Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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

Who would have seen that comming after the couple of games in Cairns that preceded that run.

Don't start that [censored] again Jaded!! 🤣

MFC the best team in the comp at the moment and 'daylight' the second best according to Ben Dixson after watching tonight's game. Not sure I entirely agree or want to go getting a big head at this time of the year, but gee it's nice hearing about the MFC being spoken of like that by the footy world after where we've been in the past.

You know it's been a boring, slow game when Mr Monotone Jack Viney's interview and Goody's pressers are the highlights of the game 😜. Actually thought Viney's interview was ok tonight and Goody's presser was well spoken and insightful. How things change in 12 months. Goody looked so confident, relaxed, in control of the media and had them eating out of his hand.

Was a bit of a tongue in cheek comment from me Oz. Bowser hasn't lost a game in his senior career, he's not getting dropped any time soon.

Have really liked the start to the season that some of our second string mids/runners like Brayshaw, Viney, Harmes, Jordan, Sparrow are putting together. Clarry and Trac still the beasts, but good that they can have a slightly down game by their high standards and others have been standing up.

Fritta and Harmes about the only guys that looked really dangerous and in control down there.

I thought an undermanned Port gave good effort all game right until the end, didn't totally drop their bundle skills wise either, continued to take risks and took on the game to an exent. They were just out classed by a much better team. I'd be ok with that as a Port supporter as far as the players they put on the park.

Please pick another target to motivate into some form @Steamin Demon 😁.

Thought Bowey was ordinary tonight. Might be time to give him a rest.

Sorry to be a Negative Nelly on the above, but in my life time that stat is at 33% for us which puts us down towards the bottom of the list. The two losses were bloody abominable as well and as good a win as 2021 was, we'd still be well under 100% aggregate points for and against in GFs post 1964. Need to keep moving forward get that %W/L record since 1964 looking as impressive as our all time GF %. There's a new target to aim for. To end on something of a +'ve, we have the best AFL GF record ever at Perth stadium or whatever the non corporate name is for that ground over there.

Most possessions in a grand final - 39 Christian Pertracca (equal with Simon Black)

Just realising that Port will be comming off the same 6 day break as us, which is a good leveler in that sense. Although they have been playing like puss and we really should take care of them, I'm concerned they'll be super desperate and turn it into a dog fight like the Dons. Though I've been impressed that the players we've bought in four our injured premiership players, it really would be good to get back some key defenders like Petty and Lever over the next few weeks to a month. Conversely, will be interesting to see how Dunstan goes this week as well, as if Trac I sufficiently injured and needs a spell I'd like to see how he goes in our outfit.

Just thinking back to some of the comments and claims in the Casey thread last week that "he'll never make it" etc, gee, there must be some really tasty humble pie being eaten this morning regarding the Weid's performance. Yeah it's only one game, but I thought there were some really positive signs from the Weid last night. Must admit that I was quite surprised when he got named as an emergency ahead of Mitch Brown, but really glad for the guy that he was able to repay the faith and really turn it on last night. Thought the way he was moving and marking the ball was really good.

I've noticed Gus does get most of his possessions in the ways described above. Makes me wounder why the opposition don't put more effort into manning him up at times. Though he doesn't gain huge territory with some of the dinky little 20m passes that he chips back and forth almost in a 1-2 get back your own ball type fashion, it does let us walk the ball away from the oppositions dangerous space and towards the wing/forward area for us in a pretty low risk way, which I think relieves pressure for us and helps us control the game on our terms more.

I've got no problem with them being called the Devils. I think it's by far the most natural and logical thing for them to be called and one that their population down there could all rally behind, which is important, because as a lover of the game more broadly, I think Aussie Rules needs Tassie to have a team and for it to succeed as a club. If the league is big enough to have Crows, Magpies, Eagles and Hawks, Lions, Tigers, Cats and Dogs, then I think it would be fine to have Demons and Devils. In fact I'd look forward to having an evil battle of the underworld against a potential Tassie team.