Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Put it on your credit card maybe?

Free access version here: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/melbourne-demons/dees-and-dogs-reportedly-almost-came-to-blows-at-nightclub-days-after-afl-grand-final/news-story/3160b2546fce467d3971aa3b8493c407 I still haven't seen it, but sounds like the Bulldogs went off half cocked after they beat us in that final home and away game. Like that we kept our powder dry until we'd won the one that counts and while I it's a fine line and I don't want us to get a reputation as cocky and arrogant, I feel the Dogs had this coming and like that we are hitting back a bit. Could make for an even more spiteful rivalry with them in the years ahead, perhaps similar to the Geelong, Hawthorn one of a few years back.

Don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing in a way and I'm still buzzing from our win. GO DEMONS! 2021 AFL Premiers baby!!! Whooohoo!

I may be in the minority here, but honestly for me personally the moment for this has past. You can't replicate those spontaneous feelings of joy we all had imeediatley post the game and the party atmosphere they enjoyed in Perth, while most of the rest of Australia was excluded. To me, this would just be a slightly better than normal family day type function. I am much more looking forward to Rd.1 or whenever it is that we unveil the flag for the first time in front of 80,000 MFC supporters at a sold out MCG and give who ever we play an absolute hiding. Following that it's winning the 2022+ flags at the G, with my mates, son and old man that I'm looking forward to and then this moment will be complete and real.

I'd think he'd be competing for the half back role that Hibberd played in the GF, along with Hunt, Smith and Bowey. Per ACL, Tommlinson's fitness was elite. I remember that first practice match or two he played for us when he first joined and was on an opposite wing to Lingers and the amount of distance they covered over the game was around the same, which is saying something. Got to find a way to utilize that run if it's still there.

I honestly think the shorter quarters in 2020 did us a disservice against teams like Richmond, Geelong and possibly others as well. We smashed it out in preseason 2019-20 and were primed, but didn't really get the full oppertunity to make use of that fitness. We didn't loose to either Richmond, Geelong, Freo, Brisbane (let's not forget their dream advantage) and possibly others I'm forgetting by that much in 2020 and would have only needed one of those games to make finals. Had we made finals who knows what could hace happened.

I'm guessing there's probably an AVB farewell thread somewhere else as well, but will take this oppertunity to thank Vanders as a supporter for standing up and giving us hope as supporter when the team was still on the rise back to competitiveness. Really admire that someone who didn't come through the elite junior ranks was able to elevate himself to play AFL footy at the top level and make a real impact (physically and metaphorically speaking). Had not his body let him down, I think AVB could have been a premership player for the MFC. Loved his strong marking, bulldozing bursts out of packs, through players and his bone crunching takes and body on body work were something to behold. His contribution to our 2018 finals rebirth was probably the pinicle of his career and I think his presence in that series contributed immensely to the belief the team built out of making and performing well in finals as an important stepping stone towards the premiership glory of 2021. Hope AVB looks back fondly and with great pride of his time at the mighty MFC. Thanks Vanders, you were a ripper!!

Form my own observations from afar, part of me has a sense Hibbo may struggle next season and right now might be a good oppertunity for him to go out on top. However I'm sure that Hibbo and the club know his body and desire to go again much better than us mere mortal supporters. In the scenario that he goes on Hibbo's senior appearances next season are limited much like Jones and Jetta this year, I'd be ok with that too. He isn't that senior and we are nowhere near as top heavy as alot of teams and I'm sure that Hibbo would provide valuable leadership to who ever we are developing down at Casey and around the team in general. For instance, I get the sense that having Jetta around this season was really important to Kossie and I'm sure there are others for whom Hibbo could play that mentoring role. Quite asides from his valuable contributions to our premiership season this year, Hibbo has always been a hard as nails, heart and soul type of player for the MFC during a time when we were still building a winning culture. For a number of years before Lever and May, he was both a rock and awsome rebounder out of defense. His gut running back to cover our defense epitomizes the 'selfless' spirt the team has embraced and he is fully deserving of the respect that it appears he is being afforded.

Don't want to be a party pooper, but honestly, I don't get too excited about the length of these signings these days, because anything further than 2 years out is almost meaningless. All signing him up beyond 2022 will acheive right now is to reduce some of the media chatter and speculation early next season. Come 2023 or even late 2022, if things arn't looking rosy for any of the respective parties and the talk will start again. As seen with Bobby Hill, Lobbe and Lauchie Neil and closer to home, Jessy Hogan, players are increasingly requesting trades inside their contacted period. About the only thing having them contracted does is give the club slightly better leverage for extracting a reasonable trade in the instance they want out. Best way of retaining Dogga is keep winning and keep him happy. I think Dogga is also shrewd in recognising the value of playing with and learning from Max over the next few years. All these things should be a win/win for the MFC and the individuals involved, so I put more weight on that than any contract that's announced.

Stinger also played a couple of years in No.15 as has our current man in 15, #positivelingers Think Ed would be a very worthy recipient of No.2 and that it has a good history of being worn by wingers.

Would certainly consider purchasing a print Webber, without wanting to haggle, but pending price etc. Such a classic moment and I absolutely love it, particularly for the clear illustration that to me it dispells any significant animosity between Jack and Max regarding the captaincy, but also the moment of utter joy and celebration for two great and loyal servants to the MFC.

Is Bailey Fridge a relative of Ted Fidge I wounder? My old man always really rated old Fidge.

Granted I don't have time to watch too many non MFC games and I missed watch our second home and away matchup against the dogs, but I don't think I've seen Naughton play a b good game against us. Rightly or wrongly, I don't rate him on this basis.

Love Harmesy. I'm not sure he'll ever be in quite the same stratosphere are Trac or Clarry, but who are and I think Harmesy still has a a great place in the side as a half forward who can rotate onto the ball, provide great physicality, burst through and away from packs, kick handy goals (that one early against Geelong in the PF made something out of nothing amd help build momentum) jump on people's heads in occasions as well. His kicking is sometimes questioned, but as he showed when it counted, he is quite capable of executing damaging laces out passes deep into our forward line or kicking it through the big ones.

Just 'one of' the biggest plays in Harmesy career? Try the biggest play in his career and the turning point in 57 years of the history of the MFC. Unless he turns another grand final off his own boot, this will end up being the most played clip of Harmesy's highlight real. Probably not the most spectacular or absouute best of his work, but the most significant by a long way.

To expand a bit more on how bad the Wingard trade and list management decisions made by Hawthorn around that time has been for them: 2018 Port Adelaide has received Burton (2021, now 24 yo, from Hawthorn) Mayes, pick five and five 15 in the swap, giving up Wingard and pick six. Hawthorn netted Wingard, but gave up pick 15, pick 35 and Burton. I've never watched him closely enough to make a credible assement of him, but Burton must be a fair player, because he played something like 24 games for Port in a season they played in a prelim. Not exactly sure what pick swap Port might have done outside of the one with Hawthorn, but it's worth noting that in the same year as the Wingard swap, the picked up Rozzie, Butters and Duursma. There's a sliding door moment for you.

The best outcome for the rest of the league is if those average vets on thier list can help Hawthorn stay compeditive enough that they perennially occupy about the same ladder position they did at the end of this year, so they never quite get access to the absolute best talents that a top 1 - 4 pick brings. If being sufficiently non compeditive to also never be compeditive enough to be a credible finals threat also frustrates what quality youngish talent they do have on their list, who then exercise their rights as free agents, then again that's good for the competition. Really, when you look at it, this situation at Hawthorn has been building for a number of years when they chose to take a punt on guys like $culley (maybe not so $$$ for them) and Jonathan Pattern who just wasted a list spot for a couple of years without really providing anything for the future. Traded a quality young player to Adelaide or Port was it as part of the Wingard swap. Another 2 - 3 years of developing a few players who could have been the basis of their future there. Long may this mediocre list management by Hawthorn continue.

I have a real soft spot for Col. Great MFC player and personality. Had a Facebook memory pop up the other day from Colin signing on for another 3 years in 2015 till the end of 2018. To me this was a pretty important and committed signing at the time, when we were still very much building a credible team a still looked a fair way off finals. Colin was still playing decient footy at that point, would have had some currency at that stage and the talk was, would he go and join someone else to have a crack at a more immediate and likely chance of playing finals. While others on here at the time had their doubts about Cols footy credentials, wrongly or rightly, I rated what he did on the footy field and in particular his competitive spirit and toughness in the face of some of the adversity we faced at the time, so was very happy to see him reject potential imeediate sucess elsewhere and sign on for another 3 years. I saw it as a sign of both the guys loyalty and belief in where the club was going. As history would show, Colin never saw out his 3 year contract until 2018 and didn't get to share in even that early euphoria of making and winning finals as a player, instead retiring before his contract was up when it was clear his body and football no longer had what it took to contribute to the team in a meaningful way. From what I can recall, over his career, Colin had also built a bunch of respect within the playing group for the way he went about his training and leadership off the field. As a mere supporter from afar, I take all this on face value and I'm greatful for what Col bought to the MFC. He may not have been there on the field in that great last game in September a few weeks ago, but I think it's guys like Colin that were the genius and would fit in well with the teams current selfless ethos which has been credited with that sucess. In a similar respects 186 is also very much an important part of that story of the 4 quarters of shear brilliance that we whitenessed against the Bulldogs as this game and other similar woeful losses were experiences that built perspective and resilience within some of the teams leadership and young players at the time like Gawn and Viney. As a club we were down, but refused to lie down and kept getting up over and over again until we are now where we are. I'm prouder to support a club that's come from there to be where we are now than if we were one who has always had it realitively easy like Hawthorn, Essendon, West Coast, Adelaide, Collingwood, Carlton and Geelong to an extent.

I'd love to turn the tables and inflict better than 186 on the Cats in a few years. Still think we have plenty of scope to get better and that they will head on a downward spiral in the next few years. ...and to do it at a packed MCG in front of 80,000 screaming Melbourne supporters.

You're assuming they make finals.

Just make sure he has the teeth in for the Tinder profile - after all, he plays for the MFC, not Collingwood!!

Yeah, I'd like to think that we could have found another way to get May if we'd kept Hogan, but perhaps that's not realistic. Feel for Jessy, he was there for a fair period when we were pretty average, thought he was an important part of the rebuild and ascendancy back into relevance 2015 - 2018, but unfortunately things just fell apart for him on and off the field. Could still be a pretty solid player if he can get his body right and I get the feeling GWS could still be a contender in the seasons ahead, so I wouldn't resent him having some sucess (preferably not at our expense!!). Similarly, I don't really resent Hannan for leaving us. Howe's a different story and as it turns out $$$lly was better off taking the money and ending up at a struggling Hawthorn - got about what he deserved in footy karma in the end I think.

You ready

Ok, 17 and LD the cherry on top for next season then! 😜

He was an unrestricted FA wasn't he, so the moment the Saints let go all interest in him as a player, they really didn't deserve anything in return from him from anyone. Just another really shrewd list management move from the MFC, not to pay big for Cerra. Get LD and pick 17. If that's not what you call having your cake and eating it too, I don't know what is.