Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Paul Puopolo was the AFL's tenth shortest player, standing at 173 cm and played nearly 200 games in what was a strong multi premiership team at the time. If Chandler can find his niche in the MFC side, I don't think height is really such a barrier. I didn't watch Puopolo super closely as a player, because of my general loathing of Hawthorn, but seem to remember him as being a nuggety and strong for his height, a tenacious tackler and a player that kept bobing up and presenting in good places around goals. He was also a reliable shot on goal and didn't miss many opportunities. I see alot of the same traits in Chandler. He's also great mates with Max and I think generally a pretty popular guy with his peers, which has got to count for something. I'm going to be a bit more bullish on Chandler and offer up $2.20 for the farm boy from outback SA. A a supporter group, we've just got to come up with a nickname that's as infuriatingly annoying to opposition supporters as 'Poppy'.

In the off season, I have some of the 2021 MFC games on repeat, but yeah, get what your saying.

Hawthorn are easily my most loathed supporter group, with Essendon not far behind. Use to include West Coast on a similar level, but the way WA embraced our 2021 finals series has tempered that. These two muppets embody alot of the Hawtorn supporters obnoxiousnous into a simple clip. Back in the late 80s and 90s, it was even worse the "That wasn't Hawthorn today" quote someone bought up really embodies their arrogance. Every yuppie bogan band wagon jumper Hawthorn supporter that might attend Maybe 1 or 2 games per year was a [censored] footy expert. Our lack of ultimate sucess through the late 80s and 90s seemed to give their loathsome supporters an additional air of arrogance towards me as a Demons die hard. While I'd love to well and truely smash Hawthorn both times we play them this season, the ultimate revenge would be a decade of sustained sucess with multiple premerships for the MFC, paired with a corresponding decades of mediocrity for Hawthorn (they don't even need to finish bottom every year. The odd hopeless finals appearance would be good for the souls of Hawthorn supporters). Old mate has the Tasmania sponsors logo on his jumper and gee it would be awsome to see them completely relocated there.

The knocks on Joel as a player are a bit unwarranted IMHO. Yeah, he wasn't any superstar, but I generally thought he was a pretty honest player who had a fair dinkum crack. Can't comment too much on the honesty side of his business dealings, but it almost seems like ASIC etc going after a soft target. Just my perception based on bits and pieces of reporting over the years, but I think some of the multinationals and even the Trumps, Zuckerbergs and Musks of this world probably regularly deal in more deceptive behaviour with intent, but are just better armed with expensive lawyers, better at covering their tracks and perhaps more cunning and better liars.

So this is an interesting development: https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/membership/kayo-digital KAYO DIGITAL The best (and cheapest) way to stream all our games live, while supporting the Melbourne Football Club through membership. It's a win, win! Package Benefits A subscription for 12 months of Kayo Basic (RRP $360) Access to watch all AFL Premiership season games, plus more than 50 other sports, as part of your 12-month Kayo subscription 2023 Melbourne Armchair membership 40% off voucher to use at the Demon Shop (valid for one transaction) Access to exclusive offers from club partners Would be interested in the details and implications of this deal: 1. The number of devices it permits per subscription, i.e. is it Kayo premium etc? 2. Does it mean any existing member that purchases the Kayo subscription through this offer adds another membership No. to the club's total (not sure that's a huge advantage as no doubt all AFL have been offered this deal) Anyways an interesting option for those wanting to know 'the best way to watch the Footy'

Yeah, I don't disagree, but I'm still quite happy for the footy world to talk up others and under rate us for now. I think we could be 1st and undefeated by half way through the season again and there will still be a question mark about us waiting for us to faid out like 2022. Don't care I'd rather we just put together another season like 2021 when everyone else thinks we're flaky, but the team beleives in itself and we march on to another flag - at the G the time!

Greg Staford was/is our forwards coach and I'm not sure we need to rush in and replace him. From what I recall, JVR credited Staford with simplifying and breaking down a philosophy for JVR that really helped him develop his game in the second half of last season. I'm also not 100% sure that our goal kicking inaccuracies are all about technique as it could be somewhat of a result of where we end up leading to and taking our shots from. That said, it can't hurt to give Choco a go at the job either and perhaps he'll bring a fresh aproach that could really click for some players. As I've said elsewhere, if we can get a few more goals out of Trac and Clarry purely through better accuracy, that would add significantly to our scoring potentency.

Maybe I should sign up, so I can stop seeing adds for David Kosh telling me how I can make $ by the million all the time!! He seems to be one of the favorites at the moment. BTW, I wouldn't advise anyone take up his advice. I know it's the net etc, but how they can't stop these obvious scammers using real identifies for paid adds is somewhat beyond me. Is the server for this site in Kazakhstan or the Cayman something where there it's untouchable by western authorities?

Best news all day. Huge part of our premiership success in 2021 and hopefully he'll add a few more in years to come. As others have said even if his body/form doesn't hold out at it's best for the entire duration of this contract his value as a mentor/coach for our next generation key defenders will be invaluable. ...and yes @MrFreeze my love for Maysie is strong enough to have his babies (if that were anatomically possible!!🤣). Even though him and Melksham got into the biffo last year, I recon both of them are the sort of blokes who'd want in the trenches with you in a war zone. Maysie would bleed red and blue these days.

Sheeesh PF ease up. For all we know maybe he's just happy pulling on the boots at VFL level and playing footy at the best level he can. Can't blame the guy for having a go. His skills are silky as, has good footy sense and I recon he'd be good enough to be a good player at VFL level. If he wasn't 30 and didn't had the issues with his body, I think AFL would be well within reach, but I'd agree that's a long shot based on the indication of that we saw in 2020 of his physical ability these days.

If he gets to anyone, I think it will only be if he dominates at VFL level, in which case I think he'd go to high in the mid season draft to get to us. If he's looking the goods form wise, I think he will have plenty of suitors, but I suspect that's a big IF.

Seems like some truth to the rumor. Former No.2 pick making bid for third AFL comeback https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/former-no2-pick-making-bid-for-third-afl-comeback/news-story/545b179933485b4f3cf9b9d49a381c43 Currently playing with the Tiwi Bombers, where I think Majak Daw is also currently playing, perhaps there could be some inside insights. Good luck to him.

That's some nice handywork there knitting the No.31 onto the back. I'm actually woundering what BBB thought about his delusional wannabe wife was doing with Fritta's number on their plush toy?

No need for the close up photos of BBB to prove his presence WCW, his height and huge afro give him away on the far left of the above! Will loose some of his presence when the locks get chopped 😔

Thanks @Deemist, that's a cracker of an interview/podcast. Probably the best one I've listened to in a while. Maxy take the [censored] out of T Mac at times and has a tongue in cheek go that he's a [censored] bloke, but I think the opposite is actually true and that Max actually really rates T Mac. He's just such a down to earth country bloke at heart. Loved the numerous intelegent insights into life as a AFL footballer, the days after the 2021 GF etc. Particularly thought his take on the stand the mark, the 666 rule changes and ANB / Spargo roles and running were great. Stuff about Mark Neeld was also pretty interesting. All of this has probably been said/rumoured before, but if you want all this crammed into one 60min interview by someone who can accurately and articulatly explain it all, then this podcast is well worth the listen.

Sward - an expanse of short grass. Nice thanks Demonstone, I just learnt something, however a natural talent for poor spelling and a few reds probaby don't mix that well 😂. Putting a few teams to the sword on the sward would be enjoyable 😊

I was possibly also thinking of 2019 when he kicked 22 goals 14, but looking back through his stats it almost seems like every second year his goal kicking is up the [censored] and in alternate years it's pretty respectable. It's not that I'm being over critical of Trac, it's just that I think he's too talented of a player to consistently kick poorly for goal, when he shows that he can do it so well. Could make a big difference to our fortunes him kicking 19.29, compared to 29.19 as we probably would have one a few of those games we lost last year had he (and/or others) kicked straight. Clarry is the other who's set shots in particular defy his generally pretty solid kicking ability. I recall some comentator claiming he could play a role as a part time forward based on his good kicking for goal three or four seasons back. However his last few seasons his set shot goal kicking has been woeful (5.8 and 11.18). I half wounder with Clarry and Trac if they were carrying injuries that impacted their kicking technique last season in particular? If our gun mids can contribute a few more goals, it makes us a much more dangerous team, regardless of improvement in our dedicated forward setup.

You pretty much nailed the reasons for my thirst for vengeance against those teams. Against Sydney in the final last season, I planted myself in the middle of a Sydney memebers area, because I couldn't get the online ticketing system to allocate me anything decient in the MFC members allocation, but was able to get decient enough ones in the Sydney one. Ended up sitting next to this obnoxious Sydney supporter who took offence to my passionate vocal support for our boys, which made loosing to them even harder to swallow. Loosing to Collingwood in 2021 was bad at the time, but didn't hurt in the end after we won the flag. Fortunately I was there at the Gabba in 2020 when we dismembered them, but asides from that, they've been a bit of a bogie side for us.

So a with a little ryhm to the title, here's a thread to dump your wishes for the MFC's season to come. So, asides from the obvious premiership, what is something you'd like to happen from a player or the team as a whole? For me I think a few things I'd love to see this year are; in no particular order: * Trac get back to his goal kicking best - yes he kicked two in the 2021 GF, including a magic dribbler that started the 'Bang Bang Bang' , but I don't feel that Christian's goal kicking has been as sharp as it could be for a few years. There was a season (somewhere 2018 - 2020 I think) where he was absolutely on top of his goal kicking game and you could back him in to nail a set shot from either 25 out straight in front or 55m right on the boundary and I'd love to see more of that. * The MFC to slaughter Collingwood on the first Kings Birthday match; * The MFC to slaughter Sydney in Rd 3 and beat them by 12 points in Rd 24 to knock them out of the finals; * The MFC to slaughter Hawthorn both times we play them and clap their pittifulfy attended supporter group leaving half way through the third quarter. * Generally I'd like to see us put more teams to the sward early if we can. Maybe this is a bit presumptuous and arrogant, but after watching our team get dismembered and picked apart on so many occations, gee it would be good to watch the reverse and I will emphasise that this is more of a wish list and die hard supporters dream than an expectation of things to come.

Add them to the list. Some more oppertunity to raise funds for cancer.

I guess one thing about Billy was that despite his ultra professional approach, he was ultimately assessed as not being 'quite' good enough as a player for AFL level, which somewhat disappointed me, because I loved the effort, occational flashes of brilliance that were on display when he played and also the romance/club lotalty of the father/son player that he was. But I think the other main point that Spencer makes here is that perhaps players on AFL lists don't need to be stars or even play that many games at senior level to be a great contributor to team sucess. Time will tell if Taj becomes the Jack Viney or the Billy Stretch, but either way it sounds like he's making his mark on the culture of the MFC in an intangible way that money can't buy in this era of professionalism of modern football.

I recall starting a thread of "players that need to get a hair cut" when BBB was at North, with him as one of the main culprits, so perhaps he's another that secretly reads Demonland. First Hunt leaves, Lingers shaves the locks, now BBB. Who else do we need to address to conform the the MFC/MCC short back and sides mold? Perhaps if Kossie gets in on the act, we'll know that a signature on an extended contract with the red and blue is on the cards! In all seriousness, good on Ben. Great cause and let's get behind it and him. His potential contribution to the senior side for this year has been downplayed by many, but I can sense a 60+ goal season from the man they call BIG BENNY BROWN!!

Note, Netflix is reportedly starting a crackdown on subscription sharing and I wouldn't mind betting Kayo do at some point too. Just hope it's not soon as sharing a subscription with my sister is a pretty good deal for me at the moment! Overall, it might not be the cheapest, but I'm pretty happy to contribute my MFC home and away membership and attend at the ground as my preferred means of watching. Totally understand that everyone's finacial situation might be different though and you've got to rationalize what where you spend your money in life.

Kinda know where you are comming from here Red. What about "Spooning Freo for Dogga Picks"?

I'd be highly surprised if one of Cats, Drrs, Lions, Pies, Swans, Tigers doesn't slip out. Just look at Dog 2021 Vs 2022. Similarly saw a stat that most teams that get beaten by 40+ points in a GF, don't make top 4 or perform well in finals the following year - referring to the Swans of 2022. Can't see Collingwood getting a dream run of wins under 1 goal either, so I could easily see them slipping. Who honestly knows what we will get from the Lions and Tigers this year and I'm not even sure the Cats or ourselves are a shoe in either. I'm with those that think Freo's player losses outweigh their gains and could easily conceive them going backwards. How far is the question. It would be somewhat wishful thinking that they will regress as far as we did in 2019, but I can see a fairly low finish is not beyond the realms of possibility. However, conversely to who comes out of the top four, I can't see any of North, West Coast or Hawthorn or GWS comming out of the bottom 4.