Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Will be interesting to see how we continue to deal with the outright favourites status that we are almost universally been awarded at the moment. In days gone by, I'd be confident, but concerned about false hope, big heads and an imminent stumble. But this is the new Melbourne and I've got a much better sense of assurance that we'll just keep marching on. Even if we were to loose tonight, which could happen for a variety of reasons, I don't think it would have a crippling impact and the reset would be swift.

Looking forward to seeing Dunstan, Smith and BBB in action tonight for similar, but different reasons. Great to see Dunstan getting some reward for effort and faith in himself and the MFC for making the move across. Having someone who would probably fit into the best 22 at most other clubs in the league as depth is an outright luxury, but if they don't get opportunities, it would be easy for the motivation and form to drop off and frustrations to breed discontentment. I'm sure he'll have a red hot crack and is recognised for the effort he brings as in our team it isn't about people being superstars in every game. I thought Smith was showing some really good signs down back before he lost his spot in the side (ironically to health and safety protocols if I remember correctly). I see it as super important for the long term sustained sucess of the team that we continue to develop key defensive backline players. This time Smith is comming into a back 6 that looks considerably more settled than in the early rounds when he last played, with Harry Petty providing a great second anchor from day dot last week. The speed and marking strengths that Smith has started to show are a real X factor that could really help to shore up our defense in a post Hibbo, post May era that will inevitably come at some point and the more Smith plays, in my mind, the more assured he has looked with his reading of the play and positioning of the ball. I'm also convinced he has shored up his disposal which was pretty shaky (probably lack of confidence) in his early games for the club. With BBB I'm really looking forward to seeing him pickup where he started the season full of form and confidence. His season has cruelly interrupted by COVID and clumsy indiscretion, but I reckon he'll be chomping at the bit to get amongst it tonight. Will also be interesting to see how the Brown/Weid/Fritsch dynamic works.

Great to see West Coast get smashed again last night. Have seen this comming for a long time with the top heavy age profile of their list. It would be the first time in thier history, as they usually seem to bonce back into contention fairly quickly, but I'm hoping they are in for a long rebuilding process having given up overs for Tim Kelly and holding onto the veterans for too long in a Hawthorn/Geelong like manner of trying to squeeze one last flag out of the current group mentality.

Yeah, I generally love the show for all the aforementioned reasons as well. I do find it can be a bit long at times and I struggle a bit keeping up to date, but generally great listening. Do really like the very candid interviews they get with all the big name personalities around the club as well. Choco, Yze were great and I even found they were able to present Jack Viney as having a personality 🤣😉.

Agree, all though, there was actually an intersection between the podcast and the click bait a few weeks back https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/melbourne-demons/afl-2022-angus-brayshaw-on-trade-rumours-to-west-coast-eagles-fremantle-dockers-melbourne-demons-free-agency-out-of-contract-max-gawn-whispers-news-latest/news-story/6bf630d2b1cf4e5eddbda56d43f7a6b7 Would rather eat a steaming plate of my own...’: Demons star Brayshaw’s cheeky response to Eagles trade link Generally I find Gus and Gawny to be the perfect ballance for each other background wise and both come across as possessing pretty high emotional intelligence. Listening to the buy-in he regularly exprrsses on the show, if Gus was to leave at this point, he would have run a way bigger and more convincing foil than even the master of "I'd like to be a one club player" Tom $cully. If Gus did ever swing towards leaving for reasons of his own, he comes across as the sort of mature high integrity person that would start openly delivering a honest message about where he was at with the club rather than the subtuflarge we got from $cully.

First up segment from around 1 minute 30. ... Rule18.2 e "No one must burn an umpires house down... 18.2 f - Everyone must give Joel Selwood free kicks" lol

Yep, asides from the humorous side, I think they actually had some well measured perspectives on the issue. Really well highlighted ridiculousness of Brad Scott's do as I say, not as I do.

The great benifit we have at the moment with so much depth and confidence in the 'stand-in' players is the luxury of taking our time and getting injured players back into top notch condition without rushing or excessive pressure to get them back in for the sake of the team. Similarly alot of credit has to go to our fitness, conditioning, coaching staff and the players themselves. For Petty to step back into the team and perform like he did on the back of one VFL game was quite sensational. Gives me alot of confidence that Salem and Hibbo will be as fit and firing as they humanly can be when the team most needs them at the pointy end of the season. Salem is pretty much an automatic selection in the seniors when fit. However, I think Hibbo could struggle to force his way into the side if everyone else is performing and there isn't a particular matchup only he can provide by his inclusion. One thing I think that is evident from the past season is that we don't make many, if any team selection changes unless there is a glaring need for it like injury or to make way for an A grade player. We tend to prefer stability and performance to promoting players based on past reputation and experience - Bowey's patient wait and then continued elevation over Hunt in last season's finals series as exhibit A.

Love the quotes and attitude from Goodwin in last week's press conference "we're not looking for perfection, we're just looking to be a really strong footy team ...looking to dominate every week is just not a reality in modern AFL footy. There's alot of great teams out there and we'll respect every one of them". Says to me that we value winning consistently more than being show ponies and Fig Jams. It's that sort of attitude that means we're more likely to be there in September than be March premiers. Winning ugly beats loosing any day and you can see that Goodwin and the teams attitude is that if there is anything they are about perfecting it's maintaining and tuning a system and team ethos to grind out the wins on a systematic basis. How many times do you hear opposition supporters these days say that about Melbourne - "they just grind you down and pressure your team into submission" - I love it!!

Looks like the membership cards have got microwaved already this year. Amazing how quickly they've all jumped off the band wagon, although not all that surprising. Their former stars have either retired, are cooked or have been traded and I don't see a whole lot of tallent coming through behind them to step up into the voids. Could be some lessons in this for us in a few years, although I'm not sure we're quite as top heavy age wise as they were/are.

Along with the general fear of us, the above actually makes me quite happy. Sure beats being irrelevant.

I'm assuming all these are the current running totals Jnr. I'm curious as to what the 'all time record' is say since say 1980? (go back too far in the history books and my suspicion is that not as many games got to 100 points for either team, so the stat would be somewhat void). Maybe a stats / IT guru out there can work it out. I've often wounded if an amature out there somewhere has a full offline data base or a script that can pick it's way through the AFL tables website online.

Yeah a bit more peroxide, less natural ranga! Lol

Quite true and I don't know the answer, other than to say, that it's a good problem to have.

Out of all the recient 'dynasty' teams, at this point, Richmond are dropping off the biggest cliff. They could become pretty irrelevant again quite quickly if it continues at the present rate.

...while we're on topic of umpires critique, has anyone else noticed that the 'protected areas rule is either being officiated differently / significantly relaxed? Has there actually been a rule change or is it just something that's being let go until an umpire finds an inopportune time to decide to pay one and artificially change the momentum of a game. To some extent I think I've also noticed a shift in what actions players take from a mark/free kick situation that could also be influencing things - less handball to a runner going past and more of just playing on taking on the man on the mark directly and why effectively waste a number at the source of the ball when they are better positioned to advantage elsewhere, but while the rule is there, it needs to be played consistently or else it has the potential to randomly create chaos and unfairness at some point.

On a bit of a tangent, I still can't believe how that Tom Hawkins mark last week was allowed to stand. While I wouldn't want to turn the AFL into a NRL style video review system that continuously interrupts play and disrupts the flow of play, but that Hawkins push in the back was so obvious and given the standard 30 seconds he had to go back and take his kick, there was soo much time and oppertunity for a third/video umpire to make the correct decision and overturn the mark. The difficulty does somewhat become when to and not to over turn line ball infringements, but I don't think there was any risk of that in the Hawkins case. It's this kind of stubbornness and sloth like inaction from the AFL to make sensible rule changes to improve the officiating of the game that infuriates players and fans alike and makes the umpires jobs harder. Plus there's that old chestnut the AFL likes to go on about, regarding the integrity of the game - what if a final or finals place hinged on that goal to Hawkins?

Getting some Saturday arvo games in the next part of the fixture to be released would be nice too. Can play our interstate games during prime time, but live games at the G should be there to maximise crowd attendance, not TV ratings.

Get that it was GWS Easter, etc, but as a club, we can't afford to throw away our moment in the sun either. Games that draw just 20K are deflating and don't build that atmosphere that keep bringing people back to the footy to get on board the Demon train. How much more impressive and intimidating would it have been if we had 40k supporters there last night to their 200. Low attendance numbers become a self fulfilling prophecy. If we are to build our membership and supporter base to be something which will sustain us through the long winters of being middle of the pack which will come somewhere down the track, we really need to make the most of the on feild sucess we are having now. I actually feel that the club should be making a concerted effort in its marketing and messaging from players, coaches etc during the week to get supporters turning up to games, GWS or not.

Spot on Jaded. For all those years we've been going along being crapp or just mediocre, how good is it to go and be dominant and in control. My youngest son hasn't seen us loose a game live at the MCG yet and long may it continue ... the kid doesn't know how good he's got it!!

Salem and Hunt both coexisted in the same team for most of last season as they both bring something quite different to the team. With a near full fitness list there's probably half the side that will be need to right on their game and fighting to keep their spots. The real beauty of how we are playing is that all those players see playing team first footy as the way to keep their spot, not being the superstar.

I actually supported this rule when it was first bought in and made something of a pledge to go easy on the umps as a supporter, but the mind blowing free kick differential and then these crazy 50m that so consistently seem to exclusively go against us have seen me throw that pledge to the wind in games this season to date. I recall in an interview he did with Robbo that Razor Ray noted the MFC as being one of the most disiplined teams in terms of arguing with the umps, so I really strughle to understand how it is we're so consistently on the wrong end.

I thought Hunt turned on his B+ game last night. Not quite back to his best, but was running through lines a bit better and taking the game on with his dash a bit. His delivery was much better and I didn't notice any sprayed turnovers or shanks out on the full. I'm guessing the added run goes together hand in glove with better kicking, the later giving confidence in the former. I also don't think it's any coincidence that this uplift in perfornance has occurred with the return of all our A team key defenders of May, Lever and Petty.

Couldn't agree more Picket. There's a difference between disapointment, dissent and abuse. Gee GWS are lucky Tobby Green has been suspended this season so far, he would have given away 5 x 50m penalties before half time, were he on the field, but then again, GWS are one of the AFL's golden love child's, so maybe not.

I also feel as premiers, the MFC are being made examples of.