Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I've got to say that from attending the game in M10 on Saturday night, everything in this thread is true ...and then some: * Plenty of their supporters were reduced to the near fact that they were an ordinary side and were going to loose the game convincingly; * "Oh, what are you doing kicking it to him?" - was a cry heard often as Steve May and Max Gawn picked off intercept marks at will; * I was imeediately surrounded by a number of Hawthorn supporters that were actually decient human beings. I didn't think it was possible, but there you go; * Right at the back (closest the bar), the loudest of the real Hawthorn supporters revealed their true colours. What an obnoxious bunch of Fl#$gs. Forget how many times I heard how they'd never seen so many Melbourne supporters, or how crap Melbourne were, bla, bla, bla. A common thread with all of them though was how scorned they were by the umpires decisions. Never heard a bigger bunch of sooky la la's in my life. You'd think when old mate Hawks defender had a fist full of BBBs jumper, you'd just sush up and resist telling your own defender what a useless player they were for gifting the most obvious fee kick in front of goal possible wouldn't you? But apparently, this was an absolute travesty of justice. Quite happy where we sit with respects to them right now. Us cruising with a quality footy side that should make finals and compete well, with the Hawks a middle of of the road also ran that may push for finals, but probably won't be any kind of threat for a number of years, hopefully decades.

I'd be almost certain there would be clubs with an interest in him and probably for more money than MFC is willing to offer in the interests of keeping our top players at the club. However, listening to him tall on the Gus and Gawn podcast the other week, he seems a really genuine sort of character, so unless there was a huge falling out with the MFC, I can't personally see him being anything but a Demon next season.

With respects to the question posed by the title of this thread, I think Gawn has already been acknowledged as the best player in the league. Lord Trav somewhat beat me to the punch. Back in 2018, when he had arguably his best individual season, he took out pretty much every players award bar the Brownlow and I think AFL Coaches and AFLPA awards are a much better measure than the umpires award. Of course last year, he became the first MFC premership captain in over 50 years, so that probably also makes 2021 an even more valuable contribution than 2018. While Jackson is presently rated so highly, I think there is an aspect of that which is prospectively based on what he is deliving realitive to it being so early in his career and future potential. It's actually really Gawn that is still the lynch pin, anchoring the ship, providing the lions share of output and delivering what is required every match.

I also thought Hunt's game yesterday was excellent. His contests and spoils are a real highlight. I think he is probably a real form and confidence player when it comes to his foot passing. Back end of 2021, before he got injured he had become quite reliable at choosing and hitting targets. First few round of this season he was a bit of a clanger king by foot, but in recent weeks he's really tidied that up and yesterday I really noticed him putting some really precise and well weighted passes to the advantage of our players running back towards half forward.

Yeah, but I'll spew more if Bowey's does!! ...and what's with all this spewing stuff about? I thought COVID was more a case of needing to buy more TP.

Innovate. Sports masks and there would need to be a new demasking rule bought in to pay a penalty if one player interfered with the mask of another or something 🤣

From what I understand, the iso rules that apply to the general public are that you don't need to iso for 2 months (to be confirmed and may vary between states) after you have recovered from COVID (i.e. standard 7 day iso rule doesn't apply). Would depend if the AFL also apply this rule or something stricter.

Well, he's contracted for this season, so I think that's a dead set certainty.

The differentiation of 'premiership players' from those that missed is a little tenuous I think. There were several very unlucky not to play on the day like Hunt, given he'd been locked in the team most of the season until injury struck on the eve of finals and similarly Jordan. We have also had some indications that Bedford and Smith could be pretty close to the mark as well. A significant part of our sucess stems from the quality of depth players we had on our list. I think I recall Max making the point in his book that playrs like Mitch Brown were supper important to driving training standards and actully quite close to potentially getting a game. Adam Tomlinson was certainly performing at the required level at the start of the season, that I think he also could have played in the GF, had he not got injured. In these respects, I think you could almost count the whole playing list as premiership players.

Absolutely agree with everything you have said here New Jaded. Additionally, I was super impressed with how quickly Petty stepped straigh back in and found form again after his long injury interuped pre-season. He was on fire, pulling in great intercept/contested marks, defending well and precisely hitting up great targets with his kicking from day dot. Really speaks to both the great job our fitness team did with him and the quality of player he has become.

It was a while back and you might well be right with some of your assertions there @Skuit, however would we have actually acheived anything much making finals that year? Yes, establishing a winning culture would have been good, but I think from where we were, just reestablishing basic competitiveness and belief was what we required. When Paul Roos came into the club, those were his priorities and my recollection was that Todd went about it with a similar approach and objectives. I think it's also worth noting, that I don't think Todd had any aspirations of ever being the head/senior coach (in fact quite the opposite), so in this respects, caretaker coach was really all it was ever going to be and perhaps that had it's limits at the end of the season with respects to player buy in?

I do feel somewhat conflicted posting this here, but I also stumbled across the below: Melbourne avenge Geelong's 186-point belting in 2011 with ridiculous statistic https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportingnews.com/au/amp/afl/news/melbourne-avenge-geelongs-186-point-belting-in-2011-with-ridiculous-statistic/hmvj8tn82zo314e9xawggj3l3

Tigers break all-time record; ‘Embarrassing’ Eagles face AFL world’s wrath: 3-2-1 Nice that another club is stepping up to the plate to take the mantle from us. We play the Eagles in another few week and I'd love for us to have a crack at beating 186. The game is at our happy hunting ground of Optus Stadium, so hopefully that helps. I don't the Optus will be ever the cauldron of doom of the Eagles or Freo again for our current playing group.

In the radio interview he did on SEN on Demon Day (refer Demonland thread of same name), Garry Pert mentioned that most players at the club had already had COVID, so hopefully this is just flushing out the dregs that hadn't. From what I understand it is possible to get COVID twice, but it might also depend on how recient or more significantly distant the original infection as to if the players could be deemed to be 'immune' and not subject to iso rules. In the same interview Pert also mentioned that COVID prevention protocols at the club outside of onfeild training had been stepped up i.e. mask wearing, meetings via zoom etc.

Come on, is that all? Surely we can achieve more than 25 behinds in a game if we are playing well? Incidentally, on a serious note, it would be interesting to understand the breakdown of behinds between poor kicking and rushed for us Vs our opponents on average. I suspect we have an above average number of rushed behinds, because of the time in forward 50 we acheive and the pressure we put the opposition backs under.

In seasons gone by, this would have been someone else's club like Hawthorn or Richmond that greeted the touring international premership team at the MCG and basked in the glory of being the respective champions. ...but now it's us and it's our turn. Still kinda doesn't feel real, but it is true and it's a bloody magnificent feeling. GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!! ❤💙❤💙❤💙❤💙❤💙❤💙❤

Wounder if since they all have COVID, they could all do a training session together? If so, they should have a good old fashioned kick to kick and specky competition at the end and try to help Kossie get his technique and confidence right, so he can fully execute them on game day. He would have just about had a mark of the year contender every round this season if he just hold onto the ball long enough to complete the mark. Harry Petty could simialy provide some more good aerial entertainment I feel and what can't Dogga do well in footy? Another drill with some goal kicking practice for Sparrow, Kossie and Dogga, while Harry practices kicking out from full back to return the ball. Goody to fetch the ball behind goals and be the judge of the specky comp.

Happened a few times in the recient history of the MFC actually. Last time it happed was when Todd Viney coached the team for half a dozen games, following the sacking of Dean Bailey. Todd actually did a half decient job too I thought from memory. Won a game and at least seemed to have the boys playing with some spirit an intensity. What a CV the Viney's now have between them. Father/Son, x 2 captains, 388 games between them to date, 3 B&Fs, x 2 rising star nominations, coach of the MFC, 1 x MFC team of the century, 1 x MFC premership player. MFC royalty. (Actually @Webber, if you are looking for another MFC inspired painting subject again sometime, how about a bit if a repaint of the MFC team of the century, with a young kid Jack Viney hanging around the rooms pulling a premership medalion out of the locker or kit bag of Todd or something?? 😉) The other fairly recient instance of ex MFC player come coach was Greg Hutchinson, whom coached for around a dozen games as caretaker coach following the sacking of Neil Balme. Greg similarly did a half decient job as care taker coach, winning several game with a team that previously struggled for form.

I actually think playing second ruck is good for Weid. It forces him into the action in a physical way and gives him the opertuity to get his hands on the ball a bit and be involved with the play, from which he can build some touch and confidence within games. Additionally, if he can actually make a half decient fist of the ruck duties part, what versatility that could give us during games, even when both Max and Dogga are available. Teams seem to have enough trouble dealing with the change in style between Max and Dogga, what if we could confidently throw Weid into the ruck to mix things up even more?

I'm actually happy Tommy get's another game. Think he usually gives good effort and frequently gets involved in the play through some kind of team act . Hopefully he's got some confidence and added hunger after his first reserves game in a fair while.

Better lock him away in a COVID bubble at all times outside of training or playing. Don't want him to ever miss a game.

That big bloke we have down back May gives me a fair bit of confidence too.

The other scenario I could see potentially playing out is one where Goody pulls up stumps and says "After umpteen years of intense involvement at the top level, I've had enough of this coaching caper for now and maybe for good? I'm getting out now to enjoy doing other things in life" and enables a bloodless succession and hand over to a talented assistant already established within the team and club cluture, very similar to Roos and somewhat Mark Thompson did. Perhaps that's part of the reason there hasn't been some huge extension to his current contract? You just never know.

Maybe in the benifits of the accuracy of definition we are seeking in this topic, we should also rename them 50 ± 15m benifits? 😊

Look, prime time TV Thursday/Friday night stuff is great to an extent, but any chance we will ever get a traditional 2:10pm Saturday afternoon game again - ever? Ball looked so slippery at times against the Tigers on Anzac eve and I feel it did bring down the skill level a bit. Call me a bit stuck in my ways, but I really do feel that Aussie Rules should be a live spectator sport predominantly and a TV sport second and mid/early afternoon games are the best time to play and watch at the ground. No real ballance at all for us in this respects right now.