Rodney (Balls) Grinter

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.

Awsome - is that Richo?

😯 like how!!?? Soo jealous. Think you could broker a Demonland / MFC member cup house tour?

I watched a few quarters of it again the other day. Your right, it's hard to get that same rush from it, but worth watching from the perspective of being impressed about just how under control we had the game for most of the time and what a complete and dominant finals series it was that we played. Couldn't have scripted our finals series better if I tried. Over all, we were just so impressive and dominant that we basically crushed the life out of every side we played, even though a few of them challenged and pushes us for parts of each respective game. Also evident what awsome finals series both Freitch and Patracca had, probably closely followed by Oliver and Gawn. Fritta kicked bags of 4, 2 & 6, including some crucial momentum shifting ones and similarly, Trac was dominant out of the middle and also kicked a couple of crucial goals against the Lions to seal the game.

Can add to that list that he has great forwards goal sense and skills set. Always knows where they are, is surprising agile, has good ball handling skills and is quite capable of snagging a sneaky snap or kick out of a pack if the ball hits the deck as well.

Maybe GWS and Sydney in particular can hand back a few of theirs? Only going from recollection here, but I think they have been by far the biggest beneficiaries of the NGAs. Personally, I agree that the NGAs are a rubbish idea. It's like going back to the old zone recruiting days. I think the issue here is that many others have had their lick of the lollipop, but when it's our turn, it gets taken away by mum. The NGAs shouldn't be needed as incentive for the Northern states to invest in developing junior players. They are subsided by the rest of the competition just to be in existence. They should be greatful for that an see it as a reasonable obligation to invest back into their local grass roots teams (as should all AFL teams in a sense, who are essentially funded by popular demand).

Forget about the typo, I just can't quite reconcile that he only played 11 games in 2021 and only a total of 19. Performs like a mature 100 game player. Just on the games played though, by my reckoning, it was actually 19 games 2021 (including finals) and 11 pre 2021 for a career total of 30, which matches a little better with the maturity he played with. BTW, I didn't set out to correct the record, but from my recollection of when Tomlinson went down, 11 games 2021 seemed like way to few, as again just from recollection, it when Out: Tomlinson injured, In: Petty the week after, who played every game? for the remainder of the season and didn't miss a beat.

That call of BT's somewhere during our second half onslaught where he exclaims that "the noise level of this crowd should be illegal" drives me insane.

Just curious, who else's are still up 😁😁 I'm thinking mine might go until past Christmas 😊😁 Lookout God, the Demons are back in charge and ruling Aussie Rules around here!! 😝😜 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

There was also another kick to the top of the square in that third quarter onslaught, which had it not been contested by Maxy / T Mac and punched over by a good spoil from one of the Bulldogs defenders could well have been either a mark from point blank to us or on target to bounce through for another goal. One of those players who doesn't necessarily need to get mountains of the pill to be dangerous. If he marks anywhere within and probably up to just outside 50m on a reasonable angle, he's one of the few players I'm more confident than not will slot it right through the middle. Only chip on him is possibly that he lacks a combination of either pace, agility or awareness of the opposition players around him, as he seems to get caught holding the ball a bit at times. Hopefully he improves this part of his game, but I don't see it as a huge deficiency as I think we also need players who are prepared to wear one for the team and do sometimes get caught in the process, but on other occations use their strength and power to break clear, break lines and some bones and spirit of the opposition at the same time.

This was my tribute to Col and others when I flew the flag for the GF. Loved watching Col play, particularly when he first arrived at the club, he was a beacon of hope that had star power written all over him. Had we had the other capable players and maturity of leadership around him, I very much think that Colin had the talent to have been a part of a Demons premiership side. See alot of how he played in Tommy Sparrow, hard, tough and an accurate, booming shot on goal. Was somewhat disappointed when he left for Freo, but also understand it based on what I understand of where he and the team were at around that point of time. Really happy how his family and the MFC were bought back together around our premiership and I hope his family felt some happiness being a part of it. Demon for life. RIP Colin.