Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I somewhat forget if they were particularly bad terms that he left on, but was great to see Shane Woewoden in the rooms after our win. Not only that, but that he had his 2000 GF jumper on, was a nice touch I thought. I'm a bit of a tragic sentimentalist when it comes to things like this, but I do like the thought of Woewy Jnr pulling on the jumper for us as well.

...and support Essendon of all clubs - FFS. Are well, if it were true, I think they've been well and truely hit by the karma bus with all the great success Essendon have had, drugs scandle and all!!

After some hesitation, I bit the bullet and ordered one of these the other day. I was really wanting one with all the players celebrating, but the best version of that one was sold out and I couldn't bring myself to purchase the version with Perth Stadium in the background, because (And absolutely nothing against our Perth based supporters etc) part of me still resents the game being played there and so many of us not being able to make it. Perhaps if/when we win one at the mighty G, I'll get one with it all over the background. In the meantime, the thought of the above one arriving sends me to a happy place every time I think about it as it captures some truly beautiful moments of that one day in September that we've now finally been a part of in my lifetime! GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

Apparently the Bulldogs players may not be with you there? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/melbourne-demons/afl-news-2021-melbourne-vs-western-bulldogs-perth-nightclub-fight-days-after-grand-final-campbell-brown-podcast/news-story/3160b2546fce467d3971aa3b8493c407 https://www.google.com/amp/s/7news.com.au/sport/afl/club-responds-to-claims-demons-players-targeted-bulldogs-in-heated-nightclub-clash-c-4354283.amp ... but who cares. At least now the Bulldogs are free from desire right 😜😅🤣

...BTW, I think I recall Jacko scoffing at the suggestion he could also have worn a Bulldogs scarf to the GF, due to the short time he played there post being let go by the MFC!

While no where near in the same stratosphere as the two aforementioned, I've often felt that Gary Lyon and Jimmy Stynes have been served up the rath of scorned Demons faithful for the lack of imeediate sucess back when they put their hand up to contribute to the club's administration. So happy for the amazing way both were embraced and included in our premiership glory. Barring guys like Jimmy and Robbie not being able to be here, I hardly think it could have played out better, if only perhaps Maxy Gawn could have been involved in that little calibration with the Stynes family, but I'm sure he would have if it weren't for bloody COVID. I really loved that post match interview with Alan Jackovic with Garry in the rooms. It was clear from that and numerous others I've seen or heard him do over the years (the Demonland podcast is a ripper) that Jacko both still bleeds Red & Blue and has a great empathy and kinship with us supporters.

The others not mentioned in this conversation so far are Joel Smith and somewhat ironically Adam Tomlinson. ...of course, the other answer which I also think has some validity is everyone on the MFC list needs to have a big preseason if we are to push to make another grand final / back to back flag.

Would be good to see what these guys could do, but I think time and possibly tallent are more on their side than some of the others we have, who probably really do need to prove themselves at the MFC or look elsewhere. Guys like Weid who is more of a prized big man would probably find a second club willing to give them a second chance regardless, but I suspect that Baker and Bedford would need to really shine with whatever opportunities they get at senior level, just to be considered elsewhere, if they can't crack getting a semi regular game for us.

In retrospect, I'm glad that Ball didn't have any interest in us, as I thought he was kind of meh at Collingwood and to be honest, I never really noticed him at St Kilda either. But then again I don't remember watching either side that closely at the time, so maybe he was actually a better player than I'm crediting him with. My perception in retrospect is still that there was way too much hype over his move than it really warrented. He wasn't anything like the Judd to Carlton kind of impact. Does also make me think just how important the connection that players build with their team mates is to their output and contribution to team. Probably a skill within itself for established players quickly adapt to their new role and how to best work together in a new environment and something that the gun recruits we have acquired in recent years, such as Lever, May, Langdon and Brown have clearly mastered.

Yep, to think that we had an 'avalible' forward line comprising the likes of Bennet, Lyon, Jackovic, Schwartz, Pike, Smith, Farmer, Lovel, Yze around the same time, amoung others I'm probably forgetting, what tallent. I rated Prymke's potential at the time as well.

Again, we were ahead of our time. I think this was the genesis of future picks.

Just ahead of your time. While not exactly a crowd favorite here on Demonland at times, little Charlie Spargo goes pretty darn good in the No.9 I think! Who were you thinking with 19 post Johnson's retirement? Was it Darren Bennett or Paul Prymke perhaps?

I've been progressively going through my DVD collection and replacing some of my favorites with Blu-Ray, because on a hi-def big screen TV, I find the picture quality is chalk and cheese and once you see things in hi-def, standard def looks kind of crappy. I do have a 4K TV and have some titles in that, but most of the time, I probably don't think that makes a huge difference. Rewatching the most import game played by the MFC in my lifetime in anything but hi-def would definitely agitate me.

Fox footy usually does that interview thing with the premiers about their season from recollection. I've never bothered to watch the whole thing for other teams, but I'm thinking just that show could be pretty decient. Dispite our 2020 season following it's release being somewhat of a flop, I thought that the "To Hell and Back" series was pretty well produced. Surely the MFC have got a stack of behind the scenes footage and can do a few post GF follow up interviews that will get packaged up into a quality product for us long suffering die hard to lap up?

I only got part way through before I got distracted on other things, but thus far actually pretty impressed. Like the part about the MFC players generally engaging with the umpires in a focused and disiplined way, without needless carry-on. I'm sure he has to watch what he was saying when singling out praise for the MFC players in this way, so as not to be perceived as favouring us, but what he said was pretty objective and general in nature in many ways and, I'm guessing Ray was also sending a bit of a message to the rest of the comp - your conduct on the feild and behaving in a professional manner towards the umpires is an ingredient towards becoming a premership side! Thought his insights into his junior umpiring days was also interesting. Built a bit more respect for him out of what I've heard of the interview this far, but still got to say that he does grate on me the way he seems to carry on out on the feild and creates the attention around himself, rather than just getting on with the game.

1:30 - "He's 45 years age and he's still umpiring, what an idi0t"...Yeah, well we all knew the last part 😉🤣 (half kidding).

Sounds great, bar the DVD in place of Blu Ray. Surely they will bring out the high def version in time for Chrissy? ...after all, it's 2021, not 1964 - after 57 years of pain, please give it to us in high def!!

No disrespect to Voss, but I think Trac will become a better player the Voss if he hasn't already.

Love your description of that 3 mins @Fork 'em and is pretty close to the way I felt about it all as well. It was the three minute burst started by Harmes -> Fritta that got us back in the game, that stiring goal straight through the middle from Gus that put us back in front and confirmed our control of the game, but it was that 3 minute blitz from Trac, Sparrow, Clarry with support from Dogga Jackson, Viney and T Mac that split open the game from that point on. I'd like to say that after the way we played that 3rd quarter, I was on such a high and we were so dominant that I pretty much thought it was ours to loose from that point on, but in reality, I probably still had those few nervous thoughts that it wasn't quite yet beyond doubt. I'm so greatful those thoughts didn't need to persist long into the last quarter at all and we could all sit back, party and enjoy the show from there.

Agree. I still went off my nut and let everyone in the neighborhood know that the MIGHTY DEMONS are premiers in 2021, but it was still missing that huge aspect of footy of being there in the crowd, hugging my old man and son, screaming my guts out and singing the song with 50,000+ fellow MFC tragics. It's still left a partial void, but in a way that's not such a bad thing, because it's given me an aspiration to look towards in future years as a supporter. If not for that, maybe I could become content with just winning a single premiership in my lifetime and somewhat loose interest and passion, which doesn't sit well with me at all.

I've been thinking it's about time I sit down again at 7:15pm tonight and watch the while game start to finish with a few cold ones. The only way to really put the rush of that 3rd/4th qtr bliz as @doc roet put it, is to slip into the feeling of dispare of watching that preceding 2nd quarter where our brilliant 1st quarter lead gets whittled away. I don't have to try hard to imagine what it must feel like as a Bulldogs supporter to go from feeling like the premiership was in their grasp after the Bont kicked his 3rd goal mid way through the third to having it ripped away so unceremoniously from that point on. The BT pump-up of the 'The Bont', Teddy Whitten comparisons, Norm Smith's, premerships only built up the hype and must have added to the sense of disappointment, disaster and despair for them from that point on. I actually know some really nice Bulldogs supporters, so part of me actually empathises with them, but then some of the close losses that the MFC experienced to the Dogs over the years (I was there at Metricon last year when they effectively interrupted our momentum and run at finals last year) did make beating them like this very sweat as well.

Best part of any MFC supporters daily routine.

This is exactly how it appears to me having watched the game (well mainly the second half) around the 30 or so odd times as well. The turnaround in both our defensive capabilities and mental toughness over the past 3 or so years has been immense. I recall that home and away game agains Sydney back towards the back half of 2018 as an example of how the GF and other games like Rd 23 at the Cattery could have ended for us in the past. Vs the Swans that day, we started on fire and had dominated the Swans on the field, but somewhat failed to convert the oppertunities, but led by around 11pts at qtr time. Over the next two qtrs, tough playing mostly compeditive footy, we leaked goals like crazy and the Swans ended up with a 28 point lead at 3/4 time. We threw it at them in the last, but couldn't get back the lead. In the GF, the Bulldogs somewhat dominated the play and the scoreboard for one and a half quarters, but our defense held strong and mitigated the score they were able to kick in that time, which somewhat kept us in the game over that period and didn't let them get away. To some extent the Bulldogs were actually lucky to open up the ~3 goal lead we had on them, because we were still winning it out of the centre via Trac and Co. and providing reasonable scoring opportunities that we just weren't converting. We score one or two of those goals and all of a sudden, the Bulldogs are only 6 - 12 points up, which doesn't look quite as bad. Even still, watching the replay again, over this time, it felt like the Bulldogs had played their game by this time and needed us to crack for them to finish the job off - but crack we certainly didn't and they were ill prepared to dig in and defend when the momentum swung back the other way, which is hardly surprising really based on their defense being a weakness of theirs all season. Seems like we have such trust in our defense to hold up and keep us in it when we don't have the momentum, the maturity to keep our head when this is happening and then are able to flick the switch and really hurt teams offensively when we have the dominance - I LOVE IT!!

Guessing the edit option had expired, so I've fixed it for you in the above. Can stop being so annoyed now!

Yes, less coin, but how much do you think having this medal around his neck is worth? While we weren't exactly the premiership fancy at the time Ben came across, his chances of winning one with us were infinitely higher than at North. Incidentally, there appears to be what could be a great article in the link below, but I don't have the means or tech savy to bypass the paywall. Ben Brown's father, Doug, speaks about his son's journey to becoming an AFL premiership player https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/7445618/browns-crowning-glory-brings-joy-to-family/ Love a breif summary of the content from the above if someone can access it.