Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I feel like GC are a reasonable chance of winning in Perth. Really hope GWS take out Hawthorn next week. ... and then Collingwood the week after.

Bugger. Kinda looks like GC have put the cue in the rack. I was hoping for a 1000 point drubbing.

Love the irony of Essendon getting smashed by Anderson all night

Backended I guess

Yet not right up there in the rising star discussions. What does that say about the media? But on the other hand - whatever. We know the kid is an absolute jet.

I think part of the point was we had Campbell there and probably should have used him to give Max a spell at some point but didn't (just for a change). I know Max is a warrior and of immense spiritual and on feild value to the team, thus in the season we had, it was probably pretty important he played alot of weeks to help hold the ship together, but you do have to wounder if he's his own worst enemy in preserving himself in the interests of maximising his career (pardon the bad pun). I'd rather keep Max on ice every now and then and make sure he's there for the biggest of games when we hopefully become competitive again. Also Tom is the same age as Max, so you'd think it would be reasonable for him to go around again if we can't find a younger backup, unless he's no longer willing or his fitness and form doesn't support that.

Well done on a fantastic career full of highlights, excitement and some solid honest performances mixed in there as well. Was too often admonished for his lack of poise and accuracy of disposal comming out of defense in his earlier years, but by the time he'd left the MFC, I felt he'd actually matured into quite a well rounded footballer. Along with Melksham and Kossie, he was instrumental in the come from behind win we had against Carlton a few years back, with some daring run through the middle and great pin point passes that ended in match winning goals. Was also there for one of Jayden's break-out games at Carrara / Metricon back in 2016 when the team had one of it's biggest wins in many years and that new bloke Jayden Hunt dashed and weaved the ball out of the backline and I thought we had a super star in the making. Still one of my favourite games of footy. In retrospect, Jayden had a bit of an almost / not quite career's in terms of super stardom, but still a career he should well be proud of and us mere mortals can only be envious of. Was one of the rare players that I didn't resent leaving us for another club and was very happy to see prosper at their new home. Thanks for the memories while you were in the red and blue Jayden and enjoy the rest of your life.

That goal was something out of the box. How many times do players have a ping from well outside 50 after the siren like that, only to completely shank it and or not get enough on it and have it drop 20 - 30m short. I don't think it was any fluke either. Jayden was really quite an accurate and reliable set shot for goal and somewhat underrated as a forward.

Top of the ladder - that's something worth a mini celebration.

Agree with alot of what you aresaying. I think there is still a fair bit of stuff to take out of our season. Our percentage is one of the best of the sides finishing outside of the 8 and we pushed or beat quite a few good sides when they were up and about. To me, together, with some great young players says we've got alot to work with for the next seasons ahead. But I'm not really happy with that. Don't want to accept mediocrity. We need to win most of those close winnable games, play and win finals and more flags. Alot of what happened between 2020 and 2021 was about having that ruthless mindset and we need it back.

Nah, I'd take the inland route and avoid the toll roads.

Was really impressed with our centre clearances and how we moved the ball through the centre in the second half. I thought there were a few players contributing to that, but most notably Max and Rivers. Generally thought Rivers played close to a blinder, but the one chip I'd put on his game was that he seemed too indecisive when running through our attacking 50 and in positions to kick a goal. He's Generally a great shot for goal from that range and on the run, so in most instances I thought he should have just had a ping. Ironically the one shot he had was towards the boundary and which could hive iced the game for us, he missed.

Generally agree, except that at this point Langford has better composure in front of goal and The Bison 🦬 is more of a physical brute.

I'm not sure that's 100% how it played out though is it? From what I've read, Collingwood raised the matter with Adelaide, who then took the high road and self reported to the AFL, knowing the likely match ban consequences. I do think it still shows a huge hypocrisy with Collingwood though. For quite a few years under Goodwin, the MFC pretty much accepted whatever sanction was handed to it by the MRO / tribunal whenever it was related to protecting the head. When the Maynard KOed Gus, Collingwood could equally have put player welfare before their own interests, but did pretty much the opposite. Eddy's "justice has been done" reaction highlight that self interest. I'm not sure if Collingwood reporting to the Crows made it inevitable that the AFL got involved, but I really do doubt Collingwood would have behaved the same way if the shoe was on the other foot.

Yeah, agreed, but I think there's actually quite some realisim to my thinking as well. We all saw what happened with Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, then us loosing Mac Andrew to GC. Already Ross Lyon and others are calling out that the academies and FS are not serving the equalisation measures in the AFL well (which to a certain extent I think is true). I do foresee huge pressure to roll the FS concessions back at some point in the future.

Conversely, it could be pretty cool to have a contemporary version of the Feby twins in the red and blue.

If they are any good, the AFL will probably restrict access to the father sons rule than let us have the next Ascrofts.

Love the reverse side of the banner tonight Ghosty: "Our partners support us through lows and highs, let's say thanks by smashing the pies"

Similar story in the Southern. Only seats on level 4 between the goals and HFF. Watch a bunch of good seats go empty that could have been used by people who actually wanted to watch the game. By God I hate the amount of reserved seating that is allowed these days. It's not really the every day man's game any more.

Hope Langdon annoys the F out of Daicos again and Maynard does try to have a crack at Linggers, which should light a tinderbox of aggression towards that scum. Don't really have any expectations of our performance tonight, but really do hope we dig deep and smack the c##p out of this mob. Such is the hatred of those filth since 2023.

Lol. That's a but harsh Ghosty. They all look pretty fit as if they still in their prime to me. Hardly how I'd refer to our former captain, caretaker coach and last Brownlow medallist.

Somewhat conflicted by the AFLs latest ruling on Rankine. On the one hand, I totally support the AFL for taking a stand on unacceptable standards of behaviour with respect to discrimination and vilification. On the other hand, it twists the knife in again that Rankine gets suspended for a finals campaign, yet Maynard got let off and allowed to play in a premiership after carelessly ending Gus's career. Don't think I'll ever forgive Maynard, the AFL, Eddy or Collingwood supporters for what happed before our eyes at the MCG that night and then in the aftermath.

Best footy news all week. Would love a photo of Kalani, Kynan, Taj, Jack and their respective fathers all in the same shot. I don’t know how realistic the chances are, but it would be even better to have them all on the same team sheet one day.

Jury is still out for me on a couple of fronts: Is he a better natural forward than Disco? Will Disco be a reliable key back option? While Disco's intercept marking and general defensive work have been good, his disposal and target selection in the backline seem to let him down alot. Reminds me a bit of a young Tommy Mac in this respects. I do think alot of Tom's early disposal / turnover issues were due to us being woeful as a team over all and him being constantly under pressure and similar could be true for Disco. However I think Tommy's passing out of defence has also got better as he's aged. I guess we'll never really know the truth of all this, because the experiment playing Tom forward started around the time we became compeditive as a team. Hopefully Disco can tidy up his disposal in defence as he's got alot of other good attributes down there. Conversely, I feel Harry is a more reliable option by foot in the back half. If anything, I think we have a few options that can play either end of the ground and will be interesting to see if a new coach is willing to use that on a more regular basis.

Yeah, me too 😂