Rodney (Balls) Grinter

He's a Hawthorn supporter. That's a whole category of animal spices of it's own isn't it?

Would be great to hear the cry of Oooooooze go up around the MCG again.

I like the sentiment, but barely anything I've seen from us this season suggests to me we are really up for getting anywhere near 186. I guess the one and only time we have handed out anything like a belting this season, it was against the Hawks and most of the scoring for our ~50 win against them came in just one quarter, but I'm just not sure I can see it happening. Would love to be proven wrong though.

Loving the addition of the vomit reaction. Well overdue and would quickly become one of the most popular if extended to other forms of social media.

Let the tanking talk begin.

What a great Rd of footy. The Eagles, Richmond & GWS all putting in good auditions to become the new Melbourne, by throwing away very winnable games to lowly ranked sides on the cusp of finals, when a just getting the job done would lock them into the top 8 - I love it. Think I'd most like the Eagles to take our mantle in this respects. Although they might return to type and rekindle their 9thmond amorphous, I'm sure it doesn't have quite the same bite when your teams comming off 3 flags in 4 years. Similar could be said for the Eagles I guess, but I think it would hurt their arrogant sense of entitlement and superiority more, so suffer in your jocks Methcoast. Even if the ultimately make finals this year, WC will be just making up the numbers. Like Hawthorn, it would be great to see them welcome in an extended era of rebuilding, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to happen that way with the Eagles and like a stinky old [censored] they'll somehow be bobbing up around the top in another few years.

I doubt it. Last year the GF crowd was a few hundred shy of 30,000 at the Gabba. Getting a crowd somewhere in the order of 50,000 at the MCG would be a big improvement over that and I can't see anyone, not least the AFLPA wanting to delay the big game by anything more than a couple of weeks, unless the whole of Australia was under strict lockdown.

The Gabba. McGowan would be too risk averse to let anyone but WA locals attend and the airfares would be horrendous. As someone living in South East Queensland, there is absolutely no self interest here at all. That all said, I'm really hoping it is played at the mighty MCG, in front of a sizable crowd. Anything else would be somewhat hollow. If by some chance Queensland gets locked out of Victoria, I'd give my GFG tickets to my MFC memeber sister and one of her kids. All predicted on the basis that the mighy Demons keep delivering on feild andactually make it of course.

Deva, the short version of my rant is that while I get where your comming from and admire you unbreakable commitment to the MFC, personally, loyalty is a mutual thing and I wouldn't take getting [censored] over by the club and the AFL and still continue my existing arrangements with them as if nothing had ever happened.

Look if the GF was capped at 20,000 And there were a total of 40,000 members from each team that had purchased the equivalent of a GFG membership, then I'd probably begrudgingly accept a lottery to redeem my entitlement. But in a scenario where the attendance was capped at say 60,000 and 30,000 of those tickets went to the 16 other non competing AFL teams, sponsors, Gillam's neighbors and the Australian PM, then I would be openly hostile towards the club if they didn't fight and somehow obtain enough tickets to honor their end of the bargain. I wouldn't see it as punishing the club, I would just see it as reciprocating the breaking of a contract of loyalty and finance. The clubs administrators and the AFL really do need to step up to the plate and ensure that a scenario like this doesn't play out. I know scenario like this seem to play out every year, but I think it's about time the AFL and clubs prioritise AFL club memebers over the big corporates etc. As it stands currently, I have little faith that these entities actually get it. I'm really not convinced that the AFL are putting enough energy and priority into looking after members right now during the season. My old man pays for MFC reserve seats. Has done for a number of years, including last season, when he got exactly nothing in return for them. This season when quite sizable crowds have generally been permitted at the MCG, the club, the AFL, the MCC and the ticketing companies haven't been able to get their act together a provide an allocation of seating accessible only to those with reserved seating within their ticketing system and he's had to randomly access tickets anywhere in the outer. It's not that the AFL and the clubs couldn't do something, it's that they can and they arn't. It's pretty much as if they've said "thanks for your on going loyalty, now we are going to take that for granted and on-sell your more valuable reserve seating spots for a second time at a premium price, so that we can pay for Gillam's yacht to be moored down at Sandrinham". It's a huge breach of trust and it's about time that these parties realise that if they don't pull their heads out of their dates, there are consequences.

I've been an interstate member for around the last 10 years (suffered through some putrid performances in that time as well). I've purchased a GFG membership with the MFC since early 2018 for myself and added another for my my youngest son around Rd 4 this season. Unless the GF was played in a closed stadium without crowds, if the above was to apply, I wouldn't purchase another membership of any kind from the MFC. Don't care if they refund the value of the GFG package, that's not what I paid up for. Seriously do hope this is all a total hypothetical worst case scenario that doesn't eventuate for anyone as playing a GF in front of a minimal capacity crowd wouldn't be a great outcome all round but right now, I guess anything is possible right.

We are back on top - YEAH BABY!!

I'd fair dinkum take a cricket bat to Gillam's Mercedes if that happened.

Just imagine if they kicked as accurately when going to the right! ?

I did a bit at the time, but given we essentially got Maysy in return and the way Hogans career subsequently went south, I almost couldn't be happier that Jessie went back to WA. The only better scenario that possibly could have eventuated was if we'd have picked up Steve May a season later as a FA and Jessie had pulled himself together a bit more and somehow gotten over his injuries better. But in hindsight those list management changes we made at the end of 2018 will go down as a master class in football department decision making.

One of the several clubs contending for the MFC's previous monopoly on that feat.

Jim, yeah I forgot about that and I agree it's pretty important. Two grand finals we have played in my lifetime I'm guessing we would have worn white shorts and lost both. It was more being on top of the ladder in Rd 17 that is ultimately pretty meaningless that I was referring to. But meh, I don't care. After all the years of putrid, frustrating and/or mediocre seasons we have had, just being on top of the ladder at the end of the round gives me a few warm fuzzies inside, so I'll take that for now.

I know it's kind of meaningless in the grand scheme of our season, but part of me would quite like to see the Swans knock the Bulldogs off today, so that I can bask in us sitting on top of the ladder again.

Gerrard Healy has also been pushing the shorter games barrow for a while this season too. Then there are those that suggest we should do away with the medical sub and just go to five on the bench. So many of these issues with the at times putrid look of the game style are because players aren't playing with high enough levels of fatigue. Our game has always been a battle between leg speed, speed of ball movement and endurance and it's one of the things that makes it so attractive in my oppinion. If the AFL were to capitulate to the likes of Heally and Scott and change the length of games in a season I would absolutely spit chips. I actually think the reduced game length unfairly took away an advantage from us last season and was probably a big part of the difference to us making finals or not. Really riles me. Just leave the bloody game alone.

Was looking at the fixture for our run home and thinking how some of our Geelong and the Western Bulldogs must be thinking they have a hard run home because they have to play Melbourne. As much as playing these teams represents challenge to us finishing top 2, it also represents an oppertunity, both to test our selves against the better teams and also to deny them the win and finish above them. Asides from Freo and the Saints, quite a few of our near ladder rivals like Brisbane, Port, Geelong etc, also play teams like Richmond, GWS and West Coast, which while the form of those teams has been fickle, they are also quite capable on their day and will all be scrapping to attempt to secure a finals birth. Makes me look back and think how normally that's the MFC's lot in life and what a great position we are currently in with half a dozen games to go. Beating Port on Thursday was such an important win.

Great first up effort kicking off the thread @Bimbo. I'm not sure the above Port person ever graduated from using crayons at primary school. Though I personally don't hate them the same way, what must be remembered is that Port Adelaide are regarded as being the Collingwood of South Australian football and from this thread, it's easy to see why.

This thread seems as an appropriate place as any - Ash Barty, women's Wimbledon champion. What a bloody legend she is.

Or if you look at our form since those Freo/Swans losses - a Melbourne of 2020?

Unfortunately for us, it could well work out that the lack of oppertunity for Bedford the to Kossie, ANB, Spargo etc could see him and perhaps Chandler end up at other AFL lists and thrive, without us getting much trade compo in return. I wouldn't begrudge either of those guys for doing that (unless they went to Collingwood, Carlton or Essendon) as it must be really frustrating to be so close to the mark, but denied oppertunity to develop and perform at the top level.

Love listening to Daisy Pearce commentate is such a breath of fresh air. Acutually understands the contemporary game and is able to offer some intelligent insight, compared to the usual drivel that comes out of some of the other has beens ex players and media announcer types. I imagine listening to Libby is is similar. It's about time some of the sub par comentators are put out to pasture. Seems like some of them get given a job for life based on who they are and the profile they establish for themselves rather than how well they actually perform.