Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Thanks for the education, but stolen, whatever, doesn't compare to the MFC GF "BANG, BANG, BANG" for impact and iconic moment in sport in my eyes. Love him or loath him as a comentator in general (personally, I think he's ok), but Brayshaw's call has immortalised him as far as I'm concerned.

I've never really had any dramas on my Android phone or Chromecast dongle I us with my TV. Since I'm having issue with my Chromecast remote not pairing at the moment, I cast directly to the TV from my phone and that works fine also. My only minor gripe with Kayo is I sometimes find it's to easy to accidentally escape out of the program your watching, but it doesn't remember to resume where you left off, but asides from that I find its brilliant.

Agree. Go back 12 months and everyone was saying T Mac is finished and Weid is da man. I think there's a lesson in that. I'm not totally confident that he'll do it (I don't think anyone can be), but I do think it's important for the medium term depth of the side that Weid makes it in some capasity. Our team ethos and game style means he doesn't nessacerilly have to be the superstar, but if he can be a solid contributor in the years between BBB and T Mac dropping off and/or retiring, while we develop other young KPFs, then I think that is important. Sure we could try to aquire a ready made mature KPF from elsewhere, but there are no gaurentees there either. I think BBB would be a great player for Weid to be an understudy to. Lead up forward that can also crumb and do smart stuff and kick goals once the ball hits the deck. The general demeanor of BBB is also such that I think he'll also be a great mentor and developer of our next batch of forwards.

LMFAO. Happy New year BBO and keep it comming in 2022. While I love talking Demons footy anytime, anywhere, the interspersed quality comic releif here on D'land is generally superior to that found elsewhere.

Some light reading there WJ. I might need more than the 5% battery I currently have to get through all that, but looks like a great read as always.

Nice work @Deespicable. Love some of your selections. Sean Charles was definitely a favorite of mine and like Jurrah, it's just such a shame we never got to see them over a more sustained period. If rating on tallent alone, I'm sure Charles would have pushed far higher than he is in your list, but I'm assuming you've taken the players overall impact and contribution to the team within the era that they played, and that's fine. Also like the inclusion of Col Garland. He was much berated here by some, but I always thought he did a pretty solid job in an era where where our backline was constantly under pressure and copping a hammering. Was also possibly under sized for the role he was often asked to play, but would often stand up and perform above his weight IMHO. The other notable performance he put in as a forward was kicking multiple goals (was it 4 or 5?) in one if our few wins for the season against Essendon (whom I often thought were our bunnies in that era). Quite impressed overall by the detail you've put in and you have either a great memory, have done a fair bit of research or a bit of both. Keep them comming and I'm looking forward as it gets towards the pointy end.

I'd be rapped if he was. Jesse could play footy a bit. Practically carried our forwardline as an 18 yo, playing against the best backman every week. I'd love to see how Jesse could have turned out if he walked into the premership side we have now, instead of the rabble we were then and not had all the family and personal tragedy to contend with. I recon he would have been an absolute champion.

My tribute to Troy and our other Demons that passed away before their time, when flying the flag for our GF appearance. At the time Troy was in his prime (so sadly cut short) as a footballer for the MFC, my interests in life were focused on other things, so I don't have much of a personal memory of his time as a player. However from all the great things I've heard from others, his name and memory has a well respected place amoung those others I remembered as we played off in the big one in September. Again, just from others accounts, outside of footy, Troy and Tricia were also great contributors to Jimmy's Reach Youth organisation, which has positively impacted on the lives of many young people. RIP Troy - hope you partied hard and enjoyed the premership win with our other great past players up there.

Merry Christmas to you and your family's. What a year on Demonland and as many have stated already our Christmas celebration has really come early and the celebrations long already. Would love this to become an annual tradition. I think that premiership cup had better watch out if there's any mistletoe around, I'd be all over it.

I know where you are comming from, but I think the better statement would be "lack of another young ruckman". We had Jackson who is both young and learning from the best. I'm guessing that we are making the assessment that being within the premership window, we are better off having the mature ruck depth of Daw and/Or there wasn't another young ruck still available in the available pool worth us investing in right at the present. I think hoefully we've still got a few years before ruck depth becomes a burning issue for us.

Some big calls in there Werridee, but I find it hard to argue with your best 22 on paper. A few things jump out to me: * Who would have put T Mac and Nibbler as best 22 ahead of season 2021; * Premerships player and hulking young gun Tommy Sparrow stiff to miss out, but such is the fierce competition for spots. Will he have a breakout 2022 and stamp his place in the best 22, along with JJ? * Baker starts on the wing IMHO. SOW might be a gun in the making, but I think sauce Baker is better than a two's bench player (Not that it's really a bench per-say anymore); * Our 2nd 22 would push some of the 1st 22s going around I feel. Would love to see Daw get a senior game at some point in 2022, although I think that would take either a huge show of form from him or conversely injuries or drop of form from others, so preferably the former.

Couldn't disagree more with this. It was early 2021 when Kate stepped into the role, in the difficult circumstances of Glen Bartlett's surprise departure. At that time the pressure was on the MFC big time as we didn't have any runs on the board. My view is that in being able to handle that transition in the almost seamless way that it appeared to the outside world and provide that off feild stability over the season was an important factor (obviously not that only factor) in our sucess this season. Contrast that somooth leadership handover with the chaos at clubs like Collingwood, Hawthorn and Carlton this season and the correlation to on feild performance as well. It's long been understood that on feild sucess also requires strong and compedent off feild management/leadership. My observations as a realitive outsider is that we have finally got the offeild stuff right. Sure Kate can't take all the credit, but it looks to me that she's a pretty important ingredient. As much as I never overly warmed to him, I personally acknowledge and give credit to a job well done by Glen Bartlett. Glen was rarely in the headlines and his background as a West Coast man, never particularly inspired me, but during his tenure, there was realitive stability, some good off field decision making and appointments and the gracious way which Glen appeared to step down was a testament to that. Quite conversely, one of the things I really like about Kate as a president is the way she wears her passion for the club on her sleave and the more public approach she takes putting the MFC on the map, but not in the OTT totally one eyed way of an Eddie. I think she could just have the right approach for the era we are beginning.

When Christian Patracca can't win your B&F, because he gets pipped by another mid and you have a ruckman who places 3rd behind him, you know you have a good midfield.

Fair enough, I probably wasn't following those issues that much/closely at the time. Was just going off what he's publicly stated on the record.

Martin Pike and his x4 premership medallions also say hello. Beast of a player, on (and off) the field. I seem to recall from his Open Mike interview, that by the time he got to Brisbane, he'd realised that he had to pull his head in amd Leigh Mathews certainly wouldn't have put up with any crap, which might also have had something to do with it.

An oppo player I'd love of similar ilk to Rankine, but who is already mature and deliving on his potential is Charlie Cameron. The bloke basically carries the whole Lion's forward line. Watched him closely from behind the goals when the Lions thrashed Geelong at the Gabba this year and he's simply a player that knows where the balls going, when to time his run and go for it, has the athletic traits to get it and commands the respect of the opposition's best defender. His efforts tearing a realitively inexperienced, but capable Joe Smith a new one and keeping the Lions in the final against us were evidence of that. I'd love to see what he could do with a bit more freedom playing in a forward line that also had the likes of Fritsch, Kossie, Nibbler/Spargo, T Mac/BBB/Weid. Highly doubt he is anything like gettable for us though and I haven't really considered where he fits in age wise, just a bit of a fantasy pick, based on loving watching the guy play.

Exactly, this new article 'revealing Burgo's secrets' is regurgitating his philosophies that I'm sure he's discussed publically before. There must be some balance and nuance to his philosophy of pushing players through their injuries. For instance we rested Jack Viney for a substantial period this year to get him right for the remainder of the season. Similarly, I also seem recall us resting Christian Salem. In retrospect Jack Trengrove pushing his body on with his injured foot probably wasn't the best thing for his career. I think there is probably some key knowledge and judgement about when to keep pushing and when to back off that makes or breaks this strategy.

Not to mention being responsible for the brilliant passage of play that turned the game in our favour. Sensational one handed gather at pace, through traffic and perfect delivery into space for Fritsch.

Don't recall that so vividly, but the way they just so reliably won games and controlled games was as much about disiplined playing to systems, temperament and belief. I both loathed and admired them, because despite all the talent we had throughout the same era, in all that time through the 90s, we couldn't put together the same consistent performances over a season and big finals to bring home the silverware the way the Eagles did during that reign. Of course, juice probably also assists recovery and injuries, in order to maintain a fit list over the course of the season, which as we have seen time and again is also critical to sucess at the pointy end, so if those rumors were true, that would certainly put a different slant on thier sucess. As much as anything though, I'm guessing near exclusive access to WA tallent may also have played a pretty big part in their depth and sustained sucess though that period?

As much as I loathed them, I did respect the West Coast Eagles teams of the early 90s under Mick Malthouse. They were methodical/clinical in the way they defended and refused to conceed scores, but then when they'd worn you down, they could put your team away. And they generally delivered on the big stages of finals. I really felt that this year, that was us.

Love this highlights package from the MFC. Video editor did a great job, but probably had it pretty easy, with the man Salem providing heaps of quality material. Just look at the first play in the reel. Tackles, strips the player of the ball and then delivers perfectly to a teammate. Of course the package is finished off by his goal in the GF, which was a suburb and fitting way to punctuate his season. A man of near endless tallent, he doubles as the team hairdresser if I recall correctly from an interview with Steven May at some point.

Thanks @BDA - top interview. Interesting Billy Stretch's professionalism being such an influence on Clarry and more reciently Goody, with his 3 big rocks. Don't here Clarry speak at length so often. So many other great insights, but one of the others that really stuck out to me was the connection between Clarry and Gawn on the field, with Clarry pretty much instinctively knows where Max is going to put it off his ruckwork. Sort of reminds me of the way good onballlers I played with just knew where it was going, in a way I never seemed to be able to. The really interesting one was regarding Gawny bringing all the midfielders in to turn things around in that third quarter. Gawny seems like such a great leader that his players really respect.

So, I thought we were about to get a Gus & Gawn / Demonland Premiership special podcast! Come on guys, how about it?

Up here in sunny Queensland where not that many follow AFL, let alone the mighty Demons, one of my 6 yo son's PE teachers wears a MFC cap on pretty much a daily basis and has been since at least the start of this season. So since the start of this year, pretty much every time my son comes across this teacher in the school yard, he gets a big "GO DEMONS!!" from my son. Whitenessed this exchange first hand, when I was dropping off my son to class the other day ... it's a beutiful thing. Obviously, to be wearing a MFC cap on a daily basis, his PE teacher is a bit of a die hard Demons man. Got talking to this teacher a while back sometime mid/late(ish) in the season (heck of a nics bloke) and apparently one of his grandpa's played for the mighty MFC back in the day as well. He got a big "GO DEMONS!!" from me too, when I saw him in the week or so following our awsome premiership wining GF. As Binngers alluded to, it's great to be a part of this tribe right at the moment. All those years of pain have only deepened the bond and euphoria, we now share with our fellow Demons faithful.

We keep a winning culture together and I think it will be an easy decision. Never thought I'd say this, but while we're in the position we currently are, I'm bearly concerned about loosing quality players like LJ, because I doubt it will happen. By the time LJ is demanding absolute top dollar and ruck time, I think Max will be around the point where he's ok with accepting lesser roles and dosh. Let's face it Max has already immortalised himself in MFC / footy fofolklore. I think we are at greater risk of loosing some of the quality B graders like Rivers, Jimmy Jordon and possibly the likes of Hunt, whom might rightly think they could be a bigger name and earning capasity at another club. But when guys with some currency and capability like Melksham choose the option of slogging it out at the MFC over others where they might have greater opportunities, I think that says something.