Rodney (Balls) Grinter

I think my preference will be to order through the club, to keep the profits in house. I am however looking forward to seeing the AFL premiers DVD all over the shelves at JBHiFi, Kmart etc. Will be some gratifying moments looking at that shelf full of Demons premiers DVDs instead of another side like Hawthorn, Geelong, Brisbane, Richmond or West Coast for once in my life.

Yeah, that was me getting an early night last night at 2am after rewatching the second half.

Welcome aboard @CP38and3 . I'm not sure I'd personally go along with your suggestions, but just my take. Whatever pre game entertainment we get next season, hopefully it will be great just to get all the Demons supporters back at the G and unveil the flag on the first game of the season - now there is a traditional I'd like to start again!!

Yes, but the ACDC version please. I actually think the acoustics of this song reverberate around the MCG pretty well and that it builds the energy and sets the scene for the players to run out to pretty well, before it morphs into It's a Grand Old Flag. Really looking forward to this playing at our first home game next year at the MCG in front of a packed house, full of Demons supporters. Already has the hairs standing up on the back of my neck thinking about it!!

Agree with all this. I'd actually had a sneaky suspicion that we were poised to beat Hawthorn. I recall I'd posted on here for our first game that season (which we nearly won as well and would have attracted a good payout) that I'd considered putting a $50 bet on us to win, to which @Ethan Tremblay replied something to the effect that I'd have more fun burning the money 🤣. I'm not really a betting person, so I didn't end up putting money on either game. Harmesy was one of the ones I reacall that really stood up thay game that's still there. Oliver tough and brilliant, as was Track and Jaden Hunt. Another classic Max Gawn game, and if you listen to the highlights, was this the origins of the "That's it, I'm growing a beard this week!" call? All capped off with a classic Max off the side of the boot miss after the siren, which didn't matter, because we had the game stiched up anyway (gee, I hope he learns to kick those when we need one to win an important game!!). Was also the Weid's first game. Gee it has been a long build for him, but I'm still hopefully he can step up 2020 style and cement his place as an AFL footballer if he has a soild/uninterrupted preseason over this summer. If my memory serves me correctly, the big Peddo bear might also have kicked a few?

Thank you St Kilda for Trac!!

So much love for Roosy and what he did to turn our club around. Took us from a total basket case and set us on the path to sucess. Established the foundations of the premiership we are now basking in, by creating the start of the great team culture we now have. When you look at it too, he is one of the few (possibly only) coach that I can think of in the modern era that has executed a near seamless and sucessful coaching hand over that has led to premierships.

Agree. And some really important people that are part of the Melbourne story to the present involved in that game as well. Lyon, Stynes, Viney, Wight, Grinter, Stretch and pleant of my other old favorites from the time as well. For myself as a supporter, stitting there at the ground that day contributed to the mental scars and psyche of being a Melbourne supporter over the 3 decades since and as I suspect it has similarly for the MFC playing group over the years as well.

Agree Pates. It would be a difficult story to do justice to really. There are both the highlights of the onfeild performances, but also some really rich off feild personal stories over a long period of time. I think it would take really good team of documentary makers to put it all together in a quality way and that could also cost a fair bit, for which the market may not genuinely exist. Will be interesting to see what eventuates in this space.

On a segway from another thread, I think I've still got some of my favorite games from around 2016 - 2018 on an old Foxtel IQ that I'd play in this way. Now that we've nailed the big one, I can enjoy watching those games again as part of the journey that got us there. The 2018 elimination and semi finals against the Cats and Hawks would still be enjoyable to watch, particularly the joy clearly evident from Nathan Jones of playing in and winning finals and although by comparison to 2021 PF, it probably doesn't feel like we beat them by enough, the elimination of the Cats was a pretty good highlight. Probably also good to reinforce what the Weid could still offer us going forward!! Some of my other favorite games along the most recient part of the journey were: * That breakthrough win against the Hawks (2016? Or was it 2017?). Was memorable in it's own right as a Melbourne supporter, but I think I've heard him say things to the effect it was partly from how we shaped up to them that game that Jordan Lewis formed a view that we had the foundations of a quality side that convinced him to come and play for us. Incidently from the performance of Leiws that game, I'd made a somewhat rash conclusion that he was finished as a footballer, for which I'm glad I was wrong, as in retrospect, I think it's clear he bought alot to our team both in terms of onfeild performance and development from having his experience and leadership around; * That 2016 thrashing of the Gold Coast at Metricon. GC were travelling well at the time, but after a closely fought first half or so, we turned it on and it was the first time we'd truly thrashed a team for a number of years (perhaps a sign of things to come). Was an early game for Christian Patracca and from memory after a few quite debut performances, he started to find a bit of confidence and kicked a few good goals. Was also a real breakout game for both James Harmes and Jayden Hunt who have also been so important in 2021. Holds a special place in my memory bank, because the old man came up to visit from interstate and we got to share the elation together of not only winning, but thrashing a side by a big margin.

I think I've still got some of my favorite's from around 2016 - 2018 on an old Foxtel IQ that I'd play in this way. Now that we've nailed the big one, I can enjoy watching those games again as part of the journey that got us there. The 2018 elimination and semi finals against the Cats and Hawks would still be enjoyable to watch, particularly the joy clearly evident from Nathan Jones of playing in and winning finals and although by comparison to 2021 PF, it probably doesn't feel like we beat them by enough, the elimination of the Cats was a pretty good highlight. Probably also good to reinforce what the Weid could still offer us going forward!!

...I hadn't actually paid any attention to that, but now that you bring it up, I'm thinking you wouldn't be really unhappy about being proven wrong there 😂. To be honest, it hasn't surprised me at all to see the decline of the likes of Collingwood, Geelong, West Coast and to an extent Richmond. All those teams have a large number of key players on their lists who have slowly fossilized over the past few seasons. I've been somewhat expecting our list to deliver in their mental maturity for a few seasons now as I think that was the only thing holding us back and now that it seems to have clicked in that respects, I fully expect to blow the aforementioned teams off the park more often than not, with the superior physical fitness that comes from our core players being in their prime window. GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!

I hear you, but 2000 can't be glossed over either. Incidentally, I loved noticing Shane Woewodin was wearing his 2000 premiership jumper in the interview he had with Garry Lyon after the game. I still somewhat rue 2000 as the one that got away. I know how good Essendon were all year, but we still had a pretty dam good side ourselves with some absolute superstars ourselves (Woewy included) that year. Again retrospectively, I guess it would have been a bit like if the Bulldogs had have beaten us this season.

A trilogy would be great 21, 22 & 23!!

And ours it is JCB!! Now that the imeediate excitement of winning the GF has 'slightly' subdued and I'm in a reflective and retrospective mood, I thought it was a good opportunity to give this thread a bump and for people to revisit the article. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/gawn-anger-driving-dees-after-finals-near-miss-20210310-p579gj.html At the time I thought my fellow Demonland posters comments were off the mark, although I can understand their sentiment after years of promises, slogans and statements from our leaders that were never delivered on. The title of the article/thread was click bate at its best and I think the actual content was more reflective, humble, honest and of substance than the meaningless 'play angry' headline. In particular I thought the following quotes from Max regarding our 2020 season resonate pretty well retrospectively with the our grand final performance and the way we played throughout the season in general: “We obviously wanted to play finals. We thought we were good enough at the time. But then a reality check in Cairns showed us that we weren’t, we were a little bit off,” he said. “And we’ve touched on that as a playing group coming back, what we think we need to improve on. Our defenders were top four rated in the AFL but everywhere else was relatively low. So the mids and forwards have got together and we want to create something that hopefully is as good as our defensive group, and that could take us to the pointy end. This coaching group’s got a game plan that the players think is going to take us, hopefully to the pointy end of September.” I also think Max's comments on Lumumba reflect pretty well on the inclusive approachable style of his personality leadership wise. On a slightly different note, I also think it's interesting to reflect just how lucky we were how things played out with injury and the integrity of Max's body, recalling that the main reason we listed Daw was as backup for Max, particularly since he had strained one of his knees again preseason. I think this speaks volumes of both Max's professionalism to his recovery, but particularly how lucky we were to have Darren Burgess this year in particular. Gee I hope our other fitness staff have been good enough understudies to the Burgess method and knowledge that they can carry on his good work in the years ahead. Would also really like to see Majak get a senior game or two for us at some point next season, as I feel he's earnt that and there's another great story to be written. I just love the sentiment from Max in this article and the other stories that have been published about how the players critically reviewed where we were at as team over the off season, what needed to change and the collective buy-in that followed. It reminded me of the sort of honest review that the great 2007 Cats team had committed to, knowing the result of that. Over the course of the season seeing guys like Trac, Clarry and others buy in and sign on for future years (assumedly at the expense of chasing bigger coin and the lure of other 'successful' teams) it also reminded me of the Cats 2007 ethos of individual sacrifice for team sucess.

Once it gets underway in earnest, I'll be on our women's team. They must be pretty close to winning the big one as well this year and how good would it be to complete the double. On this note, something which irked me a little listening to the GF commentary was at the point it was obvious that we'd win, when one of her fellow comentators poised the statement/question to Daisy as to how good it was "watching her club do this?". Daisy's response was along the lines that it wasn't her club, but that it was Garry Lion's and others (she named them, but I forget) club. I'm not having a go at Daisy here, because, I realise she was just being modest in her response, but I see it as being very much her club, as a person and player that has fully embraced the MFC as it has embraced her and as a person who holds a prominent place in our clubs (and indeed the AFL's) history as all of a champion player and the first captain of our women's team and pioneering advocate for the entire women's national competition. Will be great once the AFLW starts up again and hopefully crowds are allowed back, as I think our girls will draw crowds the envy of the competition, hopefully play some great footy and be right up there in competition at the pointy end of the season as well.

Strangely, I was actually looking forward to the footy finishing in a way, to get a few more hours of productive time back into my weekend (I have so much to do and so little time right at the moment), however I can see that's not going to happen. I'll be joining the rest of you basking in the retrospective goodness of that last month and a bit of footy from the Rd 23 classic comeback to top them all, through to the GF on rotation. I think I'm wearing out the server that holds that last half Demons of premiership bliss.

Nailed a few of these too lads.

I imagine that Clarry, Trac, Gawn and many others could attract a bigger pay packet if they went to North, Carlton or just about any side bar the Pies right now. The other side of the equation that North have lost out on is the presence of a highly skilled, knowlegable and quality human being, with a great footballers brain to foster the next generation of young players at their club. The way he BBB was able to accept and adapt to a different role at the MFC within the space of half a season is testament to that. Advantage MFC.

Yeah, I'm really not a Caro fan, to put it politely. Your second paragraph could sum up any given week for her. More often than not all about stiring up the dregs of rumor and innuendo of the AFL. Brown to the MFC was such a winner for both these parties in my eyes from day dot. Wow, imagine picking up the leading goal scorer across the previous 4 seasons for practically nothing? The way he was clunking them in the last 3 or 4 games, you can tell he's got his mojo back again. Now I'm just salivating at the thought of BBB kicking multiple huge bags over the next few seasons on every other week when it's not Fritta, Weid, T Mac or Kossie that does the damage!!!

That's true, but I just didn't like something that felt like half a loss and particularly to them!!!

FFS, please get a better understanding of your son's digestive system, so that we don't unnecessarily loose game's in 2022, particularly to Collingwood and on GF day make sure he eats whatever he wants. What happened against Hawthorn?

I want one of these for my next snowfields trip RRTTS. ...cheese boards, posters and polo tops. What a bunch of tight butts.

I'd be hoping that Furphy's might be more the go for us, given their our sponsor. ...19 points down half way down through the third quarter and end up winning by record margin with a kick after the siren from Tom McDonald - now there's your Furphy (Oh wait, no it's not!!).

And a bit of a shout out over the boundary line to Will Schofield.