Rodney (Balls) Grinter

If he gets to anyone, I think it will only be if he dominates at VFL level, in which case I think he'd go to high in the mid season draft to get to us. If he's looking the goods form wise, I think he will have plenty of suitors, but I suspect that's a big IF.

Seems like some truth to the rumor. Former No.2 pick making bid for third AFL comeback https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/former-no2-pick-making-bid-for-third-afl-comeback/news-story/545b179933485b4f3cf9b9d49a381c43 Currently playing with the Tiwi Bombers, where I think Majak Daw is also currently playing, perhaps there could be some inside insights. Good luck to him.

That's some nice handywork there knitting the No.31 onto the back. I'm actually woundering what BBB thought about his delusional wannabe wife was doing with Fritta's number on their plush toy?

No need for the close up photos of BBB to prove his presence WCW, his height and huge afro give him away on the far left of the above! Will loose some of his presence when the locks get chopped 😔

Thanks @Deemist, that's a cracker of an interview/podcast. Probably the best one I've listened to in a while. Maxy take the [censored] out of T Mac at times and has a tongue in cheek go that he's a [censored] bloke, but I think the opposite is actually true and that Max actually really rates T Mac. He's just such a down to earth country bloke at heart. Loved the numerous intelegent insights into life as a AFL footballer, the days after the 2021 GF etc. Particularly thought his take on the stand the mark, the 666 rule changes and ANB / Spargo roles and running were great. Stuff about Mark Neeld was also pretty interesting. All of this has probably been said/rumoured before, but if you want all this crammed into one 60min interview by someone who can accurately and articulatly explain it all, then this podcast is well worth the listen.

Sward - an expanse of short grass. Nice thanks Demonstone, I just learnt something, however a natural talent for poor spelling and a few reds probaby don't mix that well 😂. Putting a few teams to the sword on the sward would be enjoyable 😊

I was possibly also thinking of 2019 when he kicked 22 goals 14, but looking back through his stats it almost seems like every second year his goal kicking is up the [censored] and in alternate years it's pretty respectable. It's not that I'm being over critical of Trac, it's just that I think he's too talented of a player to consistently kick poorly for goal, when he shows that he can do it so well. Could make a big difference to our fortunes him kicking 19.29, compared to 29.19 as we probably would have one a few of those games we lost last year had he (and/or others) kicked straight. Clarry is the other who's set shots in particular defy his generally pretty solid kicking ability. I recall some comentator claiming he could play a role as a part time forward based on his good kicking for goal three or four seasons back. However his last few seasons his set shot goal kicking has been woeful (5.8 and 11.18). I half wounder with Clarry and Trac if they were carrying injuries that impacted their kicking technique last season in particular? If our gun mids can contribute a few more goals, it makes us a much more dangerous team, regardless of improvement in our dedicated forward setup.

You pretty much nailed the reasons for my thirst for vengeance against those teams. Against Sydney in the final last season, I planted myself in the middle of a Sydney memebers area, because I couldn't get the online ticketing system to allocate me anything decient in the MFC members allocation, but was able to get decient enough ones in the Sydney one. Ended up sitting next to this obnoxious Sydney supporter who took offence to my passionate vocal support for our boys, which made loosing to them even harder to swallow. Loosing to Collingwood in 2021 was bad at the time, but didn't hurt in the end after we won the flag. Fortunately I was there at the Gabba in 2020 when we dismembered them, but asides from that, they've been a bit of a bogie side for us.

So a with a little ryhm to the title, here's a thread to dump your wishes for the MFC's season to come. So, asides from the obvious premiership, what is something you'd like to happen from a player or the team as a whole? For me I think a few things I'd love to see this year are; in no particular order: * Trac get back to his goal kicking best - yes he kicked two in the 2021 GF, including a magic dribbler that started the 'Bang Bang Bang' , but I don't feel that Christian's goal kicking has been as sharp as it could be for a few years. There was a season (somewhere 2018 - 2020 I think) where he was absolutely on top of his goal kicking game and you could back him in to nail a set shot from either 25 out straight in front or 55m right on the boundary and I'd love to see more of that. * The MFC to slaughter Collingwood on the first Kings Birthday match; * The MFC to slaughter Sydney in Rd 3 and beat them by 12 points in Rd 24 to knock them out of the finals; * The MFC to slaughter Hawthorn both times we play them and clap their pittifulfy attended supporter group leaving half way through the third quarter. * Generally I'd like to see us put more teams to the sward early if we can. Maybe this is a bit presumptuous and arrogant, but after watching our team get dismembered and picked apart on so many occations, gee it would be good to watch the reverse and I will emphasise that this is more of a wish list and die hard supporters dream than an expectation of things to come.

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.