risk of getting tackled and "Wear one for the team" than to feed the ball out in a way that put a team mate under imeediate pressure.

I get the impression that Kozzie is quite a different personality to Dogga. I could be wrong, but I sense he won't want the media spotlight on him in the same way as Dogga had and will be happy to get a deal done early. Alternatively if he's set on returning to WA or SA, then I actually think it would be in everyones best interests if he came out early and put it out there. He'd be somewhat of a trailblazer in doing that, but I think it would be the right thing and actually relieve the pressure and angst in all respects if he just did it.

Chandler is no Kozzie, but he's the closest thing we have to a replacement. I also get the impression he is strongly invested in the MFC which is a good thing. Think we need to give him some serious time in the seniors this year for several reasons: 1. He's good enough 2. As backup for Kozzie leaving 3. As leverage with Kozzie (as good as he might be, I don't think it would be great if his managers think they have the MFC over a barrel) 4. Having Chandler in the side as well could actually take some of the heat off Kozzie at times and benifit both the individuals and the team If Kozzie plays more midfield time as mooted, which is probably the next step in his evolution, it should give us a bit more oppertunity to play both players more often.

All this yet we have one if the best (If not the best) midfields in the competition. The way most footy is played, particularly these days, it's more about power, speed off the mark and agility. That's where guys like Trac, Viney, Harmes and Sparrow have the physical advantage. Clayton Oliver isn't super fast either, but again gives us the advantage through first use of the footy and elite clean hands. Aussie Rules isn't a game for pure athletes otherwise guys like Baker and Bedford would have been the first picked for the MFC every week. We'd be nothing like bottom 3 for kicking skills.

I'm sure it would. I think that 1:30 of brilliance with the bang bang bang was evidence of that. Part of it is clean skills, but I actually think most AFL players have that, it's more about confidence, being able to execute under pressure, having a willingness to take the game on, but probably also about being able to create mismatches, holes in the opposition's defence, when to go and when to hold back and defend. Back end of 2021 we had that worked out well. It probably also requires brilliant athletes and Cosuins and Co were certainly that, but we also have plenty on our list. I guess it's also a pretty exhausting game style to play and perhaps we need to work out how to have more rotation of players into and out of the side on a week to week basis, while still maintaining stability of system. In 2021 and first half of 2022 we certainly worked out how to create good system within the playing group through good system and stability, but like the Hawthorn 3 peat sides, perhaps the next step in our evolution is to get truely proficient with cycling different players through the side over the season.

You might be onto something here Demonstone. Despite all the chemical imbalance Cousins certainly knew a thing or two about how to move the ball and take on the game. Perhaps if there's something we could learn from him is to be a bit more aggressive with the ball against lower teams and put them away early rather than let them hang on so long like we seem to do. I actually think that's the next evolution in our step to becoming a great team. We should have notched up big wins in those games against West Coast, North and several others last year, instead they turned into close run slogs for big parts of the game, which I don't think really helps the workload from week to week.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all on DL. We got more flags in 2022 which was awsome and well deserved for Daisy, Paxy, the women's team and the Casey guys. I'm still craving watching a senior one at the MCG with all the faithful.

What can I say - Demonland is prety predictable and easy to troll, but it's still good fun and I couldn't resist. Merry Christmas all 😊.