Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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.

Ok, cool, thanks, I get it now. Let's be the first to 5-0 in consecutive seasons that goes back to back! 😊

Don't disagree with the above either. I guess when the team is working so well as such and supporting it's hard to pick out the best from the rest. In particular, I feel like Harmes has got off to a good start to the year, putting himself in good positions to win the ball and taking some of the heat off others like Clarry and Trac.

Yeah, each to their own. I thought he was easily our best key forward. Probably could have ended up with 3 goals if he kick straight the way he is capable of. Dished off that great team first goal to Fritsch and was probably involved in several others. It's T Mac and BBB all the way next week for me. In retrospect, I don't know how I missed giving votes to Clarry though. Guess he just goes about his work in such a reliable, workman like way, he just blends into the woodwork. Per usual he was everywhere, winning and distributing out the ball to advantage. I've increasing noticed how that kicking follow through he does when he drives the ball forward is Barassi like. Such a weapon.

Joined? We would have joined them in doing that last year except, Geelong were premiers in 2007 and Hawthorn in 2008 and Geelong again in 2011, so you might have to explain the above to me a bit more 🤔 .

6. Max 5. Trac 4. May 3. Kosie 2. Fritta 1. T Mac

The GWS cheer squad just came and sat in front of where we are. ...all three of them.

Remember I use to write in these threads that I thought we might be a chance of winning today. Seems surreal, that now the expectation is winning and it's more a case of when that first upset loss might come against us. Not totally confident that we're in smashing form right now, but not sure I see this as a big danger game either.

Is that Nathan Doggy Brown's son?

I think Brisbane are right up there and are the side that worries me most at the moment. If they weren't shafted again down at the cattery, they would probably be on top of the ladder right now. I also think they will be alot better with Hipwood back in their side, assuming he can come back from injury and find his best form again. I watched them demolish Geelong at the Gabba mid season last year and the were impressive. I really do hope Geelong fall apart at the seams again come finals time. It's a long season and I think that will really hurt and start to bite their fossilised main stars like Selwood, Dangerfield, Smithd, Toohey etc. As well as Cameron seems to be playing at the moment, if Hawkins ever gets injured, I think they would be totally stuffed. In theory, the Bulldogs should be there abouts, but their very poor start to the season will make it very hard for them to stay in touch and just make finals from here and they won't have any luxuries that we do to rest or take their time bringing back injured players like we have. If they do make finals, they could be totally stuffed by the time they get there, unless they can find good form fast, finish in a flurry and win it from 5th again like 2017...but I can't see it. It's a long season and there's still pleanty of opportunities for us to get injuries and have a form slump, but the great start we have had to the season has put us in a really good position already. Particularly considering we haven't really hit our straps form wise yet and with the injuries we've had to our back six, we could really go from strength to strength from here. I think our exceptional depth is already proving to be of great value in the COVID iso interrupted season we are having. I'm also hoping that some of the sides who have been injury depleted and/or had poor starts like Port, Essendon and the Bulldogs can win some games against top 8/top 4 sides in the next half a season and help us put more of a buffer on the rest of the top 4. In theory we should have had a much harder start to the season with the opponents we've had, but we've either got lucky and played them when they're down or we've been good enough to make them look quite ordinary or a bit of both.

Dixson made that same statement on the Fox post match game the other night after our game. I don't want to get cocky and finals are usually hard to win, but it's really nice to hear the footy world talk about us that way, rather than saying how we are pusss.

Yep. Loving how this Rd is panning out. It one of those weekends when we find out "who the contenders are and who the pretenders are!"

It's T Mac and BBB for me next week. T Mac didn't exactly start, but I feel like he gave so much more effort and contest than Weid. With Weid, it's seems to be that either he'll get amoungst it and kick a few goals or he'll be well held and be an almost invisable non contributor. At the moment, I think Weid lacks the nous of how to get involved with the play if he's not able to pull down the big marks, where as T Mac at least leads further up the ground, presents an outlet option nullifies the contest at worst. T Mac also seems to be much better at scrapping out the ball on the ground, tackling and uses his big body to take on the takler alot more to clear a path and keep the ball going our way when he hasn't marked. I actually feel that Weid has to show something with the remainder of this season just to remain on an AFL list, not just ours. Really hope I'm over reacting based on a small sample size this season on this one, because I hope the Weid can turn it on and make it, but I feel like his mediocre effort against Port will probably cost him his spot in the side and make him have to fight for it at Casey some more. Not sure if others see it differently or not.

The way he finds the ball and generates play for us out of defense, I wounder if sides will start playing a defensive forward on him, although I guess the problem would be that if that were to occur, we'd probably direct play through another player like Bowey.

Our women's team have been one of the top sides of the competition pretty much the whole time it's been up and running and have got so close to GF appearances before that I sense they have well and truly earnt their place to take part in today's match. Hopefully the experience of players like Dasiy (10) and Paxman (3) who have played in multiple premerships at state level has an influence on their team mates. Looking forward to the game - GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

I would certainly be an achievement with respects to men's & women's double, but in a more general sense, surely there are teams have also won a reserves and/U19 premership together with a seniors premership at some stage when those teams were still being feilded?

The extreme home ground advantage that Geelong, West Coast, Adelaide and to an extent Brisbane get should be called out for what it is - cheating. Seriously, it's about time the AFL did something to address this issue in a more meaningful and transpartent way. The professionalism and scrutiny of AFL players behavior to play the game and the attitude of players towards umpires is at a high level. The same should be expected of umpires. I guess making umpires truely professional for a start would help, but beyond that there must be some more intense data analysis the AFL could apply to weed out umpires that are most sensitive to wrong decisions in front of big home audiences and for those umpires to be demoted and overlooked for such games at the expense of those that are better performers, in order to improve the situation.

Think they are playing rugby down at the cattery, I've seen that many uncalled throws for both sides. Just waiting for the umpire to pay a penalty for a forward pass.

Particularly impressive from May as he always seems to cop pleanty of hits to the body crunching packs and backing into on comming traffic to effect a spoil. Get's off the ground, sucks it up and goes again. Love his hardness, effort and intensity. Easily one of my favorite MFC players of all time and the best full backs we've had in my lifetime. Bloody Legend.

I feel that Rivers has been well below his best so far this season. Seems to me to be lacking that real dash out of defense and long penetrating, well placed kick deep forward that are his trademarks. Looks to be playing injured ever since he came back in. Conversely, I didn't think Hunt was that horrible tonight with his disposal and looks to be building his game and confidence to back to the tenacious and compedent defensive role that he was playing last season prior to getting injured on the eve of finals. I'm actually thinking maybe Rivers needs a few weeks off and/or a run in the two's to get his body right and mojo back and Smith comes back in for him rather than Hunt. I'd similarly be giving Petty time to get him self in top form and fitness at Casey for a few weeks, rather than rushing him back. Like Salem, too important of a player to be impatient with fitness and form wise, although I feel he is of the quality and maturity these days that he won't take long to find some solid form.

I feel that Rivers has been well below his best so far this season. Seems to me to be lacking that real dash out of defense and long penetrating, well placed kick deep forward that are his trademarks. Looks to be playing injured ever since he came back in. Conversely, I didn't think Hunt was that horrible tonight with his disposal and looks to be building his game and confidence to back to the tenacious and compedent defensive role that he was playing last season prior to getting injured on the eve of finals. I'm actually thinking maybe Rivers needs a few weeks off and/or a run in the two's to get his body right and mojo back and Smith comes back in for him rather than Hunt. I'd similarly be giving Petty time to get him self in top form and fitness at Casey for a few weeks, rather than rushing him back. Like Salem, too important of a player to be impatient with fitness and form wise, although I feel he is of the quality and maturity these days that he won't take long to find some solid form.

6. Max 5. May 4. Harmes 3. Viney 2. Langdon 1. Fritta